Today's Semiconductors Pulse
AMD CEO says AI boom revives focus on CPUs
AMD CEO Lisa Su said the rapid expansion of AI workloads is refocusing attention on central processing units. AMD also announced it will invest more than $10 billion in Taiwan’s ecosystem to accelerate AI infrastructure deployment.
Microchip DSC Family Designed for High-Density AI Data Center Power, Intelligent Sensing
Microchip Technology has added the dsPIC33AK256MPS306 to its dsPIC33A digital signal controller family. The new DSC combines a 200 MHz 32‑bit core with a double‑precision FPU, 78 ps PWM, 40 MSPS 12‑bit ADCs, high‑speed comparators and DACs, and hardware security for post‑quantum cryptography. Designed for power‑dense AI data‑center converters, SiC/GaN motor drives and intelligent sensing, the part reduces BOM and accelerates time‑to‑market. It is supported by Microchip’s MPLAB ecosystem, Zephyr RTOS and a range of development modules.
AI Expansion Drives up Profits for Dutch Semiconductor Giant ASML
ASML reported a 15% jump in first‑quarter net profit to €2.76 billion (about $3.0 billion) and revenue of €8.77 billion (≈$9.6 billion), beating expectations. The Dutch lithography leader lifted its full‑year sales outlook to €36‑40 billion ($39‑44 billion), up from the prior €34‑39 billion range. Growth is...
Silanna UV Adds TO-39 Flat-Window Package to SF1 and SN3 Series of UV-C LEDs
Silanna UV of Brisbane has introduced a TO‑39 flat‑window package for its SF1 (235 nm far‑UVC) and SN3 (255 nm deep‑UVC) LED series. The new low‑profile design lets engineers attach custom secondary optics, improving beam control and reducing system size. Both series...
How Europe Actually Finances Semiconductor Investments
The European Chips Act has unlocked tens of billions of euros for semiconductor research, pilot lines, and fab construction, but turning policy into factories depends on a complex financing pipeline. Central to that pipeline is the European Investment Bank, which...
Blog Review: Apr. 15
Semiconductor Engineering’s April 15 blog review aggregates fresh technical commentary from leading EDA, foundry and chip companies. Highlights include Cadence’s eUSB2‑V2 delivering multi‑gigabit USB 2.0, Intel’s ultra‑thin GaN‑on‑silicon chiplet that fuses power and logic, and Siemens’ push for high‑level synthesis in AI‑chip...
AI Growing Impact On Chip Design And EDA Tools
A panel of senior engineers from Synopsys, Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Microsoft and UC Berkeley discussed how AI is reshaping chip design and the tools that support it. They highlighted the surge in data‑center AI workloads that demand ever‑higher performance‑per‑watt, forcing EDA...
The Hidden Menace Behind Big Tech’s AI Arms Race: Meta, Amazon, and Others Are Spending Billions on Hardware That’s Worthless...
The AI arms race has driven hyperscalers to pour $650 billion into data‑center hardware, a level equal to about 2 % of U.S. GDP. Research Affiliates warns that GPUs and specialized chips become economically obsolete in roughly three years, far shorter than...
YMTC Expands Memory Production with New Fabs and DRAM Plans
Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) is adding two new fabs to double its output from roughly 200,000 to 400,000 wafers per month. The third plant in Wuhan will start later this year and ramp to about 50,000 wafers monthly by 2027....
Nokia, Blaize Target AI Inference Gap in APAC
Nokia and AI‑chip designer Blaise are expanding their earlier MoU into a joint effort to build a reference architecture that streamlines hybrid AI inference across edge, cloud and data‑center environments in the Asia‑Pacific region. The collaboration will use Nokia’s Innovation...
AI-Driven Chip Shortage Slowing Efforts to Get World Online: GSMA
GSMA warns that the AI‑driven memory chip shortage is inflating smartphone prices and curbing production of low‑end devices, slowing efforts to connect the 2.2 billion unconnected people worldwide. Chipmakers are prioritising high‑bandwidth chips for AI data centres, leaving fewer affordable chips...
NVIDIA’s Next Flagship Project? A Leak Suggests the RTX TITAN Blackwell or RTX 5090 Ti Could Launch in the Third...
A leak reported by Overclocking.com and echoed by several outlets suggests NVIDIA is developing a new high‑end Blackwell GPU, tentatively called the GeForce RTX 5090 Ti or RTX Titan Blackwell, slated for a Q3 2026 launch. The rumored card would sit above the current...
AMD Makes a Big Splash with the MI355X in MLPerf Inference 6.0: Over One Million Tokens per Second in Multi-Node...
AMD announced that its Instinct MI355X GPU achieved over one million tokens per second in multi‑node inference, topping the new MLPerf Inference 6.0 suite. The benchmark showed 1,042,110 tokens/s on Llama 2 70B and 1,031,070 tokens/s on GPT‑OSS‑120B across 11‑12 nodes, with 92‑93% scaling efficiency. MLPerf 6.0 introduces...
Intel Officially Lists the Core Ultra X9 378H in ARK: Panther Lake Gets Another X9 SKU
Intel has officially added the Core Ultra X9 378H to its ARK database, confirming a new Panther Lake mobile SKU. The processor packs 16 cores—four performance, eight efficient, and four low‑power cores—alongside an 18 MB cache, up to 5.0 GHz turbo, and a 25 W base...
AMD Expands Ryzen AI Embedded P100: More Zen 5 Cores, Up to 80 TOPS, and ROCm for Edge AI
AMD announced an expanded Ryzen AI Embedded P100 line featuring eight to twelve Zen 5 cores, RDNA 3.5 graphics, an XDNA 2 NPU and up to 80 system TOPS. The new chips claim up to 39% higher multithreaded performance and up to 2.1‑times the TOPS...
LimeSDR Micro M.2 2280 SDR Card Pairs NXP LA9310 Baseband Processor with LMS7002M RF Transceiver (Crowdfunding)
Lime Microsystems unveiled the LimeSDR Micro M.2 2280, a compact software‑defined radio that pairs NXP’s ultra‑low‑power LA9310 baseband processor with the LMS7002M RF transceiver. The module fits a PCIe Gen3 x1 M.2 socket, offers a 30 MHz‑3.8 GHz frequency span, up to 100 MHz bandwidth, and...
CPU Microarchitecture Thread
The forum thread dives into several nuanced CPU micro‑architecture topics. It confirms that AVX‑512 is an x86‑only SIMD extension, while ARM relies on NEON, SVE and SVE2 for similar workloads. Participants explain why Apple’s performance‑core (P‑core) designs omit simultaneous multithreading,...
Korean AI Chip Startup DEEPX, Hyundai Work on Robots Powered by Generative AI
Korean AI‑chip startup DEEPX is deepening its partnership with Hyundai Motor Group to supply its second‑generation DX‑M2 neural processing units for generative‑AI‑powered robots. The chips, built on Samsung’s cutting‑edge 2‑nanometer process, promise dramatically lower power draw—up to 20 times more efficient...
Acron Technologies Acquires Alereon to Bolster UWB Defense Communications
Acron Technologies, a TJC‑backed defense firm, announced the acquisition of Alereon, a fabless semiconductor company specializing in ultra‑wideband (UWB) solutions for the U.S. government’s Intra‑Soldier Wireless (ISW) program. The deal expands Acron’s portfolio with low‑power, high‑bandwidth communications that promise cable‑free,...
Rethinking Data Centers: The Whole Facility as One Computer
#Technology #Thread #Semiconductor #Manufacturing #Data The Semiconductor Data Center As A Computer: 1/ - The Semiconductor Industry Has Long Treated Servers, Accelerators, And Storage As Discrete Building Blocks. - But A New Way Of Thinking Is Emerging. What If The Entire Data...
Intel Core Ultra 4: 52‑core PC Beast Unleashed
Intel Core Ultra Series 4 will be a PC monster • 52 Cores • 288MB cache • DDR5-8000 MT/s • ECC, CUDIMM and CSODIMM memory • 74 TOPS NPU • Xe3p Graphics • Thunderbolt 5 • 3 Gen5 x4 lanes • WiFi 7 • 175W TDP The new socket...
Turkey Launches Nationwide 5G Network, Mandates 60% Local Equipment
Turkey’s three major mobile operators—Turkcell, Vodafone Turkey and Türk Telekom—went live with commercial 5G service across all 81 provincial centres after a $2.95 bn spectrum auction. The rollout is tied to a government‑mandated 60% local‑content rule, aiming to boost domestic telecom...
Tesla AI Team Tapes Out AI5, Eyes AI6 and Dojo3
Congrats to the @Tesla_AI chip design team on taping out AI5! AI6, Dojo3 & other exciting chips in work. https://t.co/hm54TdIzBx
Exxon Holds Near‑Monopoly on Ultra‑Pure Helium for Chipmakers
Chip Makers Need Ultra-Pure Helium and Exxon Is Nearly the Sole Source of Six Nines Purity https://t.co/zcuJfHv9fX
Aixtron Raises 2026 Opto Revenue (Again)
Aixtron announced a preliminary 2026 full‑year revenue uplift, with virtually all the upside coming from its optoelectronic (opto) equipment division. The revision, posted in a brief earnings release, signals stronger demand for MOCVD tools used in LEDs, lasers and emerging...
Meta's AI Infrastructure Boom Outshines AVGO Win
$AVGO wins big in this $META deal but the infrastructure buildout is the real winner. Meta is building with $AMD $ARM $NVDA $GOOGL and more. This cycle is bigger, it’s different and it’s not zero sum. https://t.co/ltr6dY9Ftp
CRDO Rises on Its $750M DustPhotonics Deal for Silicon Photonics
Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd (CRDO) announced a $750 million cash‑plus‑stock acquisition of DustPhotonics, a silicon‑photonic integrated‑circuit specialist. DustPhotonics’ chips span 400 Gbps to 1.6 Tbps with a roadmap to 3.2 Tbps, targeting AI‑driven data‑center workloads. The deal creates a vertically integrated connectivity stack...
Printed MoS2 Memristive Nanosheet Networks for Spiking Neurons with Multi-Order Complexity
Researchers at Northwestern University have aerosol‑jet printed graphene/MoS₂/graphene memristive networks that exhibit snap‑back negative differential resistance and volatile threshold switching. The printed devices operate on flexible substrates, delivering oscillatory neuron circuits with tunable spiking frequencies up to 20 kHz and surviving...
Meta's MTIA Silicon Program Still Alive, Volume Expected to Grow
March 9: “The other thing that Hok poured water on was this whole analyst reports about Meta’s MTIA silicon program. I called this before. I said, you know, basically last week, it’s not canceled. It’s alive and well. And as...
Exclusive: Intel Tells Staff It Will Disclose Scope Of Work With Elon Musk In ‘Coming Weeks’
Intel CEO Lip‑Bu Tan told employees that the company will soon reveal the scope of its partnership with Elon Musk’s ambitious "Terafab" chip‑fab project. The memo describes the alliance with SpaceX, xAI and Tesla as a strategic move to supply...
Meta Partners With Broadcom to Co-Develop Custom AI Silicon
Meta announced an expanded partnership with Broadcom to co‑develop several generations of its Meta Training and Inference Accelerator (MTIA) chips. The collaboration will span chip design, advanced packaging and high‑bandwidth Ethernet networking, targeting an initial rollout of more than 1 GW...
3D-Printing Electronics with Focused Microwaves Redefines Possibilities in Materials
Rice University researchers have unveiled a new 3D‑printing method that uses a metamaterial‑inspired near‑field structure (Meta‑NFS) to focus microwave energy onto printed electronic inks. The focused microwaves selectively heat the ink while keeping surrounding substrates cool, allowing continuous, desktop‑size fabrication...
Clock Domain Crossing and Synchronizers (Part 2): Best Practices
As chip designs incorporate dozens of asynchronous clocks, reliable clock‑domain crossing (CDC) becomes critical. Designers mitigate metastability by chaining flip‑flops into synchronizers, typically a two‑stage configuration, though higher‑speed designs may use three or four stages. Maximizing mean time between failure...
Aeluma Wins $4M Contracts for Quantum Materials
Aeluma announced it has secured more than $4 million in U.S. government contracts to scale production of quantum‑dot lasers and AlGaAs nonlinear materials. The funding enables a dual‑sourcing strategy with Tower Semiconductor and Sumitomo Chemical Advanced Technology, moving the company from...
Why DFT Verification Signoff Is the Hidden Risk Threatening Your Next Tapeout
Design‑for‑test (DFT) verification has become a critical bottleneck as modern SoCs integrate billions of transistors, diverse IP, and multiple test modes. Pattern signoff, in particular, strains schedules because simulations must cover numerous fault models, timing corners, and operational scenarios. Siemens‑reported...
Chinese EV Makers Deploy Flagship AI Chips, Target $44K Models as Global Competition Heats Up
Chinese automakers are fast‑tracking the integration of in‑vehicle chips and AI, with NIO pledging flagship‑grade driving chips for models priced between 200,000 and 300,000 yuan ($29,130‑$43,695). Horizon Robotics will debut a cockpit‑driving AI chip in late April, and Volkswagen is...
The RAM Crisis Strikes Again — Samsung Galaxy Phones and Microsoft Surface Laptops Just Got a Whole Lot More Expensive
The ongoing global RAM shortage has triggered steep price hikes for premium hardware. Microsoft raised entry‑level Surface laptops by up to $500, pushing the 13.8‑inch model to $1,499 and the Surface Pro 13‑inch to $1,999. Samsung followed with modest increases...
A $750M Fabless Chip Company, and the Foundry That Makes the Chips
Credo Technology announced a $750 million cash acquisition of Israeli silicon‑photonic fabless startup DustPhotonics, with an earn‑out that could lift total consideration to about $1.3 billion. DustPhotonics’ proprietary L3C (Low‑Loss Laser Coupling) technology remains opaque, as no public loss figures or peer‑reviewed...
Need Some CPUs? Good Luck With That
The AI boom has moved from GPUs to a surge in CPU demand, leaving cloud providers and PC makers scrambling for capacity. Microsoft’s GitHub and AWS report severe shortages as AI reasoning models require intensive CPU cycles for validation, reinforcement...
Brookhaven Lab: A Silicon-Compatible Path Toward Scalable Quantum Systems
Brookhaven National Laboratory researchers have fabricated superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) using transition‑metal silicide layers on silicon substrates. The process adapts standard CMOS lithography and etching techniques, enabling the creation of constriction‑type junctions instead of conventional Josephson junctions. Operating the...
Accenture Federal Services to Deliver Early Operating Capability for DOE’s Genesis Mission CM2US
Accenture Federal Services is spearheading a high‑velocity engineering sprint to deliver an early operating capability for the Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission CM2US initiative. Working with all DOE national labs and Databricks Federal, the team will launch an AI‑ready digital...
AI Data Center Boom Boosts Chip Stock To Highs As Earnings Loom
The AI‑driven data‑center surge is fueling demand for precise timing chips, propelling SiTime (SITM) to an all‑time high above $460 as it approaches its first‑quarter earnings. The company’s oscillators and resonators, essential for synchronizing high‑speed computing tasks, helped deliver a...
Samsung Doubles Exynos 2700 Output, Hikes Memory Die Prices
Samsung plans to more than double production of the Exynos 2700 next year compared to the 2600 The company also increased basic memory die prices by up to 50%
Hardening the Silicon: Why Analog Anti-Tamper IP Is the New Security Baseline
Analog anti‑tamper IP is emerging as a baseline for hardware security as billions of IoT and automotive SoCs face increasingly sophisticated physical attacks. Hackers now employ fault injection, glitching, side‑channel, and micro‑probing techniques that can bypass software‑only protections and compromise...
Bull and Equal1 Partner to Accelerate Hybrid Quantum-HPC Integration in Europe
Bull, a European HPC and AI leader, and Dublin‑based Equal1 have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to fuse Bull’s Qaptiva supercomputing platform with Equal1’s silicon‑spin quantum servers. The collaboration will create a high‑speed connector that lets classical supercomputers run quantum‑accelerated...
Credo to Acquire DustPhotonics in $160 Million Cash‑and‑Stock Deal
Credo announced a $160 million cash‑and‑stock transaction to acquire Israeli silicon‑photonics specialist DustPhotonics. The deal, split roughly $90 million in cash and $70 million in newly issued Credo shares, is slated to close in Q3 2026 and is intended to accelerate Credo’s roadmap in...
Tech Giants Spend $100M on Chip Backup Plans
Pat’s Law of Always strikes again. But let’s treat it as 🚨news. Every large technology company is ALWAYS considering alternatives when it comes to differentiated, high dollar everything. Every model maker is considering: -doing their own chips if they aren’t already -if...
Samsung Halves Snapdragon, Revives Exynos for S27
Last year Samsung lost $3 Billion by going Snapdragon exclusive on the Galaxy S series For 2027, they're not making that mistake again Allegedly, 50% of Galaxy S27 models will be powered by the Exynos 2700
Broadcom Surges as Meta Partnership Drives 2nm AI Chips
.@Broadcom jumps 3.5% after hours as Meta and Broadcom sign new Strategic Partnership for Next-Generation 2nm AI Compute Accelerator Expansion. Hock Tan gets off of @Meta’s Board to clear any conflict of interest for building Meta the chips they need...
Meta Doubles Down on AI Chips with Broadcom Partnership
Remembering all the way back to last month when people said $META is giving up on building its own AI chips. Today Meta and $AVGO announce an extended partnership to build MTIA (Meta’s AI chips) It’s almost always AND with these...
ML-Driven Chip Design Tackles Chiplets and Multiphysics
https://t.co/hSBxqyOfWZ I spent time with @Synopsys CEO Sassine Ghazi to ask what the future of chip design is. Actually they're one of the earliest adopters, and ML chips want even more ML to optimize them. Add in chiplets and multiphysics, and...