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.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Komponenttipula rajoitti kasvua – piiripula jatkuu 2022
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2022/02/04/komponenttipula-rajoitti-kasvua-piiripula-jatkuu-2022/
Elektroniikan puolijohteiden jakelukauppa nousi Euroopassa viime vuonna 39,4 prosenttia 2,616 miljardiin euroon. Kasvu olisi voinut olla suurempaakin, mutta piiripula leikkasi osan kasvusta. Pula piireistä jatkuu jakelijoiden DMASS-järjestön mukaan edelleen myös kuluvana vuonna.
Eurooppalaisen DNASS-jakelijajärjestön mukaan kauppa kävi viime vuonna ennätyksellisesti viimeisellä neljänneksellä. Puolijohteiden lisäksi myös liittimien, passiivikomponenttien ja elektromekaniikan myynti kasvoi 39,5 prosenttia 1,13 miljardiin euroon.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IFTLE 511: Apple to Develop Own Wireless Chips; Fab Costs Rise; Talent Shortage
https://www.3dincites.com/2022/02/iftle-511-apple-to-develop-own-wireless-chips-fab-costs-rise-talent-shortage/
Taipei Times is reporting that Apple Inc is hiring engineers for a new office in southern California to develop wireless chips.
Job listings show that Apple wants employees with experience in modem chips and other wireless semiconductors. One job listing specifically says “Apple’s growing wireless silicon development team is developing the next generation of wireless silicon!”
IC Insights has released its list of the 17 companies forecast to have worldwide semiconductor [IC and O-S-D (optoelectronic, sensor, and discrete)] sales of >$10B in 2021.
Fab Building Costs Continue Rising
Talent Shortage Coming
Digitimes Asia reports that there is a shortage of employees in Taiwan. They see talent as a potential bottleneck slowing down the rapidly growing market demand, as well as future innovation.
They report that the demand-supply gap of semiconductor industry talents in Taiwan has reached 27,700 per month as of Q2 2021, and the average vacancy of engineers in the first three quarters in 2021 reached more than 17,000, up 46.4% from the same period last year. Job vacancies at IC foundry firms grew 55.3% (vs last year) in Q2, while those of packaging and testing and IC design companies increased by 51.2% and 40.8% during the same period.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Interpret Chip Supply Chain Data
https://www.eetimes.com/how-to-interpret-chip-supply-chain-data/
The press release issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce on Jan. 25 declares: “Commerce Semiconductor Data Confirms Urgent Need for Congress to Pass U.S. Innovation and Competition Act.”
Not quite. Mostly, the government data confirms ongoing technology supply chain disruptions, semiconductors being the leading indicator. The industry survey found that fabs are operating full-blast as pandemic-driven demand for chips has risen 17 percent since 2019.
The supply-demand imbalance is also reflected in manufacturers’ inventories: The semiconductor supply chain report also reveals that median inventory among U.S. automakers and consumer electronics manufacturers has shrunk to less than a five-day supply from 40 days in 2019.
“The main bottleneck identified is the need for additional fab capacity,” the survey concludes. “In addition, companies identified material and assembly, test and packaging capacity as bottlenecks.”
That’s hard data, underscoring the direct economic impact of supply chain disruptions. But the findings do not on their own confirm, as Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo asserted, the need for Congress to immediately approve $52 billion to accelerate domestic semiconductor production.
Cast as a statement of fact, Raimondo’s interpretation of the supply chain data is typical of the industry cheerleading in which commerce secretaries often engage. It’s their job.
The reality is the final outlines of U.S. legislation to revive domestic chip manufacturing will be determined amid inevitable horse-trading during an upcoming House-Senate conference.
Raimondo correctly described the semiconductor supply chain as “fragile.” But reaching for the conclusion that a fragile supply chain requires swift passage of the chip legislation that includes $52 billion to fund “surge” chip production strains credulity.
Still, notes industry analyst Jim McGregor of Tirias Research, fab construction doesn’t always translate into immediate production.
Which raises the looming question of fab overcapacity if and when technology supply chains are untangled. Indeed, other analysts foresee a chip recession. “All the signs of a recession are there. The market is overheating, and the road ahead is stony,” declares Malcolm Penn, CEO of market tracker Future Horizons.
Sister website EE Times Europe also quotes Penn as predicting: “It is simply a question of when: the fourth quarter of this year or the first quarter of 2023.”
The pandemic has wrought wrenching economic change. Whether that includes breaking the chip industry’s traditional boom-bust cycle remains to be seen.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Stocks Plunge After Facebook’s Massive Earnings Miss, Nasdaq Falls Over 3%
https://lm.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com%2Fsites%2Fsergeiklebnikov%2F2022%2F02%2F03%2Ftech-stocks-plunge-after-facebooks-massive-earnings-miss-nasdaq-falls-over-2%2F%3Futm_campaign%3Dforbes%26utm_source%3Dfacebook%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_term%3DGordie&h=AT1mZhwOMDot7GkedjZV0DZCs6no8joTXHfB-lOOIC8uiD2XyPcLfqkjth6HVcEu6XJKAC8C8pumSdoZOIF-XmuRKpA-FSn9i_cQ2EsMehTBqP3m3E0dPcrDh5CgUGYF6WfdyORNENmSwRcw8w
The stock market fell on Thursday—its first down day in five sessions—as investors once again dumped shares of tech stocks, which were under pressure after Facebook parent Meta Platforms reported lackluster profits and warned of challenges to its business this year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.1%, around 400 points, while the S&P 500 lost 2% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite 3.1%.
Shares of Facebook parent Meta are on pace for their biggest one-day drop ever, falling 26% and erasing over $230 billion in market value alone, with the company’s market capitalization now standing at around $670 billion.
Social media stocks were particularly hard-hit following Meta’s big earnings miss: Shares of Snap, formerly known as Snapchat, plunged 23%, while image-sharing platform Pinterest lost 10% and social media platform Twitter 6%.
Shares of other Big Tech companies moved lower as well, including Amazon (down nearly 8%), Alphabet (over 2%) and Microsoft (over 3%).
Strong earnings from the likes of Alphabet, Apple and Microsoft helped push investors back into tech stocks after January’s selloff when the Nasdaq fell into correction territory, down 9% for the month alone. That renewed optimism in recent days has proved short-lived, however, with investors once again dumping tech shares after Meta’s dismal quarterly earnings report late on Wednesday.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Good, all the over-hype about AI/ML was just that – overhype. Now the ‘tech enthusiasts’ will focus on the next buzzword and dump tons of $$$ into it.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/software-engineer-salary?utm_campaign=RebelMouse&socialux=facebook&share_id=6891837&utm_medium=social&utm_content=IEEE%20Spectrum&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1D62EMwB6eba3F3IQY69WElQEP2YASs7oyE8UY69-cDmyaFKPgzycRMQE
AI and Machine Learning Salaries Drop But average U.S. tech salaries climbed nearly 7 percent in 2021
https://spectrum.ieee.org/software-engineer-salary?utm_campaign=RebelMouse&socialux=facebook&share_id=6891837&utm_medium=social&utm_content=IEEE+Spectrum&utm_source=facebook
AI and Machine Learning Salaries Drop But average U.S. tech salaries climbed nearly 7 percent in 2021
https://spectrum.ieee.org/software-engineer-salary?utm_campaign=RebelMouse&socialux=facebook&share_id=6891837&utm_medium=social&utm_content=IEEE+Spectrum&utm_source=facebook
Overall, 2021 was a good year for tech professionals in the United States, with the average salary up 6.9 percent to US $104,566, according to online recruitment firm Dice. Dice released these numbers last month as part of its annual Tech Salary Report.
Hired, another online job-search firm, saw bigger dollar figures than Dice in its 2021 U.S. tech salary data—a $152,000 average—but reported a 1.1 percent overall dip from 2020, a change it attributed to a shift in hiring toward professionals who are earlier in their careers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
GEN Z KIDS APPARENTLY DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW FILE SYSTEMS WORK
https://futurism.com/the-byte/gen-z-kids-file-systems
Over the past few years, many professors have noticed an alarming trend among their students. Overall, members of Gen Z, even those studying technical scientific fields, seem to have a total misunderstanding of computer storage, The Verge reports, and many fail to conceptualize the concept of directories and folders filled with digital files.
“The most intuitive thing would be the laundry basket where you have everything kind of together, and you’re just kind of pulling out what you need at any given time,” Princeton University senior Joshua Drossman told The Verge.
Tomi Engdahl says:
With a $22B run rate, does it matter if Google Cloud still loses money?
https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/02/with-a-22b-run-rate-does-it-matter-if-google-cloud-still-loses-money/
Tomi Engdahl says:
4 Reasons Why You Don’t Need a Laptop Anymore
BY DAN PRICE
UPDATED OCT 01, 2020
The era of laptops may be coming to an end. In fact, there are several reasons why laptops are now sub-optimal purchases. Here’s what you need to know!
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-reasons-dont-need-laptop-anymore/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tech war: Beijing will come out of decoupling worse off than the US, say Chinese academics
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3165435/tech-war-beijing-will-come-out-decoupling-worse-us-say-chinese
Information technology, AI, aerospace among areas compared in report by Peking University’s Institute of International and Strategic Studies
Being isolated by an ‘alliance of tech democracies’ and drawing talent back from studies in the US identified as barriers for China
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Next Graphics Card Crisis Could Be The Most Worrying Yet
https://trib.al/8mtnBdJ
It’s been more than 12 months now since Forbes warned that the rocketing cost of graphics cards showed no sign of slowing down any time soon. And he was right. Fast forward to now, and a combination of the global semiconductor chip shortage and the demands from cryptocurrency miners mean that high-end cards are still hard to get and cost a small fortune. That is a continuing source of frustration for gamers, and scalpers aren’t helping. The good news is that many industry analysts are hopeful that, pandemic allowing, supply will start to catch up with demand from next year.
The bad news is that another GPU crisis, potentially longer-lasting and impacting more users, could well be on the cards by then, and it even has a name: DrawnApart.
The multi-national team of researchers from universities in Australia, France and Israel have demonstrated how GPUs can be used for unique and persistent tracking of your movements across the web. While hardware device fingerprinting is nothing new per se, it’s long been used in conjunction with web browser data to track online user activity for targeted advertising. Fortunately, this combo doesn’t provide those trackers with a privacy-busting knockout punch as inherent limitations cause the power of their punches to fade over time. The researchers suggest that, with browser fingerprinting evolving with usage and tracking becoming less reliable over time, the median shelf life of a modern ‘cutting edge’ user fingerprint is just 17.5 days.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ELON MUSK’S NEURALINK IS AN ABSOLUTE DISASTER, FORMER EMPLOYEES SAY
https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-neuralink-disaster
Trouble is still brewing at Neuralink. Despite co-founder Elon Musk’s insistence that the brain-computer interface startup will be headed to human trials later this year, many experts aren’t so sure.
Now, several former employees have spoken to Fortune about just how dysfunctional it is at the company — casting even more doubt on Musk’s ambitious goals this year.
Six former Neuralink employees claimed that the company is beleaguered with intense pressure to meet incredibly ambitious goals, causing a veritable revolving door of leadership.
At this point, accounts of horrendous work cultures at Musk’s ventures such as SpaceX and Tesla are sadly common. While these companies are no doubt on the forefront of exciting and innovative technology, that obviously shouldn’t come at the expense of the mental health and physical wellbeing of its employees.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tackling the complexities of a multi-cloud world: How to bridge the virtual gap
VMware provides the solutions enterprises need to innovate successfully in an increasingly complex IT environment.
https://brand-studio.fortune.com/vmware/tackling-complexities-of-multi-cloud-world-how-to-bridge-virtual-gap/?prx_t=CUoHAAAAAAoPEQA
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Workspace goes all in on shadow IT
https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/03/google-workspace-goes-all-in-on-shadow-it/
Google today announced a new version of Workspace, the company’s productivity service that you probably still refer to as G Suite. With the new — and free — Google Workspace Essentials plan, Google wants to bring more business users onto the platform by offering them the basic Workspace productivity tools — with the exception of Gmail.
Until now, in order to use Workspace with a non-Google email address, you had to sign up for the $6/month/user Business Starter account after a 14-day trial. That paid plan is not going away, but all you now need to do is sign up with your work email and you’re good to go. No credit card needed.
The new free plan is essentially the existing entry-level Business Starter plan, but with a reduced storage quota of 15 GB (down from 30). Otherwise, though, you can use Google Meet with up to 100 users for up to 60 minutes in each call, get access to Spaces for work collaboration and Chat for gossiping about their co-workers. All of the standard tools like Sheets, Slides and Docs are also included, of course.
Tomi Engdahl says:
XPG imagines a gaming mouse that can also store 1TB of games
Hopefully it doesn’t stay a CES concept
https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/27/22855409/xpg-the-vault-gaming-mouse-1-tb-ssd-portable-games-libray-lan-party
Tomi Engdahl says:
TOP 10 OLDEST PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES THAT ARE STILL IN USE IN 2022
https://www.analyticsinsight.net/top-10-oldest-programming-languages-that-are-still-in-use-in-2022/
Fortran
SQL
C
Basic
Lisp
Pascal
Smalltalk
Ada
Matlab
Cobol
Tomi Engdahl says:
Review: MNT Reform laptop has fully open hardware and software—for better or worse
Slow ARM CPU almost single-handedly derails an intriguing laptop experiment.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/01/review-mnt-reform-laptop-has-fully-open-hardware-and-software-for-better-or-worse/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.iflscience.com/space/outofcontrol-space-x-rocket-set-for-humanitys-first-accidental-collision-with-moon/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://huikea.net/ekologisin-tapa-tuottaa-tapahtumia/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Robots rise to meet the challenge of caring for old people
Robotics technology is improving, but its routine use in the home, hospital and care settings could be a long way off.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00072-z?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=LSCR_OUTLK_ENGM_GL_CEAP_TokuU_CF-Ageing&fbclid=IwAR1SJLrvumKE97ho5ryp_g43ydYqtHenwWrb6T40Q_bkBOA4GfYnLWGc2ks
Tomi Engdahl says:
THE PLAN TO GIVE THE MOON DECENT WIRELESS COVERAGE
JPL and Argotec’s relay satellites could deliver bandwidth for more than 90 missions
https://spectrum.ieee.org/lunar-communications?share_id=6888315
Tomi Engdahl says:
2022 Technology Predictions from an Electronic Design and Test Thinktank
Jan. 21, 2022
Executives from Keysight Technologies weigh in on the technology and trends we can expect to see unfold this year across the industry landscape.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/resources/industry-insights/article/21214755/keysight-technologies-2022-technology-predictions-from-an-electronic-design-and-test-thinktank?utm_source=EG%20ED%20%20Brand%20Marketing%20Promos&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS220201094&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.ident%5Bpull%5D=omeda%7C7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
What you’ll learn:
How COVID is impacting tech trends for 2022.
Building up resiiency and security in supply chains.
The democratization of IT.
The insatiable demand for bandwidth, and the roles of 5G and 6G in this space.
Tomi Engdahl says:
2022 Electronic Design Forecast
In this issue, our editors and contributors gaze into the future of technology for 2022.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/magazine/50609?utm_source=EG%20ED%20%20Brand%20Marketing%20Promos&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS220201094&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.ident%5Bpull%5D=omeda%7C7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bloomberg:
Toshiba plans to split into two companies instead of three after activist shareholder criticism, sell non-core assets, and keep its infrastructure operations
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-07/troubled-toshiba-to-split-into-two-companies-instead-of-three
Tomi Engdahl says:
6 gigahertsin wifi tuli Pohjoismaihin
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/13138-6-gigahertsin-wifi-tuli-pohjoismaihin
WiFi 6E on tekniikka, joka vie langattomat lähiverkot uuteen aikaan. Joulukuussa Traficom vapautti tämän alueen (5,9-6,4 GHz) radiolaitteet luvanvaraisuudesta. Tähän asti laitteita ei ole ollut vielä tarjolla, mutta nyt Asusin pelibrändi ROG tuo ensimmäisen 6E-reitittimen Pohjolaan.
Kyse on ainakin valmistajan ilmoituksen mukaan maailman ensimmäisestä WiFi 6E -reitittimestä. Se tukee jopa seitsemää ylimääräistä 160 MHz kanavaa. Parhaimmillaan wifi-nopeus kiihtyy GT-AXE11000 -reitittimellä jopa 11 gigabittiin sekunnissa. Nopeus riippuu tottakai käytössä olevista taajuuksista, jotka vaihtelevat alueellisesti.
WiFi 6E -tekniikka tukee täysin kaikkia olemassa olevia WiFi-laitteita ja hyödyntää uutta radiotaajuutta 6 GHz:n kaistalla. Tämän kaistanleveys on kolme kertaa suurempi kuin 5 GHz:n kaistalla, mikä lisää jopa seitsemän 160 MHz:n taajuuskaistaa olemassa olevan WiFi 6 -kapasiteetin päälle. WiFi 6E lyhentää myös yhteyksien latenssia ja koska 6 GHz:n kaista on omistettu vain WiFi 6E -laitteille, voidaan niillä ylläpitää suuria nopeuksia, joihin edellisen sukupolven laitteet eivät vaikuta.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.element14.com/news/farnell-establishes-2022-strategic-priorities/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tärkeä opas COM-HPC-korttien suunnittelijoille
https://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13143&via=n&datum=2022-02-07_15:37:45&mottagare=31202
Sulautettujen korttistandardien kehittäjä PICMG on julkistanut suunnitteluohjeen COM-HPC -tietokoneiden kantakortille (Carrier Board Design Guide). 160-sivuinen dokumentti tarjoaa elektroniikka- ja piirilevysuunnittelijoille kaiken tarvittavan tiedon COM-HPC-moduulien hyödyntämiseen.
COM-HPC on viime vuonna julkistettu uusi Computer-on-Module -korttistandardi, oka nostaa sulautettujen standardikorttien suorituskyvyn uudelle tasolle. Tavalliset COM-HPC-moduulit liitetään alustaan , joka on tyypillisesti räätälöity sovelluksen mukaan.
COM-HPC Carrier Board -suunnitteluohje löytyy täältä.
https://www.picmg.org/wp-content/uploads/PICMG_COMHPC_CDG_R2_0.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nvidian ARM-kauppa peruuntui – myyjä saa pitää rahat
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2022/02/08/nvidian-arm-kauppa-peruuntui-myyja-saa-pitaa-rahat/
Nvidian vajaa kaksi vuotta virittelemä kauppa suoritinkauppa Armista ei toteudu. Yritys kertoi asiasta tiistai-aamuna. Armin omistava Softbank ilmoitti vievänsä sen sijaan Armin pörssiin. Yritys saa pitää myös ennakkomaksut suunnitellusta kaupasta. Samalla Armin toimitusjohtaja vaihtuu.
Grafiikkasuoritimien valmistaja Nvidiaja Armin omistava SoftBank ilmoittivat tänään lopettaneensa kauppasuunnitelmat, sillä eri maiden säätelyviranomaiset ovat nähdeen kaupassa liikaa keskittymistä. Samalla Arm aloittaa julkisen tarjouksen valmistelut.
”Armilla on valoisa tulevaisuus, ja jatkamme heidän tukemistaan lisenssinsaajana tulevina vuosikymmeninä”, sanoi Jensen Huang, Nvidian perustaja ja toimitusjohtaja.
Kaupan peruunnuttua Samalla lisenssejä ostavat muutkin yritykset voivat olla rauhassa, että Nvidia ei olisi saanut liikaa painoa-arvoa eri asiakkaiden joukossa.
NVIDIA and SoftBank Group Announce Termination of NVIDIA’s Acquisition of Arm Limited
https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-and-softbank-group-announce-termination-of-nvidias-acquisition-of-arm-limited
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chip giants are ramping up spending by the billions as semiconductor demand booms
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/04/tsmc-intel-ramp-up-spending-as-semiconductor-demand-booms.html
The world’s largest contract chipmaker, TSMC, has committed to investing $100 billion over three years to ramp up production. Rival Intel announced last March that it plans to spend $20 billion on two new chip plants in Arizona.
In the short term, semiconductor analyst Peter Hanbury expects the recovery from the chip shortage to be “choppy.”
Several other companies in the semiconductor supply chain will benefit from investments made by the chipmakers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Karl Freund / Forbes:
Intel announces efforts to accelerate RISC-V development and adoption, including licensing plans, chip manufacturing partners, and a $1B IFS Innovation Fund — This announcement will have a long-lasting impact on the entire semiconductor industry: — Intel must fabricate chips …
Intel Creates $1B Innovation Fund To Grow RISC-V Market (And Attract New Foundry Customers)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/karlfreund/2022/02/07/intel-creates-1b-innovation-fund-to-grow-risc-v-market-and-attract-new-foundry-customers/?sh=5912eb1616aa
This announcement will have a long-lasting impact on the entire semiconductor industry:
Intel must fabricate chips for its competitors to grow its foundry business, and is investing in the emerging RISC-V market as the catalyst.
Intel competitors Andes Technology, Esperanto Technologies, SiFive and Ventana Micro are now early partners.
Back in 2006, Intel decided to abandon the company’s Arm-based CPU development project, selling the XScale PXA technology to Marvell Technology Group for some $600M. The thinking then was that the x86 architecture would form the cornerstone of all Intel processor designs, a strategy which served the company well for over a decade. But now, Intel sees increasing competition from AMD as well as Arm-based chips from scores of companies, and needs more customers to fill its multi-billion dollar fab facilities.
Consequently, Intel must become a preferred manufacturing partner for chips that will directly compete with Intels own products. RISC-V designers are knocking on the door to find more fab capacity, and Intel decided to answer with a big welcome sign with a B on it.
From Intel’s perspective, embracing RISC-V, along with x86 and Arm, helps the Intel Foundry Services business become a new option for fabless semiconductor companies to consider, along with TSMC, Samsung, and Global Foundries. From the perspective of other chip vendors, Intel could represent a white knight in a world of tight fab capacity, providing needed capital, fab services, and valuable technology that could help them get ahead. This will take time to materialize, but today’s announcement will lay the foundation. Companies needing access to advanced process nodes, such as 3 and 5 nm, really have nowhere to go; TSMC and Samsung advanced node capacity is essentially sold out just supplying chips to Apple, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm.
What did Intel Announce?
In a slew of announcements, Intel made it clear that it will remake itself in order to remain the #1 US semiconductor fabricator , and that it will become more open in order to fill new facilities under construction in Arizona and now in Ohio. And that shift will grow market share.
Key elements of Intel’s IFS Innovation Fund announcement include:
A $1B IFS Innovation Fund to support early-stage startups and established companies building disruptive technologies for the foundry ecosystem. A large part of this will be to accelerate RISC-V.
Intel is joining RISC-V International, the governing consortium that guides the RISC-V technology and community.
Intel announced partners that will manufacture future RISC-V chips on IFS technologies, including those from Andes, Esperanto, and Ventana.
Intel will license differentiated RISC-V IP to accelerate innovation.
Intel will provide access to open Intel Chiplet building blocks based on RISC-V, leveraging advanced packaging and high-speed chip-to-chip interfaces.
Intel also mentioned that they will be supporting design approaches that will support multiple instruction architectures including x86, Arm, and RISC-V. So, they appear to want to become the Switzerland of Fab Services.
Intel also announced the IFS Accelerator, an alliance to provide access to design services, IP, and tools and flows to enable development of next-generation customer products. So Intel won’t just be a fab, they will be a leading-edge service provider to the industry.
RISC-V: The anti-Arm
Open-source RISC-V cores are becoming the go-to technology for many devices, from low-end embedded controllers and more recently to high-performance AI chips from Esperanto for AI and Ventana Micro for servers. Despite these two exceptions, the lack of a robust ecosystem has limited the open-source technology primarily to embedded devices such as those from Andes Technology, where the license-free cores provide competitive performance as an alternative to Arm. Intel’s billion dollar investment is unprecedented, and will potentially reshape the industry landscape. The timing couldn’t be better, as the potential sale of Arm to NVIDIA, which has recently been shelved, spurred many developers to search for an alternative to Arm technology, and RISC-V is that technology.
System on a Package
Many cloud service providers as well as startups are designing multi-chiplet platforms for workloads such as AI, placing accelerators, CPUs, and I/O dies (possibly from different manufacturing nodes) on a package. “System on a Package” is the new mantra, but there are few companies that have the required technology and available fabrication capacity to make it real. In the old days, Intel saved the underlying technologies such as EMIB for multi-die packages as a differentiator for Intel products. Now Intel is stepping up and making this approach available for all comers. Is Intel becoming Open? Sounds like it to me.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Michiel Willems / City A.M.:
In its annual SEC report, Meta repeats its warning that it may be forced to shut down “significant” services in Europe if the EU adopts new data transfer rules — If Meta is not given the option to transfer, store and process data from its European users on US-based servers …
Mark Zuckerberg and team consider shutting down Facebook and Instagram in Europe if Meta can not process Europeans’ data on US servers
https://www.cityam.com/mark-zuckerberg-and-team-consider-shutting-down-facebook-and-instagram-in-europe-if-meta-can-not-process-europeans-data-on-us-servers/
If Meta is not given the option to transfer, store and process data from its European users on US-based servers, Facebook and Instagram may be shut down across Europe, the social media giants’ owner reportedly warned in its annual report.
The key issue for Meta is transatlantic data transfers, regulated via the so-called Privacy Shield and other model agreements that Meta uses or used to store data from European users on American servers. The current agreements to enable data transfers are currently under heavy scrutiny in the EU.
In its annual report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Meta warns that if a new framework is not adopted and the company is no longer allowed to use the current model agreements “or alternatives,” the company will “probably” no longer be able to offer many of its “most significant products and services,” including Facebook and Instagram, in the EU, according to various media reports, including in iTWire, The Guardian newspaper and Side Line Magazine.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Gunjan Banerji / Wall Street Journal:
After FAANG stocks recorded big, simultaneous gains in 2021, all five have fallen so far in 2022, leading some investors to seek out other growth stocks
A Big Tech Trade Is Losing Its Luster
The NYSE FANG+ Index, which tracks popular stocks like Meta Platforms, Apple, Amazon and Netflix, has tumbled 10% this year
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-big-tech-trade-is-losing-its-luster-11644143580?mod=djemalertNEWS
The stock market’s popular FAANG trade is starting to show cracks.
Investors say they are reconsidering their approach to trading big technology stocks after a week marked by giant swings in share prices. They are more closely sifting through the winners and losers to try to identify those that might thrive over the next year.
Gone, several investors said, are the days in which the stocks logged a simultaneous ascent and attracted crowds of fans. Some have become victims of rising interest rates, changing consumer tastes and stretched valuations. Those that have fallen short of high investor expectations have paid dearly in the market.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.rohde-schwarz.com/fi/solutions/test-and-measurement/aerospace-defense/satellite-test/satellite-industry-day-series_255353.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nvidia, SoftBank Call Off Blockbuster Arm Deal
SoftBank revives plans to take the U.K.-based chip-design specialist public, aims to launch IPO before the end of next fiscal year
https://www.wsj.com/articles/nvidia-softbank-call-off-blockbuster-arm-deal-11644297283?cx_testId=3&cx_testVariant=cx_101&cx_artPos=5&mod=WTRN#cxrecs_s
Nvidia Corp. and Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. are abandoning a blockbuster deal for the U.S. semiconductor giant to acquire chip-design specialist Arm after regulators raised antitrust concerns.
The two companies said in a joint statement on Tuesday that they had agreed not to move forward with the transaction “because of significant regulatory challenges.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
EU yrittää jättiohjelmalla mukaan puolijohdekisaan
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/13149-eu-yrittaeae-jaettiohjelmalla-mukaan-puolijohdekisaan
Eurooppa on kiistatta jäänyt jälkeen puolijohdeteollisuudessa. Erityisesti sirujen valmistuksessa Aasia ja Yhdysvallat ovat kaukana edellä. Nyt EU:n komissio on ehdottanut toimenpidekokonaisuutta, jolla pyritään varmistamaan unionin jäsenten toimitusvarmuus, häiriönsietokyky ja teknologinen johtajuus puolijohdeteknologioiden ja -sovellusten alalla.
Kokonaisuus on nimeltään European Chips Act. Säädöksellä on tarkoitus saada liikkeelle yli 43 miljardia euroa julkisia ja yksityisiä investointeja. Vertailun vuoksi: Yhdysvalloissa hallinto on hyväksynyt vastaavanlaisen investointiohjelman, joka on suuruudeltaan lähes kaksinkertainen.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2022/02/08/komissio-haluaa-eurooppaan-lisaa-sirutehtaita-maarayksella/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2600net/permalink/3233560100200426/
The Department of Defense is Prioritizing Open-Source Software. Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), John B. Sherman, released a memo to the entire Department titled [“Software Development and Open-Source Software”](https://dodcio.defense.gov/Portals/0/Documents/Library/SoftwareDev-OpenSource.pdf). In this memo, the CIO addresses two primary concerns: 1) using open-source software (OSS) introduces supply chain risks for DoD software programs, and 2) sharing DoD code via open-source channels without proper checks enables potential leaks of proprietary DoD information to adversaries. In laying out how these two concerns should be addressed properly, the CIO categorizes OSS into a unique position, one which can be utilized by OSS foundations and project maintainers to gain funding for their essential contributions.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel launches $1B fund focused on chip foundry ecosystem
https://siliconangle.com/2022/02/07/intel-launches-1b-fund-focused-chip-foundry-ecosystem/
Intel Corp. is launching a $1 billion fund to invest in technologies and companies that can help customers of its chip foundry business bring new processors to market faster.
The fund was announced this morning. It’s the result of a collaboration between Intel’s venture capital arm and its recently launched Intel Foundry Services, or IFS, business. The IFS business will use the chipmaker’s semiconductor fabs to produce processors for other companies, such as cloud providers, based on their own custom designs.
Intel’s new $1 billion fund is only one component of a broader strategy to support the growth of IFS. In conjunction with the announcement of the fund today, Intel detailed a number of new chip industry partnerships. It also disclosed that IFS is developing an “open chiplet platform” in collaboration with multiple cloud providers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is Hindsight 2020?
https://www.eetimes.com/is-hindsight-2020/
Less than a month ago, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reported that China’s share of global chip sales now surpasses Taiwan’s, and is closing in on that of Europe and Japan.
It was a surprise. Recent reports say Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) accounts for about 53 percent of the world’s foundry production. By comparison, China’s largest chip maker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) has so far gained a 5-percent share of the foundry business.
No chip company in China comes close to TSMC’s scale.
Perhaps the most notable part of the SIA report was its use of the word “now” in the headline. SIA was using data from 2020 as the basis for its claim. SIA does not deny the discrepancy between then and now.
“That is the most recent year for which data is available, and the article makes it clear from the start that we use 2020 data (although this point is not in the headline, as you pointed out),” an SIA spokesperson replied in an email to EE Times.
A lot of people read only headlines. The last sentence of the second paragraph in the SIA blog notes that “sales data for 2021 are not yet available”.
It’s also worth mentioning that near the end of 2020, Chinese TSMC rival Wuhan Hongxin Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (HSMC) went bankrupt.
These events do not signal a healthy domestic industry posing a competitive threat to Taiwan, or closing in on Europe and Japan.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hair Today Gone Tomorrow: Four Men Go To Fix A Wafer Prober
https://hackaday.com/2022/02/08/hair-today-gone-tomorrow-four-men-go-to-fix-a-wafer-prober/
I’ve had a fairly varied early part of my career in the semiconductors business: a series of events caused me to jump disciplines a little bit, and after one such event, I landed in the test engineering department at Philips Semiconductors. I was tasked with a variety of oddball projects, supporting engineering work, fixing broken ATE equipment, and given a absolute ton of training: Good times! Here’s a story that comes straight off the oddball pile.
We needed to assemble a crack team of experts and high-tail it to deepest darkest Wales, and sort out an urgent production problem. The brief was that the wafer probe yield was disastrous and the correlation wafer was not giving the correct results. Getting to the punch line is going to require some IC fabrication background, but if you like stories about silicon, or red-bearded test engineers, it’s worth it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bloomberg:
Dutch company ASML, which develops essential chipmaking machines, says an affiliate of a Chinese company has begun marketing products that infringe on its IP
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-09/asml-warns-chinese-rival-may-be-infringing-its-trade-secrets
Tomi Engdahl says:
EU rolls out a red carpet for TSMC and other semiconductor giants
https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3166311/eu-rolls-out-red-carpet-tsmc-and-other-semiconductor-giants
European Union announces ambitious programme to spend €42 billion (US$48 billion) by 2030 to effectively double the bloc’s production of semiconductors
EU is already in talks with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co hoping to attract the industry giant to help develop European chip industry
Tomi Engdahl says:
What Causes Semiconductor Aging?
https://semiengineering.com/what-causes-semiconductor-aging/
Semiconductor technology has evolved to the point where no one can assume chips will last forever. If not carefully considered, aging can shorten the life of an IC below the needs for an intended application.
Aging is well studied in technology circles, but while others less directly involved may understand at a general level this is a problem, it’s not always obvious why. So what exactly are the physical mechanisms behind aging?
“Aging depends essentially on how fast we are driving the electrons through the transistor channels,” said Sathish Balasubramanian, head of product management for AMS at Siemens EDA.
This, in turn, drives a number of tradeoffs. “From a design perspective, nearly every designer is interested in something different in terms of aging,” said André Lange, group manager, quality and reliability at Fraunhofer IIS Engineering of Adaptive Systems Division.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NXP Sees No Path Out of Global Chip Shortage Before 2023
Feb. 4, 2022
NXP is forging closer ties with its customers, giving it confidence that the automotive chip boom will outlast the current supply crisis.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/markets/automotive/article/21215694/electronic-design-nxp-sees-path-out-of-global-chip-shortage-stretching-into-2023?utm_source=EG%20ED%20Analog%20%26%20Power%20Source&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS220127069&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.ident%5Bpull%5D=omeda%7C7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Executives at NXP Semiconductors said its supply situation is improving despite a chip shortage that has gripped the world for the last year. But the automobile chip giant sees the supply crunch lasting into 2023.
The company managed to snare more capacity at the contract manufacturers that make its chips and increased the capacity of its in-house fabs, CEO Kurt Sievers said on a conference call with analysts this week. He said NXP, the world’s second-largest supplier of chips to the auto industry, would run its front-end fabs “full out” this year to help get through its order backlog and take further steps to expand capacity.
But demand for NXP’s microcontrollers (MCUs) and other ICs is still outstripping its ability to supply them across its primary markets. “We anticipate 2022 will be another year of demand/supply imbalance with lead times extending out over almost the entire portfolio,” Sievers said.”The level and intensity of supply-related conversations with our customers remain elevated.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Yli 9 neliökilometriä piikiekkoja
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/13153-yli-9-nelioekilometriae-piikiekkoja
Kaikki maailman puolijohteet valmistetaan piikiekoilla. Puolijohdealan kattojärjestö SEMI kertoo, että viime vuonna rikottiin vanhat ennätykset sekä kiekkojen toimitusmäärissä että liikevaihdossa. Kaikkiaan piikiekkoja toimitettiin 9,1 neliökilometrin kokoinen ala. Tämä vastaa reilua 220 jalkapallokenttää.
SEMI:n raportoima määrä (14156 miljoonaa neliötuumaa) on 14 prosenttia suurempi kuin vuonna 2020. Kiekkojen liikevaihto kasvoi 13 prosenttia vuoteen 2020 verrattuna eli 12,6 miljardiin dollariin. Kysyntää oli kovaa kaikissa kiekkotyypeissä (300, 200 ja 150 millimetriä).
Tomi Engdahl says:
ASML Asks Customers to Snub Suspected Patent-Infringing Chinese Rival
By Mark Tyson published about 14 hours ago
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/asml-patent-Dongfang-Jingyuan-Electron?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_content=tomsguide&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow
China’s Dongfang Jingyuan is associated with XTAL, against which ASML has previously won an $845M IP rights infringement payout.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Debby Wu / Bloomberg:
Foxconn says there will be a major improvement in component shortages in Q1; TSMC and others have indicated shortages will continue through 2022
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-10/iphone-assembler-hon-hai-says-component-shortages-are-easing
Tomi Engdahl says:
Paul Alcorn / Tom’s Hardware:
Mercury Research: AMD hit 25.6% of the x86 market in Q4 2021, beating its 25.3% market share record set in 2006, in part due to gaming console shipments growth — The Mercury Research CPU market share results are in for the fourth quarter of 2021, showing that AMD now comprises 25.6% …
AMD Sets All-Time CPU Market Share Record as Intel Gains in Desktop and Notebook PCs
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-amd-4q-2021-2022-market-share-desktop-notebook-server-x86
The Mercury Research CPU market share results are in for the fourth quarter of 2021, showing that AMD now comprises 25.6% of the overall x86 market, its highest share ever, partially on the strength of its increasing gaming console shipments. That beats AMD’s prior overall record of 25.3% that it reached 15 years ago in 2006. Meanwhile, Intel has gained unit share in desktop and notebook PCs as it continues to wrest some of its losses back from AMD. However, Intel continues to slowly lose share in the lucrative server market.
Tomi Engdahl says:
2022 Technology Predictions from an Electronic Design and Test Thinktank
Jan. 21, 2022
Executives from Keysight Technologies weigh in on the technology and trends we can expect to see unfold this year across the industry landscape.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/resources/industry-insights/article/21214755/keysight-technologies-2022-technology-predictions-from-an-electronic-design-and-test-thinktank?utm_source=RF%20MWRF%20Today&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS220203073&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.ident%5Bpull%5D=omeda%7C7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
What you’ll learn:
How COVID is impacting tech trends for 2022.
Building up resiiency and security in supply chains.
The democratization of IT.
The insatiable demand for bandwidth, and the roles of 5G and 6G in this space.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What’s Next for Physically Aware DFT?
Jan. 31, 2022
More complex designs and growing test logic need physically aware implementation of all DFT logic for optimal power, performance, and area.
https://www.mwrf.com/technologies/test-measurement/article/21215559/synopsys-whats-next-for-physically-aware-dft?utm_source=RF%20MWRF%20Today&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS220203073&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.ident%5Bpull%5D=omeda%7C7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
What you’ll learn:
Why isolated flows negatively impact design schedule and PPA.
Benefits of unified DFT, synthesis, and physical design flows.
Physical implementation optimization methods for test compression and scan chains.
Modern system-on-chip (SoC) designs continue to expand in size and complexity to meet the computing requirements of applications such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and the data center. This trend also has increased the design-for-test (DFT) logic added to the SoCs to minimize test cost and maximize test quality. Furthermore, SoCs designed to be deployed in safety-critical applications further broaden the test requirements to include in-system test.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Factory contamination ruins 6.5 million terabytes of flash storage, prices may rise https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/02/10/factory-contamination-ruins-65-million-terabytes-of-flash-storage-prices-may-rise?utm_source=sendible&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=RSS