21 years ago NEC introduced a laptop powered by aN internal fuel cell. The fuel cell technology behind the PC was first shown at Nano Tech 2003 in February. NEC’s fuel cell at a glance Average output 14W Maximum output 24W Voltage 12V Cell weight 900g Fuel weight 300g PC+cell weight 2 kg PC size 288x280x40mm Run time 5hour approx ...
Foundry Model Unsustainable
Back in early 2003, it was being said that the silicon foundry business model would have to change if firms were to recover from low profit margins and low growth rates. “The era of high margins for the current foundry model has gone forever,” said Bob Tsao, chairman of foundry firm UMC at its February investor conference. Under a new ...
War and Chips
The prospect of war with Iraq has lead to a postponement of semiconductor demand but not an absolute decline, according to Doug Andrey, principal analyst of the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) speaking at the 2003 Globalpress conference in Monterey. “After 9/11 we saw demand postponed but it did not disappear,” said Andrey, arguing that the same thing is happening now, ...
Silicon Content Peaking At 25%
The value of the chip content in electronic systems will peak at 25%, TSMC’s US President, Ed Ross, told the 2003 Globalpress Summit Conference in Monterey. The silicon foundry industry made 20% of the world’s chip production in 2022 for total foundry industry revenues of $10 billion, said Ross, ‘by 2010, the percentage of ICs manufactured in foundries will be ...
DAC Sees Subtle Shift
At the 2004 DAC a subtle but immensely significant shift was observed in the electronics industry since the 2003 DAC. While small EDA companies still looked to get acquired by the Big Three, they were now looking to build strategic relationships well beyond that trio of established players. The new circle included systems vendors that also have their own foundry ...
Fabless, Chipless. . . .Now It’s Designless
The successor to the fabless and chipless semiconductor business models will be the designless chip company, according to a panel of industry experts at the 2005/Globalpress Sunmmit Conference in Monterey. “Companies are going to be designless as well as fabless – they’ll have product marketing people, and product definition people, and no one else,” said Naveed Sherwani, president and CEO ...
Russkies Shie Away From Chips
The Russian chip business has gone nowhere for 30 years. 19 years ago we heard why. Potential chip entrepreneurs in Russia are being deterred by their mistrust of government funding and by the reluctance of foreign investors to invest. “The scientific community is ahead of the government in understanding what needs to be done. They travel, they talk to venture ...
Atoms Don’t Scale
Atoms don’t scale, and this is the ultimate barrier to the continuation of Moore’s Law, Dr Bernie Meyerson, chief technology officer of IBM, told the 2006 Globalpress Summit Conference in Monterey. “Whether that barrier happens in 2016, or 2020, or 2024 is under debate,” said Meyerson, who was of the opinion that scaling would deliver 6nm processing in 2020. While ...
Nvidia’s Talent To Surprise
Startling financials from Nvidia are nothing new. Nearly 20 years ago, the company’s Q1 2006 figures were reported in these terms: ‘Silicon Valley-based graphics chipmaker Nvidia has reported that April quarterly revenue jumped 24 per cent year over year, while income nearly tripled.’ ’The company posted revenues of $583.8m for the quarter, it’s fiscal Q1 2006, compared to $471.9m posted ...
Running Fabs At Over 100% Utilisation
When times are tight, the fab is fully loaded and customers are clamouring for more wafers, what do you do? At its 2004 Technology Symposium in San Jose, TSMC said the answer is to run fab utilisation at over 100%, TSMC’s fabs were reaching more than 100 per cent utilisation rate, said Genda Hu, v-p of marketing. The rate was ...