Skip to content

Featured

Lisa Su, AMD CEO

The Only Substitute for TSMC Right Now is TSMC

By Bolaji Ojo

What’s at stake:
The desire for multiple sources for advanced semiconductor products has deepened following the latest round of shortages, but the options are limited as Advanced Micro Devices has found out. TSMC holds all the aces. So, how should companies that are concerned about TSMC’s geopolitical challenges play the field?

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. CEO Lisa Su is flummoxed.

That isn’t a position typical for Su but finding an alternate source for the advanced chips TSMC produces for AMD has the company’s boss rolled up in a ball of yarn.

Read More »The Only Substitute for TSMC Right Now is TSMC

China: Irreplaceable Western Supply Chain ‘Frenemy’?

By Bolaji Ojo

What’s at stake:
Once again, the world confronts anew the perils of its geopolitical discords. Rather than lessening, nationalistic frictions between China and the US are intensifying. Can Western technology executives, including semiconductor CEOs who went to the White House on Monday to plead for fewer trade sanctions on China, help soften the grounds and influence their governments to at least start talking more with China?

Has China become the single nation Western electronics manufacturers cannot do without?

This is the question on observers’ minds after the CEOs of Intel Corp., Qualcomm Inc., and other chipmakers trooped to Washington DC on Monday to try and avert the imposition of a new slate of restrictions on the sales of high-end semiconductors to Chinese OEMs.

Read More »China: Irreplaceable Western Supply Chain ‘Frenemy’?
Zero Emission by 2050

Math Quiz: 2X Growth or 4X Carbon?

By Junko Yoshida

What’s at stake:
Cheered by the CHIPS and Science Act and a spike in demand for AI, semiconductor industry executives are flirting with euphoria. Many gleefully tell us,“Chip guys are finally getting a little respect.” But with greater esteem comes greater responsibility. How many chip businesses are making measurable and transparent commitments to growing and operating sustainably?

Read More »Math Quiz: 2X Growth or 4X Carbon?
rush to new technologies

Where Are AMD, Intel & Qualcomm in the Chiplet Rush?

By Junko Yoshida

What’s at stake:
Chiplets and heterogenous integration are about to change the way electronic systems are designed, tested, and manufactured. Semiconductor industry prophets believe that future is inevitable. They believe heterogenous, multi-chiplet architectures can reduce cost and power consumption compared with latest design nodes. Despite broad acceptance of this forecast, a question lingers: Who’s ready to do the heavy lifting?

Read More »Where Are AMD, Intel & Qualcomm in the Chiplet Rush?
supply chain

Yes, it is the Supply Chain, Ladies & Gents

By Bolaji Ojo

What’s at stake:
Modern commerce, of any kind, hangs on the strengths, durability and effectiveness of the supply chain(s) that supports it. In the electronics industry, when the supply chain is fragile, porous or insufficiently flexible, disaster is never far away, notwithstanding the type of business, the value or uniqueness of the design. Engineers, too, are negatively impacted when the supply chain crashes. Now, they are teaming up with other players to find solutions. Will this be a permanent move or will the momentum die as quickly as the next cycle?

What does the global electronics industry have in common with The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemmingway’s ageless story of one man’s struggle with fate?

Read More »Yes, it is the Supply Chain, Ladies & Gents
Renesas and Wolfspeed sign a SiC wafer supply agreement.

Renesas’ $2B Investment Will Keep on Giving

By Bolaji Ojo

What’s at stake:
The $2 billion Renesas is paying to Wolfspeed will guarantee supply of the silicon carbide the Japanese chipmaker would require over the next decade, but this looks like the beginning of a deeper relationship. SiC is the future of power computing and securing supplies as well as financing for fabs is key to success for everyone. So, which direction will Renesas and Wolfspeed next take their relationship?

Wolfspeed Inc. CEO Gregg Lowe is going to have fewer sleepless nights now. Money is pouring in for the US company’s growing fabs capex splurge.

Over in Japan, Hidetoshi Shibata is celebrating scoring a coup, too. Renesas Inc.’s boss will have an easier time answering probing questions that investors, customers and reporters have been asking about his company’s silicon carbide (SiC) strategy.

Read More »Renesas’ $2B Investment Will Keep on Giving
Moving AI-Driven Data Between Tools and Fabs

Moving AI-Driven Data Between Tools and Fabs

By Junko Yoshida

What’s at stake:
Using AI as a tool is an idea broadly embraced in the semiconductor industry. But putting AI into practice needs validated data easily shared within the flow of design, testing and manufacturing. Stakes are high for an industry that must now forced to handle data coming from many sources in different forms.

The semiconductor industry’s quest for consistent data is foremost in discussions at the Semicon West and Design Automation Conference this week in San Francisco.

Read More »Moving AI-Driven Data Between Tools and Fabs
The Future of Chiplets

The Future of Chiplets

By Ron Wilson

What’s at stake:
What lies in the future for chiplets? They could change the structure of the semiconductor industry, freeing it from the geriatric grip of Moore’s Law and the hegemony of three giant manufacturers. Or they could, like thin-film hybrids and multidie packages before them, withdraw into a few application niches where their challenges are manageable and their costs acceptable.

Read More »The Future of Chiplets