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Not another Sputnik or Fairchild Semi tribute: Watch for Chip Shots' upcoming posts from Europe |
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Oct 05, 2007 at 11:06 AM |
No, this is not yet-another tribute to the 50th anniversary of the successful launch of Soviet-era-pride capsule Sputnik nor a reflection on Silicon Valley kick-starter Fairchild Semiconductor, which celebrates its half-century birthday with festivities this weekend.
(Although I do congratulate all those OG space cadets and Fairchildren still on the scene.)
Nope, it's not a faux-clever riff on Nanometrics' new OCD tool for advanced semiconductor manufacturing and what optical critical-dimension measurements and obsessive-compulsive disorder have in common---or don't---other than their common initialism. (OK, they both involve obsessional attention to detail, a high level of repeatability, and an overwhelming need to control things, in one case, the chipmaking process, and the other, one's behavior or inner world.)
Nor is it an "it's about time!" response to reports that STMicro will finally be doing something with its long-empty M6 fab shell in Catania, Sicily, namely fitting it out and ramping it up for Numonyx, its new flash venture with Intel. (Yes, it is a European story, which leads me to....)
Early tomorrow morning I will be winging my way toward Europe for the first panel in a business-trip tryptych. Semicon Europa, now in its new Stuttgart home, will be my initial stop, followed by company (including STMicro) and research organization visits in the Grenoble/Isere area of France, then capped off by participation in IMEC's annual press review event. Stay tuned to Chip Shots over the coming weeks for reports from my travels, as well as anything else that catches my attention.
Speaking of attention-getters, did you hear about Gibson's self-tuning guitar? Now, that's a killer app! I wonder if Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page or the Sex Pistols' Steve Jones will be shredding and staying precisely in tune with some of those beauties during their respective upcoming reunion concerts.
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