Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers and OEMs IC Insights has released its rankings of the 25 largest wafer capacity leaders in terms of monthly installed capacity in 200mm-equivalents as of December 2019. Samsung was in first place, followed by TSMC, Micron, SK Hynix, and Kioxia, formerly Toshiba Memory, according to IC Insights. Combined capacity of the top five companies represented 53% of total global wafer capa... » read more

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Chipmakers For some time, Intel has experienced supply constraints and shortages for its 14nm chip products. Apparently, the company is still having issues with both 14nm and 10nm. “Despite our best efforts, we have not yet resolved this challenge,” according to a statement from Michelle Johnston Holthaus, executive vice president and general manager of the Sales, Marketing and Communicati... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Test and packaging In a major surprise, Cohu has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Xcerra for approximately $796 million. With the deal, Cohu will enter the ATE market. Last year, a group from China entered into a definitive agreement under which it would acquire Xcerra. But the U.S. blocked Xcerra’s sale to the Chinese group. Ironically, at one time, Cohu was reportedly lobbyin... » read more

The Week In Review: Design


Tools Aldec released the latest version of its Riviera-PRO verification platform, adding QEMU Bridge to enable hardware/software co-simulation of designs intended to run on SoC FPGAs. Other features include improved performance when using code containing many inline randomized calls and up to 29% faster simulation speed of UVM. Pulsic added new features to its Unity Bus Planner for planning... » read more

The Week In Review: Design


M&A Ansys acquired Computational Engineering International (CEI), the developer of a suite of products that helps analyze, visualize and communicate simulation data. Founded in 1994 as a spin-off from Cray Research, the company's program covers a wide range of data formats. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. IP Efabless launched an open source framework that allows community members... » read more

The Week In Review: Design


IP Arastu Systems uncorked a LPDDR3 DRAM Memory Controller. The controller is fully compliant with JEDEC standard JESD209-3C and supports various power down modes as well as multiple channels with a privilege to configure and manage each channel independently and parameterized data width. CSEM's Bluetooth Low Energy silicon RF IP has been validated as Bluetooth 5 compatible. RF test equip... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Chipmakers Alain Kaloyeros, president of SUNY Polytechnic Institute, has resigned. This comes amid charges that Kaloyeros was involved in an alleged bid-rigging scheme, according to multiple reports. SUNY Poly, a high-tech educational ecosystem in New York, was recently formed from the merger of the SUNY College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) and the SUNY Institute of Technology. ... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Chipmakers The wearables market has taken another hit. Intel has issued a safety recall for a smartwatch line from its Basis Science subsidiary. "We are issuing this safety recall of the Basis Peak watch because the watch can overheat, which could result in burns or blisters on the skin surface. It is important that you stop using your watch immediately and return it. Although we are stopping ... » read more

The Week In Review: System-Level Design


Synopsys rolled out new non-volatile memory IP that cuts power by 90% and reduces area in half. The company said it accomplished this feat with a single-bit read capability, which can drop read operation down to 0.9 volts and peak current to less than 10 microamps during erase and programming. The target of the ultra-low power IP is RFID and near-field computing ICs. Mentor Graphics posted p... » read more

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