The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Worldwide semiconductor capital equipment spending is projected to total $37.5 billion in 2014, an increase of 12.2% from 2013 spending of $33.5 billion, according to Gartner. Capital spending will increase 5.5% in 2014 as the industry begins to recover from the recent economic downturn. The 3D NAND market will take longer to develop. Samsung has shipped a 3D NAND device. Micron and SK Hynix... » read more

Improving Yield Of 2.5D Designs


While progress is being made on the packaging side of 2.5D design, more needs to be resolved when it comes to improving yields. Proponents of 2.5D present compelling benefits. Arif Rahman, a product architect at Altera, noted that the industry trend of silicon convergence is leading to multiple technologies being integrated into single-chip solutions. “2.5D/3D integration has multiple adva... » read more

Real Countries Have Fabs


Persistent rumblings about the sale of IBM’s semiconductor unit might have seemed absurd a couple decades ago—before IBM sold off its PC unit to Lenovo and lost the gaming chip business to AMD’s x86 chips—but no one is scoffing at the possibility these days. The reality is that IBM will never reach the volume necessary to be the No. 1 or No. 2 player in its segment. It’s not even i... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


RBC Capital Markets has raised its iPhone unit forecast for 2014 to 159.1 million from 156.7 million. The iPhone estimates reflect better-than-expected growth in the September quarter, according to RBC. So which chipmakers will benefit? In order, the companies with the most exposure into Apple are Cirrus Logic, Dialog Semiconductor, Triquint, Skyworks, Audience, Avago, Broadcom, Qualcomm, SanDi... » read more

Better Software. Faster!


As virtual prototyping has seen a wide adoption over the last couple of years, it felt like the right time to work with industry leaders across multiple applications and publish a book that captures the best practices in virtual prototyping. As editor of the book: Better Software. Faster!, I had the privilege to work with some incredibly knowledgeable people who have been deploying virtual prot... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


SanDisk filed a civil suit against Korea’s SK Hynix. Additionally, SanDisk has submitted a criminal complaint with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department against a former employee. These actions relate to the theft of trade secrets related to NAND flash technology by a former engineer of SanDisk who left the company in 2008 to work for SK Hynix. Cadence Design Systems and GlobalFoundrie... » read more

Which IP Is Better?


As the amount of third-party and re-used IP in a semiconductor increases, so do the number of questions about which possible IP choices perform better, use the least power, or work best with other components. So far, there is no simple way to make that choice. In most cases, this is simply splitting hairs. For all the IP that goes into designs, the bulk of it is chosen based on how often has... » read more

Can Intel Dethrone The Foundry Giants?


The leading-edge foundry business isn’t for the faint of heart. It requires deep pockets and sound technology to keep pace in the chip-scaling race. And despite pouring billions of dollars into new fabs and processes, foundries are competing for fewer customers at each node. Given the difficult business conditions, only a handful of vendors can afford to compete in the high-end foundry bus... » read more

The Week In Review: System-Level Design


Synopsys won a deal with Germany’s Hyperstone, which will use Synopsys verification tools for SoCs in industrial, automotive and medical applications. As SoCs used in industrial and “safety-critical” markets grow in complexity and move to more advanced process nodes, more advanced tools also are necessary. Si2 uncorked a new release of its OpenAccess scripting interface—oaScript Exte... » read more

Collaborate Or Go Home


Technology is hard. It's no secret that it's more difficult than ever to keep devices shrinking while increasing performance. It's also old news that it is increasingly costly to be at the leading edge, as semiconductor production technology gets ever more complex — even as a maturing chip industry becomes ever more dependent on low-cost consumer devices. But it has made for some strang... » read more

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