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Katherine's blog

Obsessions: Thin films, writing, small business, and random web flotsam

December 28, 2001

 
While looking for something else, I found the November SICAS fab utilization report. Among other things, it shows that foundry reports of high utilization for leading edge capacity don't necessarily say much about the industry as a whole. Utilization of the most advanced lines fell just as far, just as fast, as utilization of more mature processes.
posted 15:01 |

 
I was pretty disillusioned by The Phantom Menace. Dumbing down the story to such an extent could kill a great franchise. Still, I like the Holiday at the Fetts' animation at the Star Wars site. Flash player required.
posted 12:56 |

 
From the mailbag:
A copy of the Hong Kong Productivity Council's Electronics Bulletin arrived in the mail today. It includes, among other things, my conversation with Tom Adams on lithography trends. In English and Chinese, but neither version seems to be online.
posted 12:08 |

 
Tired of being tethered to battery chargers? Toshiba, NEC, and other Japanese electronics companies are betting you'd rather power your technology toys with fuel cells. NEC hopes to squeeze 10 times as much energy capacity as a lithium battery into the same space.
posted 11:37 |

 
I guess I'm not the only one who doesn't believe that Motorola's previously noted plan to outsource 50% of its manufacturing is for real. Future Horizons believes that the top ten integrated device manufacturers will give no more than 10-15% of their production to foundries. The firm expects as much as 40% of total semiconductor manufacturing to eventually go the outsourcing route.
posted 11:09 |

 
Eight pages and time for bed. The break over the long weekend seems to have done some good. Yay!
posted 00:08 |

December 27, 2001

 
There've been a lot of reports about a proposed agreement between Hynix and Micron, but no details of the deal have emerged and most of the comments are coming from the Hynix side of the conference table. Micron has all of the leverage and a history of driving hard bargains. It's a bit early for Hynix's battered creditors and shareholders to start celebrating.
posted 14:09 |

December 26, 2001

 
No updates today, as Blogger was offline recovering from a security breach. Many thanks to Ev at Blogger for giving up his vacation time to get things fixed. Posting may be sporadic over the next few days as they whip things back into shape.

The archives have also been misplaced. That is a Blogger problem that should be fixed soon. If not, I can recover them from my own backups.
posted 23:55 |

December 24, 2001

 
Is that a Christmas story? Not sure I ever wrote one of those before, but I like this one. Hope you like it, too. Merry Christmas.
posted 18:41 |

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