Interconnecting Chiplets: A Many-Layered Challenge
The Ojo-Yoshida Report podcast series Dig Deeper—Chiplets interviews Tony Mastroianni of Siemens.
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CEO Panush Writes Ceva’s Next Growth Chapter
What’s at stake:
Ceva CEO Amir Panush has his work cut out for him. The DSP powerhouse’s growth was built on the industry’s standards-based high-quality IP. Now, Panush has to chart a new course as a pure-play IP company in a rough-and-tumble ‘Smart Edge’ market that’s still emerging and very fragmented. The odds are getting tougher.
Decades ago, Ceva took the cellular communication market by storm by licensing its DSP cores to clients who needed to design baseband processors for mobile phones and base stations.
The Israeli company thus emerged as a DSP powerhouse, as the worldwide demand for cellular phones kept soaring.
Ceva’s next step, in the mid-2000’s, however, had an even bigger impact. It struck gold in 2014 by acquiring RivieraWaves, a private company based in France. The French company provided wireless connectivity IP for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies – which do not depend on Ceva’s DSP. This acquisition became a new growth engine for the Israeli company.
Read More »CEO Panush Writes Ceva’s Next Growth Chapter
Waveguide Casts CMOS Image Sensors in a New Light
By Peter Clarke
The IMEC research institute presented a development at the recent International Electron Devices Meeting that could be part of a game-changing new wave in image sensors.
It is well-known that memory and logic designers have wrestled with problems as circuit complexity has increased while planar geometry scaling has hit limits. The same is true, although for different reasons, for the CMOS image sensor.
Read More »Waveguide Casts CMOS Image Sensors in a New Light
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.
Read More »Chiplets: What Lies Below?
If Nvidia Is AI Hardware’s Goliath, Where’s David?
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?
Read More »If Nvidia Is AI Hardware’s Goliath, Where’s David?
Vegas Falcons Patrol the Sphere
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.
Read More »Vegas Falcons Patrol the Sphere
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.
Read More »TSMC: Name Change Anyone?
Automotive: Industry Drowning in Tech
Many automotive OEMs are completely unsuited to harnessing the flood of technological innovation that their industry is now drowning in.
Why Is Valeo Clinging to Lidar?
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.
Read More »Why Is Valeo Clinging to Lidar?
The Moral Bankruptcy of the Tech Titans
Observed in Davos: How to bamboozle with BS