Intel Foundry Services (IFS) and Arm today announced a multigeneration agreement to enable chip designers to build low-power compute system-on-chips (SoCs) on the Intel 18A process. The collaboration will focus on mobile SoC designs first, but allow for potential design expansion into automotive, Internet of Things (IoT), data center, aerospace and government applications. Arm customers designing their next-generation mobile SoCs will benefit from leading-edge Intel 18A process technology, which delivers new breakthrough transistor technologies for improved power and performance, and from IFS's robust manufacturing footprint that includes U.S.- and EU-based capacity.

"There is growing demand for computing power driven by the digitization of everything, but until now fabless customers have had limited options for designing around the most advanced mobile technology," said Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel Corporation. "Intel's collaboration with Arm will expand the market opportunity for IFS and open up new options and approaches for any fabless company that wants to access best-in-class CPU IP and the power of an open system foundry with leading-edge process technology."

IBM today unveiled new single frame and rack mount configurations of IBM z16 and IBM LinuxONE 4, expanding their capabilities to a broader range of data center environments. Based on IBM's Telum processor, the new options are designed with sustainability in mind for highly efficient data centers, helping clients adapt to a digitized economy and ongoing global uncertainty.

Introduced in April 2022, the IBM z16 multi frame has helped transform industries with real-time AI inferencing at scale and quantum-safe cryptography. IBM LinuxONE Emperor 4, launched in September 2022, features capabilities that can reduce both energy consumption and data center floor space while delivering the scale, performance and security that clients need. The new single frame and rack mount configurations expand client infrastructure choices and help bring these benefits to data center environments where space, sustainability and standardization are paramount.

Cooler Master, the global frontrunner in PC components and peripherals, proudly reveals the triumphant entries of the Case Mod World Series 2022. This annual contest, which began in 2009, continues to captivate the imagination with trailblazing custom PC creations from artists across the globe.

This year's winner of the Best Tower Mod category is Timeplay who wowed the judges with a breathtaking Cosmos C700M mod that redefined the classic Full Tower case in an ITX form factor. In the Best Scratch Build category, Keir Graham took home the top honors with his PowerCore build—a remarkable custom liquid-cooled system that showcased both intricate detail and ingenious design.

Amid the US sanctions, Chinese technology giant Huawei has reportedly developed tools to create processors with 14 nm and above lithography. According to Chinese media Yicai, Huawei and its semiconductor partners have teamed up to create replacement tools in place of US chip toolmakers like Cadence, Synopsys, and Mentor/Siemens. These three companies control all of the world's Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools used for every step of chip design, from architecture to placement and routing to the final physical layout. Many steps need to be taken before making a tapeout of a physical chip, and Huawei's newly developed EDA tools will help the Chinese industry with US sanctions which crippled Huawei for a long time.

Having no access to US-made chipmaking tools, Huawei has invested substantial time into making these EDA tools. However, with competing EDA makers supporting lithography way below 14 nm, Huawei's job still needs to be completed. Chinese semiconductor factories are currently capable of 7 nm chip production, and Huawei itself is working on making a sub-7 nm EUV scanner to aid manufacturing goals and compete with the latest from TSMC and other. If Huawei can create EUV scanners that can achieve transistor sizes smaller than 7 nm, we expect to see their EDA tools keep pace as well. It is only a matter of time before they announce adaptation for smaller nodes.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has reportedly set an ambitious end of the year launch window for the company's mixed reality headset. Operations Chief Jeff Williams has also pushed in favor of a late 2023 debut of the much delayed VR/AR hybrid product. According to anonymous insider sources who have divulged juicy details to the Financial Times, the decision to launch in 2023 has caused an internal clash with the Apple Design team at its Cupertino, California headquarters.

The Apple Park design team has called for additional development time, this would push the headset's launch back by several years. Insiders claim that the design team would prefer to have more time to refine the product's aesthetics and functionality, with emphasis on creating a sleek and more lightweight visor. Doubts about the efficacy of the headset's proposed internal technology were also expressed, the designers would prefer to delay until Augmented Reality development reaches a satisfying level of maturity.

Marvell Technology, Inc., a leader in data infrastructure semiconductor solutions, announced today that it has selected Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) as its cloud provider for electronic design automation (EDA). A cloud-first approach helps Marvell to rapidly and securely scale its service on the world's leading cloud, rise to the challenges brought by increasingly complex chip design processes, and deliver continuous innovation for the expanding needs across the automotive, carrier, data center, and enterprise infrastructure markets it serves. The work extends the longstanding relationship between the two companies—Marvell is also a key semiconductor supplier for AWS, helping the company support the design and rapid delivery of cloud services that best meet customers' demanding requirements.

EDA refers to the specialized and compute-intensive processes used in chip making and is a critical piece of Marvell's R&D. Over the years, the number of transistors on an integrated chip has increased exponentially. Each advance in chip design calls for a calculated application of software modules overseeing logic design, debugging, component placement, wire routing, optimization of time and power consumption, and verification. Due to the computationally intensive nature of EDA workloads, it is no longer cost-effective or timely to run EDA on premises. By powering its EDA with AWS, Marvell leverages an unmatched portfolio of services including secure, elastic, high-performance compute capacity in the cloud to solve challenges around speed, latency, security of IP, and data transfer.

iBUYPOWER, a leading manufacturer of high-performance custom gaming PCs, today announced the new RDY Ouro Kronii system featuring the special edition Y60 Ouro Kronii PC case.

"It's been an incredible journey collaborating with Kronii and hololive Engish," said King Perez de Tagle, Marketing Executive Producer of HYTE and iBUYPOWER. "It's about time The Warden of Time gets a high-performance gaming PC and the RDY Ouro Kronii limited edition systems are ready to ship. stay tuned for even more!" The RDY Ouro Kronii will boast the latest Intel Core i9 13900K or KF CPU, NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti GPU, Z790 motherboard, and the custom Y60 Ouro Kronii PC case. The RDY Ouro Kronii will provide users with maximum performance in virtually any application with reliable components and iBUYPOWER's expert assembly.

Even more performance for RTX 4070 Ti GPUs! With the Eisblock Aurora cooler, Alphacool presents a new, innovative solution for active water cooling of Nvidia's Geforce RTX 4070 Ti graphics cards in the reference design.

In order to dissipate the enormous waste heat of this graphics card generation, in the best possible way, numerous optimizations have been carried out on the water cooler compared to the cooler models of the 30XX card generation. The fin structure was adapted and enables an optimal water flow while simultaneously increasing the cooling surface. The modified nozzle plate with improved Inflow Engine ensures the best possible distribution of water on the cooling fins. The fully chrome-plated copper base is resistant to acids, scratches and damage. In addition, the chrome plating provides homogeneity and reflectivity that cannot be achieved by nickel plating.

Chinese processor designers need help creating a leading-edge design that satisfies their needs, with the imposed sanctions and restrictions of Western countries. However, designers are using creative ways to make a server processor to fulfill their needs. According to the latest Sina report, Chinese company Loongson has developed a 32-core processor using chiplet technology. Previously, the company announced its 16-core 3C5000 processor based on LA464 cores, which utilize LoongArch ISA. Loongson used chiplet technology to fuse two 3C5000 processors into a single-socket solution called 3D5000, which features 32 LA464 cores to create a higher-performing design. Based on the LGA-4129 package, the chip size is 75.4x58.5×6.5 mm.

The company claims that the typical power consumption is rated for 130 Watts at 2.0 GHz or 170 Watts at 2.2 GHz, with TDP power consumption not exceeding 300 Watts at 2.2 GHz even with peaks. The performance of the new 3D5000 processor, measured using SPEC2006, is 400 points and 800 points for single-socket and dual-socket servers, respectively. The four-socket server is expected to reach 1600 points in the same benchmark, so scaling is advertised as linear. Loongson hopes to provide samples to industry partners in the first half of 2023 with an unknown price tag.

GIGABYTE, the world's leading computer brand, is known for its stylish and high-performing motherboards, graphics cards, gaming monitors, and more. The award-winning products are praised by worldwide consumers for their class-leading build quality and performance. What makes GIGABYTE products even more impressive is their friendly designs based on a thorough understanding of user needs and expectations. These ingenious designs are primed to make the products easier to assemble and upgrade for a much-enhanced user experience.

GIGABYTE's Intel-based Z790 series and AMD AM5-based X670, B650 gaming motherboards are equipped with tech that makes PC building and upgrades as easy as possible. The DIY-friendly PCIe EZ-Latch design allows users to easily detach the graphics card from the PCIe slot with a quick-release mechanism; the M.2 EZ-Latch makes installing M.2 SSDs effortless thanks to the screwless design. These latest-gen motherboards also support Intel XMP and AMD EXPO overclocking memory modules for maximum compatibility, and GIGABYTE BIOS comes packaged with pre-installed profiles to help users get greater performance with ease.

Global market intelligence firm TrendForce reports that the revenue generation momentum of the global IC design industry slowed down in 3Q22. The main factors behind this development were the Russia-Ukraine military conflict, the recent COVID-19 lockdowns in China, the ongoing inflation, and clients undergoing inventory corrections. The total revenue of the global top 10 IC design houses came to US$37.38 billion for 3Q22, showing a QoQ decline of 5.3%. Qualcomm remained first place in the ranking of the global top 10 IC design houses by revenue for 3Q22. Broadcom returned to second place by overtaking NVIDIA and AMD, who slipped to third and fourth respectively due to weakening demand for PCs and cryptocurrency mining machines.

Regarding US-based IC design houses that were in the top 10 group for 3Q22, Qualcomm recorded a QoQ increase for the sales of smartphone SoCs and 5G modem chips. It also made gains in the automotive electronics market by expanding its collaborations with partners in the automotive industry. As a result, Qualcomm's 3Q22 revenue figures for mobile and automotive offerings reflected QoQ increases of 6.8% and 22.0% respectively. The revenue growth of these two major product categories offset the marginal decline in the revenue for RF front-end chips. Qualcomm's IC design revenue as a whole climbed up by 5.6% QoQ to US$9.90 billion for 3Q22. The company sat firmly at the top of the ranking.

The Core product line takes shape with the new coolers in the usual high quality, excellent performance and functional design language. The heart of the copper cooler is an assembly of connector terminal and cooler, which is milled from one piece of copper. The fine workmanship combined with the hard and resistant chrome plating of the entire copper cooler meet the highest quality standards. The brass G1/4" threads integrated on both sides, also chrome-plated, stand out visually striking from the terminal and are one of the key points of the new design language that will be present in all products of the Core series.

The aluminium backplate matched to the design together with the terminal forms a single unit. It convinces with clear and homogeneous optics on the back of the cooler. The individually controllable lighting consists of digitally addressable RGB LEDs and enables the even and colorful illumination of the entire cooler.

We have discovered an issue with our all-in-one watercooler Lumen. Following user reports of an increase in CPU temperatures, an investigation was started to determine the potential cause. Our findings conclude that the soldering material used in the aluminium radiator, as well as impurities introduced during manufacturing, may cause a reaction with the chemical composition of the cooling fluid. Over time this may lead to sediment build-up in the circulating liquid getting caught in the fins of the CPU block, causing an increase in temperatures as a result of the blockage.

Although Lumen units that are not currently causing temperature issues are safe for continued use, the experience of our users is our main priority. We have therefore decided to halt all Lumen sales globally, until we are satisfied that the quality standards we and our users expect are fully met. In order to address the issue, our teams will be working on a new version with an updated radiator and a new liquid formula, produced following revised processes and guidelines for assembly. With our currently estimated timeline, we are hoping to have new units available as replacements for Lumen owners, as well as substitutes for stock at distributors and resellers; in about six weeks. A web form for users to request a replacement can be found on our dedicated website, which also provides ongoing updates, timeline and further information. Ticket holders will also receive updates via e-mail. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

peel 3d, the developers of best-in-class professional-grade 3D scanners that offer superior value at unmatched price points, today announced the launch of peel 3 and peel 3.CAD—two new scanners that will elevate the 3D scanning experience for professional users across many different sectors without compromising affordability.

peel 3 and peel 3.CAD handle like a charm as they feature a revamped ergonomic design unlike any other on the market and an intuitive multi-function touchscreen interface. Industry-first haptic user communication through vibration simplifies generating high-quality 3D scans regardless of users' skill levels. Improved resolution and performance for more complex geometries, surfaces and colours provide additional versatility to 3D scan any type of object.

During Evercore ISI TMT conference, Intel announced that the company would continue to lose market share, with a possible bounce back in the coming years. According to the latest report, Intel's CEO Pat Gelsinger announced that he expects the company to continue to lose its market share to AMD as the competition has "too much momentum" going for it. AMD's Ryzen and EPYC processors continue to deliver power and efficiency performance figures, which drives customers towards the company. On the other hand, Intel expects a competing product, especially in the data center business with Sapphire Rapids Xeon processors, set to arrive in 2023. Pat Gelsinger noted, "Competition just has too much momentum, and we haven't executed well enough. So we expect that bottoming. The business will be growing, but we do expect that there continues to be some share losses. We're not keeping up with the overall TAM growth until we get later into '25 and '26 when we start regaining share, material share gains."

The only down years that are supposed to show a toll of solid competition are 2022 and 2023. As far as creating a bounceback, Intel targets 2025 and 2026. "Now, obviously, in 2024, we think we're competitive. 2025, we think we're back to unquestioned leadership with our transistors and process technology," noted CEO Gelsinger. Additionally, he had a say about the emerging Arm CPUs competing for the same server market share as Intel and AMD do so, stating that "Well, when we deliver the Forest product line, we deliver power performance leadership versus all Arm alternatives, as well. So now you go to a cloud service provider, and you say, 'Well, why would I go through that butt ugly, heavy software lift to an ARM architecture versus continuing on the x86 family?"

According to the latest TrendForce statistics, revenue of the top ten global IC design houses reached US$39.56 billion in 2Q22, growing 32% YoY. Growth was primarily driven by demand for data centers, networking, IoT, and high-end product portfolios. AMD achieved synergy through mergers and acquisitions. In addition to climbing to third place, the company also posted the highest annual revenue growth rate in 2Q22 at 70%.

Qualcomm continues in the No. 1 position worldwide, exhibiting growth in the mobile phone, RF front-end, automotive, and IoT sectors. Sales of mid/low-end mobile phone APs were weak but demand for high-end mobile phone APs was relatively stable. Company revenue reached US$9.38 billion, or 45% growth YoY. NVIDIA benefitted from expanded application of GPUs in data centers to expand this product category's revenue share past the 50% mark to 53.5%, making up for the 13% YoY slump in its game application business, bringing total revenue to US$7.09 billion, though annual growth rate slowed to 21%. AMD reorganized its business after the addition of Xilinx and Pensando. The company's embedded division revenue increased by 2,228% YoY. In addition, its data center department also made a considerable contribution. AMD posted revenue of US$6.55 billion, achieving 70% growth YoY, highest amongst the top ten. Broadcom's sales performance in semiconductor solutions remained solid and demand for cloud services, data centers, and networking is quite strong. The company's purchase order backlog is still increasing with 2Q22 revenue reaching US$6.49 billion, an annual growth rate of 31%.

ViewSonic Corp., a leading global provider of visual solutions, announces the new Fogra-certified professional display, ColorPro VP2786-4K. Built with 100% Adobe RGB color gamut, it delivers true-to-life color reproduction on all digital and print mediums. The monitor is tailored for the all-new ColorPro Sense software, which automatically suggests color combinations from Pantone 's color library to best match the creator's vision. It is also equipped with the intuitive ColorPro Wheel for in-depth color control and management.

"Photographers, printing professionals, and colorists require precise color reproduction to best represent their visions, which is why we offer solutions that ensure their masterpieces can be replicated in their truest form," said Oscar Lin, General Manager of the Monitor Business Unit at ViewSonic. "The ColorPro VP2786-4K takes another step forward into the realm of true color management with its combination of software and hardware. With that, we hope to give creators the freedom to command how their work looks like."

The Chinese technology giant, SMIC, has managed to advance its semiconductor manufacturing technology and shipped the first 7 nm silicon manufactured on China's soil. According to analyst firm TechInsights, who examined the 7 nm Bitcoin mining SoC made for MinerVa firm, there are doubts that SMIC 7 nm process is somewhat similar to TSMC's 7 nm process. Despite having no access to advanced semiconductor manufacturing tools, and US restrictions placed around it, SMIC has managed to produce what resembles an almost perfect 7 nm node. This could lead to a true 7 nm logic and memory bitcells sometimes in the future, as the node advances in SMIC's labs.

Having done an in-depth die analysis, the TechInsights report indicates that TSMC, Intel, and Samsung have a more advanced 7 nm node and are two nodes ahead of the Chinese SMIC. The results are not great regarding the economics and yield of this SMIC 7 nm process. While we have no specific data, the report indicates that the actual working chips made with older DUV tools are not perfect. This is not a problem for the Chinese market as it seeks independence from Western companies and technology. However, introducing a China-made 7 nm chip is more critical as it shows that the country can manufacture advanced nodes with restrictions and sanctions in place. The MinerVa SoC die and the PCB that houses those chips are pictured below.

The recent semiconductor shortage has put an unprecedented amount of focus on the industry. Both commercial and government entities have come to recognize the lack of advanced node semiconductor manufacturing capabilities onshore in the United States. Intel Foundry Services (IFS) entry into the commercial foundry space is poised to change all that. As part of IFS Accelerator program, Intel recently announced their new IFS Cloud Alliance program, with Microsoft Azure as one of the inaugural members.

This is the latest chapter in a partnership between Intel and Microsoft that stretches back decades all the way back to the early days of the personal computer. In the last few years, Intel and Microsoft have collaborated on advancing semiconductor design on the cloud by working together to bring out EDA centric cloud compute such as the FX series on Azure, working with EDA vendors to enhance their software to better take advantage of the elasticity of the Azure cloud, as well as collaborating on a secure cloud-based semiconductor development platform for the US Department of Defense RAMP and RAMP-C programs.

When designing integrated circuits, engineers aim to produce an efficient design that is easier to manufacture. If they manage to keep the circuit size down, the economics of manufacturing that circuit is also going down. NVIDIA has posted on its technical blog a technique where the company uses an artificial intelligence model called PrefixRL. Using deep reinforcement learning, NVIDIA uses the PrefixRL model to outperform traditional EDA (Electronics Design Automation) tools from major vendors such as Cadence, Synopsys, or Siemens/Mentor. EDA vendors usually implement their in-house AI solution to silicon placement and routing (PnR); however, NVIDIA's PrefixRL solution seems to be doing wonders in the company's workflow.

Creating a deep reinforcement learning model that aims to keep the latency the same as the EDA PnR attempt while achieving a smaller die area is the goal of PrefixRL. According to the technical blog, the latest Hopper H100 GPU architecture uses 13,000 instances of arithmetic circuits that the PrefixRL AI model designed. NVIDIA produced a model that outputs a 25% smaller circuit than comparable EDA output. This is all while achieving similar or better latency. Below, you can compare a 64-bit adder design made by PrefixRL and the same design made by an industry-leading EDA tool.

Samsung Foundry will engage Ansys' industry-leading electromagnetic (EM) simulation tools to develop ultramodern designs, including 5G/6G, on the most advanced chips, nodes, and process technologies. Ansys' simulation solutions will deliver a comprehensive EM-aware design flow with greater capacity, speed, and integration capabilities for Samsung's most advanced semiconductor technology, accelerating on-chip design cycle times to boost high-speed connectivity while helping to reduce design error and risk.

Samsung designers will leverage Ansys' EM design tools, Ansys RaptorX, Ansys VeloceRF, and Ansys Exalto, to help reduce time to market by two to three weeks on smaller designs and up to two months for complex designs. With automation capabilities that optimize calculations and modeling, coupled with larger capacity, Ansys' software will allow the Samsung team to design at faster speeds with higher fidelity.

Samsung Electronics, the world leader in semiconductor technology, today announced that it has started initial production of its 3-nanometer (nm) process node applying Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistor architecture. Multi-Bridge-Channel FET (MBCFET), Samsung's GAA technology implemented for the first time ever, defies the performance limitations of FinFET, improving power efficiency by reducing the supply voltage level, while also enhancing performance by increasing drive current capability. Samsung is starting the first application of the nanosheet transistor with semiconductor chips for high performance, low power computing application and plans to expand to mobile processors.

"Samsung has grown rapidly as we continue to demonstrate leadership in applying next-generation technologies to manufacturing, such as foundry industry's first High-K Metal Gate, FinFET, as well as EUV. We seek to continue this leadership with the world's first 3 nm process with the MBCFET," said Dr. Siyoung Choi, President and Head of Foundry Business at Samsung Electronics. "We will continue active innovation in competitive technology development and build processes that help expedite achieving maturity of technology."

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."

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. today announced that its digital and custom/analog design flows have been certified for the TSMC N3E and N4P processes, supporting the latest Design Rule Manual (DRM). In addition, Cadence and TSMC delivered N3E and N4P process design kits (PDKs) and design flows to accelerate customer adoption and advance mobile, AI and hyperscale computing design innovation. Joint customers are actively designing with the new N3E and N4P PDKs, and several test chips have already been taped out, which demonstrates how Cadence solutions help customers improve engineering efficiency and maximize the power, performance and area (PPA) benefits offered by the latest TSMC process technologies. The Cadence digital and custom/analog advanced-node solutions support the company's Intelligent System Design strategy, enabling system-on-chip (SoC) design excellence.

Cadence worked closely with TSMC to ensure the digital full flow was optimized for TSMC's advanced N3E and N4P process technologies. The complete RTL-to-GDS flow includes the Cadence Innovus Implementation System, Quantus Extraction Solution, Quantus Field Solver, Tempus Timing Signoff Solution and ECO option, Pegasus Verification System, Liberate Characterization Solution and Voltus IC Power Integrity Solution. Additionally, the Cadence Genus Synthesis Solution and predictive iSpatial technology are enabled for the TSMC N3E and N4P process technologies.

Google Cloud and AMD today announced a technology partnership in which AMD will run electronic design automation (EDA) for its chip-design workloads on Google Cloud, further extending the on-premises capabilities of AMD data centers. AMD will also leverage Google Cloud's global networking, storage, artificial intelligence, and machine learning capabilities to further improve upon its hybrid and multicloud strategy for these EDA workloads.

Scale, elasticity, and efficient utilization of resources play critical roles in chip design, particularly given that the demand for compute processing grows with each node advancement. To remain flexible and scale easily, AMD will add Google Cloud's newest compute-optimized C2D VM instance, powered by 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors, to its suite of resources focused on EDA workloads. By leveraging Google Cloud, AMD anticipates being able to run more designs in parallel, giving the team more flexibility to manage short-term compute demands, without reducing allocation on long-term projects.