Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Semi takeover targets Semiconductor M&A activity is heating up again. So who is next? “Within our coverage universe, we believe AMBA (Ambarella) and SLAB (Silicon Labs) represent the most likely targets moving forward,” according to KeyBanc in a research note. KeyBanc also listed some other “M&A Combinations That Could Make Sense.” Some of these combos make sense, while othe... » read more

Week in Review: IoT, Security, Auto


Internet of Things Smart-building technology is a factor in marketing new facilities to prospective tenants. The new Cambridge Crossing development in Cambridge, Mass., aspires to attract tech-oriented tenants much like nearby Kendall Square, this analysis notes. Philips has agreed to lease seven floors in Cambridge Crossing’s first office building, making that location its North American he... » read more

Week in Review: IoT, Security, Auto


Internet of Things Unmanned aerial vehicles are delivering vaccines to the very remote village of Cook’s Bay, on the island of Erromango, one of 83 volcanic islands in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu. The drones can go from island to island faster than boats, which often are not a travel option during rough weather. Vanuatu this week began its vaccine deliveries by drones with support fr... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Samsung plans to make a major entry into the drone market, according to reports. “Samsung is not alone in focusing on the drone market,” said Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts, in a research note. “At CES next month in Las Vegas, one can expect new products from drone market leader DJI, but dozens of new drone models from Parrot and many other companies. Even GoPro chip maker A... » read more

Executive Insight: Lip-Bu Tan


Lip-Bu Tan, president and CEO of Cadence, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about consolidation, Moore's Law, and where the opportunities are in the IoT and automotive markets. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: What are the big concerns for the semiconductor industry in general, and EDA in particular? Tan: Top on my list is all the consolidation that's goin... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


NuFlare Technology wants to enter a new market. The e-beam giant and NGR are jointly collaborating on a development program for next-generation electron-beam wafer inspection and metrology. It’s unclear if NuFlare is developing a single- or multi-beam tool, however. Don’t look now, but a fab tool downturn could be on the horizon. This comes amid a slowdown in PCs, tablets and smartphone... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


GlobalFoundries completed its acquisition of IBM’s Microelectronics Group, creating a behemoth that is expected to extend well beyond the combined footprint of the existing companies. As part of the deal, GlobalFoundries will get two additional fabs, one of which makes RF SOI chips. But while IBM was hesitant to expand that business by adding new fab capacity, GlobalFoundries already has t... » read more

Foundries Expand Planar Efforts


Competition is heating up in the leading-edge foundry business, as vendors begin to ramp up their new 16nm/14nm finFET processes. But that’s not the only action in the foundry arena. They are also expanding their efforts in the leading-edge planar market by rolling out new 28nm and 22nm processes. On one front, TSMC is offering new 28nm variants, based on bulk CMOS technology. And on an... » read more

Verification 2.0: From Tool To Flow


Recently, Cadence held a System-to-Silicon Verification Summit at which companies like Broadcom, Zenverge, NVIDIA, and Ambarella shared their experiences and visions for verification. In one of the keynotes, Brian Bailey shared his vision of how verification would transition from tools to flows. Brian’s presentation was quite insightful. He started with a brief status of where we are curre... » read more

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