Getting Ready For 20nm


By Ed Sperling and Mark Lapedus Despite hurdles in getting 28nm rolling and predictions that process technology will stick around for years to come, there appears to be rapidly growing interest in 20nm—at least from the design side. This is significant for a couple reasons. First, for most companies 20nm will be the first encounter with double patterning because EUV still is not viable—... » read more

The 28nm Foundry Crunch


By Mark LaPedus Faced with huge and unforeseen demand at the 28nm node, leading-edge foundries are scrambling to play catch-up and are boosting their fab capacities at a staggering pace. But analysts warn that 28nm foundry capacity will be tight throughout 2012, and perhaps into 2013, putting some chipmakers in a pinch. Many blame the 28nm foundry capacity shortfall on a combination of t... » read more

New Processes Define New Power Plans


By Pallab Chatterjee FinFETs, stacked die, heterogeneous interposers, TSVs, 450mm wafers, new interconnects and everything with MEMs and sensors is what the last few weeks have brought. A number of major announcements, technology releases, conference updates have identified these technologies as the future of IC design. At ISQED, Robert Geer, chief academic officer at the College of Nanosca... » read more

Intel Turns Up Heat in Silicon Foundry Business


By Mark LaPedus Intel Corp. continues to make waves in the foundry arena. The chip giant has recently announced three new and major customers within its embryonic foundry business. Some speculate there are more customers on the horizon, reportedly including a rumored on-and-off again foundry deal with Apple Inc. At this point, Intel is a niche player in the foundry business, as the compan... » read more

New Entrants Seek Niches in NAND Flash Fray


By Mark LaPedus For some time, the NAND flash market has been primarily dominated by five vendors: Micron, Samsung, SanDisk, SK Hynix and Toshiba. Other vendors have been seeking to get a foothold in the exploding market — with little or no luck. Intel Corp. and Powerchip Semiconductor Corp. have separately experienced limited success in NAND. And Elpida Memory Inc. and Spansion Inc. are... » read more

Credit Deficit


One of the common complaints from around the semiconductor industry is that design teams don’t get recognized. Appreciation comes readily to brands such as Apple or Samsung, but it is several levels of abstraction removed from the companies that develop the processors, let alone the tools, materials, methodologies or processes that make those processors possible. Worse, energy efficiency ... » read more

AMS Challenges Growing


By David Lammers Analog and mixed signal (MS) devices will play an ever-increasing role in saving energy, particularly as the “Internet of Things” expands to about 10 billion units per year over the next decade. But as leading-edge design rules scale to 28nm and below, enhanced with high-k/metal gate technologies, it is becoming increasingly challenging to integrate AMS devices on SoCs. ... » read more

3D DRAM Makers Inch Closer To Production


By Mark LaPedus For some time, DRAM makers have been developing 3D memory chips, but commercial products still are not due out for some time because of technical and cost issues. But the advent of the 3D DRAM era could be near the turning point, as two memory rivals have separately moved to bring their respective technologies closer to production. In one move, Micron Technology Inc. has di... » read more

Collaboration Grows


By Ed Sperling A series of recent announcements by the Big Three EDA vendors and their well-known partners from across the disaggregated SoC ecosystem is lending new credence to the impact of collaboration. While IDMs such as Apple, Intel, Samsung and IBM continue to blaze their own trail, developing in-house tools, methodologies, processes and chips, fabless companies working with foundrie... » read more

Limits For TSVs In 3D Stacks?


By Ed Sperling Semiconductor design always has been about solving technology issues one node at a time, often in the face of a perpetual barrage of looming problems. In fact, if there is any change at all, it’s in the number of threats that have to be solved now at each node, most of them driven by ever-increasing density and the laws of physics. Stacking die holds the promise of becoming... » read more

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