Chip Industry Week In Review


By Jesse Allen, Gregory Haley, and Liz Allan Intel officially launched Intel Foundry this week, claiming it's the "world's first systems foundry for the AI era." The foundry also showed off a more detailed technology roadmap down to expanded 14A process technology. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger noted the foundry will be separate from the chipmaker, utilize third-party chiplets and IP, and leverage... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


By Susan Rambo, Karen Heyman, and Liz Allan. Renesas plans to acquire Altium, maker of PCB design software, for $5.9 billion. In a conference call, Renesas CEO Hidetoshi Shibata cited Altium's PCB design software and digital twin virtual modeling as key components of its future strategy. "I believe it will generate transformational value for our combined customers and our stakeholders," Shib... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


By Susan Rambo, Gregory Haley, and Liz Allan SRC unfurled its Microelectronics and Advanced Packaging (MAPT) industry-wide 3D semiconductor roadmap, addressing such topics as advanced packaging, heterogeneous integration, analog and mixed-signal semiconductors, energy efficiency, security, the related foundational ecosystem, and more. The guidance is the collective effort of 300 individuals ... » read more

Chip Industry Week In Review


By Liz Allan, Jesse Allen, and Karen Heyman Global semiconductor equipment billings dipped 2% year-over-year to US$25.8 billion in Q2, and slipped 4% compared with Q1, according to SEMI. Similarly, the top 10 semiconductor foundries reported a 1.1% quarterly-over-quarter revenue decline in Q2. A rebound is anticipated in Q3, according to TrendForce. Synopsys extended its AI-driven EDA ... » read more

Chiplets: Deep Dive Into Designing, Manufacturing, And Testing


Chiplets are a disruptive technology. They change the way chips are designed, manufactured, tested, packaged, as well as the underlying business relationships and fundamentals. But they also open the door to vast new opportunities for existing chipmakers and startups to create highly customized components and systems for specific use cases and market segments. This LEGO-like approach sounds ... » read more

Week In Review: Semiconductor Manufacturing, Test


China’s restrictions on the export gallium and germanium took effect this week. Any Chinese company exporting gallium or germanium that could be used in military and civil applications (dual-use) must obtain a license from China’s Ministry of Commerce. China produces 60% of the worldwide supply of germanium and 80% of the world’s gallium, both of which have to be processed from other mate... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


DAC and SEMICON WEST rebounded this year, focusing on everything from security to chiplets and smart manufacturing. Panel at DAC conference: Left to right, ARM’s Brian Fuller (moderator), Joe Costello (Metrics, Kwikbit, Arrikto, Acromove), and Wally Rhines (Cornami). Source: Semiconductor Engineering/Ann Mutschler EDA and IP remain strong, approaching $4 billion in Q1, according to ... » read more

193i Lithography Takes Center Stage…Again


Cutting-edge lithography to create smaller features increasingly is being supplemented by improvements in lithography for mature process nodes, both of which are required as SoCs and complex chips are decomposed and integrated into advanced packages. Until the 7nm era, the primary goal of leading-edge chipmakers was to pack everything onto a single system-on-chip (SoC) using the same process... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Arm and Intel Foundry Services inked a multi-generation agreement to enable chip designers to build Arm-based SoCs on the Intel 18A process. The initial focus is mobile SoC designs, but the deal allows for potential expansion into automotive, IoT, data center, aerospace, and government applications. IFS and Arm will undertake design technology co-optimization (DTCO) to optimize chip design and ... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Public USB phone charging stations are now another vector that bad actors can use to plant malware and steal data on devices — known as "juice jacking," according to the United States’ Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC is encouraging people to stay away from these public charging stations, found in airports and hotels, because of bad actors can install malware on the charging... » read more

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