CPU

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. announced on Thursday that it had started volume production of chips using its 16nm FinFET manufacturing technology in the second quarter of 2015. The world’s largest contract maker of semiconductors is delivering the first batch of products made at 16nm node to its customers right now, …

Advanced Micro Devices said on Thursday that it had taped out its first products, which will be made using a FinFET process technology. While AMD does not reveal which products it had taped out, it is highly-likely that one of them is a highly-anticipated microprocessor based on “Zen” micro-architecture. “We …

Despite of lowering sales of personal computers and slow demand for consumer electronics in general, Intel Corp. claims that shipments of its high-end Core i7 microprocessors were record-high in the second quarter of 2015. Although Intel Corp. posted mixed results for the second quarter of the year and made a rather …

Intel Corp. has implied a number of times that it did not need to use extreme ultraviolet lithography for its 7nm manufacturing process. However, after facing problems with multi-patterning methods at 14nm and 10nm fabrication technologies, it seems that the company has changed its mind. This week Intel said that …

Intel Corp. on Wednesday confirmed the delay of mass production of central processing units using 10nm fabrication process to 2017. The company said that it ran into difficulties with its 10nm technology and decided to stretch the life-cycle of 14nm process with one more family of CPU products code-named “Kaby …

GlobalFoundries on Wednesday confirmed that it is had initiated high-volume production of chips for its customers using 14nm FinFET (14LPE) process technology. The company claims that yields of its 14nm semiconductors are comparable to yields at Samsung Foundry, the company that developed the 14LPE. “Our 14nm ramp is right on …

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. reduced prices of chip production using its 20nm and 28nm fabrication processes earlier this quarter, according to a media report. Customers of TSMC lowered orders for 20nm and 28nm chips and the company wants to increase utilization of its capacities by slashing prices. Potentially, the price-cuts …

GlobalFoundries on Monday introduced a family of fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) manufacturing technologies designed for customers seeking high performance and low design costs. The new fabrication processes promise to deliver performance of next-generation technologies with FinFET transistors, but at costs comparable to those of existing processes. GlobalFoundries calls its new family …

Intel Corp. has cancelled release of its code-named “Cannonlake” processors and will introduce “Kaby Lake” chips instead in 2016. Intel’s first 10nm central processing units will be code-named “Ice Lake” and will be available only in 2017. Moreover, “Ice Lake” CPUs will re-introduce fully-integrated voltage regulator (FIVR). All Intel’s processors …

A web-site has published what it claims to be the first fully-fledged review of Intel Corp’s yet unannounced Core i7-6700K central processing unit code-named “Skylake”. As it appears, Intel’s forthcoming flagship chip for enthusiasts will be up to 29.1 per cent faster than the company’s current Core i7-4790K central processing unit. …

If the semiconductor market rumours are correct, then Intel Corp. might not be the only chipmaker, which plans to delay mass production of chips using 10nm manufacturing process. Apparently, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. postpones risk production using 10nm fabrication process by two quarters. “TSMC will start risk production in its …

For many years Intel Corp.’s “tick-tock” strategy has been a perfect example of firm execution, wise innovation and timely product-launches. In the recent years the “tick-tock” cadence essentially broke down, but the method of step-by-step innovation in different directions have been inherited by other companies. For example, Nvidia has its …

Advanced Micro Devices this week formally confirmed that it would not produce any of its chips using 20nm process technology at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Instead, the company will focus on development of its chips to be made using various FinFET process technologies. As a result of the cancellation, the …

Intel Corp.’s “Kaby Lake” central processing units will be released exactly a year after the company’s “Skylake” chips due this August and September. The introduction of chips in late third quarter means that the company will further postpone the roll-out of microprocessors made using 10nm fabrication process. As reported, Intel’s …

Advanced Micro Devices on Monday lowered its revenue guidance for the quarter citing slow demand for its accelerated processing units by end-users and PC makers. The company expects its revenue and profitability to be lower than originally anticipated. AMD claims that its sales in Q2 will be approximately 8 percent lower …

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has announced that it had produced the first verification chips for its 10nm manufacturing technology. The world’s largest contract maker of semiconductors plans to start risk production using 10nm fabrication process late this year and to initiate high-volume manufacturing in late 2016 or in 2017. At …

Intel Corp. on Thursday announced major leadership changes at the company. Renée James, president of Intel, along with a number of other important executives, plan to leave the world’s No. 1 maker of microprocessors in the coming months. The execs to leave the company were, among other things, responsible for manufacturing …

An online store from the U.S. has started to accept pre-orders on yet-unannounced Intel Core i-series “Skylake-S” central processing units. The fact that a store lists the new chips along with their product codes indicates that they are already in Intel Corp.’s database for resellers and the chipmaker is ready …

Intel Corp. reportedly plans to delay the launch of its advanced mainstream Atom x3 “SoFIA” application processor with integrated 4G/LTE baseband to early 2016. The company needs to polish off its software, which is why it will miss certain business opportunities because of the postponement. The Intel Atom x3-C344C with …

Xilinx, a leading designer of field-programmable gate arrays as well as special-purpose system-on-chip solutions, on Wednesday said that it had taped-out one of the world’s first SoCs to be made using TSMC’s 16nm FinFET+ process technology. The new chip will be used for self-driving vehicles, industrial Internet-of-Things and 5G wireless …

GlobalFoundries this week said that the U.S. authorities had approved its acquisition of IBM’s microelectronics business unit. From now on, GlobalFoundries will make various important semiconductors for the U.S. military and government agencies. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has reviewed the proposed transaction between IBM and …

Despite of pressure from investors, Qualcomm has no plans to split the company up and spin off chip business to concentrate on lucrative technology development and licensing, according to the chairman of the company. Qualcomm is not only the world’s biggest supplier of application processors for mobile devices, but is …

Advanced Micro Devices is experiencing difficult times because of business decisions made several years ago. At this point AMD is developing its “Zen” and “K12” microprocessors, which are expected to make AMD competitive in the CPU market again. However, many new technologies, which are in the works today, will have an impact …

In a bid to revive its chip design operations, Microsoft Corp. may acquire Advanced Micro Devices, according to a source familiar with the matter. The software giant approached AMD several months ago, the source indicated. The result of the talks is unclear. Microsoft Corp. has been selling game consoles for …

Intel Corp. has quietly introduced its highest-performing x86 server microprocessor to date. The chip features a number of unique capabilities, such as on-the-fly reconfiguration of core-count and frequency, and is currently available to Oracle and its server customers. The Intel Xeon E7-8895 v3 “Haswell-EX” central processing unit features 18 cores …

PCI Express bus has been evolving for over ten years now. So far the technology has tripled its initial data rate, but the next step is taking a longer time. PCI SIG claims that the fourth generation PCI Express specification will be finalized in 2017 and will materialize this decade. The …

Advanced Micro Devices’ next-generation “Zen” micro-architecture promises to significantly increase performance of the company’s central processing units next year. Even though AMD will introduce high-end microprocessors based on “Zen” in 2016, it will take a long time before a significant share of AMD’s chips will adopt its new architecture. AM4 …

Intel Corp. has again delayed installation of equipment necessary to produce semiconductors in high volume using 10nm process technology. It is believed that Intel experiences yield ramp issues, just like in case of its 14nm manufacturing tech, which is why it does not make sense for the company to buy …

Advanced Micro Devices will release microprocessors based on “Zen” cores only for high-end desktop computers next year. Mainstream PCs will get the company’s new micro-architecture in 2017, when the company rolls-out its “Raven Ridge” accelerated processing units, according to a media report. Next year AMD will offer its “Bristol Ridge” …

United Microelectronics Corp. said on Tuesday that it has successfully taped out a test chip from ARM using its 14nm FinFET fabrication technology. The company also revealed that the new manufacturing process will be ready for customer tape outs by the end of the year. UMC and ARM recently taped …