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Chiplets: what lies below?

Chiplets: What Lies Below?

By Ron Wilson

What’s at stake:
One of the most important issues — and one of the least discussed — in creating multi-die systems is the substrate technology. There are several roads into the future, going in different directions. But one of them holds unique promise.

Much of the current excitement about chiplets tends to overlook an important point. Every multi-die system-in-package rests — quite literally — on a substrate. The characteristics of that substrate influence everything about the finished system, from the architecture to the cost to the likelihood of it ever reaching customers.

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If Nvidia Is AI Hardware's Goliath, Where's David?

If Nvidia Is AI Hardware’s Goliath, Where’s David?

By Junko Yoshida

What’s at stake?
Lop-sided wins by a few companies have become the norm in certain segments of the semiconductor industry, specifically Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) in the foundry business and Nvidia in the AI chip market. Armed with unfair advantages they have created for themselves, these two giants leave little room for competitors to operate.  

How did the industry let it happen?

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Vegas Falcons Patrol the Sphere

Vegas Falcons Patrol the Sphere

By Junko Yoshida

Lately, when the physical world poses a problem, the first instinct of the Silicon Valley mind is to respond, “Oh, there’s a technology to fix that.”

Throwing more tech at the flaws in technology is a malaise not new, but increasingly prevalent in recent times.

For sure, there are technologies that can solve technology problems. But we often forget that there are effective alternatives that don’t require the services of an EE, or even an electrician.

Or electricity.

I was reminded of this humble truth during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month.

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TSMC: Name Change, Anyone?

TSMC: Name Change Anyone?

By Bolaji Ojo

What’s at stake?

The “Taiwan” in TSMC’s name is a justifiable source of pride to the Taiwanese. In countries where political leaders are saying “foreign” domination of the chip business is not in their national interest, though, even TSMC can’t keep out the irritating whiff of China, which is claiming Taiwan. To satisfy foreign customers, TSMC will have to do more than build fabs overseas. It must become a part of each country’s “local” supply chain and enterprise system. A rebranding that includes a name change will help.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) is entering a new phase in its evolution. Sadly, it begins with the end of the Morris Chang era.

Taiwan was at the heart of the TSMC founder Chang founded in 1987. As the founding generation moves, TSMC of the future must have the globe at its core.

To become a truly international player able to melt into the cultural fabrics of its host communities, TSMC needs a rebranding that comes with a neutral sounding name.

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Why Is Valeo Clinging to Lidars?

Why Is Valeo Clinging to Lidar?

By Junko Yoshida

What’s at stake?
Among all sensors designed into modern vehicles, lidars have seen the most upheaval – to a degree unanticipated even by leading lidar companies. There are no assurances even lidar pioneers like Valeo can keep up with the rapidly changing market landscape.

The causes for this volatility, or attributed to dynamism, include technology advancements, the rise and fall of robotaxis, rapid growth in Chinese EVs, a geographical split among OEMs marketing automated vehicles (L2+, L2++ vs L3), and the death of lidar companies who rode the SPAC boom until their investors bailed.

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Synopsys-Ansys to Bridge Digital, Physical Worlds

Synopsys-Ansys to Bridge Digital, Physical Worlds

By Junko Yoshida

What’s at stake?
Synopsys’ planned acquisition of Ansys will first tackle complex multi-die silicon design issues for data centers and automotive. But will it also address the tension growing between digital and physical worlds such as AI-driven autonomous vehicles and the real-world traffic?

I don’t pretend to know a lot when it comes to designing and engineering systems. I’m not an engineer. But as I write more and more about so-called “smart” digital systems–whether in highly automated vehicles, ChatGPT, software-defined vehicles or AI-augmented devices–I can’t help but wonder how the software, semiconductors and components inside these systems are tested and validated for real-world challenges. 

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Chiplet: Let Integration Race Begin

Chiplet: Let Integration Race Begin

By Junko Yoshida

What’s at stake?
With chiplets poised to disaggregate SoCs into tiny dies, companies have begun to generate new ideas, tools and “chiplet platforms” designed to put back together these small dies (chiplets) – horizontally or vertically – in an advanced form of system-in-package. It is almost ironic that the chiplet originally conceived to disaggregate SoCs in Lego-like blocks appears to be getting back into an integration race again.

DreamBig Semiconductor, based in San Jose, Calif., is one of the startups at the gate. It came to CES last week and unveiled an “Open Chiplet Platform” called MARS.

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semiconductor wafers

Is Localized Chip Production Doomed to Fail?

By Bolaji Ojo

What’s at stake?

Powerful governments are pouring vast amounts of money into semiconductors to create or strengthen national or regional manufacturing and innovation hubs, departing from the globalized system that midwifed the industry. The system being built lacks long-term viability, but chipmakers are going along, drawn by government largesse and coercion. Can this new structure survive harsh business realities such as the need for global sales?

As much as $1.6 trillion may be spent on new semiconductor fabs, R&D, and STEM education programs globally by governments and chipmakers between 2020 and 2040 in a defensive, frantic and possibly doomed effort by leading economies to localize IC innovations and manufacturing in their territories, according to figures compiled by the Ojo-Yoshida Report.

Driven by parochial defense, military, supply security and other economic interests China, the European Union, Japan, South Korea and the United States are prodding the semiconductor industry into a new wave of massive, local fab construction projects with promises and plans that appear detached from the market’s fundamentals and historical operational system, according to observers.

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