Manufacturing

Can Intel catch up in process technology with TSMC was a question asked at IFS2024 earlier this week. ‘When you get behind it takes 10 years to catch up,“ replied Malcolm Penn CEO of Future Horizons, “you’re constantly chasing a moving  target.“ Intel is trying to do it in four years. “Technically they should be able to do it if ...

Europe’s problem with the chip industry has always been sporadic investment and a lack of customers for the most advanced chips. The 1980s programmes JESSi and MEDEA gave Europe leading edge capability – Philips mass-manufactured SRAMs, Infineon made DRAMs and ST sold flash –  but a subsequent generation of CEOs let that lapse. 10 years ago, EC vp Neelie Kroes ...

Intel’s aspiration of bringing up five processes in four years is on track, says CEO Pat Gelsinger. “Our Intel 3 process is tracking to be manufacturing ready by year-end,” said Gelsinger at the Q3 results call, “we are particularly excited by our move into the Angstrom era with Intel 20A and Intel 18A. I have been studying SEM diagrams for ...

Whoever is first to the GAA node will take a commanding lead in the chip industry, said Malcolm Penn, CEO of Future Horizons, at the company’s International Forecast Seminar yesterday, “The next node, the GAA node, was always going to be a challenge,” said Penn, “this is a major change. It keeps getting pushed out – it’s now into 2024/2025. ...

Intel16, a low-cost low-power process based on a node introduced in 2018, is now supported by design tools from  Ansys, Cadence, Siemens, and Synopsys which  gives Intel Foundry the opportunity to manufacture a variety of chips on a low-cost manufacturing process. TSMC currently derives about half its revenues from 16nm and older processes so there is a big target market. ...

Between 2005 and 2022 TSMC spent $135 billion on 300mm fabs, writes Scotten Jones of IC Knowledge, now part of TechInsights, and this should rise to over $200 billion in 2024 and to $400 billion in 2030. Between 2005 and 2022, TSMC earned revenues of around $525 billion and profits of around $227 billion, In that period TSMC’s market cap ...

The US Chips Act funding may look like free money but Uncle Sam is looking for some concessions in return. One is he wants companies which take the money to invest in childcare, because getting women back to work after having children is becoming seen as important in the US. Another is companies taking the money mustn’t do business in ...

The Indian auto industry built 4.25 million vehicles last year – more than Japan’s auto output of 4.20 – making India the third largest auto manufacturing country. Between January and November, 4.13 million new cars were delivered in India last year, says the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.  Adding in the December sales volume of Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest auto ...

Intel put up a foil at IEDM showing its progress on delivering five process nodes in four years. “I was skeptical Intel could meet the original Intel accelerated timeline, then they pulled it in (18A moved from 2025 to the second half of 2024), and so far, they are meeting it,” comments Scotten Jones in Catawiki, adding “Intel is clearly ...

Having spent $200 billion to develop a chip industry with little to show for it, China is now embarking on a $56 billion, Huawei-led move to revive its dream of advanced chip-making. Construction at the shuttered DRAM fab Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co. (JHICC) has resumed, reports the Nikkei. JHICC had to shut when US sanctions on the supply of ...