Mentor updates shareholder rights rules; Dassault completes Apriso acquisition; head-up displays show up in family vehicles.
By Ed Sperling
Mentor Graphics put into place a second shareholder rights to plan to ward off hostile takeovers. This one increases the threshold for triggering the rights plan to 20% of common stock from the previous 15%, and allows a qualifying offer provision that allows the board to call a special meeting provided the exercise price per right is increased to $90 from $65. It also extends the plan date through June 30, 2015. The statement noted this was not adopted in response to any acquisition proposal. Mentor’s stock is trading in the $19 per share range.
Dassault Systemes completed its acquisition of Apriso, which makes manufacturing software. The purchase price was about $205 million in cash. The deal provides Dassault with real-time visibility and control over business processes in manufacturing plants and across the supply chain.
Automotive head-up displays are making their way into family cars for the first time, opening up a huge market for sophisticated electronics in automobiles. IHS predicts the number of units sold will increase to 9.1 million in 2020, compared with 1.2 million in predominantly high-end vehicles last year—or roughly 2% of the cars. IHS predicts future versions will combine the head-up display with a GPS, so the driver can see a map, turns, and even speed limits and traffic sign information on the windshield. But will they work with polarized lenses? Previous versions do not.
Disaggregation and the wind-down of Moore’s Law have changed everything.
Different interconnect standards and packaging options being readied for mass chiplet adoption.
Continued expansion in new and existing markets points to massive and sustained growth.
Aging equipment and rising demand are pushing up prices and slowing production.
Experts at the Table: Designing for context, and geopolitical impacts on a global supply chain.
Interest in this particular ISA is expanding, but the growth of other open-source hardware is less certain.
Nanosheets are likeliest option throughout this decade, with CFETs and other exotic structures possible after that.
Hybrid bonding opens up whole new level of performance in packaging, but it’s not the only improvement.
Why this is becoming a bigger issue, and what can be done to mitigate the effects.
Some 300mm tools are converted to 200mm; equipment prices and chip manufacturing costs are rising.
From low resistance vias to buried power rails, it takes multiple strategies to usher in 2nm chips.
Manufacturing 3D structures will require atomic-level control of what’s removed and what stays on a wafer.
Disaggregation and the wind-down of Moore’s Law have changed everything.
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