Today's consumers need more out of their personal technology to thrive in the world of hybrid work and learning. While portability and mobility are key, the other side of this reality is that the hybrid worker and student are spending less time in offices and classrooms, and more time at home. This evolving consumer behavior has inspired Lenovo's new personal devices designed for the modern family, including Lenovo's first 16-inch Chromebook, the new Lenovo IdeaPad 5i Chromebook, and two new additions to its premium Lenovo Tab P11 tablet lineup: the Lenovo Tab P11 (2nd Gen) and the decked-out Lenovo Tab P11 Pro (2nd Gen).

The sudden switch to remote work and learning two years ago quickly increased people's reliance on technology, but it also ushered in a new and improved wave of remote everything - fitness, concerts, cinema, cooking, even dance parties. People learned to do everything they used to go out for, right in their own homes using their technology. Signs point to those behaviors persisting past the pandemic as consumers plan to spend more time on hobbies like home improvement and many expressing intentions of cooking at home more.

Basemark launched today its second GPUScore graphics benchmark, called The Expedition. The Expedition targets high-end smartphones and other mobile devices running on Android or iOS. It utilizes the latest mobile GPU technologies, like Variable Rate Shading on supporting devices. As for graphics APIs, The Expedition supports Vulkan and Metal. The Expedition uses state-of-the-art rendering algorithms, similar to ones seen in the latest mobile games. Every run of GPUScore: The Expedition runs exactly the same content regardless of hardware and operating system. This combination makes the test results truly comparable with high accuracy and reliability.

The difference in graphics performance between desktops and mobile devices is getting narrower, as consumers want smartphones and other mobile devices with superior graphics performance. Consequently, graphics processors used in handheld devices are rapidly evolving. This raises the importance of new graphics performance benchmarks that test the latest devices correctly. Relevant measurements give the consumers an accurate understanding of the graphics performance, which is a major selling point.

Based on media reports out of Taiwan, TSMC seems to have plenty of customers lined up for its 3 nm node, with Apple being the first customer out the gates when production starts sometime next month. However, TSMC is only expected to start the production with a mere 1,000 wafer starts a month, which seems like a very low figure, especially as this is said to remain unchanged through all of Q4. On the plus side, yields are expected to be better than the initial 5 nm node yields. Full-on mass production for the 3 nm node isn't expected to happen until the second half of 2023 and TSMC will also kick off its N3E node sometime in 2023.

Apart from Apple, major customers for the 3 nm node include AMD, Broadcom, Intel, MediaTek, NVIDIA and Qualcomm. Contrary to earlier reports by TrendForce, it appears that TSMC will continue its rollout of the 3 nm node as previously planned. Apple is expected to produce the A17 smartphone and tablet SoC, as well as advanced versions of the M2, as well as the M3 laptop and desktop processors on the 3 nm node. Intel is still said to be producing its graphics chiplets with TSMC, with the potential for GPU and FPGA products in the future. There's no word on what the other customers are planning to produce on the 3 nm node, but MediaTek and Qualcomm are obviously looking at using the node for future smartphone and tablet SoCs, with AMD and NVIDIA most likely aiming for upcoming GPUs and Broadcom for some kind of HPC related hardware.

MediaTek today announced the latest addition to its 5G portfolio, the T830 platform for 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) routers and mobile hotspot customer-premise equipment (CPE). The T830 is built with MediaTek's M80 modem which supports advanced Release 16 capabilities for sub-6 GHz band operations, making the platform ideal for 5G networks around the globe.

For device manufacturers, the T830's highly integrated, compact design provides big power savings and reduces development time and costs. The T830 makes it possible for operators to deliver 5G speeds up to 7 Gbps right out of the box using sub-6 GHz cellular infrastructure to avoid the costs of wireline technologies such as cable or fiber. Additionally, consumers can enjoy super-fast internet services from a small device that they can self-install, avoiding the hassles of lengthy installation times for fixed line broadband.

GIGABYTE today showed off its upcoming AMD X670E and X670 chipset-based Socket AM5 motherboard lineup for the Ryzen 7000-series "Zen 4" desktop processors due to launch in September. Given AMD's push for PCI-Express Gen 5 connectivity beyond just the PEG slot, the new X670E chipset, with multiple Gen 5 M.2 slots, covers the upper end of the GIGABYTE AORUS motherboard series, with the X670E AORUS Xtreme and the X670E AORUS Master. The lower-end of the lineup is based on the X670, with the AORUS Pro and AORUS Elite tiers.

Both the X670E and X670 offer at least one PCI-Express 5.0 x16 slot (which can be further split into two x8 Gen 5 slots); and at least one PCI-Express 5.0 x4 M.2 NVMe slot wired to the AM5 processor. The X670E is differentiated in having an additional Gen 5 M.2 slot that is wired to the SoC, besides downstream Gen 5 PCIe connectivity from the chipset. The AORUS Xtreme leads the pack with a monstrous 18-phase VRM that uses 105 A DrMOS, an 8-layer PCB, four Gen 5 M.2 slots, the highest-grade onboard audio with ESS-made headphones DAC, AQuantia 10 GbE, WiFi 6E, and a plethora of overclocker-friendly features.

Although Intel threw in the towel and gave up on making routers and gateways back in 2020, the company is still the world's largest manufacturer of WiFi modules for computers. Now news out of Korea suggests that Intel's first WiFi 7 products will be launched in 2024, about a year after the expected availability of the first WiFi 7 routers and gateways. That said, based on a quote from Eric McLaughlin, vice president of Intel's wireless solutions division, who attended an unspecified press conference in the APAC region, Intel "expect it to appear in major markets in 2025." This suggests that it'll be a late 2024 launch and we might see competitors' products in notebooks and PCs way ahead of Intel this time around.

That said, the WiFi 7 standard is currently only in the late stages of development, despite Broadcom, MediaTek and Qualcomm having announced multiple products already. It's likely we'll see another round of draft spec hardware launching either later this year, or next year, with the final WiFi 7 spec not expected to be ratified until 2024. As such, Intel may be later than its competitors, but should hopefully launch a feature complete product. Intel's products should support speeds of up to 5.8 GHz, although this would be using a 320 MHz wide channel and 4K QAM, which means these speeds will be limited to a few meters from a router. WiFi devices have a history of quirky issues between brands, even if none of them have been so severe that a fallback to an older standard hasn't solved the problem, but it's still been a hassle for consumers. Hopefully WiFi 7 won't repeat history, but we wouldn't place a bet on it.

Last week's news about Mediatek signing an agreement to use Intel's Foundry Services (IFS) led to some speculation as to what Mediatek would be manufacturing at IFS. Details have now emerged in the Taiwan press about Mediatek's plans and the first products will be using the Intel 16 process, what was previously known as its 22 nm node. As such, we're not talking about anything cutting edge or even remotely close, but that's hardly a problem for Mediatek, as the company makes a vast range of products suitable for the node.

MediaTek CEO Rick Tsai mentioned that IFS will be used for producing semiconductors for digital TVs and wireless access networks at an investor conference in Taiwan. This suggests that most of the components might not even be for Mediatek itself, but rather its subsidiaries, such as MStar or Airoha. MStar is a company that produces a wide range of lower-end smart TV chips, whereas Airoha has ended up taking over Mediatek's networking and Bluetooth business units. Admittedly, Mediatek still has some of these types of products under its own brand, but these tend to be higher-end products that would require a more advanced node than 22 nm in most cases. Mediatek's move to IFS has raised concerns in Taiwan that the smaller foundries might be losing business from Mediatek over time, which means that UMC and PSMC are going to be on the losing end of this deal.

Intel and MediaTek today announced a strategic partnership to manufacture chips using Intel Foundry Services' (IFS) advanced process technologies. The agreement is designed to help MediaTek build a more balanced, resilient supply chain through the addition of a new foundry partner with significant capacity in the United States and Europe. MediaTek plans to use Intel process technologies to manufacture multiple chips for a range of smart edge devices. IFS offers a broad manufacturing platform with technologies optimized for high performance, low power and always-on connectivity built on a roadmap that spans production-proven three-dimensional FinFET transistors to next-generation breakthroughs.

"As one of the world's leading fabless chip designers powering more than 2 billion devices a year, MediaTek is a terrific partner for IFS as we enter our next phase of growth," said IFS President Randhir Thakur. "We have the right combination of advanced process technology and geographically diverse capacity to help MediaTek deliver the next billion connected devices across a range of applications."

Today, leading global fabless chipmaker MediaTek Inc., [joined by Indiana Governor Eric J. Holcomb, Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves, Indiana Secretary of Commerce Bradley B. Chambers, and Purdue College of Engineering's Dr. Mung Chiang] announced their commitment to accept a state transition assistance package from the Indiana Economic Development Commission (IEDC) to support its very first Midwest semiconductor chip design center in West Lafayette, Indiana. MediaTek also shared its intention to create a new research partnership with Purdue to collaborate on engineering talent development and new research on next-generation computing and communications chip design. The news was shared with senior leaders, other international investors and policymakers assembled in National Harbor, Maryland for the 2022 SelectUSA Investment Summit.

This novel partnership in Indiana represents a new U.S. growth model for MediaTek USA; outside the traditional centers of gravity for chip design. "We believe strongly that being in Indiana means we'll have access to some of the best engineering talent in the world," said Dr. Kou-Hung Lawrence Loh, Corporate Senior Vice President of MediaTek Inc. and President of MediaTek USA, Inc. "Not just at Purdue, but West Lafayette is only four hours away from nearly a dozen of the top engineering schools in the country. In the post pandemic world, top candidates tell us they want to be closer to home, near family and they want to have a real house and great schools. Indiana offers all that and more."

MediaTek today announced the Dimensity 9000+, an enhancement to the company's top-of-the-line 5G smartphone chipset. This new high-end offering delivers a boost in performance over the Dimensity 9000 to make the next generation of flagship smartphones even more powerful and efficient.

The new Dimensity 9000+ system-on-chip (SoC) integrates Arm's v9 CPU architecture with a 4 nm octa-core process, combining one ultra-Cortex-X2 core operating at up to 3.20 GHz (compared to 3.05 GHz with the Dimensity 9000) with three super Cortex-A710 cores and four efficiency Cortex-A510 cores. The advanced CPU architecture and Arm Mali-G710 MC10 graphics processor built into the new chipset provide more than a 5% boost in CPU performance and more than 10% improvement in GPU performance.

According to the latest TrendForce statistics, the top ten IC designers worldwide posted a combined revenue of US$39.43 billion in 1Q22, or 44% growth YoY. Qualcomm, NVIDIA, Broadcom ranked in the top three. After the acquisition of Xilinx, AMD surpassed MediaTek in the fourth position. In addition, according to TrendForce tracking of IC design industry trends, revenue generated by Will Semiconductor and Cirrus Logic was enough to be included in the top ten for the first time.

Benefiting from growth performance in handsets and RF front-end divisions in addition to its IoT and automotive divisions in 1Q22, Qualcomm's quarterly revenue reached US$9.55 billion, or 52% growth YoY, ranking number one in the world. The expanded application of GPUs in data centers boosted this portion of NVIDIA's revenue to 45.4%, surpassing the 45% accounted for by its gaming business, combining for a total revenue of US$7.9 billion, or 53% growth YoY. Broadcom's revenue from semiconductor solutions is substantial, including network chips, broadband communication chips, and storage and bridging chips. Its business has maintained stable sales performance, with revenue reaching US$6.11 billion, or 26% growth YoY. After the addition of Xilinx, AMD's revenue reached US$5.89 billion, or 71% growth YoY. However, even excluding Xilinx, due to strong sales in its enterprise, embedded and semi-customized divisions, AMD's own business revenue still hit an all-time high of US$5.33 billion.

AMD today unveiled its next-generation Ryzen 7000 desktop processors, based on the Socket AM5 desktop platform. The new Ryzen 7000 series processors introduce the new "Zen 4" microarchitecture, with the company claiming a 15% single-threaded uplift over "Zen 3" (16-core/32-thread Zen 4 processor prototype compared to a Ryzen 9 5950X). Other key specs about the architecture put out by AMD include a doubling in per-core L2 cache to 1 MB, up from 512 KB on all older versions of "Zen." The Ryzen 7000 desktop CPUs will boost to frequencies above 5.5 GHz. Based on the way AMD has worded their claims, it seems that the "+15%" number includes IPC gains, plus gains from higher clocks, plus what the DDR4 to DDR5 transition achieves. With Zen 4, AMD is introducing a new instruction set for AI compute acceleration. The transition to the LGA1718 Socket AM5 allows AMD to use next-generation I/O, including DDR5 memory, and PCI-Express Gen 5, both for the graphics card, and the M.2 NVMe slot attached to the CPU socket.

Much like Ryzen 3000 "Matisse," and Ryzen 5000 "Vermeer," the Ryzen 7000 "Raphael" desktop processor is a multi-chip module with up to two "Zen 4" CCDs (CPU core dies), and one I/O controller die. The CCDs are built on the 5 nm silicon fabrication process, while the I/O die is built on the 6 nm process, a significant upgrade from previous-generation I/O dies that were built on 12 nm. The leap to 5 nm for the CCD enables AMD to cram up to 16 "Zen 4" cores per socket, all of which are "performance" cores. The "Zen 4" CPU core is larger, on account of more number-crunching machinery to achieve the IPC increase and new instruction-sets, as well as the larger per-core L2 cache. The cIOD packs a pleasant surprise—an iGPU based on the RDNA2 graphics architecture! Now most Ryzen 7000 processors will pack integrated graphics, just like Intel Core desktop processors.

MediaTek today announced the Filogic 880 and Filogic 380 Wi-Fi 7 platform solutions for high-bandwidth applications in the operator, retail, enterprise and consumer electronics markets. This pair of chips will be among the first Wi-Fi 7 solutions to hit the market, allowing device makers to deliver cutting-edge products with the latest connectivity technology. Filogic 880 is a complete platform that combines a Wi-Fi 7 access point with a new advanced host processor solution to provide the industry's best router and gateway solution for operator, retail and enterprise markets. It offers a scalable architecture that can support up to penta-band 4x4 with a maximum speed of 36 Gbps. Filogic 380 is designed to bring Wi-Fi 7 connectivity to all client devices, including smartphone, tablet, TVs, notebooks, set-top boxes and OTT streaming devices. The chip's dual concurrent 2x2 capability will be optimized "out-of-the-box" for these devices as MediaTek also supplies the corresponding platform solutions. This helps to streamline the design process, maximize performance and accelerate time-to-market.

"Our wireless connectivity solutions are designed to deliver the fastest performance using the most advanced technologies, and represent MediaTek's commitment to drive Wi-Fi 7 adoption in a large number of new markets," said Alan Hsu, corporate vice president and general manager of the Intelligent Connectivity business at MediaTek. "With Filogic 880 and Filogic 380, our customers can deliver fast, reliable and always-on connected experiences to meet the industry's growing connectivity demands." MediaTek's Filogic 880 combines a Wi-Fi 7 access point with a powerful application processor and network processing unit (NPU) to support maximum Wi-Fi, Ethernet and packet processing performance. The chip offers a wide range of interfaces and peripherals, making it easy to customize designs for various end products and applications.

MediaTek today announced the Dimensity 1050 system-on-chip [SoC], its first mmWave 5G chipset that will power the next generation of 5G smartphones with seamless connectivity, displays, gaming and power efficiency. Through dual connectivity using mmWave and sub-6 GHz, the Dimensity 1050 will deliver the speeds and capacity required to provide smartphone users with an incredible experience, even in some of the most densely populated areas. The Dimensity 1050 combines mmWave 5G and sub-6 GHz to fluidly migrate between network bands, and is built on the ultra-efficient TSMC 6 nm production process with an octa-core CPU. Supporting 3CC carrier aggregation on sub-6 (FR1) spectrum and 4CC carrier aggregation on mmWave (FR2) spectrum, the Dimensity 1050 will be capable of delivering up to 53 percent faster speeds and greater reach to smartphones compared to LTE + mmWave aggregation alone. The SoC integrates two premium Arm Cortex-A78 CPUs with speeds reaching 2.5 GHz and the latest Arm Mali-G610 graphics engine.

"The Dimensity 1050, and its combination of sub-6 GHz and mmWave technologies, will deliver end-to-end 5G experiences, uninterrupted connectivity and superior power efficiency to meet everyday user demands," said CH Chen, Deputy General Manager of Wireless Communications Business Unit at MediaTek. "With faster, more reliable connections, and advanced camera technology this chip delivers powerful features to help device makes to differentiate their smartphone product lines." In addition to 5G optimizations, the Dimensity 1050 offers Wi-Fi optimizations alongside MediaTek's HyperEngine 5.0 gaming technology to ensure lower-latency connections with the new tri-band - 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 6 GHz - that extends game time and performance. Additionally, high-end UFS 3.1 storage and LPDDR5 memory ensure ultra-fast data streams to accelerate apps, social feeds and faster FPS in games.

MediaTek today unveiled its new Genio platform for AIoT devices and introduced the first chip in the Genio family, the Genio 1200 designed for premium AIoT products. MediaTek Genio is a complete platform stack for the AIoT with powerful and ultra- efficient chipsets, open platform software development kits (SDKs) and a developer portal with comprehensive resources and tools. This all-in-one platform makes it easy for brands to develop innovative consumer, enterprise and industrial smart applications at the premium, mid-range and entry levels, and bring these devices to market faster. With MediaTek Genio, customers have access to all the hardware, software and resources needed to go from concept to design and manufacturing.

Customers can choose from a range of Genio chips to suit their product needs, and then use MediaTek's developer resources and the Yocto Linux open platform SDK to customize their designs. MediaTek also makes it easy for customers to access its partners' system hardware and software, and leverage partners' networks and sales channels. By offering an integrated, easy-to-use platform, MediaTek Genio reduces development costs and speeds up time to market, while providing long-term support for operating system updates and security patches that extend the product lifecycle. "Today MediaTek powers the most popular AIoT devices on the market. As the industry enters the next era of innovation, MediaTek's Genio platform delivers flexibility, scalability and development support brands need to cater to the latest market demands," said Jerry Yu, MediaTek Corporate Senior Vice President and General Manager of MediaTek's Computing, Connectivity and Metaverse Business Group. "We look forward to seeing the new user experiences brands bring to life with the Genio 1200 and its powerful AI capability, support for 4K displays and advanced imaging features."

According to TrendForce research, due to vigorous stocking of various terminal applications causing a shortage of wafers in 2021, the global IC industry was severely undersupplied. This, coupled with spiking chip prices, boosted 2021 revenue of the global top ten IC design companies to US$127.4 billion, or 48% YoY. TrendForce further indicates three major disparities from the 2020 ranking. First, NVIDIA surpassed Broadcom to take the second position. Second, Taiwanese companies Novatek and Realtek rose to sixth and eighth place, respectively. Originally ranked tenth, Dialog was replaced at this position by Himax after Dialog was acquired by IDM giant Renesas.

Qualcomm continues its reign as number one in the world, primarily due to 51% and 63% growth YoY in sales of mobile phone SoC (System on Chip) and IoT chips, respectively. The addition of diversified development in its RF and automotive chip businesses were key to a 51% increase in revenue. NVIDIA implemented an integration of software and hardware, demonstrating its ambitions in creating a "comprehensive computing platform." Driven by annual growth of gaming graphics card and data center revenue at 64% and 59%, respectively, NVIDIA successfully climbed to second place. Broadcom benefited from the stable sales performance of network chips, broadband communication chips, and storage and bridging chips, with revenue growing 18% YoY. AMD's computer and graphics revenue grew by 45% YoY due to strong sales of the Ryzen CPU and Radeon GPU and rising average selling price. Coupled with accelerating demand from cloud companies, the annual revenue of AMD's enterprise, embedded, and semi-customized divisions increased by 113%, driving annual growth of total revenue to 68%.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, is advising consumers and businesses to retire a whole range of D-Link routers, due to the devices being EOL. This is due to a severe vulnerability that affects the devices that goes under the CVE-ID of CVE-2021-45382. This is a remote command execution (RCE) vulnerability and it's not likely to get patched by D-Link and is considered serious enough that these devices should be taken offline post-haste. The vulnerability would allow an attacker to take over these devices using "diagnostic hooks" in the ncc2 service, which is tied to the DDNS function and would allow an attacker to gain full access by injecting malicious code.

Proof of concept code already exists on GitHub, which makes the likelihood of this attack vector being used even more likely. The known affected devices so far are the D-Link DIR-810L, DIR-820L/LW, DIR-826L, DIR-830L, and DIR-836L and all hardware revisions are affected. Most of these routers were released around 2012 to 2014 and are either 802.11n or 802.11ac devices based on what appears to be Realtek or Ralink (now MediaTek) hardware. These aren't the only devices that CISA has given advice on recently, as the D-Link DIR-610 and DIR-645, as well as the Netgear DGN2200 are also devices that CISA recommends retirement for.

The global smartphone applications processor (AP) market grew 23 percent to $30.8 billion in 2021, according to Strategy Analytics' Handset Component Technologies (HCT) service report. According to this Strategy Analytics' Handset Component Technologies (HCT) research report, " Smartphone Apps Processor Market Share Tracker Q4 2021: Qualcomm Increases Revenue Share Lead", Qualcomm, MediaTek, Apple, Samsung LSI and Unisoc grabbed the top-five revenue share ranking spots in the smartphone applications processor (AP) market in 2021.

Sravan Kundojjala, author of the report and Director of Handset Component Technologies service at Strategy Analytics, commented, "For the first time on an annual basis, MediaTek overtook Qualcomm in units and established over 75 million unit-lead in smartphone APs 2021. MediaTek capitalized on Qualcomm's defocus on mid and low tier 4G LTE APs and gained volume share. Despite the loss of unit share crown, Qualcomm exited 2021 with over 43% higher revenue than MediaTek, thanks to an increased mix of higher-priced premium and high-tier APs. Both companies performed well in the 5G AP segment and posted a 13-year high in their AP average selling prices (ASPs)."

MediaTek has announced it is the first TV SoC vendor to support Dolby Vision IQ with Precision Detail. Precision Detail is a new innovative feature introduced for TVs with Dolby Vision IQ, which will be supported in MediaTek's Pentonic series for 8K and 4K smart TVs. In addition, the Pentonic series will enable TV manufacturers to support features designed for gaming in Dolby Vision along with other advanced capabilities. MediaTek and Dolby collaborated on the implementation of these technologies, which will be available starting in 2H 2022 for TV OEMs to begin adopting.

Joining Dolby's suite of Advanced Imaging technologies available through Dolby Vision IQ, Precision Detail unlocks more from Dolby Vision content by revealing incredible detail in both bright and dark areas. With added texture and depth, images take on a new dimension with astonishing crispness on 8K and 4K smart TVs. In addition to Precision Detail, MediaTek's Intelligent View technology paired with Dolby's latest advancements in imaging technology can process multiple Dolby Vision streams simultaneously. Consumers can now watch different media sources at the same time in Dolby Vision in multiple windows, all in stunning detail.

According to TrendForce research, due to vigorous stocking of various terminal applications causing a shortage of wafers in 2021, the global IC industry was severely undersupplied. This, coupled with spiking chip prices, boosted 2021 revenue of the global top ten IC design companies to US$127.4 billion, or 48% YoY. TrendForce further indicates three major disparities from the 2020 ranking. First, NVIDIA surpassed Broadcom to take the second position. Second, Taiwanese companies Novatek and Realtek rose to sixth and eighth place, respectively. Originally ranked tenth, Dialog was replaced at this position by Himax after Dialog was acquired by IDM giant Renesas.

Qualcomm continues its reign as number one in the world, primarily due to 51% and 63% growth YoY in sales of mobile phone SoC (System on Chip) and IoT chips, respectively. The addition of diversified development in its RF and automotive chip businesses were key to a 51% increase in revenue. NVIDIA implemented an integration of software and hardware, demonstrating its ambitions in creating a "comprehensive computing platform." Driven by annual growth of gaming graphics card and data center revenue at 64% and 59%, respectively, NVIDIA successfully climbed to second place. Broadcom benefited from the stable sales performance of network chips, broadband communication chips, and storage and bridging chips, with revenue growing 18% YoY. AMD's computer and graphics revenue grew by 45% YoY due to strong sales of the Ryzen CPU and Radeon GPU and rising average selling price. Coupled with accelerating demand from cloud companies, the annual revenue of AMD's enterprise, embedded, and semi-customized divisions increased by 113%, driving annual growth of total revenue to 68%.

You'd be forgiven if you're not familiar with Airoha, as although the company has been around since 2001, it's been a company that has mostly been flying under the radar. Back in 2007, Mediatek became a majority shareholder by buying out Benq's stake in Airoha and a decade later, MediaTek merged some of its business units into Airoha, which is the opposite way to how it normally goes. MediaTek is getting ready to list Airoha on the Taiwanese stock market and this comes with several benefits to the company. Airoha's main product line is Bluetooth chips, but it also makes various solutions for GPS/GNSS, WiFi, DVB-S and xPON internet gateways and routers. Sony is one of its major customers, after the company switched from Qualcomm to MediaTek/Airoha a few years ago. Other customers are said to be Beats by Apple, JBL by Harman (which in turn is owned by Samsung), Skullcandy and Xiaomio.

The company is said to first be listed on Taiwan's Emerging Stock Market for at least six months—a requirement by Taiwanese law—before the company will be making a full IPO. The company is said to be valued at US$3.3 billion, so despite being a mostly unheard of company, we're not talking about some little startup here. MediaTek is expecting Airoha to see a revenue growth of around 30 percent in 2022, from 2021 revenues of around US$562 million. As these things go, it would appear that the main reason for listing Airoha isn't directly to make money, but rather to try and appeal to current and future employees. This is because of the peculiar bonus structure in most companies in Taiwan, where all employees are given a share of the profits, largely regardless of their personal and departments performance. With Airoha going public, its employees will no longer have to share their bonuses with MediaTek employees, which could in theory lead to better bonuses for their employees.

MediaTek today launched the Dimensity 8100 and Dimensity 8000 system-on-chips (SoCs) to bring flagship level technology - connectivity, displays, gaming, multimedia and imaging features - to premium 5G smartphones. Both chips borrow the advanced technology from MediaTek's powerful flagship Dimensity 9000 platform and package it into the new Dimensity 8000 series which is built on the ultra-efficient TSMC 5 nm production process with an octa-core CPU. The Dimensity 8100 integrates four premium Arm Cortex-A78 cores with speeds reaching 2.85 GHz, and the Dimensity 8000 has four Cortex-A78 cores operating at up to 2.75 GHz.

"You could say the MediaTek Dimensity 8000 series is the little brother to our flagship Dimensity 9000 chip. Meaning it brings flagship grade features and next level energy efficiency to the premium smartphone market," said CH Chen, Deputy General Manager of MediaTek's Wireless Communications Business Unit. Both chips combine an Arm Mali-G610 MC6 GPU with MediaTek's HyperEngine 5.0 gaming technologies for exceptional power-efficiency that extends play time, and best-in-class frame rates - 170fps for the Dimensity 8100 and 140fps for the Dimensity 8000. Quad-channel LPDDR5 memory and UFS 3.1 storage ensure ultra-fast data streams.

VIA Technologies, Inc. today announced the launch of the VIA SOM-9X35 Starter Kit to accelerate time-to-market for retail, commercial, and industrial Edge AI devices. Featuring a flexible high-performance platform powered by the quad-core MediaTek i350 processor, the starter kit comes with a 7" LCD panel and touch panel display, a 13MP HD camera module, and dual speakers and microphone to provide a tightly integrated package for jumpstarting device development. Dual-band 802.11 ac Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Bluetooth 5.0, and optional 4G support provide the seamless connectivity required for myriad use cases.

"As AI moves increasingly to the edge, the demand for powerful and affordable edge devices with the power and flexibility to run intelligent vision applications such as facial, object, gesture, and motion recognition is rising at an exponential rate," commented Richard Brown, VP of International Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. "By combining the core compute, video, and display components in a single package, the VIA SOM-9X35 Starter Kit enables our customers to jumpstart the development of innovative devices to take advantage of these burgeoning market opportunities."

Exponential demand growth for remote and unmanned terminals in smart home, logistics, manufacturing and other end-user applications has driven iterative updates in Wi-Fi technology. Among the current generations of technologies, Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) is mainstream while Wi-Fi 6 and 6E (802.11ax) are at promotional stages, according to TrendForce's investigations. In order to meet the connection requirements of industry concepts such as the Metaverse, many major manufacturers have trained their focus on the faster and more stable next generation 802.11be Wi-Fi standard amendment, commonly known as Wi-Fi 7. Considering technical characteristics, maturity, and product certification status, Wi-Fi 6 and 6E are expected to surpass Wi-Fi 5 to become mainstream technology in 2022, with global market share expected to reach 58%.

MediaTek today announced its new Kompanio 1380 chip, which offers a new level of performance and best-in-class features for premium Chromebooks such as the new Acer Chromebook Spin 513. The Kompanio 1380 delivers incredible portable computing experiences with superb battery life, all in a compact form factor for slim and lightweight devices. "Kompanio 1380 continues MediaTek's legacy as the No. 1 chipmaker for Arm-based Chromebooks, elevating premium Chromebook experiences with next-level performance and extra-long battery life," said PC Tseng, general manager of Intelligent Multimedia Business Unit at MediaTek. "This chip stands out with its outstanding processing performance, best-in-class multimedia and AI features, and smooth cloud gaming capabilities, all integrated into an ultra-efficient 6 nm chip."

"Chromebook users have come to expect more from their Chromebooks, increasingly they are looking for their devices to strike a perfect balance of performance, weight and power efficiency," said John Solomon, VP of Chrome OS at Google. "The Kompanio 1380 is an integral part of delivering a great experience for users whether they're working from home, enjoying media on the go, or anything in between. We're excited to see its versatility come to life on the Acer Chromebook Spin 513, the first product to launch with this chip."