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In Intel’s Crisis, a Glimpse of TSMC’s Quandary

In Intel’s Crisis, a Glimpse of TSMC’s Quandary

By Bolaji Ojo

Under normal market conditions, the concept of Intel Corp. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., (TSMC) “eyeing potential deals that would break the American chip-making icon in two” as reportedly recently by the Wall Street Journal would be considered a non-starter. A separate report from the New York Times stating Intel is working with “the Trump administration on a plan to turn over the operation of its chip-making plants” to TSMC falls in the same category.

Intel got itself into this funk. We have emptied a dozen barrels of ink reporting and pontificating on how the company got into this mess and what it must do to get out. (See: Intel Needs an Active, Competent Board, not a ‘Savior’ CEO; Intel: It’s Time for the Unthinkable; Intel-Samsung Foundry Union is a Non-Starter; Intel’s Last Hope: Private Equity LBO?; Intel Board, After Review, Insists on Token Changes; Out of Intel, America’s Dream Foundry: Here’s How; Intel’s Crisis Was Predictable. Its Future Isn’t a Mystery, Either; Intel Says it’s Building ‘Two World-Class Companies.’ Meaning, please?.)

For now, the industry can only await Intel’s next move. While we do this, however, there is another problem the industry must stay aware of, and that is the predicament laid upon TSMC – as it expands operations globally and the elevated, unprecedented and unfair expectations and demands that the entire semiconductor industry, OEMs and several national governments have placed on the Taiwanese company.

Read More »In Intel’s Crisis, a Glimpse of TSMC’s Quandary

What’s Cooking at OYR (and at my house)

By Mike Markowitz

Some great content to highlight on the site this week:

  • With all of the discussion about AI, Bolaji sat down with industry veteran and CEO of Veriest Moshe Zalcberg to understand whether AI can help design and verify the next generation of even more powerful AI chips. The webcast, Chips for AI and AI for Chips, asks and answers the question of whether AI chips are harder to design and how AI can help.
  • Bolaji also looks closely at STMicroelectronics, after their disappointing 2024 in Whither STMicroelectronics after Annus Horribilis? He asks the tough questions: Is ST’s $20 billion revenue goal, which it had targeted by 2027 after hitting record sales of $17.3 billion in 2023, still achievable? What will happen to manufacturing plans, capex, R&D, and the workforce as the company struggles to climb back uphill?
  • In spite of those poor results, Peter Clarke sees a recent 15-year agreement between ST and TotalEnergies as confirmation of ST’s commitment to sustainability and achieving carbon neutrality by 2027. In ST and the Persistence of a Green Legacy, Peter details ST’s journey and credits ST for embedding sustainability into its long-term strategy.
  • High-performance power modules manufacturer Vicor is making a bold leap to apply its expertise into 48V power systems for EVs. In Vicor Puts Pedal to Metal for 48V EV Power Systems, Bolaji talks to Chief Marketing Officer David Krakauer to understand Vicor’s approach and how automakers’ transition to 48V is going,
  • We’ve finished posting Lee Goldberg’s series looking at the heritage of the US Space program. Part 1, Mercury and SpaceShipOne: 40-years of Technical Evolution looked at how two different, but important steps in the evolution of the space program were propelled by competitive challenges. In Part 2, Mercury and SpaceShipOne: The Spacecraft, he shared how two very different spacecraft still shared similar design requirements. Part 3, Mercury and SpaceShipOne: Very Different Launch Systems, looks at how the launch systems evolved over 40 years and highlights some of the “piloting badassery” that saved multiple missions (not to mention the pilots).

Now, I’m hungry. Here’s What’s Cooking at my house!

Read More »What’s Cooking at OYR (and at my house)

Mercury and SpaceShipOne: Very Different Launch Systems

By Lee Goldberg

What’s at Stake:

NASA investigated multiple launch systems to put a man into Space and ultimately decided to put the Mercury capsule atop derivatives of ballistic missiles. 40 years later, economics and technology evolution allowed the engineers and scientists working on SpaceShipOne, to make a different decision.

The first two crewed Mercury flights were carried on their suborbital trajectories by human-rated derivatives of the Redstone ballistic missile. These rockets were highly-evolved versions of the V2 ballistic weapons originally developed by Wernher von Braun that Germany used to bombard Britain during WWII.

Among the direct similarities between the two rockets was the use of a 75 percent alcohol/25 percent water fuel mixture and liquid oxygen (LOX) as its oxidizer, and a steering mechanism which used a set of carbon vanes placed just below the rocket exhaust. Although the Redstone’s Rocketdyne A-7 motor, and the turbopumps, that fed it were significant improvements on those used by the original V2, their basic concepts and functions were remarkably similar.

To achieve the velocities needed for orbital flights, subsequent missions were flown aboard an Atlas-D rocket, originally created to serve as an intercontinental ballistic delivery vehicle for nuclear weapons. Powered by a pair of Rocketdyne XLR-85 engines burning kerosene and liquid oxygen that produced up to 360,000 pounds of thrust, and an LR-101 sustainer engine, the Atlas used super-thin fuel tanks and other lightweight construction techniques to maximize its payload capacity.

Read More »Mercury and SpaceShipOne: Very Different Launch Systems
Vicor Puts Pedal to Metal for 48V EV Power Systems

Vicor Puts Pedal to Metal for 48V EV Power Systems

By Bolaji Ojo

What’s at stake:

Vicor has been in the power electronics market long enough to know when a new and potentially large market opportunity has emerged. This year, the company is going all out with plans to explore opportunities in the auto industry as it finally embarks on the planned rollout of its 48V power systems for electric vehicles. It’s a new area for the company, but it is leveraging 48V technology and expertise it has in-house and which it has offered in other hard and tough environments where reliability and durability are standard requirements. We talk with CMO David Krakauer about Vicor’s roots in power, its 48V offerings for EVs and how it plans to win over auto OEMs and tier-ones.

Vicor Corp. first made the announcement of its entrance into the automotive power market late last year, rolling out already certified 48V EV products and recognizing with the move a distinct change occurring in the electrification of electric vehicles.

The three products, which Vicor said it planned to roll out in 2025 to “support automotive OEM and tier one production” mark the company’s attempt to match some of its existing products and technologies with the growing demand for a different level of electrification systems for EVs.

In a press release, Patrick Walden, head of the company’s automotive business, noted that the new BCM6135, DCM3735 and PRM3735 which Vicor announced in October had already completed “the production part approval process with automotive customers.” What remains was for Vicor – starting in 2025 – to show it can be as critical a supply chain player in the power automotive industry as it is in aerospace, computing, defense, and industrial equipment.

It is now 2025 and Vicor is on a roll as promised. We caught up with David Krakauer, head of marketing and channel strategy, at Electronica in Munich late last year as the company was getting its 48V power systems ready for market. Krakauer promised the plan was all set for 2025. He also provided some insight into Vicor’s history and explained how the company was leveraging its strength in other markets as it powered into the automotive segment. Click the video link below to watch the interview.

Read More »Vicor Puts Pedal to Metal for 48V EV Power Systems

ST and the Persistence of a Green Legacy

By Peter Clarke

What’s at Stake:

STMicroelectronics’ persistent focus on sustainability matters because the stakes have never been higher. Once-rare “100-year” weather events now occur with alarming frequency, while global climate policy swings — such as the U.S. repeatedly joining, withdrawing from, and re-joining the Paris Agreement — create uncertainty for businesses trying to plan for a low-carbon future. By staying committed to long-term environmental responsibility despite financial and market fluctuations, ST sets an example of corporate resilience in an era where short-term thinking could have catastrophic consequences.

In November 2000, I attended STMicroelectronics’ traditional customer and media party at the Bayerischer Hof hotel in Munich during the Electronica exhibition. As the evening unfolded, I was unexpectedly offered a 10-minute interview with the company’s CEO, Pasquale Pistorio.

Notebook in hand, I was escorted to an executive suite. There, in subdued lighting, sat the great man. At the time, ST – born from the merger of Italy’s SGS and France’s Thomson – was thriving. The company was led by Pistorio, who was widely recognized as one of the most engaging and affable executives in the semiconductor industry.

On this occasion, however, Pistorio was in an uncharacteristically sombre mood. Surprisingly, rather than discussing technology, products, or ST’s impressive business growth, Pistorio wanted to talk about something different. It was a topic rarely reported on: Sustainability.

Read More »ST and the Persistence of a Green Legacy
Whither STMicroelectronics after Annus Horibilis?

Whither STMicroelectronics after Annus Horribilis?

By Bolaji Ojo

What’s at stake:

STMicroelectronics has had an interim revenue goal of $20 billion in focus for some time. It had hoped to reach this number quickly after clocking record sales of $17.3 billion in 2023. The company concedes this objective may not be achievable until the end of the decade due to a drastic sales slump in 2024 and amidst fears this will continue at least through 2025. What will happen to manufacturing plans, capex, R&D, and the workforce as the company struggles to climb back uphill?

STMicroelectronics NV had its plans nicely laid out. It was going to become a $20 billion semiconductor behemoth by mid-decade and march aggressively towards even higher revenue, larger operating margins, and much fatter profits by 2030.

Halfway through the decade, though, ST’s management, bewildered, is headed back to the drawing board. The lofty plans are in tatters, shredded by massive disruptions in several key markets, including automotive, its largest segment, industrial and personal electronics. The disruptions have forced ST to push out the timeline for its $20 billion revenue goal to 2030, a target that even now appears doubtful.

How Europe’s second-largest semiconductor company navigates its way through the debris of its shattered ambitions over the next years will determine whether it will be anywhere close to its sales and margins objectives by the end of the decade. Manufacturing plans, R&D, capital expenditure, product development, investments, and product portfolios must be overhauled, some even pruned. Expansion goals for new markets may have to be curtailed due to reduced cash flow and some senior executives may be shown the door, their briefs merged with those of survivors’.

Read More »Whither STMicroelectronics after Annus Horribilis?
Designing AI Chips is Hard – Can AI help?

Designing AI Chips is Hard – Can AI help?

By Bolaji Ojo

What’s at stake:

The chips design world ran into a new thicket with the emergence of artificial intelligence as a serious area of product interest for semiconductors companies and systems’ makers. But designing AI chips isn’t quite the same as designing chips for SoCs, says industry veteran Moshe Zalcberg. Interestingly, he notes, the problems engineers encounter designing AI chips can also be solved by AI. But is the industry at that point now?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer the stuff of fables. It is here, happening all around us even if it hasn’t reached the striking magical levels of sci-fi movies. It will get there someday, though, observers note. But getting there will require copious amounts of high-end chips, memory, connectors and advanced processes.

Moshe Zalcberg as CEO of Veriest has been involved for years in chips design and chips verification. In a discussion with the Ojo-Yoshida Report, Zalcberg noted that designing and verifying AI chips will be faster if the industry can master the art of using AI to exponentially improve the processes. In essence, artificial intelligence can supply the intelligence and brute muscle required for AI to reach its full potential.

Read More »Designing AI Chips is Hard – Can AI help?
SpaceShipOne

Mercury and SpaceShipOne: The Spacecraft

By Lee Goldberg

What’s at Stake:

In the beginning, US efforts in Space were largely driven by militaristic goals and the belief in US exceptionalism. Later, while those motivations still existed, the pioneer spirit and entrepreneurialism pushed further development.

In late 1958, the U.S. government’s fear of falling behind the Russians drove NASA to impose an ambitious schedule on the Mercury program that included the production of the capsules that would be used for the first crewed flight on May 5, 1961, and five subsequent missions, as well as several engineering prototypes.

Designed and integrated by McDonnell Aircraft, the vehicles’ compact structure provided just enough room to shoehorn in an astronaut and their space suit, along with the minimum complement of life support, communication, propulsion, and guidance systems needed to support brief forays into space.

Mercury’s aluminum and titanium structure was sheathed in panels made of Rene 41, a heat-resistant nickel-based alloy. The capsule was equipped with small hydrogen peroxide-powered thrusters that could orient the craft while in orbit and three solid-fuel retrorockets which could be fired to slow the craft down enough to fall towards Earth. The cone-shaped vehicle would reenter the atmosphere leading with its blunt circular base, protected by an ablative heat shield that used the same principles and technologies originally developed to enable ballistic nuclear warheads to survive the fiery conditions they would encounter on the way to their targets. Mercury’s nose contained three parachutes which would deploy after entering the lower atmosphere, further slowing the craft to make a relatively soft water landing where it would be plucked from the ocean by helicopters and delivered to a nearby ship.

Read More »Mercury and SpaceShipOne: The Spacecraft
Tech Execs Must Act to Avoid Chip Tariff Trap;

Tech Execs Must Act to Avoid Chip Tariff Trap

By Mike Markowitz

Donald Trump’s latest proposal to impose tariffs as high as 100 percent on semiconductors imported from Taiwan may sound like a straightforward solution to boosting domestic manufacturing, but for those who understand the complexities of the industry, it’s a reckless move that could do more harm than good.

Tech executives cannot afford to stay silent. Now is the time to engage with policymakers and educate them on the severe consequences such tariffs would have on the very companies they claim to be protecting.

Read More »Tech Execs Must Act to Avoid Chip Tariff Trap