Apple Watch battery life, A5-caliber CPU inside

Apple watch battery life is a key factor in how useful this new computer interface will be in our lives. Some information is discussed in the article below. 

"Apple opted to use a relatively powerful processor and high-quality screen for the Apple Watch, both of which contribute to significant power drain. Running a stripped-down version of iOS codenamed SkiHill, the Apple S1 chip inside the Apple Watch is surprisingly close in performance to the version of Apple's A5 processor found inside the current-generation iPod touch,"

More about A5 power consumption is in May 2012 article Apple's A5 Die Shrink, Improve Battery Life, Cut Cost .

 Ron

Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.
Semiconductor information and news at - http://www.maltiel-consulting.com/

Apple targets for Apple Watch battery life revealed, A5-caliber CPU inside

Although Apple has said that the Apple Watch will need to be charged nightly, the company has not disclosed any details on how long the wearable's battery will last. For the first time, people with knowledge of the Apple Watch's development have provided us with the specific performance targets Apple wants to achieve for the Apple Watch battery, but the actual numbers may fall short of those targets.

According to our sources, Apple opted to use a relatively powerful processor and high-quality screen for the Apple Watch, both of which contribute to significant power drain. Running a stripped-down version of iOS codenamed SkiHill, the Apple S1 chip inside the Apple Watch is surprisingly close in performance to the version of Apple's A5 processor found inside the current-generation iPod touch, while the Retina-class color display is capable of updating at a fluid 60 frames per second.

Apple initially wanted the Apple Watch battery to provide roughly one full day of usage, mixing a comparatively small amount of active use with a larger amount of passive use. As of 2014, Apple wanted the Watch to provide roughly 2.5 to 4 hours of active application use versus 19 hours of combined active/passive use, 3 days of pure standby time, or 4 days if left in a sleeping mode. Sources, however, say that Apple will only likely achieve approximately 2-3 days in either the standby or low-power modes…

Apple has also been stress-testing the Apple Watch's battery life with pre-bundled and third-party applications. Our sources say that Apple is targeting 2.5 hours of "heavy" application use, such as processor-intensive gameplay, or 3.5 hours of standard app use. Interestingly, Apple expects to see better battery life when using the Watch's fitness tracking software, which is targeted for nearly 4 hours of straight exercise tracking on a single charge.

As Apple is positioning the Apple Watch as a timepiece, the company has conducted numerous tests to determine how long it can run purely in time-keeping modes. We're told that the Watch should be able to display its clock face for approximately three hours, including watch ticking animations, if nothing else is done with the device. However, it's unlikely that most people would actually keep the Apple Watch clock face turned on for even three hours straight in a single day. When the Watch screen is not in use, the display is powered off, and the clock demands much less energy.

Considered separately, the active use app, clock, and fitness numbers sound very low, but the reality is that people will passively wear the Apple Watch for most of the day, actively interacting with it only for short periods of time. That's why the Watch will be able to last the average user roughly a day on a single charge. We're told that Apple has been shooting for roughly 19 hours of mixed usage each day, but that the company may not hit that number in the first generation version.

Sources tell us that battery life has remained a source of concern for Apple over the past year, and was a contributing factor for Apple pushing back the retail launch from an originally planned late 2014 to early 2015. To test real-world performance in a variety of conditions, the company has circulated a surprisingly large number of test units of the Watch: nearly 3,000 are said to be currently roaming around, mostly the stainless steel variant.

Apple has also been working to perfect the MagSafe-based inductive charging mechanism for the Watch, which sources indicate was responsible for slower-than-expected recharging times that hopefully will be fixed in time for the product's release. The company has developed both plastic and stainless steel versions of the circular charger, potentially one for the $349 aluminum and plastic Apple Watch Sport, and the other for the higher-end models. It's unclear at this point whether the company will sell multiple versions of the charger, as Apple has only shown the metal variant, though the Apple Watch Edition is said to ship with a special box and charging dock that may incorporate the stainless steel MagSafe connector.

As of earlier this month, the Apple Watch is on track to ship by the end of March. We previously detailed how the Watch will integrate with the iPhone via an iOS 8.2-based Companion application.

Semiconductor Manufacturing 2015 Demand

Key new drivers for new semiconductor fabrication tools is advancing FinFETs 20nm to 16nm/14nm with reasonable yield, and the pace of implementation of 3D NAND. 

Ramp up of 3D flash manufacturing tools will really happen only in 2016 due to length of the development cycle.

In lithography, multi-patterning will continue to be used while EUV continue to faces difficulties. More details are below.

Ron
Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.
Semiconductor information and news at - http://www.maltiel-consulting.com/

Fab Tool Biz Faces Challenges In 2015

POSTED ON: DECEMBER 11TH, 2014 - POSTED BY: MARK LAPEDUS

It’s not necessarily bad news, but there are some big unknowns. 

Consolidation likely will continue.

After a slight downturn in 2013, the semiconductor equipment industry rebounded and experienced a solid upturn in 2014. The recovery was primarily driven by tool spending in the foundry and DRAM [KC]sectors.

Another big and ongoing story continued to unfold in 2014. In late 2013, Applied Materials announced a definitive agreement to acquire Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TEL) for $9.3 billion. The deal was supposed to close in the second half of 2014. But now, the completion of the deal has been pushed out into 2015 amid a host of complicated regulatory issues.

In fact, the fate of the Applied-TEL deal is just one of the many burning issues for the industry in 2015. The other issues are also clear:

• Will IC-equipment vendors see an upturn or a downturn in 2015?
• What are the drivers?
• Will 450mm fabs, EUV [] and 2.5D [KC]/3D IC [KC] stacked die really happen?
• Will the equipment industry continue to see more acquisition activity in 2015?

The industry continues to consolidate and for good reason. At each node, there are simply fewer customers to serve in a maturing market. “More industry consolidation is needed in several areas, notably in process control and in the components/consumables market, where companies like MKS Instruments, Entegris and others participate,” said Patrick Ho, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus. “So, will we see (acquisition activity) in 2015? There is a greater likelihood that the smaller players may combine with one another, versus any of the large players taking out the small players. My rationale: the big players are either busy, such as Applied and TEL, or content in their current positions for now. Longer term, we still need one more big deal to occur to further consolidate the space.”

Bold predictions
It’s difficult to predict the future, but there are signs that the Applied-TEL deal will get completed in 2015. So far, the deal has been approved by regulatory bodies in some countries, but not in others. “The deal gets done at some point,” Ho said. “Any deal of this size and scope, particularly when you’re dealing with a relatively consolidated customer base, will likely garner more scrutiny and even some pushbacks from customers. But like many other large deals, I believe ultimately it gets done with perhaps a few contingencies added on to the final deal.”

Another lingering issue is the IC-equipment forecast for 2015. There are mixed signals in the market. Economic growth remains sluggish in many countries. The worldwide geopolitical landscape is troubling. And in the electronics market, the two main catalysts for growth—smartphones and tablets—are showing signs of a slowdown.

As a result, the outlook is cloudy for tool vendors. In fact, citing the slowdown in mobile products and other factors, some are already lowering their forecasts for 2015. In its latest forecast, Gartner projected that semiconductor capital spending and the wafer fab equipment (WFE) market would grow by 11.4% and 17.1%, respectively, in 2014.

For 2015, Gartner currently predicts that semiconductor capital spending and WFE will grow by 8.8% and 11.1%, respectively. “At the moment, those numbers will probably come down a bit, as 2015 does not appear as robust as it did three months ago,” said Dean Freeman, an analyst with Gartner. “WFE for 2015 will be in the 5% to 10% range and CapEx will be closer to 5%. Much of this is dependent upon how much Samsung spends in Q4.”

Many other analysts have a similar forecast for 2015. But on the down side, the ATE market faces a possible downturn in 2015.

Drivers—DRAM, finFETs and NAND
Looking beyond the numbers, tool vendors are in the midst of the most challenging period in the industry’s history. Chipmakers are making a major transition from planar structures to various 3D-like architectures, such as 3D NAND, finFETs [KC] and stacked die.

Toolmakers, in turn, must develop new and advanced systems to meet customer requirements. But the cost to develop new tools is soaring out of control. And yet, there are fewer leading-edge customers at each node.

On the other hand, the shift towards new chip architectures are becoming the “inflection points”—or engines for growth–in the equipment industry, said Doug Bettinger, executive vice president and chief financial officer at Lam Research [], at a recent conference. “(The inflection points include) the move towards multi-patterning. That’s an enormous driver of growth,” Bettinger said. “It’s also the move to finFET from planar. It’s planar to 3D NAND, as well as the move to 3D packaging.”

In 2015, the big driver for fab tool orders will likely reside in the foundry segment, where GlobalFoundries [], Samsung and TSMC [] are making a transition from planar transistors at 20nm to finFETs at 16nm/14nm. Intel Corp. []is already ramping up its second-generation finFETs at 14nm.

For the foundry segment alone, WFE is expected to grow 5% to 10% in 2015, according to Stifel Nicolaus’ Ho. But tool orders for the finFET ramps are also somewhat dependent on one major factor—yield. The foundries, including Intel, are struggling with finFET yields. “With finFET, it will be a question of the magnitude of spending related to yields,” Ho said.

For DRAM, WFE is expected to grow 10% to 15% in 2015. And in NAND, WFE is projected to grow 5% to 10%, according to Stifel Nicolaus. In fact, the DRAM [KC] market remains strong. There could be a shortage of 2D NAND capacity in 2015. But with the exception of Samsung, vendors continue to push out their 3D NAND ramps.

“The timing of 3D NAND has been pushed out due to yields and demand, but the NAND flash industry will eventually transition to this technology,” Ho said. “The cost basis for planar NAND is still more attractive, so I believe the players will try and take advantage of this for two more nodes.”

Others also see a mixed picture in 2015. “In NAND, 3D spending is expected to be broader and larger, but it still lags planar spending until 2016. However, our customers are seeing diminishing gains from planar and (the) 3D adoption is inevitable. DRAM supply is expected to remain tight with strong potential for capacity additions,” said Gigi Lai, senior director of strategic marketing at Applied Materials. “Overall, we expect wafer fab equipment spending will be higher (in 2015), driven by the foundry finFET battle, broader investments in 3D NAND, and increasing DRAM spending.”

450mm and EUV
It’s safe to say that 450mm will not be a factor in 2015. In fact, the industry has put 450mm technology on hold for the foreseeable future. For now, 450mm is too expensive and the benefits are marginal.

But in 2015, the industry will keep a close eye on ASML’s ongoing efforts to put extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography into production. “If you look at the (recent) eBeam Initiative [] survey, it indicates that there is a little bit of an increase in the skepticism in EUV,” said Aki Fujimura, chairman and chief executive of D2S. “The survey echoes the statements from many in the industry: ‘We still want (EUV) to happen.’ But publicly, everyone is saying: ‘I don’t know if we can count on it. So we better have backup plans in place.’ “

Barring a major breakthrough in EUV, chipmakers will use 193nm immersion and multiple patterning for both 16nm/14nm and 10nm. “It’s not the question whether you can do (multiple patterning). Technically, it is possible. The question is if it’s economically viable. Certainly, the economic viability answer is very different, depending on who you are,” Fujimura said.

Backend blues
For years, meanwhile, the industry has been talking about the development of 2.5D and 3D chips using through-silicon vias (TSVs). So far, though, 2.5D/3D technology is taking longer than expected amid a number of cost and technical challenges. “We have stuff in production today. But again, these are high-performance applications,” said Jan Vardaman, president of TechSearch International. “Besides Xilinx, there are other people that are developing products using an interposer that should come out in 2015.”

So when will 2.5D/3D stacked die hit the mainstream? “These are new architectures,” Vardaman said. “New architectures take a long time to develop and you have to sort them out carefully.”

The ATE industry, meanwhile, is expected to grow by 20% in 2014. That was driven by booming demand for test in the mobile-based application processor space. Not long ago, Pacific Crest Securities projected that the ATE market would grow by 10% in 2015. But the firm recently lowered its forecast and now projects a 2% decline for ATE in 2015.

Hynix Fab Fire Manufacturing Implications

Yesterday Hynix had a fire at their  at its Wuxi,China, plant

It looks that the fire would have only short term impact on NAND production since it "mainly in the air purification facilities on the rooftop of the fab and created a disproportionate amount of smoke".

If its true that it only impacted the air filtration system, production is dependent on how quickly Hynix can fix/ replace the air purification components, and the magnitude of the damage to the air filtration inside the fab.

"TrendForce said the fire could impact SK Hynix's production procedures "considerably" in the near future, particularly since the Wuxi plant manufactures almost 50 percent of the company's monthly output of 260,000 wafers and contributes over 10 percent of the world's DRAM wafer production. It added that the facility is responsible for producing 100,000 of its PC DRAM and 30,000 mobile DRAM. 

"The potential damages imparted on the supply end should not be underestimated," the research firm said. Should SK Hynix's main production line be stalled, the shipment of almost 11 million laptops and 10 million smartphone units will be affected within the span of a month, Trendforce said. "....
http://www.zdnet.com/sk-hynix-china-plant-fire-wont-affect-chip-production-7000020281/

Short term, Hynix production will depend on how quickly Hynix can get a new system installed and running.

Longer term impact depends on;

1. Market demand for year end for consumer NAND, SSD (tablet /iPad growth vs . PC stagnation, and mobile phones)

2. The real short term pace of demand for server farms, cloud SSD products.

Ron


 Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.
Semiconductor information and news at - http://www.maltiel-consulting.com/

Update: Samsung Fab. Apple A9 Processor?

It make sense for Apple to hedge it bets and use both TSMC and Samsung (see article below). It doesn't hurt that Samsung already spends 7 Billion dollars on next generation fab.

Update: GlobalFoundries Should Appeal to Apple. Not likely that Apple will get into chip making business. However all these rumors help apple negotiate with various potential partners.

Ron

Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.
Semiconductor information and news at - http://www.maltiel-consulting.com/

Apple Reportedly Signs Deal with Samsung for 14-nm A9 Chips Starting in 2015

The Korea Economic Daily reports that Apple and Samsung today officially signed an agreement that will see the two companies working together on future A-series chips for Apple's iOS devices, with the deal specifically covering A9 chips based on a 14-nanometer process node starting in 2015. The claim comes just weeks after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) confirmed a deal with Apple to begin producing A-series chips in 2014.

Samsung Electronics had supplied the AP [application processor] to Apple since 2007 but lost the contract to supply 20 nano AP A8 chips to Apple to Taiwan's TSMC last year when it was engaged in patent disputes with Apple. Samsung Electronics developed state-of-the-art 14 nano models ahead of its rival TSMC, regaining the order from Apple.

A previous report about Apple's agreement with TSMC had indicated that it was a three-year deal covering not only Apple's future A8 chip but also A9/A9X chips. The Wall Street Journal's report had indicated that Samsung would remain Apple's primary supplier through next year as TSMC began ramping up its production. 

As a result, it is unclear whether today's deal will see both TSMC and Samsung producing A9 chips for Apple or if Apple has already shifted gears to return to Samsung as its primary supplier as part of its long-term roadmap. 

Apple has reportedly been seeking to reduce its reliance on Samsung as a component supplier as the two companies have become fierce rivals in both the mobile marketplace and in the courtroom. The two companies have, however, continued working together in several areas, particularly where Samsung's competitors in the component market are unable to match its technology, production capacity, or pricing. 

The shift to TSMC for production of the high-profile main chips for Apple's iOS devices had been viewed as breaking one of the most significant remaining ties between Apple and Samsung, but it appears that Samsung has been able to bring Apple back into the fold by leading the charge to 14-nm chips. With partnerships with both Samsung and TSMC, it appears that Apple should be well-positioned to take advantage of whichever company takes the lead in developing the latest technologies. 

Late last week, it was reported that Apple had bought into a fab, perhaps with an eventual goal of producing its own chips for its mobile devices, although any such move is almost certainly years away given the need to ramp up expertise and facilities for such production.

Top Semiconductor Ranking 2012 (Sales, Growth)

http://www.semiconportal.com/en/archive/news/news-flash/120330-isuppli-semiconductor-ranking.html

While it is useful to include foundries in sales ranking, still Sandisk is not listed in the ranking.

See more about it at 2012 Q1 Ranking: Toshiba Outperforms NAND Market and overall foundries and Japanese fab status Semiconductor Ranking: Foundries Soar, Japanese Crash

Ron

Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.Semiconductor information and news at - www.maltiel-consulting.com

Qualcomm, GloFo star in chip supplier ranking

Peter ,  3/28/2013 6:18 AM EDT

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/441084/Qualcomm-GloFo-are-stars-of-2012-chip-supplier-ranking

 

IDMs and fab-lite companies suffer as pure-play fabless and foundry companies are the star performers in a 2012 ranking of chip suppliers from IC Insights. 
LONDON – A ranking of the top 25 worldwide semiconductor companies by sales, covering ICs optoelectronics, sensors and discrete devices, from market research firm IC Insights shows that Globalfoundries increased sales by 31 percent and Qualcomm by 30 percent. Qualcomm broke into the top five (see figure 1 below).

Foundry TSMC remained in third place but increased sales by 18 percent getting closer to Samsung and Intel, which both saw sales decline. Although both Samsung and Intel are making first steps to enter the foundry business the former was weighed down with memory sales and the latter with a focus on processors for the lackluster PC market.

In total, the top 25 semiconductor companies’ sales declined by 1 percent in 2012, two points less than the total worldwide semiconductor market decline of 3 percent.

By geography the top 25 includes 10 suppliers headquartered in the U.S., seven in Japan, three in Taiwan, three in Europe, and two in South Korea.



Click on image to enlarge.
2012 top 25 semiconductor suppliers ranked by sales ($millions, including foundries).

Same companies, different order, ranked by annual growth

IC Insights has also supplied a ranking of the same 25 companies ranked by annual growth (see figure 2 below). It is notable that lower order of that ranking filled with companies that experienced a double-digit percentage fall in sales includes a number of European and Japanese companies. 

It is notable that GlobalFoundries with a 31 percent increase in sales and AMD with a 17 percent decline are at opposite ends of that ranking in 2012. AMD was the original parent of Globalfoundries and has been its primary customer. IC Insights interprets the success as an indication that Globalfoundries has achieved success in attracting additional IC foundry customers such as STMicroelectronics, Freescale, Qualcomm and others.

The inclusion of foundries in such rankings is contentious because it means that some sales are double counted – from foundry to fabless chip company and then from fabless chip company to customer. However, IC Insights said that in a forthcoming update to The McClean Report, marketshare rankings of IC suppliers by product type will also be presented and foundries are excluded from these rankings.



Click on image to enlarge.
2012 top 25 semiconductor companies by sales ranked by annual growth ($millions, including foundries).

Samsung Galaxy S4 BOM $236 (Manufacturing Cost)

The article below discusses "latest model of Samsung's flagship phone costs $236 to produce, according to information analyzed by IHS...

Samsung manufactures at least $149 worth ( 63%) of the parts needed for the S4, and IHS thinks Intel and Broadcom supply the rest" 

As Samsung improves yield of their manufacturing process, the cost will go down significantly. For example, the cell phone microprocessor Exynos die "cost is $30, compared with the S3's chip, which costs $17.50."

As Samsung advances dies yield riding down along the learning curve of the manufacturing process, it will reduce the BOM 5%. Similar improvements in manufacturing of other chips made by Samsung will bring Galaxy S4 cost closer to that of S3.

Ron

Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.Semiconductor information and news at - www.maltiel-consulting.com

At $236, Galaxy S4 costlier to produce than S3, says report

by Donna Tam

 March 19, 2013 11:42 AM PDT

IHS iSuppli's virtual teardown of the lasted Samsung smartphone shows it's 15 percent more expensive for Samsung to produce than last year's model.

The Samsung Galaxy S4's production costs are 15 percent higher than those of its predecessor, thanks to an upgraded display, sensors, processor, and memory, according to an IHS iSuppli teardown.

The latest model of Samsung's flagship phone costs $236 to produce, according to information analyzed by IHS. The firm said its estimates could change with a physical teardown, but for now the improvements equal a heftier cost. The HSPA+ version of the S4 has 16 gigabytes of NAND flash memory and costs $244 in materials plus $8.50 to manufacture. The LTE version is a bit cheaper at $233.

"Among the upgrades are a larger, full high-definition (HD) display; a beefed-up Samsung processor; and a wealth of new sensors that set a record high for the number of such devices in a smartphone design," Vincent Leung, senior analyst for cost benchmarking at IHS, said in a press release.

Click to enlarge

The S4's new AMOLED 1,920x1,080-pixel display is where a bulk of the increased costs came from for both the HSPA+ and LTE versions. It costs $75 versus the S3's $65 display. IHS' analysts said it's the first phone to have an AMOLED display with this resolution, since it's been a challenge to squeeze pixels into this type of display in the past.

IHS also notes the high number of sensors on the S4. It's not surprising given the smartphone's multiple new features, such as integrated eye-tracking software and the ability to monitor health stats. In addition to sensors that were available in the S3 -- geomagnetic and proximity sensors, as well as an accelerometer, gyroscope, and barometer, among others -- Samsung added a new infrared gesture sensor and a humidity and temperature sensor. The barrage of sensors costs $16, up from $12.70 in the S3.

To run the HSPA+ phone's apps, Samsung "is believed to be" using an eight-core chip of its own design, the Exynos 5 Octa, according to IHS. The cost is $30, compared with the S3's chip, which costs $17.50.

Wayne Lam, senior analyst for wireless communications at IHS, said in the release that the processor integrates two quad-core processors into one chip. This lets the phone assign less intensive tasks, like phone calls and social-media apps, to the less powerful processor, saving power. The more powerful processor is used only for things like video gaming.

The 4G LTE version uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, a quad-core apps processor and LTE radio solution, which costs $20.

Samsung manufactures at least $149 worth -- or 63 percent -- of the parts needed for the S4, and IHS thinks Intel and Broadcom supply the rest.

Altera 14nm FPGA Using Intel Foundry

A good move by Intel and Altera. 

Altera said at Morgan Stanley Tech conference: "Intel has die size advantage because it seems very difficult to scale the backend/ interconnect."
Also FPGA are early adopters of bleeding edge Intel has die size advantage because it seems very difficult to scale the backend/ interconnect.
It improves Altera competitive position relative to Xilinx since Intel has ahead in 14nm process manufacturing. Altera would have to tread carefully between Intel and other ARM processor vendors. Altera is guaranteed access for 12 years, I wonder how would they handle capacity and wafer yield crashes.







Ron

Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.

Semiconductor information and news at -www.maltiel-consulting.com

  

Intel to make 14-nm FPGAs for Altera

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4407732/Intel-to-make-14nm-FPGAs-for-Altera

Rick Merritt, 2/26/2013 1:01 AM EST

Intel will let Altera make FPGAs in its 14nm FinFET process in a deal that turns up the heat on TSMC in foundry and Xilinx in high-end FPGAs. SAN JOSE, Calif. – Intel Corp. will build FPGAs for Altera Corp. using its 14-nm FinFET process technology in a deal that turns up the heat on TSMC in foundry and Xilinx in high-end FPGAs. The deal marks the largest of a string of publicly disclosed foundry deals for Intel to date--and its first at 14 nm--but is not expected to result in products until 2014.

Altera (San Jose, Calif.) declined to disclose details of the deal, including what products it will make when. However, Altera CEO John Daane did say he believes Intel is two to four years ahead of other foundries with its 14-nm FinFET process, which Altera will use initially to give its highest-end FPGAs advantages in density, performance and power.

High-end parts make up about half the FPGA market, with Altera claiming a lead with 40- and 28-nm parts that it aims to extend with the new Intel process. Besides winning more business away from rival Xilinx, the 14-nm parts could help Altera grab more sockets away from ASICs and application-specific standard devices, Daane said.

Intel promised Altera access to the 14-nm process for 12 years to satisfy long-term availability requirements of defense and other customers, Daane said. The multi-year deal allows Altera to use other existing and future nodes, but the FPGA maker initially will focus on high-end parts at 14 nm, he said.

Using multi-die chip stacks, Altera currently ships an FPGA that packs 1.2 million logic elements, lagging a similar chip from Xilinx with 2 million logic elements. However, such parts have relatively high costs and power and take a performance hit due to additional on-chip communications. They are used "for prototyping predominantly—it's a niche," Daane said.

Altera surveyed foundries for a year before striking the deal with Intel. It will continue to make chips at TSMC and conduct ongoing evaluations of other processes as they develop.

Daane cited reports that other foundries are grafting a first-generation of FinFETs on to existing 20-nm design rules to create what they are calling a 14-nm node. "Intel's 14-nm is a second generation FinFET process, while others are just starting to implement their first," he said.

The deal marks "a significant departure for Altera," said Deutsche Bank analyst Ross Seymore, who doesn't expect Altera to see revenue from it until 2015. It is also "a validation of Intel's manufacturing leadership" that "should help Intel make gains in foundry services," he added.

"It is not Intel's objective to become a general foundry service provider," said Len Jelinek, a chief analyst at IHS iSuppli.  Rather it aims "to select a few high volume [foundry] clients [that] provide Intel with an additional revenue stream to help defer the cost of its advanced manufacturing capability," he said. 
Intel says 14-nm node ready this year
To date, Intel has announced it is making chips in its 22-nm FinFET process for two FPGA startups, Achronix and Tablua, and network processor maker Netronome.  Achronix officially started sampling its FPGAs based on Intel's 22-nm technology last week, claiming it is two years ahead of competitors using TSMC.

Unconfirmed reports have said Intel could be making 22-nm ASICs for Cisco. Others said the PC chip giant may be working on a deal to make mobile processors for Apple, which is trying to reduce its foundry dependence on archrival Samsung.

Daane expressed confidence Intel will be able to meet Altera's volume requirements

"Clearly this is a step up for us," said an Intel spokesman. "We were proceeding slowly and cautiously [into the foundry business] and now we are increasing the pace," he said.

Intel will have its 14-nm process in production later this year, the spokesman added. Globalfoundries announced last fall it plans to accelerate its road map, making a 14-nm process available some time in 2014.

The Altera deal "puts Intel out there as a contender in the foundry market," said Joanne  Itow, manufacturing analyst at Semico Research Corp.

Itow noted that TSMC founder Morris Chang listed Intel as a competitor in a recent conference call. Altera will get at least a one or two year advantage using Intel's 14-nm process, Itow said, but she doubted the FPGA maker will be able to ship the parts until sometime in 2014.

TSMC 28 nm Process Reverse Engineering

Chipworks has produced an interesting report with some good TEM crossections of the most advanced products of Nvidia, Altera, Xilinx, Qualcomm and others fabricated on TSMC 28nm process.


"The 28 nm generation was the first time TSMC used high-k metal gate (HKMG) transistors. The HP and HPL technologies feature HKMG transistors, while the LP uses conventional poly gates, with an ONO gate dielectric."



Ron
Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.
Semiconductor information and news at - http://www.maltiel-consulting.com/

Apple iPad 4 – A6X Tear-down

Chipwork's teardown of the new Apple iPad 4 reveals a major redesign of the graphic processor (GPU). The much larger area dedicated to the GPU and wider interface of the DRAM improves the display and touch screen performance of the iPad 4. It probably also helps prolong battery life.


" The A6 is 94mm2 while the A6X is 123mm2 – a full 30% larger.So where did that extra area go? Well, firstly, it did not go to the CPU core. The A6X uses the identical CPU to the A6. Same size, same layout. This is not surprising given that the prior CPU used custom layout techniques, and therefore it would be a huge amount of work to redesign so soon. Much of the extra area has gone to the GPU cores which are up from 3 to 4. More notable is that each of these GPU cores is much larger.On the A6X each GPU core is 8.7mm2 while the A6 GPU cores are only 5.4mm2. The overall area occupied by the A6X GPU cores is more than double that of the A6!

So we see that of the 29 mm2 of new area on the A6X, a full 18.6 mm2 is the result of the increased quantity of graphics processing. Impressive!

Additionally, if you look closely at the GPU cores (which our high magnification scopes allow us to do), we can see they are actually split into sub-cores themselves. Each GPU core is sub-divided into 9 sub-cores (2 sets of 4 identical sub-cores plus a central core). This could be done to allow for more efficient parallel processing, or to allow for a higher maximum clock rate. In either case, these GPUs should result in some blazing graphics on your iPad.

Other items of note:

It looks like the A6X has double the SDRAM interface width of the A6 (again likely to allow for greater graphics processing power).

Other than the CPU, it appears all the other digital cores have new layouts. This chip is not just a minor tweak from the A6, a lot of work has gone into this.

Apple has reduced the number of core PLLs needed from 9 on the A6 to 8 on the A6X. However they have moved them close to the middle of the chip which may allow for better control over clock skew across the chip.

Many of the analog and interface cores have been reused from the A6, however there are also some new interface blocks."

Additional information

Ron Maltiel   www.maltiel-consulting.com

Preview of 2013 ISSCC

ISSCC Full program

Some highlights from the upcoming ISSCC 2013



1. Revving ReRAMS, boosting memory bandwidth

2. Samsung big.little, but no Intel, Nvidia CPUs










ISSCC preview: Revving ReRAMS, boosting memory bandwidth

Brian Fuller 11/19/2012 9:05 AM EST

http://eetimes.com/electronics-news/4401652/ISSCC-preview--Revving-ReRAMS--boosting-memory-bandwidth

SAN FRANCISCO--Relentless scaling advances will highlight memory papers at February's International Solid State Circuits Conference here, but it may be break-throughs in off-beat memory architectures that raise a few eyebrows.
ISSCC, scheduled for Feb. 17-21, 2013 at the Marriott, features a slightly smaller percentage of memory papers than usual for the five-day affair (9 percent of the total is down from 10 percent this year and 10 pecent in 2011), but the topics are no less fascinating.

Memory subcommittee chair Kevin Zhang of Intel notes in his memory overview, "We continue to see progressive scaling in embedded SRAM, DRAM, and floating-gate based Flash for very broad applications. However, due to the major scaling challenges in all mainstream memory technologies, we see a continued increase in the use of smart algorithms and error-correction techniques to compensate for increased device variability."
Revving ReRAM


One of the standout papers for the memory sessions comes from Toshiba and Sandisk, who will describe a 32Gb ReRAM (Resistive random-access memory) test chip developed in 24nm process, with a diode as the selection device.

The allure of alternative non-volatile memories has been high cycling capability and lower power per bit in read/write but their densities don't compete with NAND flash. ISSCC organizers noted that the highest density for a single chip published at last year’s ISSCC is 64Mb for ReRAM and 8Gb for PRAM, while NAND can reach up to 128Gb.

The Sandisk-Toshiba test chip is a metal-oxide-based ReRAM is based on 24nm technology node with a diode as the selection device and a 2-layered architecture.....

2. Samsung big.little, but no Intel, Nvidia CPUs
Samsung will describe the first mobile applications processor to use ARM’s big.little concept....

Additional information

Ron Maltiel
www.maltiel-consulting.com

Inside Microsoft Surface and Amazon Kindle Fire HD

"One big winner with the Surface appears to be Samsung. With one key exception —building the main processor chips —Samsung has been pushed out of Apple's iPad and iPhone products. For the Surface, Samsung supplied the display, the memory chips and the battery, amounting to about $137, or about half of the $271 bill-of-materials (BOM) cost."

Ron
http://www.maltiel-consulting.com/





Two More Teardowns Look Inside Microsoft Surface and Amazon Kindle Fire HD
Arik Hesseldahl  November 6


You have to credit the folks over at research firm IHS, because, apparently, they’ve pulling a little bit of overtime. Along with the teardown of Apple’s iPad mini, the results of which they sent to AllThingsD yesterday, they also included their first looks inside Microsoft’s Surface and Amazon’s seven-inch Kindle Fire HD.


Let’s get to the Surface first. (That’s a picture of it taken apart, at right.) With a base price of $499 for a 32 gigabyte Surface without the Touch Cover accessory, IHS estimates that the cost of components used to build it amount to $271 for a starter 32GB model, without the cover. The main components include a Tegra 3 processor chip from Nvidia, and a display and memory chips from Samsung. (Of course, Microsoft is probably buying memory chips from more than one vendor.)

Analyst Andrew Rassweiler, who led the IHS teardown team, said that Microsoft is using the relatively low entry price as a base, in hope of enticing consumers to buy higher-end models with the Touch Cover and higher memory capacity. The Touch Cover, which my colleague Walt Mossberg liked in his review of the Surface, costs $120 when purchased separately, and is bundled with the higher-end models.

Rassweiler estimates the cost of the parts used to build the Touch Cover at about $16, making it appear to be pretty profitable. It contains chips from Atmel and Freescale Semiconductor, he says. “It’s a compelling accessory for users to have, and a great example of a way in which manufacturers get consumers interested with a base price, and hope they’ll impulsively opt for extra features that make more profit,” he told me. Accessories always have higher profit margins than the devices they are intended to be sold with, Rassweiler says, and protective cases for phones and tablets always tend to sell well.

One big winner with the Surface appears to be Samsung. With one key exception — building the main processor chips — Samsung has been pushed out of Apple’s iPad and iPhone products. For the Surface, Samsung supplied the display, the memory chips and the battery, amounting to about $137, or about half of the $271 bill-of-materials (BOM) cost.

Now, on to the Kindle Fire HD. (Seen in its exploded view at right; click to make bigger.) Recall that the last Kindle Fire to get the teardown treatment came in with a cost estimate of $202 (later revised down to about $187) against a retail price of $199, meaning that Amazon was close or near to losing money on the hardware, and was hoping to make it back on the sale of content from its digital store, and even on sales of physical goods from its retail store. One estimate earlier this year suggested that Amazon makes more than $100 off each Kindle Fire. It’s probably pretty close to breakeven, if slightly profitable this time around, Rassweiler told me. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has said the devices are sold at cost.

Like the old one, the new Kindle Fire HD sells for a starting price of $199, and carries a combined cost of components of $165, according to IHS estimates. Key suppliers are LG Display, which made the screen; Texas Instruments, which repeated its role as the supplier of the main processing chip, plus power and video chips; and Samsung, which provided the memory.