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Non-Tech : Kirk's Market Thoughts -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jerome who wrote (1600)	7/9/2014 9:46:00 AM
From: Kirk ©	Respond to of 26837

TSMC to speed up development of 10nm process Josephine Lien, Taipei; Steve Shen, DIGITIMES [Wednesday 9 July 2014] Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) plans to speed up the development of its 10nm process to fend off competition from Samsung Electronics, which reportedly has landed 14nm FinFET chip orders from Qualcomm, according to industry sources. TSMC and Samsung are currently competing fiercely in the development of FinFET process, with the Korea-based foundry house utilizing a 14nm process and TSMC a 16nm node. Both the 14nm and 16nm processes are scheduled to enter volume production in early 2015. TSMC has been pioneering the development of the FinFET technology and originally planned to begin producing 16nm FinFET chips in the fourth quarter of 2014, said the sources. Nevertheless, TSMC has rescheduled the commercial production of 16nm FinFET process, and instead plans to roll out a more advanced 16nm FinFET Plus process, which will consume less power and further reduce die sizes. However, Samsung's development of its 14nm process has been faster than what TSMC has thought, pushing the Taiwan-based foundry house to accelerate the development of the 10nm technology in order to maintain its lead, commented the sources.

To: Jerome who wrote (1600)	7/10/2014 10:20:27 AM
From: Kirk ©	Respond to of 26837

So at least another decade for the likes of AMAT, LRCX, etc.... but then what? . IBM to invest $3 billion in next-gen, '7nm and beyond' chips Summary: IBM's bet is that the next decade will feature systems---cognitive, synaptic and quantum computing to name a few---that will need new processor technologies. By Larry Dignan for Between the Lines \| July 9, 2014 -- 21:00 GMT (14:00 PDT) IBM said Wednesday that it will invest $3 billion to develop new semiconductors that will be 7 nanometers and smaller to enable new forms of computing. The investment by Big Blue is the latest in a key area as it tries to retool into higher growth areas. The company has invested heavily in analytics, its Watson unit and businesses such as mobility and commerce. IBM's bet is that the next decade will feature systems---cognitive, synaptic and quantum computing to name a few---that will need more than traditional silicon chips. The investment also serves as a reminder that IBM is committed to hardware even though it is unloading its low-end server business to Lenovo. According to IBM, the first phase of the research program will revolve around developing silicon technology that can squeeze down to 7 nanometers. The second phase will look at semiconductors that move beyond silicon. Squeezing semiconductors down from 22 nanometers to 14nm then 10nm will occur over the next decade, but getting to 7nm will require new manufacturing tools and techniques. Here's a look at the moving parts: IBM researchers and engineers in Albany and Yorktown, New York, Almaden, California, and Zurich, Switzerland will collaborate on the project The company will be hiring "significantly" for research in carbon nanoelectronics, photonics, new memory technologies and quantum and cognitive computing architectures IBM is hoping to combine its intellectual property in areas such as quantum computing, graphene, silicon photonics and low-power transistors to move the project along.