D&R Headline News | Most Popular | SoC News Alerts | |

Commentary / Analysis

• AI Can't Design Chips Without People (Tuesday Jul. 04, 2023)
  Machines are already building other machines, so it makes sense that artificial intelligence would help build the components necessary for them to exist, including processors and memory devices.
  
  
• Korean prosecutors name ex-Samsung exec who tried to set up copy-cat fab in China and the Taiwanese backer (Thursday Jun. 29, 2023)
  The former Samsung executive accused of trying to set up a chip factory in China based on plans stolen from Samsung has been revealed by Korean prosecutors to be Choi Jinseog who has been in jail in Korea since May.
  
  
• Worldwide Semiconductor Foundry Market Grew 27.9% YoY in 2022, Projected to Decrease by 6.5% YoY in 2023 due to Inventory Adjustments, IDC Finds (Thursday Jun. 29, 2023)
  According to IDC’s Semiconductor Manufacturing Services: 2022 Worldwide Foundry Market: Vendor Ranking and Insight, the worldwide foundry market size grew by 27.9% in 2022, hitting a new record high, benefiting from customers' long-term agreements (LTAs), higher foundry prices, process shrinkage, and plant expansion.
  
  
• Intel and Movellus Develop Different Fixes For IC Voltage Droop (Thursday Jun. 29, 2023)
  Two presentations during the same week from Intel and Movellus highlighted radically different approaches to solving voltage droop, a problem that increasingly plagues SoC designs as device geometries continue marching down the Moore’s Law curve.
  
  
• How Will 5G Advanced Change RF Design? (Monday Jun. 26, 2023)
  The next transformation in cellular networks, 5G Advanced, will bring higher bandwidth, lower latency and higher energy efficiency to applications like enhanced mobile broadband, massive IoT and edge computing. While these are big benefits for mobile network operators, it is causing RF and component design challenges.
  
  
• Rapidus CEO Chasing Single-Wafer-Processing Dream (Monday Jun. 26, 2023)
  Rapidus CEO Atsuyoshi Koike will get a boost from Japan’s CHIPS Act and IBM to start the nation’s sole semiconductor foundry making the world’s most advanced silicon just two years behind industry heavyweight Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), he said in an exclusive interview with EE Times in Brussels.
  
  
• DRAM Alternative Spawns U.K. Startup (Thursday Jun. 22, 2023)
  A startup spurred by technology developed at Lancaster University in Lancaster, Lancashire, England, is putting its hat in the ring with a candidate to displace DRAM.
  
  
• Global Top Ten IC Design Houses Break Even in Q1, Hope for Recovery in Q2 Bolstered by AI Demand, Says TrendForce (Tuesday Jun. 20, 2023)
  TrendForce reports that inventory reduction in Q1 fell short of expectations and coincided with the industry’s traditional off-season, leading to overall subdued demand.
  
  
• Can Any Novel Architecture Topple the Mighty GPU? (Tuesday Jun. 20, 2023)
  Despite many new and novel ASIC designs on the market today, GPUs are still extremely popular for both data centers and edge applications like robotics.
  
  
• Chips Acts' Role in Reshaping a Global Industry (Monday Jun. 19, 2023)
  As the world has navigated multiple macroeconomic and geopolitical challenges in recent years, one thing has become clear to global leaders: Semiconductors are indispensable.
  
  
• Samsung fab cobbling IP offerings for data-intensive SoCs (Thursday Jun. 15, 2023)
  Samsung Foundry is on the offense, this time by cobbling IP partnerships to help design engineers build complex system-on-chips (SoCs) for multiple process generations.
  
  
• Simplifying the Analog and Mixed-Signal IC Design Process (Thursday Jun. 15, 2023)
  This article is focused on the revolutionary approach to the design of AMS circuits developed by Agile Analog. This U.K.-based semiconductor company simplifies and accelerates this process with its scalable platform.
  
  
• MosChip's strategic initiatives in India's rising semiconductor market: acquisitions, collaborations, and innovations (Thursday Jun. 15, 2023)
  In a recent dialogue with Digitimes Asia, Srinivasa Kakumanu, the Executive Vice President of the Semiconductor Business Unit at MosChip, shared the company's plans to focus on specific domains, such as embedded software and AI/ML.
  
  
• Droop response system IP made available for SoC designs (Thursday Jun. 15, 2023)
  A new off-the-shelf synthesizable IP is available for system-on-chip (SoC) designs: an integrated droop response system. Besides detecting and responding to voltage droops, the IP incorporates extensive monitoring and observability features to facilitate valuable insight into silicon health and lifecycle management.
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Materials Market Revenue Reaches Record $73 Billion in 2022, SEMI Reports (Thursday Jun. 15, 2023)
  Global semiconductor materials market revenue grew 8.9% to $72.7 billion in 2022, surpassing the previous market high of $66.8 billion set in 2021, SEMI, the global industry association representing the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain.
  
  
• Intel talking to Arm about becoming an anchor investor in Arm IPO (Wednesday Jun. 14, 2023)
  Intel is reported to be in talks with Arm about becoming an anchor investor in the IPO planned for the autumn.
  
  
• Global 300mm Fab Equipment Spending Forecast to Reach Record $119 Billion in 2026, SEMI Reports (Wednesday Jun. 14, 2023)
  Global 300mm fab equipment spending for front-end facilities next year is expected to begin a growth streak to a US$119 billion record high in 2026 following a decline in 2023.
  
  
• Chiplets advancing one design breakthrough at a time (Wednesday Jun. 14, 2023)
  Where do the high-performance and highly scalable multi-die architectures for compute-intensive applications actually stand?
  
  
• PCI-SIG® Announces New Research Projecting PCI Express® Technology TAM Expected to Reach $10 Billion by 2027 (Wednesday Jun. 14, 2023)
  PCI-SIG® announced today new findings from an ABI Research report projecting PCI Express® (PCIe®) technology TAM growing at a CAGR of 14% from 2022 to 2027 in high-growth verticals including data centers, edge, telcos, AI, automotive, mobile devices and wearables.
  
  
• Exec tried to set up copy-cat Samsung fab in China (Wednesday Jun. 14, 2023)
  A 28-year veteran of the Korean chip industry with stints at Samsung and Hynix has been arrested and indicted for a failed attempt to set up a copycat Samsung fab a mile away from a genuine Samsung fan in Xian, China.
  
  
• Intel German fab in doubt (Monday Jun. 12, 2023)
  Intel may not be building a fab complex in Germany after it asked for higher subsidies from the German government.
  
  
• Securing Embedded Systems - Making it the Norm (Monday Jun. 12, 2023)
  Experts from Cybellum, Emproof and Nordic Semiconductor explain what the future holds for implementing security in embedded devices and what the development community needs to make incorporating security become the norm.
  
  
• Top 10 Foundries Report Nearly 20% QoQ Revenue Decline in 1Q23, Continued Slide Expected in Q2, Says TrendForce (Monday Jun. 12, 2023)
  TrendForce reports that the global top 10 foundries witnessed a significant 18.6% QoQ decline in revenue during the first quarter of 2023.
  
  
• Jim Keller on AI, RISC-V, Tenstorrent's Move to Edge IP (Monday Jun. 12, 2023)
  Legendary CPU designer Jim Keller took over as CEO of AI chip company Tenstorrent at the beginning of 2023, after serving as the company’s CTO for two years. His history includes stints at Apple, Tesla and AMD. In recent years, Keller has become an outspoken supporter of RISC-V, and the burgeoning open-source ISA was a key topic for discussion during EE Times’ exclusive video interview.
  
  
• Apple completes its ARM lineup with 5nm, 134billion transistor M2 Ultra (Monday Jun. 12, 2023)
  Apple has completed its range of ARM-based chips with the M2 Ultra, its largest to date with 134bn transistors.
  
  
• Q1 2023 Global Semiconductor Equipment Billings Grow 9% Year-Over-Year, SEMI Reports (Thursday Jun. 08, 2023)
  Global semiconductor equipment billings increased 9% year-over-year to US$26.8 billion in the first quarter of 2023.
  
  
• Computex 2023 Reveals Taiwan's Critical Role in AI (Thursday Jun. 08, 2023)
  
  
  
• Global Semiconductor Sales Increase 0.3% Month-to-Month in April (Wednesday Jun. 07, 2023)
  SIA today announced global semiconductor industry sales were $40.0 billion during the month of April 2023, an increase of 0.3% compared to the March 2023 total of $39.8 billion and 21.6% less than the April 2022 total of $50.9 billion.
  
  
• Consortium's Move Will Boost RISC-V Ecosystem, Thankfully (Monday Jun. 05, 2023)
  RISC-V represents an existential threat to Arm, and a new industry consortium plans to increase that threat of extinction by accelerating the development of open-source software for the RISC-V architecture. Members of the consortium this week announced the formation of the RISC-V Software Ecosystem (RISE) Project to do so.
  
  
• Are Chiplets Enough to Save Moore's Law? (Monday Jun. 05, 2023)
  During a press conference at Computex this week in Taiwan, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and MediaTek CEO Rick Tsai announced that Nvidia would be supplying GPU chiplets to MediaTek to be incorporated into a yet-to-be-designed system-on-chip (SoC) for in-cabin automotive applications along with Nvidia AI and graphics IP.