Moore’s Law: Toward SW-Defined Hardware


Pushing to the next process node will continue to be a primary driver for some chips—CPUs, FPGAs and some ASICS—but for many applications that approach is becoming less relevant as a metric for progress. Behind this change is a transition from using customized software with generic hardware, to a mix of specialized, heterogeneous hardware that can achieve better performance with less ene... » read more

Mobile Processors Move Beyond Phones


Mobile processors, also known as application processors, are well-known as the engines that run smartphones, tablet computers, and other wireless devices. But these chips increasingly are finding their way into autonomous vehicles, the Internet of Things, unmanned aerial vehicles, virtual reality, and other applications far beyond phone calls and text messages. Moreover, they are gaining in com... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Qualcomm recently announced the new Snapdragon 820. The cell-phone chipset is based on Samsung Electronics’ new 14nm LPP (Low-Power Plus) process, the second-generation of the company’s 14nm finFET process technology. What’s next? Qualcomm is developing the Snapdragon 830. “Snapdragon 830 leaks indicate that the chip will sport 8GB of RAM, an enhanced Kryo custom architecture, and fabbe... » read more

Predictions For 2016: Markets


Seventeen companies sent in their predictions for this year with some of them sending predictions from several people. This is in addition to the CEO predictions that were recently published. That is a fine crop of views for the coming year, especially since they know that they will be held accountable for their views and this year, just like the last, they will have to answer for them. We beli... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


For years, China has been trying to get a domestic IC equipment industry off the ground, but it has experienced modest success in the arena. Now, China may take a new strategy—acquire fab tool makers. In what could be a sign of things to come, China’s Beijing E-Town Dragon Semiconductor Industry Investment Center has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire U.S.-based fab tool vendor ... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


At one time, China’s Xiaomi was a high-flying smartphone vendor. The privately-held company had a market capitalization of $45 billion. But the bottom has fallen out of the company amid share losses. “By early 2015, it was clear that problems were emerging as growth ground to a halt and nothing that Xiaomi has done since has been able to re-start it. Xiaomi has ground to halt because there ... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


China is investing billions of dollars in the IC industry and equipment sectors. The nation is also in the midst of an acquisition and an investment spree, especially in IC packaging. For example, Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology (JCET), a Chinese OSAT, shook up the landscape by recently announcing a deal to acquire STATS ChipPAC for $780 million. The deal was completed in August of 20... » read more

How Will China Spend $120B?


It's daunting to consider how much Chinese VC and government money is ready for investment around the globe. With the total now estimated somewhere in the neighborhood of $120 billion, that's a huge stockpile of cash. Just to put that in perspective, roughly $48.3 billion was invested by U.S. investors in 2014, according to a report issued by the National Venture Capital Association and Pricewa... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


According to Strategy Analytics, global mobile phone shipments grew a lackluster 2% annually to reach 435 million units in the second quarter of 2015. China’s Huawei was the star performer, as it captured a 7% share and overtook Microsoft to become the world’s third largest mobile phone vendor for the first time ever. Samsung remains in first place, while Apple is second. Remember when t... » read more

The Week In Review: Design/IoT


Embedded Mentor Graphics released a new version of their Nucleus RTOS with a focus on high-performance IoT and wearable applications. Updates include support for Dynamic Linking and Loading (DLL) capabilities in Cortex-M based cores; the ability for developers to reconfigure, update, and provision connected embedded devices that utilize cloud-based remote software services; and TI WiLink 8 m... » read more

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