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SEMICON West '08: Once More Into the Breach...
July 13, 2008
Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more:
Or close up the wall up with our swollen feet…
(With deepest apologies to William Shakespeare.)
Amazingly enough, folks, it’s SEMICON West time again! It seems as if the previous one took place only about three months ago. Of course, after more than 15 years of attending the thing, one’s bound to get a feeling of déjà vu, a sort of Twilight-Zone sensation of a hauntingly recurring event, of racing hamster-like down a Möebius strip, while occasionally catching a disconcerting, fleeting glance of your own back.
Moscone Convention Center (bottom), with the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge
barely visible on the Bay. Source: Moscone Center.
As West Coast Editor, I am more fortunate than most, in that to attend this event—arguably our industry’s most important trade show—I have only to drive 50 or so miles from San Jose, and am not subjected to the exquisite delights of today’s air travel. My colleagues from the home office, Laura Peters and Aaron Hand, who flew in early this morning from O’Hare, looked somewhat the worse for wear around the edges.
My PJs--they'll probably get more bedtime than any of us will!
Unsurprisingly, however, we’re all looking forward to opening day tomorrow Monday, and to continue working at the end of each day of the event to provide you with news of what is taking place. As I mentioned, this is the industry’s premiere show, and it makes it possible for us as journalists to “kick the tires and light the fires” of most of the semiconductor equipment on display, as well as to have one-on-ones with the CTOs, engineers, and technicians responsible for the design and development of all of this wonderful high-tech stuff. Once in a while, one of them will give us a hint of something new and exciting coming down the pike that we will be able to report about for you our readers, viewers and listeners. Anybody who is part of this industry knows that Dilbert and his brethren are far from being dull and live instead in an exciting, clean world of edge-of-the-envelope technology.
In case you’re wondering about my use of the word “clean” in this context, I use it purposely because these men and women’s work takes place in the rarefied realms of science and technology. Unlike with other more imprecise professions (politics, comes to mind), there are no different opinionated viewpoints or any “well, on the other hand…” to cope with. There are no ifs ands or buts in engineering. It is strictly based on natural law, and the physics are exacting. Any attempted workaround or cutting of corners doesn’t work—clean.
I like being among geeks… I’ve proudly been a member of the guild for all of my life, and my colleagues and I shall again enjoy reporting the goings-on to you during this SEMICON West.
(Even if our feet do get swollen from running up and down the convention center.)
Posted by Alexander E. Braun on July 13, 2008 | Comments (1)
