May 17, 2011 — Bob Bruck, Intel, speaks about revenue growth and design for the semiconductor industry. Emerging markets and global networking could add another $200 billion in revenue in just the next 8 years. He is interviewed by senior technical editor Debra Vogler at The ConFab 2011.

Capital-intensive semiconductor fabs are necessarily consolidated. Design costs are on the rise, Bruck notes, so the revenue-need attached to a single design can be $100 million (average). Even in the fabless/foundry model, this is causing design scaling concerns, to ensure that a design can support enough chip units. IDMs like Intel can co-optimize between design rules, process technology, 1st level interconnect, test, etc., etc.

Tool and material suppliers must continue to spend on R&D, Bruck states. Companies that have higher percentages of revenue going to R&D have better profits and revenues. He notes that most processes cannot support more than 5, or even 3, suppliers.