The first half of 2007 seems to be a tough year for semiconductor industry. In an communication session earlier this week, we were told to buckle up our belts as the company is expected to take substantial actions to cut cost after scrutinizing the cost structure. However, we feel much relieved after we are assured from the senior executive that the Chartered project is strategically important to AMD. Generally, Q1 is a a seasonal slump for semiconductor industry as it is typically an inventory hangover from Q4. According to iSuppli, there is a good news that the inventory of Q1 has started to bottom out and chip order is picking up. However, this year is particularly tough for AMD as Intel is fighting back aggressively after losing significant market share to AMD in 2006. Based on BusinessWeek report, both AMD and Intel are losing revenue despite higher sales volume in Q1 as a consequence of bloodly price war between these two arch rivals. According to Gartner, Intel is clawing back some of its lost ground while AMD is betting on its quadcore processor Barcelona slated for release sometime in mid 2007. The stakes are high for Barcelona and AMD. The Barcelona is a brand new core design that is expected to pose significant challenge to Intel quad-core Clovertown Xeon processors introduced by Intel last year. Billed as a “true” quad-core chip, Barcelona has four processor cores on a single piece of silicon, or die, compared to Clovertown, which straps together twin dual-core dies inside a single package, yielding a quad-core processor. Let’s hope Barcelona can fight back Intel.

It is interesting to know that the saga between Intel and AMD has lasted for more than 2 decades. It all started from IBM. The first microprocessor, 4004 was debuted 35 years ago. This is followed by 8008, 8080 80286 in ’70s. 8080 became the brains of the first personal computer–the Altair. IBM then entered the PC business in the late ’70s and became a big customer for Intel. To avoid overdependence on Intel as its sole source of chips, IBM demanded Intel to outsource the 80286 to a second supplier. In 1982, Intel and AMD signed a technology exchange agreement making AMD a second supplier. This gave AMD access to Intel’s 286 chip technology. It was also the beginning of a long litigious saga between the two chipmakers. Subsequently, Intel launched 386, 486, Pentium I, II, III, IV. Intel has earlier claimed that the next-generation chip based on 45nm technology will be due to release at the end of 2007. Below are the photos tracing the evolution from 4004 to the latest teraflop chip.

It is freaking the heck out to learn how small a RFID chip can be these days. It is as small as a dust speckle and you’ll probably never know they’re there. On the 13 Feb, Hitachi showed a prototype of a tiny, new “powder” type RFID chip measuring 0.05 x 0.05 mm. The new chips are 64 times smaller than the previous record holder, the 0.4mm x 0.4mm mu-chip from Hitachi as well. The chip are packed with 128 bits of static memory, enough to hold a unique 38-digit ID number. Hitachi claimed the main application is likely to be anti-counterfit since the size make the new chips ideal for embedding in paper, where they could verify the legitimacy of currency or event tickets. It is also possible to implant such chips under the skin and track everyone down, probably the first applications will be criminals, law offenders and terrorists. Beyond that, let your fevered imagination wander.

On a separate note, two weeks ago, the Institute of Microelectronics (IME) in Singapore announced the development of a single reader chip for ultrahigh frequency (UHF) RFID which dramatically reduce both the price and form factor of portable RFID readers. Professor Dim-Lee Kwong, Executive Director of IME said:

Singapore has placed strong emphasis on RFID technology and has been a leading adopter of it. IME has been playing a vital role to apply its technological knowledge in bringing out innovative and low cost RFID solutions - first we did it with the tags with external and internal antennas and now we have delivered the highly integrated and low cost reader IC to complete our offerings.

In recent years, RFID systems are gaining popularity and are being used in numerous applications, such as supply chain management, inventory control, identification for pharmaceutical and library books. IDTechEx expect that 1.71 billion tags will be sold in 2007 and the market will rise to $27.88 Billion in 2017. To learn more about RFID, watch the following video: [poll=4]