The year 2021 was strange, you can read more of it from A 2021 technology retrospective: Strange days indeed. But how strange will 2022 be? Here are some predictions for year 2022:
2022 preview: Will the global computer chip shortage ever end?
The growing demand for computer chips, used in everything from cars to fridges, has collided with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, leading to a global shortage that is likely to continue through 2022
Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2022-2022-preview-will-the-global-computer-chip-shortage-ever-end/#ixzz7GqrP1H9A
Industry Transforming In Ways Previously Unimaginable
https://semiengineering.com/industry-transforming-in-ways-previously-unimaginable/?cmid=3dedf05d-0284-497a-b015-daf7747872e6
As we look back over 2021, there have certainly been some surprises, but the industry continues to take everything in its stride.
2022 tech themes: A look ahead
https://www.edn.com/2022-tech-themes-a-look-ahead/
The continued COVID-19 question mark: The world quickly and dramatically changed. It hasn’t yet reverted to pre-pandemic characteristics, and it very likely never will. Sad but true, the pandemic isn’t even close to being over yet.
Deep learning’s Cambrian moment: Look at today’s participant-rich deep learning silicon and software market, spanning both training and inference.
The ongoing importance of architecture: As the number of transistors that it’s possible to cost-effectively squeeze onto a sliver of silicon continues to slow, what you build out of those transistors becomes increasingly critical.
Open source processors’ time in the sun: There is a burgeoning RISC-V movement. It’s likely a little-known fact to some of you, that a public domain instruction set for v2 and earlier versions of the Arm ISA exists. And both Sun (with OpenSPARC) and IBM (OpenPOWER) have also joined the open-source silicon movement.
The normalization of remote work (and the “Great Resignation’s” aftershocks): I suspect that, to at least a notable degree, we won’t ever completely return to the “way it was before.” In fact, I’d wager that having a taste of a work-from-home or “hybrid” employment lifestyle is one of the key factors behind the so-called “Great Resignation” that tech and broader media alike inform me is well underway.
The metaverse starts to stir: Perhaps we’ll look back at 2022 as the year when the crossing of the chasm started in earnest.
Autonomy slowly accelerates: 2021 was another year filled with fully autonomous car tests and premature “coming soon” pronouncements; 2022 will likely be the same.
Batteries get ever denser, ever more plentiful, and ever cheaper
Space travel becomes commonplace
Global semiconductor industry forecasts for 2022
https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20211229VL205.html
“2021 is the year that everyone remembered that chip mattered,” said Wired Magazine. So far 2022 seems likely to be another fruitful year for the semiconductor industry.
World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) also has predicted that the global semiconductor market is projected to grow by 8.8 percent in 2022, to US$ 601 billion, driven by double-digit growth of the sensors and logic category. All regions and all product categories are expected to continue positive growth. Wafer foundry manufacturers sales likely to remain strong due to tight supply. 5G smartphone silicon content increase to drive demand for foundry service higher. Demand for digital transformation is here to stay, no sign of weakening for foundry service sales.
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated digital transformation over the past two years. Work from home, virtual conference, and remote learning have driven up the demand for cloud computing, laptops, and servers, and hence the sales growth of related semiconductor products. Demands for CPU, GPU, AI accelerator (including FPGA) foundry services will remain strong in 2022 because trends such as virtual conferences, live streaming, and large capex of data centers are likely to stay. Long-term demands for customized chips in IoT, 5G infrastructure, HPC, and EV applications, like ADAS, autonomous driving, V2X, in-Vehicle Infotainment, will provide robust growth momentum for chip foundry services.
Chip crunch is not ending in 2022, as the lead time of some electronic components is stretching into 2023. Meanwhile, the increasing adoption of RISC-V open standard instruction set architecture is an important trend that can not be ignored. RISC-V market will double its size in 2022, compared to 2021, as it is attracting small and medium-size chip designers and manufacturers, especially those in China. RISC-V designs are now being used by Qualcomm, Samsung, Google, Microchip, Nvidia, and more.
Taiwan’s chip industry emerges as a battlefront in US-China showdown
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2022/01/01/2003770517
The country dominates production of chips used in almost all civilian and military technologies. That leaves the US and Chinese economies reliant on plants that would be in the line of fire in an attack on Taiwan. The vulnerability is stoking alarm in Washington
40 prosenttia pienempiä latureita
https://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12981&via=n&datum=2021-12-20_14:53:12&mottagare=30929
The size of a standard mobile phone charger can be reduced by up to 40 percent when using GaN components or it can be designed to produce more power in the same size. GaN chargers are becoming the most popular charger technology for billions of devices, so it’s no wonder that European semiconductor giant STMicroelectronics is also excited about them.
1,321 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
No GPUs for you: US blocks sales of AI chips to China and Russia
Government aims to “keep advanced technologies out of the wrong hands.”
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/09/us-restricts-sales-of-high-end-nvidia-ai-chips-to-china-and-russia/
Tomi Engdahl says:
PCIe 6 -vastaanottoa testaamaan!
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/14025-pcie-6-vastaanottoa-testaamaan
Markkinoille on vasta alkanut ilmestymään PCIe 5.0 -liitäntää tukevia laitteita, mutta laitevalmistajat katsovat o seuraavaan standardiin. Mittauslaitevalmistajat Tektronix ja Anritsu ovat esitellet integroidun testausalustan PCIe 6.0 -vastaanottimelle.
Ratkaisun myötä Tektronix tarjoaa yhtenäisen PCIe 6.0 -lähetin- ja -vastaanotintestiratkaisun, joka tarjoaa nopeammat testiajat, laadukkaammat mittaukset ja intuitiivisen käyttöliittymän, kuten yhtiö hehkuttaa. Alusta on yritysten vastaus PCIe6:n mukanaan tuomiin uusiin haasteisiin.
PCIe-vastaanottimen validointi on tunnetusti vaikeaa, koska signaalin kalibrointi on vaativaa suurihäviöisen kanavan yli. Tektronixin PCIe-vastaanottimen testiratkaisut antavat luottamusta siihen, että mallit testataan perusteellisesti vaaditulla bittivirhesuhteella (BER). Työkalut opastavat testaajaa vaiheittain läpi linkkirutiinien, jotta varmistetaan vastaanottimen tarkka testaus.
Tektronix PCIe 6.0 Base Rx Solution esimerkiksi Rx-kalibroinnin 64 gigasiirron PAM4-signalointia varten.
Ratkaisu on tarjolla Tekin DPO70000SX-reaaliaikaskoopissa ja Anritsu MP1900A BERT:ssä. Lisätietoja löytyy täältä.
https://www.tek.com/en/solutions/application/high-speed-serial-communications/pci-express
Tomi Engdahl says:
NVIDIA Announces Jetson Orin Nano Modules, IGX Platform, Isaac Sim in the Cloud, and More at GTC ’22
Jensen Huang outlines a major push for low-power edge AI, functionally-safe automation, autonomous robotics, and cloud-powered development.
https://www.hackster.io/news/nvidia-announces-jetson-orin-nano-modules-igx-platform-isaac-sim-in-the-cloud-and-more-at-gtc-22-6b123d4f990c
NVIDIA has announced a range of new products from its embedded, automation, and robotics arm during its GPU Technology Conference keynote today — including the new Jetson Orin Nano module and IGX edge AI platforms.
“Computing is advancing at incredible speeds, the engine propelling this rocket is accelerated computing, and its fuel is AI [Artificial Intelligence],” NVIDIA founder and chief executive Jensen Huang claimed during his keynote speech at the GTC event today. “Today, we [announce] new chips, new advances to our platforms, and, for the very first time, new cloud services. These platforms propel new breakthroughs in AI, new applications of AI, and the next wave of AI for science and industry.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Inflation-Adjusted Income for U.S. Engineers Drops Insights from IEEE-USA’s annual salary survey, in six charts
https://spectrum.ieee.org/electrical-engineer-salary
HOW MUCH DOES a tech professional in the United States earn? In 2021, the median income of U.S. engineers and other tech professionals who were IEEE members hit US $160,097, up from $154,443 in 2020. That bump in pay is revealed in the IEEE-USA 2022 Salary & Benefits Survey.
This apparent increase turns into a nearly $3,500 dip, however, when converted to real dollars [see chart, below]. It’s the first significant dip in median tech salary in terms of spending power recorded by IEEE-USA since 2013.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/09/21/floppy-disk-sales-are-higher-density-than-you-might-think/
Floppies may be big in Japan, but nostalgic and/or needful Stateside floppy enthusiasts needn’t fret — just use AOL keyword point that browser toward floppydisk.com. There, you can buy new floppies of all sizes, both new and old, recycle your disks, or send them in to get all that precious vintage stuff transferred off of them.
https://www.floppydisk.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Inflation-Adjusted Income for U.S. Engineers Drops Insights from IEEE-USA’s annual salary survey, in six charts
https://spectrum.ieee.org/electrical-engineer-salary
Tomi Engdahl says:
YouTube Shorts could steal TikTok’s thunder with a better deal for creators
If you pay them, they will come
https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/17/youtube-shorts-could-steal-tiktoks-thunder-with-a-better-deal-for-creators/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rita Liao / TechCrunch:
Alibaba Cloud, the world’s third-largest public cloud provider in 2021 with a 9.5% market share, commits $1B to boost overseas alliances over three years
https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/22/alibaba-cloud-1-billion-international/
Alibaba is known for its sprawling e-commerce empire, but like Amazon, cloud service has been a big driver of its revenues in recent years.
The Chinese cloud giant is ready to double down on its overseas reach and announced today a $1 billion investment in a “global partner ecosystem upgrade.” Alibaba Cloud is now the world’s third-largest public cloud provider, an achievement that’s inseparable from the large network of local allies it’s formed worldwide.
The company is constantly recruiting local partners to take on responsibilities such as sales, technical support and customer services. The $1 billion initiative is meant to “support partners’ technology innovation and their market expansion with Alibaba Cloud in the coming three fiscal years,” the company said. The money will come in both financial and non-financial incentives, including funding, rebates and go-to-market initiatives.
Alibaba Cloud currently has around 11,000 partners worldwide, including Salesforce, VMware, Fortinet, IBM and Neo4j.
Alibaba Cloud enjoyed a 9.5% market share in 2021, trailing Microsoft (21%) and Amazon (39%), according to market research firm Gartner.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How a chip war puts nations in a technology arms race
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/semiconductors-chip-war-taiwan-us-exports-restrictions-china-tensions-2957116
The crushingly complex, high-stakes business of making semiconductors has always been a battle between global giants. Now it is also a race among governments.
These critical bits of technology — also known as integrated circuits or, more commonly, just chips — may be the tiniest yet most exacting products ever manufactured. And because they are so difficult and costly to produce, there is a worldwide reliance on just a handful of companies.
That dependence has been brought into stark relief by shortages during the pandemic and by a ratcheting up of US restrictions on chip exports to China amid rising tensions around trade and security.
Tens of billions of dollars will be spent in the coming years in a dash to expand production, with geopolitical as well as economic fallout.
Why the war over chips?
Chipmaking has become an increasingly precarious business. New plants have a price tag of up to US$20 billion, take years to build and need to be run flat-out for 24 hours a day to turn a profit.
Why are chips so critical?
They are the thing that makes electronic items smart. Made from materials deposited on disks of silicon, chips can perform a variety of functions.
Memory chips, which store data, are relatively simple and are traded like commodities. Logic chips, which run programs and act as the brains of a device, are more complex and expensive.
Is the world short of computer chips?
Pandemic lockdowns and supply-chain shortages made many types of chips scarce for a period of about two years. That event helped usher in this new era, with an increasing realisation of their strategic importance. Now that PC and phone demand is cooling off post-pandemic — and much of the world is falling into a recession — the cycle has turned.
Chipmakers are warning of a glut in certain areas, though some customers including carmakers are still struggling to get enough. Yet for political reasons chipmakers are still poised to add capacity at a time of shaky demand – which could further upend the industry.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft-pomo: Lopettakaa uusien c-/c++-projektien aloittaminen
https://www.tivi.fi/uutiset/microsoft-pomo-lopettakaa-uusien-c-c-projektien-aloittaminen/21b9447f-ed89-40ca-80b2-acdbdef36254
Azuren teknologiajohtajana Microsoftilla työskentelevä Mark Russinovich ilmaisi varsin suorasti mielipiteensä ohjelmointikielistä Twitterissä taannoin. Hän näyttää saaneen tarpeekseen c:llä tai c++:lla kirjoitetuista projekteista.
Russinovich kirjoitti, että on aika lopettaa uudet c:hen tai c++:aan perustuvat projektit ja käyttää rustia niissä tilanteissa, kun tarvitaan kieltä, jossa ei ole automaattista roskienkeräystä.
Azure-pomon mukaan kyse on turvallisuudesta ja luotettavuudesta ja että koko alan tulisi julistaa c ja c++ vanhentuneiksi.
Rust on usean vuoden ajan kasvattanut suosiotaan ja saanut jalansijaa monien suurten yhtiöiden tekemisissä. Niin Amazon, Google kuin Microsoft ovat kaikki alkaneet käyttää rustia kehitystöissään. Koodaajien suosikiksi se on noussut eri kyselyissä jo useiden vuosien ajan.
Myös Linuxin kernel on saamassa rustia sisäänsä
Tomi Engdahl says:
Linus Torvalds talks Rust on Linux, his work schedule and life with his M2 MacBook Air
At the 2022 Linux Plumbers Conference, Torvalds and I have a chance to sit down and talk again about life, Linux and scuba diving.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/linus-torvalds-talks-rust-on-linux-his-work-schedule-and-life-with-his-m2-macbook-air/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Radxa Announces ROCK5 CM5 Alternative to Raspberry Pi’s CM4, Teases NVIDIA Jetson-Compatible NX5 Too
Eight-core Rockchip RK3588 really packs in the power, offering up to 16GB of RAM and a 6 TOPS neural network coprocessor.
https://www.hackster.io/news/radxa-announces-rock5-cm5-alternative-to-raspberry-pi-s-cm4-teases-nvidia-jetson-compatible-nx5-too-4fb4ee088b99
Tomi Engdahl says:
What has Broadcom become?
The truth is Broadcom is not a semiconductor company. Nor is it a software company. It is a private equity fund…
https://www.techspot.com/news/95573-what-has-broadcom-become.html
Editor’s take: Broadcom was once a leading semiconductor company, and then it started buying enterprise software companies. The finance people recognize Broadcom for it is, and while the technology people recognize it as well, they just do not want to accept it. And we cannot blame them for that sentiment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/09/review-return-to-monkey-island-is-must-play-point-and-click-brilliance/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The ‘last man’ selling floppy-disks says airlines continue to make orders for the ancient storage technology
https://www.businessinsider.com/last-floppy-disk-seller-airlines-still-order-storage-2022-9
Tom Persky, founder of floppydisk.com, sells and recycles the archaic storage devices.
He says in a new book that the airline industry is one of his biggest customers.
“Probably half of the air fleet in the world today is more than 20 years old,” he said.
The archaic floppy disk apparently isn’t as obsolete as we thought in the US.
While they’re a relic of another time, at least one industry is still interested in the storage devices, according to the person who claims to be “last man standing in the floppy disk business.”
“My biggest customers — and the place where most of the money comes from — are the industrial users,”
Persky added: “Take the airline industry for example. Probably half of the air fleet in the world today is more than 20 years old and still uses floppy disks in some of the avionics. That’s a huge consumer.”
He also said that the medical sector still uses floppy disks. And then there’s “hobbyists,” who want to “buy ten, 20, or maybe 50 floppy disks.”
Floppy disks made news recently when Japan’s digital minister, Taro Kano, declared “a war” on the devices, tweeting earlier this month that Japan’s digital agency would change regulations requiring businesses to use floppy disks and CDs, instead shifting to online services.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/14039-autoihin-menee-jo-joka-kolmas-mikro-ohjain
Mikro-ohjaimia myydään vuonna 2026 jo 27 miljardilla dollarilla, tietää tutkimuslaitos Yple Developpement kertoa. Useampi kuin joka kolmas näistä menee autoihin eli osaksi auton kasvavaa elektroniikkaa.
Autot ovat jo nyt selvästi suurin sektori mikro-ohjaimille. Tänä vuonna autoihin menee 32 prosenttia ohjainsiruista, joten osuus kasvaa koko ajan. Viisi suurinta mikro-ohjainten toimittajaa ovat NXP, Renesas, Infineon, STMicroelectronics ja Microchip.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
A look at Nvidia’s issues, including crypto mining demand drying up and GPUs flooding secondary markets, and opportunities, including gaming and data centers
Nvidia In the Valley
https://stratechery.com/2022/nvidia-in-the-valley/
Three big things happened to Nvidia’s business over the last three years that drove the price to unprecedented heights:
The pandemic led to an explosion in PC buying generally and gaming cards specifically, as customers had both the need for new computers and a huge increase in discretional income with nowhere to spend it beyond better game experiences.
Machine learning applications, which were trained on Nvidia GPUs, exploded amongst the hyperscalers.
The crypto bubble led to skyrocketing demand for Nvidia chips to solve Ethereum proof-of-work equations to earn — i.e. mine — Ether.
Crypto isn’t so much a valley as it is a cliff: Ethereum successfully transitioned to a proof-of-stake model, rendering entire mining operations, built with thousands of Nvidia GPUs, worthless overnight; given that Bitcoin, the other major crypto network to use proof-of-work, is almost exclusively mined on custom-designed chips, all of those old GPUs are flooding the second-hand market. This is particularly bad timing for Nvidia given that the pandemic buying spree ended just as the company’s attempt to catch up on demand for its 3000-series of chips were coming to fruition. Needless to say, too much new inventory plus too much used inventory is terrible for a company’s financial results
Tomi Engdahl says:
Yksi yritys hallitsee DRAM-moduuleissa
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/14048-yksi-yritys-hallitsee-dram-moduuleissa
Kingston on edelleen selvä ykkönen DRAM-muistikampojen toimittajana. TrendForcen mukaan yhtiön hallussa on 78,7 prosenttia DRAM-moduulien markkinoista. Yhtiö on ollut ykkösvalmistaja o 19 vuotta peräjälkeen.
TrendForcen raportin mukaan maailman viiden suurimman valmistajan osuus kokonaismyynnistä vuonna 2021 oli 90 prosenttia. Kingston onnistui kasvattamaan myyntiään viime vuonna 8 prosenttia, mikä osin selittyi koronapandemialla. Kun ihmisten etätyö yleistyi, kotona tarvittiin uusia tietokoneita, mikä vauhditti tietenkin myös DRAM-moduulien myyntiä.
Koronapandemian hellittäessä PC-myynti kuitenkin hidastuu. Tämä syö myös DRAM-moduulien menekkiä.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Onko uusi Raptor Lake Intelin paluu?
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/14058-onko-uusi-raptor-lake-intelin-paluu
Onko uusi Raptor Lake Intelin paluu?
Julkaistu: 28.09.2022
Devices
Intel on esitellyt ensimmäiset 13. sukupolven Core-prosessorinsa pöytäkoneisiin. Koodinimellä Raptor Lake kehitetyt suorittimet tulevat myyntiin kolmena versiona, integroidulla tai erillisgrafiikalla, uudella piirisarjoilla ja emolevyillä lokakuun 20. päivä.
Intelille 13. polven Core on erittäin merkittävä julkistus. Esimerkiksi vuosina 2015-2020 yhtiön uudet suorittimet olivat käytännössä Skylake-prosessorien jatkokehittelyjä. Vaikka valmistuksessa oli tunnettuja ongelmia, Intel onnistui silti kasvattamaan prosessoriensa suorituskykyä.
Raptor Lake tarkoittaa parannettua CPU-arkkitehtuuria ja paranneltua Intel 7 -prosessia. Viivanleveys säilyy 10 nanometrissä, eikä 7 nanometriä ole luvassakaan ennen ensi vuotta. Tällä sektorilla Intel antaa etua AMD:lle.
Raptor Lake tulee tarjolle parhaimmillaan 24 ytimen piirinä, jonka kellotaajuus nousee 5,8 gigahertsiin asti.
Prosessorit tukevat DDR5-muisteja ja PCIe 5.0 -tekniikkaa.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/newsroom/news/13th-gen-core-launch.html#gs.dekals
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/tekniset-artikkelit/14059-rohde-schwarz-seuraavan-sukupolven-oskilloskooppi
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tuleeko SATA-väylä tiensä päähän?
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/14060-tuleeko-sata-vaeylae-tiensae-paeaehaen
Tuleeko SATA-väylä tiensä päähän?
Julkaistu: 29.09.2022
Devices Embedded
SSD-levyjen hinta putoaa nyt vauhdilla, mihin on ennen kaikkea syynä ylitarjonta NAND-siruissa. Esimerkiksi 2 teratavun SSD-levy on kohta samanhintainen kuin vastaava mekaaninen levy. Kehitys uhkaa siirtää vanhan SATA-väylän historiaan.
SATA-väylä esiteltiin vuonna 2000 korvaamaan vanhentunut PATA tai alkuperäiseltä nimeltään ATA. Uusi väylä toi monia etuja mukanaan: yksinkertaisempi liitäntä, mahdollisuus laitteiden hot swap -vaihtoon sekä nopeampi datansiirto.
SATA on palvellut uskollisesti pian 20 vuoden ajan – ensimmäinen väylää tukenut levy oli Seagaten vuonna 2003 markkinoille tuotu Barracuda V – mutta nyt sen aika lähestyy vääjäämättä loppuaan. Syy on ilmeinen. Suurin osa uusista kiintolevyistä on flash-pohjaisia SSD-levyjä ja niitä ohjataan NVMe-protokollalla.
SATA-standardi on ehtinyt 3-sukupolveen ja siihen tuodaan edelleen laajennuksia. Tällä hetkellä mennään standardiversiossa 3.5. Väylä tietenkin tukee myös SSD-tallennuslaitteita ja näitä on markkinoilla valtavasti.
SATAn ongelma on liitännän nopeus. Kun se myös 3.0-versiossa on käytännössä rajoitettu 600 megatavuun sekunnissa, uudempien NVMe-levyjen yli 3,5 gigatavun nopeus on ylivertainen. Tässä kannattaa pistää merkille, että peruskäyttäjän kannalta SATA toimii edelleen hyvin.
SATA ei myöskään kuluta PCIe-väylän resursseja, kuten NVMe.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Amazon’s $1,000 Astro robot gets pet detection, the ability to check specific windows and doors, Ring camera integration, and an SDK for three universities — There’s been a standing question surrounding how seriously we should ultimately take Astro. The product was launched exactly one year ago …
https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/28/amazon-astro-robot-pet-detection/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Daniel Cooper / Engadget:
Amazon’s Ring adds “Bird’s Eye View” 3D motion detection to the Spotlight Cam Pro and Virtual Security Guard for small businesses to the Astro robot
Here’s everything Amazon announced at its fall hardware event
So many products, so little time.
https://www.engadget.com/heres-everything-amazon-announced-at-its-fall-hardware-event-195138747.html
Amazon held its annual fall hardware event on Tuesday. As in years past, the company had a lot to share in a short amount of time. We saw it announce new Echo, Kindle and Ring devices. It also had a few surprises up its sleeve from Eero and some of its other subsidiaries. Here’s everything the company unveiled today.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Alexa gets smart home features like a multi-view stream and scheduling; Amazon says Alexa triggers 30%+ of smart home interactions without users saying anything — Amazon today announced a number of new smart features designed to allow Alexa device
Amazon Alexa gains new smart home features like a multi-camera view, new commands and more
https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/28/amazon-alexa-gains-new-smart-home-features-like-a-multi-camera-view-new-commands-and-more/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
Amazon unveils its fifth-gen $50 Echo Dot and $60 Echo Dot with Clock, which double as Eero mesh Wi-Fi extenders and have a temperature sensor and deeper bass — At its annual fall event, Amazon showed off its brand-new Echo Dot and Echo Dot with Clock. The fifth generation …
The latest Echo Dot smart speakers are smarter and bassier
https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/28/23375590/amazon-echo-dot-fifth-gen-clock-smart-speaker-alexa-specs-release-date-price?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2022/09/29/maailmanlaajuinen-satelliittihalytin/
Paikannuslaitteita valmistava Garmin on esitellyt uuden version Iridium-satelliitteja hyödyntävästä inReach Messenger-satelliittihälyttimestään ja tekstiviestilaitteesta. Uutuuden avulla voidaan lähettää teksti- ja hätäviestejä matkapuhelinverkon ulkopuolella Applen uuden iPhone 14-puhelimien satelliittitoiminnon tapaan.
Garminin Messenger-sovellus valitsee automaattisesti Wi-Fi-, matkapuhelin- tai satelliittiverkon välillä varmistaakseen, että jokainen viesti lähtee ja tulee perille. Hätätilanteessa inReach Messenger ja Messenger-sovellus lähettävät SOS-viestin Garmin International Emergency Response Coordination Center-hätäpalveluiden koordinointikeskukseen (IERCC), joka on toiminnassa 24 tuntia vuorokaudessa.
Garminin laitteen akun luvataan kestävän 28 päivää oletusasetuksilla. Pieni laite mahtuu kämmenelle, painaa 114 grammaa ja kestää satunnaista altistumista vedelle metrin syvyyteen saakka 30 minuutin ajan (IPX7).
Uusi Garminin Messenger-sovellus tukee ryhmätekstiviestejä ystäville ja perheenjäsenille, vaikka näillä ei olisi inReach-laitetta.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2022/09/29/rohdelta-uusi-oskilloskooppiperhe/
Tomi Engdahl says:
SoftBank Planning Vision Fund Staff Cuts of At Least 30%, Sources Say
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-29/softbank-is-said-to-have-started-vision-fund-staff-cuts#xj4y7vzkg
Founder had said layoffs were planned after $23 billion loss
SoftBank has suffered with the downturn in tech valuations
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Verge:
Google plans to shut down Stadia on January 18, 2023, and will refund hardware, software, and DLC purchases; members of the Stadia team will be reassigned — Google is shutting down Stadia, its cloud gaming service. The service will remain live for players until January 18th, 2023.
Google is shutting down Stadia
https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/29/23378713/google-stadia-shutting-down-game-streaming-january-2023?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4
Google is refunding all Stadia purchases — hardware, software, and DLC. Members of the Stadia team will be “carrying this work forward” in other departments at Google.
Google is shutting down Stadia, its cloud gaming service. The service will remain live for players until January 18th, 2023. Google will be refunding all Stadia hardware purchased through the Google Store as well as all the games and add-on content purchased from the Stadia store. Google expects those refunds will be completed in mid-January.
“A few years ago, we also launched a consumer gaming service, Stadia,” Stadia vice president and GM Phil Harrison said in a blog post. “And while Stadia’s approach to streaming games for consumers was built on a strong technology foundation, it hasn’t gained the traction with users that we expected so we’ve made the difficult decision to begin winding down our Stadia streaming service.” Employees on the Stadia team will be distributed to other parts of the company.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Source: Mark Zuckerberg told staff in a weekly Q&A that Meta will freeze hiring, restructure some teams, and cut budgets across most teams, citing the economy — Meta Platforms Inc., the owner of Facebook and Instagram, said it will freeze hiring and restructure some teams in an effort to cut costs and shift priorities.
Meta to Cut Headcount for First Time, Slash Budgets Across Teams
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-29/meta-announces-hiring-freeze-warns-employees-of-restructuring#xj4y7vzkg
Zuckerberg says social giant will end 2023 as a “somewhat smaller” organization
Meta Platforms Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg outlined sweeping plans to reorganize teams and reduce headcount for the first time ever, calling an end to an era of rapid growth at the social media giant.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE:
Micron reports Q4 revenue down 25% YoY to $6.64B, from $8.27B, plans to cut total capital spending by 30% YoY and wafer-fab equipment spending by nearly 50% YoY — Reporting its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings today,Micron Technology Inc. warned investors that it’s planning to take drastic measures …
Micron to slash spending on new chipmaking gear by 50% to counter ‘unprecedented’ oversupply
https://siliconangle.com/2022/09/29/micron-slash-spending-new-chipmaking-gear-50-counter-unprecedented-oversupply-problems/
Reporting its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings today,Micron Technology Inc. warned investors that it’s planning to take drastic measures by scaling back on plans to build out production capacity amid what it called an “unprecedented” market downturn.
In a press release the company reported a net profit for the fourth quarter of $1.49 billion, with earnings before certain costs such as stock compensation coming to $1.45 per share. Revenue for the period came to $6.64 billion, down from $8.27 billion one year earlier. The results were mixed, with Wall Street analysts looking for lower earnings of $1.37 per share on higher revenue of $6.73 billion.
Micron also reported its fiscal 2022 results, posting earnings of $8.35 per share on revenue of $30.76 billion, up from $27.71 billion in sales the previous year.
Micron President and Chief Executive Sanjay Mehrotra (pictured) pointed out that fiscal 2022 was the company’s sixth consecutive year of positive free cash flow, something that helped it deliver a record $2.9 billion to its shareholders.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sam Machkovech / Ars Technica:
Intel plans to launch the $349 Arc A770 Limited Edition with 16GB of GDDR6 memory and the $289 A750 Limited Edition on October 12, beside the $329 A770 with 8GB — A770 comes in two tiers; Intel claims “perf-per-dollar” wins over Nvidia RTX 3060. — Intel’s highest-end graphics card lineup …
The rest of Intel Arc’s A700-series GPU prices: A750 lands Oct. 12 below $300
A770 comes in two tiers; Intel claims “perf-per-dollar” wins over Nvidia RTX 3060.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/09/the-rest-of-intel-arcs-a700-series-gpu-prices-a750-lands-oct-12-below-300/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Financial Times:
An investigation details China’s crackdown on its $47B chip self-sufficiency “Big Fund”, including 12+ executives investigated or disappeared in three months
https://www.ft.com/content/8358e81b-f4e7-4bad-bc08-19a77035e1b4
Tomi Engdahl says:
Multi-Die Solution to Empower DFT for Stackable Chip-Scale Architectures
Sept. 29, 2022
A new test access architecture dramatically speeds and simplifies critical design-for-test tasks for next-generation ICs based on 2.5D and 3D architectures.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/test-measurement/article/21251743/electronic-design-multidie-solution-to-empower-dft-for-stackable-chipscale-architectures?utm_source=EG+ED+Analog+%26+Power+Source&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS220922091&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.identpull=omeda|7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tesla’s robot strategy is inextricably tied to its Autopilot strategy, for better or for worse
https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/30/teslas-robot-strategy-is-inextricably-tied-to-its-autopilot-strategy-for-better-or-for-worse/
Tesla unveiled its first prototype of its Optimus humanoid robot on Friday — an actual robot this time, by the strictest definition, instead of a flesh and blood human clad in a weird suit. The robot performed some basic functions, including walking a little bit and then raising its hands — all for the first time without supports or a crane, according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Cloud is super keen to keep certain customers on pricey Intel VMs
Unless your app really needs AVX 512, AMD and Ampere’s cores may be a cheaper, better bet
https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/30/google_intel_vm_optimization/
Google Cloud really, really wants enterprises to keep using its Intel-powered virtual machines. This week it unveiled a “white-glove” service to convince customers the silicon is worth paying extra for.
It’s no secret Google Cloud’s Intel-based instances come at a premium over those using AMD Epyc or Ampere’s Altra CPU cores. A fairly modest, eight-thread, 32GB N2-Standard instance based on Intel’s Xeon Scalable platform, for example, will run you about 25 percent more than an Ampere Altra-based instance with twice the physical cores. Meanwhile, AMD’s Epyc instances slot in somewhere in the middle.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/09/30/elon-musk-tesla-bot/
Tomi Engdahl says:
For Better or Worse, Tesla Bot Is Exactly What We Expected Tesla fails to show anything uniquely impressive with its new humanoid robot prototype
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tesla-optimus-robot
Tomi Engdahl says:
China spins up giant battery built with US-patented tech
World’s largest VRFB was built with inadvertent help from the Department of Energy
https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/30/chinese_battery_vrfb_us_patents/
Tomi Engdahl says:
How the US is trying to maintain dominance of the advanced semiconductor industry and limit China’s ability to develop its own
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-25/us-microchip-ban-limit-china-technical-advances-semiconductor/101461042
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tristan Fiedler / Politico:
NXP Semiconductors CEO Kurt Sievers estimates the EU must invest €500B to achieve its 20% global chip market share goal by 2030, short of the Chips Act’s €43B — DRESDEN — The leader of one of Europe’s most prominent microchips companies on Thursday warned the bloc’s intended investment …
NXP warns EU microchips funding falls far behind 2030 targets
https://www.politico.eu/article/microchips-maker-nxp-warns-eu-chips-funding-falls-far-behind-its-2030-targets/
Head of prominent semiconductor company says €500 billion investment is needed.
DRESDEN — The leader of one of Europe’s most prominent microchips companies on Thursday warned the bloc’s intended investment into the semiconductor industry isn’t enough to reach its 2030 targets.
In fact, it’s not even close.
“We have calculated that we would need €500 billion investment in Europe to reach the 20 percent market share goal formulated in the EU Chips Act,” Kurt Sievers, chief executive officer of NXP Semiconductors, a leading chips designer and maker founded in the Netherlands, said at an industry gathering in Dresden.
The European Commission proposed a European Chips Act in February that would unlock private and public investments up to €43 billion, in an effort to boost its share in the global semiconductor market to 20 percent by 2030 from 10 percent today, a target announced last year. The bloc also has other, smaller investment programs running.
“Reaching 20 percent world market share coming from 10 percent requires tripling or quadrupling our capacities,” Sievers said, flagging how the €43 billion package falls well short of this.
The CEO’s comments underline lingering questions over the EU’s chips plan’s feasibility and its funding, which is a mix of existing and promised budget lines and political commitments that are hard for the industry and its investors to navigate.
Intel’s microchips ‘mega fab’ raises questions on EU support
https://www.politico.eu/article/intel-mega-fab-raises-questions-on-eu-support/
US tech giant’s investment is a boon for EU’s political priorities, but industry insiders have questions.
U.S. technology giant Intel and the EU’s top brass got a win-win on Tuesday when the firm unveiled its long-awaited plans to build a state-of-the-art microchips factory on the Continent.
The big question left unanswered for now: Is the buck worth the bang?
Intel’s Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger presented his plans for a €17 billion manufacturing site in the German city of Magdeburg, as well as investments in Ireland, France, Italy and elsewhere. The new site, known as a “mega fab,” is a first-of-its-kind project in Europe, which has fallen behind the U.S. and Asia in the global race for microchips technology.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
Stadia was doomed from the start because Google knows next to nothing about gaming and no one wants to invest in services they don’t trust Google to keep around
https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/01/stadia-died-because-no-one-trusts-google/
There’s a lot of chatter right now about the “surprise” shutdown of Stadia, Google’s game-streaming service. While it’s true that rivals like Geforce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming presented entrenched competition and that Google knows next to nothing about gaming, the main trouble — as with most of its products these days — is that no one trusted them to keep it alive longer than a year or two.
It really is that simple: No one trusts Google. It has exhibited such poor understanding of what people want, need and will pay for that at this point, people are wary of investing in even its more popular products.
The technical implementation certainly wasn’t to be faulted. I will admit to being a skeptic when they said they could hit the frame rates and response times they advertised, but by Jove they did it. At its best, Stadia was better than its competitors and almost magical in how it fulfilled the promise of going from zero to in-game in one second.
The business side of things was never quite so inspiring. There is now a great remembering of the much-mocked pre-launch hype display for Stadia: the doomed Dreamcast, pointless Power Glove and E.T. for Atari, the game so bad they buried it in a shallow grave, followed by an empty pedestal on which Stadia would soon sit.
Though it’s clear this was a hilarious misunderstanding of … just about everything, it turned out to be quite apropos. Stadia was doomed, pointless and destined for an undignified death.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Karen Weise / New York Times:
In an email to recruiters, Amazon says it is freezing most corporate hiring in its retail business for the rest of 2022; AWS is not affected by the freeze — It is the latest tech company to pump the brakes on hiring amid growing economic concerns. — Amazon is freezing corporate hiring …
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/04/technology/amazon-freezes-corporate-hiring.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bloomberg:
Amazon discontinues Glow, its video calling device aimed at kids, amid lackluster sales and a shift in consumer behavior after debuting the $300 product in 2021 — Amazon.com Inc. is discontinuing its pandemic-era kids’ video calling device amid lackluster sales and a shift in consumer behavior.
Amazon Discontinues Glow Video-Calling Device for Kids
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-04/amazon-is-killing-the-glow-calling-device-for-kids#xj4y7vzkg
The Amazon Glow was launched last year during the pandemic
Company has a history of launching experimental hardware
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger on returning to Intel, resetting the culture, replacing executives, decision making, long-term plans, new chip plants, and more
Pat Gelsinger came back to turn Intel around — here’s how it’s going
How CEO Pat Gelsinger changed the culture at Intel and bet big on the silicon heartland
https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/4/23385652/pat-gelsinger-intel-chips-act-ohio-manufacturing-chip-shortage?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4
Tomi Engdahl says:
Debby Wu / Bloomberg:
Taiwan pledges to work closely with the US and other allies to implement “very firm” export controls and prevent China’s military from acquiring advanced chips
Taiwan Pledges to Keep Advanced Chips From Chinese Military
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-05/taiwan-pledges-to-keep-advanced-chips-from-chinese-military#xj4y7vzkg
Taiwan banned Alchip semiconductor exports to China’s Phytium
Taiwan weighs business and security as US-China tensions grow
Taiwan pledged to work closely with the US and other allies to prevent China’s military from acquiring state-of-the-art technology, as Washington steps up efforts to contain the world’s No. 2 economy.
Taiwan, home to the world’s largest semiconductor foundry, will keep its advanced chip development at home, while adopting measures to stop its tech from being used by the People’s Liberation Army, C.C. Chen, deputy minister of economic affairs, said on Wednesday.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mariella Moon / Engadget:
Blizzard President Mike Ybarra says Overwatch 2 is “experiencing a mass DDoS attack” on its servers, preventing hundreds of users from joining the game’s launch — Overwatch 2′s early access launch has been marred by a few bugs and a massive DDoS attack preventing players from getting into the game.
DDoS attack on ‘Overwatch 2′ servers prevents fans from playing the game on launch day
Players report getting stuck in queue behind tens of thousands of other people also waiting to get in.
https://www.engadget.com/ddos-attack-overwatch-2-050328450.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Francisco Pires / Tom’s Hardware:
Samsung details GDDR7, already in production, with speeds up to 36Gbps, doubling GDDR6′s 18Gbps, and plans to release new V-NAND chips with a 230-layer design
Samsung Details GDDR7 and 1,000-Layer V-NAND Plans
By Francisco Pires
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/samsung-details-gddr7-1000-later-vnand-plans
Increasing investments as others tighten their belts
Tomi Engdahl says:
Todd Haselton / CNBC:
AMD announces ~$5.6B in preliminary Q3 revenue, below its outlook of $6.7B plus or minus $200M, driven by weaker Client segment revenue and supply chain issues — – AMD issued preliminary third-quarter results Thursday that are well below its initial guidance.
AMD warns of third-quarter revenue shortfall on weaker PC demand, supply chain issues
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/06/amd-warns-of-third-quarter-revenue-shortfall-on-weaker-pc-demand-supply-chain-issues.html
AMD issued preliminary third-quarter results Thursday that are well below its initial guidance.
The semiconductor company also said its non-GAAP gross margin is expected to come in around 50%, while it had previously expected gross margin to be closer to 54%.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kim Jaewon / Nikkei Asia:
Samsung says its Q3 profit dropped 31.7% YoY to $7.7B amid inflation and estimates that revenue for Q3 increased 2.7% to about $53B — South Korean tech company may suffer poor earnings in coming quarters — SEOUL — Samsung Electronics said Friday that its operating profit likely fell …
Samsung sees Q3 profit down 31.7% amid inflation, low chip demand
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technology/Samsung-sees-Q3-profit-down-31.7-amid-inflation-low-chip-demand
South Korean tech company may suffer poor earnings in coming quarters