Items tagged with semiconductors
Chip smugglers have reportedly found all kinds of creative ways to sneak semiconductors into China, such as hiding them with live lobsters, inside fake baby bumps, and other means designed to evade customs and, more broadly, import and export restrictions. In an effort to crack down on chip smuggling, a U.S. lawmaker...
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Butter. Corn on the cob. Potatoes. White wine. These are all things that pair nicely with lobster. But chips? Not so much, though when it comes to the non-edible variety (you know, semiconductors), there's a report claiming that smugglers are using live lobsters to sneak NVIDIA's AI chips into China. Is this really...
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You may not realize it, but chances are high that one of your devices is rocking an Arm-based chip of some kind. And probably multiple devices. Arm's IP has been used to design an enormous range of system-on-chips (SoCs) that power many Android smartphones, tablets, routers, smart TVs, and so much more. Given that's...
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Some chip companies and their customers ought to be breathing a little easier today, thanks to a Chinese exemption on retaliatory tariffs on China-manufactured chips. The is particularly welcome news for AMD, Qualcomm, Apple, and Nvidia, among others, as these companies have Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (aka...
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It's been less a month since Lip-Bu Tan took over as chief executive officer (CEO) at Intel and he might already be making some major moves. None bigger than a reported chipmaking deal with rival TSMC that would see the two chip behemoths form a joint venture. If true—and Tan did promise to focus on winning through...
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Intel's newly-appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Lip-Bu Tan, isn't wasting any time introducing himself to shareholders and the public at large. In an open letter to investors as part of Intel's 2024 Annual Report, Tan offered up a blunt assessment of the company's past performance and outlined focal points...
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Intel has achieved a significant early milestone in its Arizona semiconductor fabrication plant, with the first wafers successfully processed on its advanced 18A process node. This achievement, announced at the same time as its March 13th conference, signals positive momentum for the company's manufacturing...
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For decades, the semiconductor industry has been laser-focused on shrinking silicon transistors, but Peking University researchers believe the future might lie in changing materials entirely. In a newly published paper, the team presents a 2D gate-all-around (GAA) transistor that they claim beats the latest...
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Yesterday, during his address to the US Congress, President Trump called for the revocation of the CHIPS Act, arguing that it is a waste of money and not an effective way of securing investment into the country.
The CHIPS Act sought to promote domestic research and semiconductor manufacturing through a program that...
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TSMC announced plans to invest an additional $100 billion on advanced chip manufacturing in the United States, bringing its total US investment to $165 million. As part of the bolstered spending, TSMC will build five new factories, including three fabrication plants and two advanced packaging facilities. It's also...
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Apple has announced plans to spend and invest more than $500 billion in the United States over the next four years, a commitment that came days after President Trump said the company was going to "build here because they don't want to pay tariffs." Part of Apple's massive investment includes a new 250,000 square-foot...
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Intel posted its first earnings report since Pat Gelsinger retired from his post as Chief Executive Officer, and it largely shows the continued efforts of a major restructuring strategy that began before he left. For example, fourth quarter revenue declined 7% year-over-year to $14.3 billion, while the full year tally...
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You may recall that, just last Thursday, we cast a dubious eye toward the story reporting that Intel's 18A process yields were on the order of 10%. The numbers simply didn't add up; Intel had already reported a defect rate of less than 0.4 defects per square centimeter. As we said back in September, those are quite...
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Let's talk about Intel's process woes, folks. Intel basically got where it is now by having the combination of bleeding-edge processor designs and also a world-beating in-house foundry. However, the company stumbled when its first-generation processors on its 14nm process were six months late. Then came troubles with...
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The U.S. Department of Commerce announced today that it has awarded $6.6 billion in government subsidy to TSMC for its Phoenix, Arizona production endeavors. This contract is the first major award to be confirmed under the CHIPS Incentives Program’s Funding Opportunity for Commercial Fabrication Facilities (mouthful...
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Shares of Intel shot up nearly 10% in after hours trading on apparent optimism from an open letter the company's CEO, Pat Gelsinger, sent to employees last night. In the letter, Gelsinger outlined the "next phase of Intel's transformation," which among other things includes turning its chip making business into an...
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It's incredibly hard to fathom that Intel would split or sell off its chip manufacturing business similar to what AMD did 16 years ago, which eventually led to the creation of GlobalFoundries (which Intel was once rumored to be interested in buying), but both options are reportedly on the table in private discussions...
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SK hynix is on track to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from the US CHIPS and Science Act to help pay for a semiconductor packaging plant in Indiana. In total, SK hynix plans to invest $3.87 billion on the production base that will churn out AI memory products on US soil, and contribute to a "more...
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Three and a half years ago, Intel veteran Pat Gelsinger returned to the Santa Clara chip maker to replace Bob Swan as the company's chief executive officer (CEO). He stated right from the beginning that his main goal was to restore process leadership, and almost immediately put into motion the company's IDM 2.0...
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A report in the Korea Economic Daily is indicating that Samsung will be ready to start rolling out 3D packaging for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) later this year. This is a key technology that will enable the company to deliver its anticipated HMB4 offering, which is aimed at the AI market, sometime in 2025.
This new...
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The U.S. CHIPS and Science is in full Oprah meme mode as of late, essentially telling chip makers, 'You get a grant, you get a grant...everybody gets a grant!' The idea is to boost US chip manufacturing with some $280 billion earmarked to bolster the domestic semiconductor industry, and Micron has emerged as the...
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Over the coming years and decades, we're going to see a lot more computer chips manufactured on U.S. soil, with companies like Intel and TSMC investing heavily on new and upgraded semiconductor fab sites in North America. Lest it need be said, however, TSMC has confirmed that chips produced in the United States are likely to carry an up-charge
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