What’s happening in semiconductors
l Moore’s Law: the number of transistors quadruples
every four years
l Rock’s Law: the cost of a fab doubles every four
years
l Result 1: equipment pushed to technological limits,
more process instability, more scheduling complexity
l Result 2: fewer advanced fabs and fewer fab
operators, fabless/foundry partnerships
l Result 3: fabless firms do naïve planning, foundry
must do real planning and scheduling and do it fast
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