Semiconductor Photomask Revenues Predicted To Increase In 2021


A majority (72%) of industry luminaries surveyed in July predict an increase in photomask revenues for 2021, as shown in figure 1. SEMI also predicts revenues to increase around 9% from $4.4B in 2020 to $4.8B in 2021. In a 12-minute video, a panel of experts share their perspectives on what’s behind the growth trend, how the pandemic has impacted the photomask industry, and how it compares to... » read more

Workplace Safety Lessons From The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill


The Deepwater Horizon oil spill on April 20th, 2010, was the largest marine oil spill in history, marking a significant change in the oil industry and safety standards thereafter. What data do we have on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill? BP leased the oil rig, however, it was owned and operated by an offshore company called Transocean. The drilling reached a depth of nearly 1 mile, at 5,000 ... » read more

Reviving The IPO Route For IP Companies


K. Charles Janac, chairman and CEO of Arteris IP, sat down with Semiconductor Engineering to talk about the company's recent decision to go public, including the benefits and risks of operating as a public IP company. SE: The rule of thumb used to be $20 million in revenue was needed for an IP company to do an IPO at the turn of the Millennium, and then it increased to $40 million about a de... » read more

Dealing With Market Shifts


Back in the days when I was in EDA development, I was taken in by the words of Clayton Christensen when he published "The Innovators Dilemma." He successfully introduced the technology world to the ideas of disruptive innovation. One of the key takeaways was that you should always be working to make your own successful products redundant, or someone else will do it for you. One tool I worked... » read more

China’s IC Industry Revenue On Track to Top $250 Billion In 2025


In the short span of a decade, China’s semiconductor sector has exploded to become one of the largest in the world and match the region’s prominence as the biggest consumer of chips. From 2015 to 2020 alone, revenue of China’s integrated circuit (IC) industry – consisting of IC design, IC manufacturing, and packaging and test – expanded at a rapid clip of 20% CAGR (RMB) to $128 billio... » read more

Benefits Of Being A B-Corp. In The Tech Industry


Becoming a Certified B Corporation comes with many benefits, most of them extending beyond the walls of the company and into the hands of employees, community members, and industry partners. The designation makes the meticulous and rigorous process to certification well worth the endeavor. In 2021, Brewer Science announced that it’s the first company in the semiconductor industry to become... » read more

Education Vs. Training


While writing my recent articles on the subject of training, a number of people pointed out that training and education are not the same thing. In a very simple sense, training is defined to be learning a skill or behavior that enables you to 'do' something, whereas education is the acquisition of knowledge from study or training. These definitions leave me cold and, in my mind, miss a very ... » read more

New Approaches For Processor Architectures


Processor vendors are starting to emphasize microarchitectural improvements and data movement over process node scaling, setting the stage for much bigger performance gains in devices that narrowly target what end users are trying to accomplish. The changes are a recognition that domain specificity, and the ability to adjust or adapt designs to unique workloads, are now the best way to impro... » read more

What Is Intern Reading Club?


As the summer winds down, interns are busy completing their assigned projects and preparing their end of summer presentations. These presentations have been a rite of passage for interns on the Pointwise team for many years and gives each intern a chance to show off what they learned and accomplished. And the rest of the team gets to hear all the details of what they've been working on. Anothe... » read more

Will PAYGO Shake Up How We Pay for Chips?


System builders are used to buying integrated circuits on a simple transactional basis — the chip has a price, and that’s what you pay. But some application spaces may have a wide variety of capabilities that need hardware support, and each feature may not be used for every instance. Traditionally, one would design different chips for different feature mixes and price points. But a new p... » read more

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