tag: economics

Power Shift
By Ed Sperling - 13 Mar, 2014 - Comments: 1

The disaggregation of the mobile market, which began with Nokia, Ericsson and RIM challenging the entrenched position of Motorola back in the late 1990s, is shifting again. This time it’s being driven by a different kind of power play, namely physical power issues inside a device. The biggest problem in shrinking die and pushing economies of scale in conjunction with Moore’s Law is relat... » read more

Tech Talk: Power, Performance And Area In 2.5D
By Ed Sperling - 12 Feb, 2014 - Comments: 2

The cost will be comparable at first, but the only way to improve power, performance AND area at the same time will be with a different architectural approach. [youtube vid=XAbE7jpjuMA] » read more

A Different Kind Of Sales Job
By Ed Sperling - 30 Jan, 2014 - Comments: 0

For years EDA companies have been pitching the benefits of ESL tools and high-level modeling, and for just as many years chipmakers have been throwing that idea back at tools vendors saying it’s too expensive to retool. Talks between the two have waffled between polite bickering and contentious negotiations. Chipmakers have approached these “talks” from the stronger bargaining position... » read more

Ticket to Ride
By Mike Gianfagna - 30 Jan, 2014 - Comments: 0

Welcome to the newly named eSilicon blog. We’ll discuss topics of general interest related to the semiconductor industry here. Our blog title does however take us off the hook to have complete, rational and defensible points of view at all times. Let’s begin… Do you like a roller coaster ride? Some do and some, well, get sick at the thought. I’m here to tell you that if you’re invo... » read more

Semiconductor New Equipment Market $32.0 Billion For 2013
By Lara Chamness - 12 Dec, 2013 - Comments: 0

Orders for new equipment slowly improved early on in 2013, with bookings reaching a peak by the second quarter before receding in the third quarter. Over this time, equipment billings, while increasing, were trending below 2012 levels. In October, book-to-bill data from both SEMI and the SEAJ show bookings are increasing once again, and this indicates a stronger fourth quarter for the semico... » read more

Big Changes Rock Global Smartphone Market
By Jeff Chappell - 09 Dec, 2013 - Comments: 0

It's not just consumers that are benefiting from the proliferation of low-cost mobile multiple-core processors. Chipmakers are reaping the benefits of the booming smartphone market in Asia and around the globe. In the multicore smartphone applications processor market Qualcomm. leads the way with its Snapdragon processors; it accounted for 43% of the market in the first half of this year, fo... » read more

The Week In Review: System-Level Design
By Ed Sperling - 27 Nov, 2013 - Comments: 0

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

Bounceback In Equipment Market
By Ed Sperling - 20 Nov, 2013 - Comments: 0

For three months, beginning in July, the major index by which the U.S. semiconductor manufacturing equipment gauges its health took a dip, leaving executives in a highly cyclical industry in nail-biting mode. Since then, however, they seem to have recovered some of their composure. At the center of this angst is SEMI’s book-to-bill ratio, which is a three-month moving average of bookings a... » read more

The Next Dimension
By Ed Sperling - 14 Nov, 2013 - Comments: 0

It’s hard to say definitively whether this is a trend or an aberration, but after what appears to have been a slam-dunk sprint to the finish line with finFETs some companies are re-evaluating their alternatives based upon return on investment. In place of perpetually shrinking features—and looming multipatterning at the next node—there is renewed interest in staying at 28nm with FDSOI,... » read more

Uncertainty Increases About What’s Next
By Ed Sperling - 24 Oct, 2013 - Comments: 0

Across the semiconductor industry, there is a lot of talk about what’s next. Lithography advances have stalled, NRE and mask costs are rising, and complexity is exploding. But unlike the 1 micron wall, which was supposed to be impenetrable, there is no single issue holding back progress. Instead, there are lots of them, most with pricey workarounds, but which together become more complicat... » read more

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