Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Deals AMD plans to purchase cloud startup Pensando for about US $1.9 billion. In a presentation at the SEMI ISS conference this week, AMD CTO Mark Papermaster described Pensando's technology as a "highly programmable packet-processing engine that allows you to speed up systems designed for the data center." Intel, Micron, Analog Devices and MITRE Engenuity formed an alliance to accelerate c... » read more

The Good And Bad Of Auto IC Updates


Keeping automobiles updated enough to avoid problems is becoming increasingly difficult as more complex electronics are added into vehicles, and as the lifetimes of those devices are extended to a decade or more. Modern vehicles are full of electronics. In fact, the value of electronic devices used in modern vehicles is expected to double in the next 10 years, growing to $469 billion by 2030... » read more

AI: Where’s The Money?


A one-time technology outcast, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has come a long way. Now there’s groundswell of interest and investments in products and technologies to deliver high performance visual recognition, matching or besting human skills. Equally, speech and audio recognition are becoming more common and we’re even starting to see more specialized applications such as finding optimized... » read more

Using Data Analytics More Effectively


The semiconductor industry is under a lot of pressure from their customers nowadays. They’re expected to keep up with consumer expectations for shorter electronic product life cycles, without compromising on the reliability and quality of the components and products coming off the line. A recent article from McKinsey & Company, however, describes how quality procedures have become a bottl... » read more

Giant Auto Industry Disruption Ahead


The move to self-driving vehicles over the next decade or so will result in a massive restructuring of entire segments of the global economy that have evolved to create and support automobiles and the people who drive them. The shift will create many new jobs-particularly for semiconductors and electronic systems-and conservatively it will eliminate hundreds of thousands of existing ones. It... » read more

Five Trends In IC Packaging


At one time, chip packaging was an afterthought. Chipmakers were more worried about IC design. Packaging was considered a mere commodity, which was simply used to house the design. More recently, though, chip packaging has become a hot topic. The IC design is still important, but packaging is a key part of the solution. In fact, the industry can go down two paths. The traditional way is t... » read more

The Great Machine Learning Race


Processor makers, tools vendors, and packaging houses are racing to position themselves for a role in machine learning, despite the fact that no one is quite sure which architecture is best for this technology or what ultimately will be successful. Rather than dampen investments, the uncertainty is fueling a frenzy. Money is pouring in from all sides. According to a new Moor Insights report,... » read more

Is The IoT Here To Stay?


Look at almost any forecast for the Internet of Things market, and you’ll see some big, impressive numbers. Bain says IoT vendor revenues will top $470 billion by 2020. McKinsey predicts the IoT market will be increasing from last year’s $900 million to $3.7 billion in 2020 for a compound annual growth rate of 32.6%. IHS estimates the number of installed IoT devices will rise from 15.4 bill... » read more

Industry-Shaking Changes Ahead


I’ve been closely following the increasing power of system OEMs (such as Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft) over players in the semiconductor industry with an eye toward understanding how this will affect others in the semi value chain. However, I haven’t paid as much attention to the root causes of why these changes are occurring. McKinsey & Company has provided our industry food f... » read more

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