In the microelectronics industry, the term “semiconductor fabrication plant” (a.k.a. “semiconductor fab”; sometimes called a “foundry”) is a factory for semiconductor device fabrication. In layman’s terms, this is where they build the silicon chips that power our modern world. Even a small fab can easily cost $1 billion. Spending $3 to $5 billion is not uncommon, and you can splash a lot … Read More → "Boosting Semiconductor Fab Productivity by up to 20 Percent!"
The 1986 novel Forrest Gump and the 1994 movie based on the novel depicted a man who was present at many significant events in the 20th century. In that same way, Edward Keonjian managed to be closely associated with many developments in electronics, especially microelectronics. The fictitious character Forrest Gump supposedly had a low IQ, but he loved meeting people. The very real Edward Keonjian also loved meeting people, and he clearly had very high intelligence. …
Read More → "Edward Keonjian: The High-IQ, Armenian-American Forrest Gump of Microelectronics, Part 1"When I worked on my first ASIC deep in the mists of time that we used to call the 1980s, we employed a traditional “waterfall” model for our design and verification flows. In this case, any activities associated with the project were broken down into linear sequential phases, where each phase depended on the deliverables from the previous one.
The … Read More → "Doing the Time Warp with Calibre DesignEnhancer"
During a Zoom meeting of the Computer History Museum’s (CHM) SemiSIG earlier this year, our fearless leader Doug Fairbairn mentioned that he was having trouble contacting Ray Holt to arrange a recording of his oral history. CHM’s SemiSIG records oral histories of past and present luminaries in the semiconductor industry, and Holt’s history is a rich one. After getting his EE degree at Cal … Read More → "Ray Holt and the Lost History of the First Multi-Chip Microprocessor"
