February 9, 2010

Scaling Gets Scary

The limitations of scaling are getting pretty serious judging by Altera's reaction to 28nm processing.

 

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Women Have A Part To Play In Modern Science

'Women Have Part To Play In Modern Science' - this was the headline of a feature in an Electronics Weekly edition published 50 years ago in 1960, the year EW was founded.

 

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February 8, 2010

Ed The Serial CEO And The Foundry

Ed The Serial CEO is scouring the company's accounts looking for costs he can cut out in order to make the company's figures look as good as possible for the impending IPO.

 

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Infineon Shenanigans For Thursday

This week's bit of fun happens on Thursday when, for the first time ever, a Chairman-designate of a DAX30 company could be rejected by a shareholders' vote.

 

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February 5, 2010

The Gay Radium Atom

In 1904 this was one of the songs sung by the dons and undergraduates after dinner at the Cavendish Laboratory of  Cambridge University.

 

 

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NXP's Southampton Site (Update 2)

Rumours in two earlier posts, here and here, that Trident Microsystems will lay off 70 employees from the Southampton site of NXP's home business unit on Monday February 8th, which is the same day that the sale of the unit by NXP to Trident is due to be completed, are not being denied by either Trident or NXP.

 

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European Taxpayer Subsidising TSMC

Is the good old European taxpayer subsidising TSMC? This was asked at the IFS2010 meeting in London last week.

 

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February 4, 2010

NXP's Southampton Site (Update)

Trident Microsystems have now issued a statement in response to the question put to them earlier today about whether they plan to make redundancies at the Southampton plant of NXP's home business unit on Monday morning.

 

 

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Speculation Mounts On NXP's Southampton Site

Speculation is mounting over the plans for the Southampton site of NXP's home business unit which designs MIPS-based ICs for TVs and Set-Top Boxes.

 

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Fable: The Devil You Know

There was once a very big company, over 100 years old, which had grown big mainly by taking over its rivals in its domestic market.

 

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Is Altera Looking At Programmable DSP?

The problem for the FPGA companies is  growth. They've been stuck in a $3 billion niche since the year 2000 and the only significant progress for their products has been shrinking geometries and adding blocks.

 

Continue reading "Is Altera Looking At Programmable DSP?" »

February 3, 2010

Is This The First Significant ARM-Based Netbook?

That elusive beast, the ARM-based Netbook - or Smartbook as some like to call it - could have been spotted at CES.

 

 

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Could Agnilux Be Making ARM-Based Server Chips?

Could a Californian start-up called Agnilux (meaning Fire and Light) be working on ARM-based processors for servers?

 

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Top Ten 20th Century Engineering Achievements

Thanks to the toptentopten web-site for this one. The greatest engineering achievments of the 20th Century were:

 

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February 2, 2010

Avoid The Wall Street Devil

At all costs, chip company CEOs should avoid following Wall Street's recommendations on how to run a semiconductor company, it was stated at IFS 2010 in London last week.

 

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Record Year For Thorn

A record volume of radio and television business was achieved last year, Mr Jules Thorn, chairman and managing director of Thorn Electrical Industries, told shareholders at the AGM last week.

 

50 years ago, this is how a 1960 edition of Electronics Weekly opened a front page story.

 

Continue reading "Record Year For Thorn" »

February 1, 2010

Ed The Serial CEO And Double-Ordering

Ed the Serial CEO is happy to see that the orders are flooding in as the semiconductor market appears to be on an upwards trajectory. He is surprised to find that his product managers are only raising their orders for foundry silicon by 20-30%.

 

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Poll: What was the Semiconductor Industry's Worst M&A?

It is axiomatic that takeovers and mergers don't work in the semiconductor industry. But which one was the worst?


January 29, 2010

The Song Of The Alpha Ray

In the early 1900s the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University used to hold raucous annual dinners at which songs were sung by the dons and undergraduates. This is one of them:

 

 

Continue reading "The Song Of The Alpha Ray" »

Portable But Not Pocketable: Why iPad?

Do I want to pay another £30 a month to a network operator?

 

Do I want to carry around a ten inch screen?

 

Do I want to read books on a bright screen?

 

Continue reading "Portable But Not Pocketable: Why iPad?" »

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Recent Comments

David Manners on Ed The Serial CEO And The Foundry: You're right Nick, Ed's a daft bugger. M
Nick Flaherty on Ed The Serial CEO And The Foundry: Next he'll be cutting all the test engin
David Manners on NXP's Southampton Site (Update 2): So I understand, Anon3, the company has
David Manners on Top Ten 20th Century Engineering Achievements: Well, Geoff-s, I think the ones you ment
David Manners on Fable: The Devil You Know: Very true, Wasted, but whereas old boss
David Manners on The Gay Radium Atom: To the tune of 'A Jovial Monk Am I', Joh
John Scrivens on The Gay Radium Atom: Ny idea what tune this was sung to?
Wasted on Fable: The Devil You Know: You omitted to mention that the old boss
Anon3 on NXP's Southampton Site (Update 2): After the 40 or so redundencies on Frida
David Manners on European Taxpayer Subsidising TSMC: That's absolutely true, Outsider, and it

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