Bosch is expanding its semiconductor business with silicon carbide chips. The technology company plans to acquire assets of the U.S. chipmaker TSI Semiconductors, based in Roseville, California. With a workforce of 250, the company is a foundry for application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs. Currently, it mainly develops and produces large volumes of chips on 200-millimeter silicon wafers for applications in the mobility, telecommunications, energy, and life sciences industries. Over the next years, Bosch intends to invest more than 1.5 billion USD in the Roseville site and convert the TSI Semiconductors manufacturing facilities to state-of-the-art processes. Starting in 2026, the first chips will be produced on 200-millimeter wafers based on the innovative material silicon carbide (SiC).

In this way, Bosch is systematically reinforcing its semiconductor business, and will have significantly extended its global portfolio of SiC chips by the end of 2030. Above all, the global boom and ramp-up of electromobility are resulting in huge demand for such special semiconductors. The full scope of the planned investment will be heavily dependent on federal funding opportunities available via the CHIPS and Science Act as well as economic development opportunities within the State of California. Bosch and TSI Semiconductors have reached an agreement to not to disclose any financial details of the transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval.

EK, the premium liquid cooling gear manufacturer, is expanding the EK-Quantum Surface radiator portfolio. This radiator series has already garnered high praise, won multiple awards at reputable review-based websites, and is now being expanded with Black Editions. The EK-Quantum Surface radiators are built upon years of development and market research to provide the best possible product with mechanically rigid and top-performing finishes. These radiators are EK-Matrix7 compatible, as EK focuses on bringing the Matrix7 standard into all aspects of water cooling and beyond, enabling users to create stunning and professional-looking builds in a much more user-friendly way.

EK-Quantum Surface Radiators Black Edition
The new Black Edition EK-Quantum Surface P radiators come in two sizes - 240 mm and 360 mm. With a thickness of 44 mm, the EK-Quantum P Series Surface radiators are the absolute all-rounders for low noise and high performance across the entire fan operational range.

Voice of the People adds more Radicals, Reactionaries, and Reformers. In a century of dramatic political upheaval, many world leaders had to deal with influential and charismatic figures - dynamic political personalities who forcefully advocated for social and economic progress or tried to resist the tides of history in favor of tradition. Voice of the People, a new Immersion Pack for Victoria 3, challenges you to handle some of history's greatest political agitators, coming May 22.

In Voice of the People, the new Agitator system is highlighted with the addition of dozens of historical figures who break convention and build political power behind the force of their personality. Meet intellectuals like Mikhail Bakunin, conservative militarists like Georges Boulanger, and voices for freedom like Frederick Douglas in this addition to Paradox Interactive's critically acclaimed historical society simulation.

The European Union yesterday (April 18) has announced a substantial investment of $47 billion (€43 billion) as part of its already established plan to support native semiconductor industries. The European Parliament and EU member states have agreed upon new measures to boost the supply of semiconductors in Europe, as the bloc navigates a solution to reduce its dependency on manufacturers located in Asian territories. Thierry Breton, Commissioner for Internal Market of the European Union, released his own statement about the agreement: "We have a deal on EU Chips Act! In a geopolitical context of de-risking, Europe is taking its destiny into its own hands. By mastering the most advanced semiconductors, EU will become an industrial powerhouse in markets of the future."

China and Taiwan are currently the dominant nations in the field of manufacture and export of semiconductor products. The European Union is also playing catch-up with North America, where the United States Chips and Science Act has been effect since last summer - around $280 billion in new funding will be meted out over time to boost domestic research and development, as well as manufacturing of semiconductors in the USA. Governing bodies around the world are shoring up domestic silicon-based manufacturing efforts in order to reduce reliance on products sourced from Asia - where supply chain issues and manufacturing delays have caused global shortages of essential electronic goods.

EK, the leading computer cooling solutions provider, is expanding its Nucleus AIO portfolio with a brand-new model, EK-Nucleus AIO Dark. EK constantly pushes the envelope of available products, trying to make something for everyone. This AIO retains the shape of the original model but offers a price-competitive, all-black, non-RGB option for people whose budget or taste doesn't allow for additional FPS otherwise harnessed from RGB lighting #joke.

EK-Nucleus AIO Dark Series
The EK-Nucleus AIO Dark is an all-black all-in-one liquid cooling solution for modern AMD and Intel CPUs. It comes without any RGB on the fans or the pump-block unit. Unlike the standard model, it doesn't have a shroud over the end tanks that hides the fittings on the radiator, or the aluminium shroud across the radiator. These cost-saving measures allowed EK to offer a fully performance-oriented yet budget-friendly AIO solution.

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Infrastructure Tracker: Buyer and Cloud Deployment, spending on compute and storage infrastructure products for cloud deployments, including dedicated and shared IT environments, increased 16.3% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2022 (4Q22) to $24.1 billion. Spending on cloud infrastructure continues to outgrow the non-cloud segment although the latter had strong growth in 4Q22 as well, increasing 9.4% year over year to $18.7 billion. For the full year, cloud infrastructure grew 19.4% to $87.7 billion, while non-cloud grew 13.6% to $66.7 billion. The market continues to benefit from high demand, large backlogs, rising prices, and an improving infrastructure supply chain.

Smartphone specialists Oppo and OnePlus have responded to the rumors of both companies exiting several European markets, as well as the UK. In a joint statement provided to Android Authority the message was a promise to stay put in 2023: "OPPO and OnePlus are committed to all the existing European markets. We had a great start in 2023 with the successful launches of several products in Europe and have a line-up of upcoming products for the rest of the year. As always, OPPO and OnePlus will continue to provide more innovative products and the best-in-class service for users moving forward."

Starting yesterday, industry tipsters issued posts about Oppo and OnePlus withdrawing from markets in Europe, with more immediate exits from key territories - France, Germany, Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The cited reasons for exiting the aforementioned markets include a massive slowdown in regional sales and legal cases levied by competitors in regard to patent infringements on Oppo's part. The lawsuits that were levied by Nokia have resulted in a number of Oppo and OnePlus devices being banned from sale in Germany.

It was only Monday this week that ASUS announced the official launch of the ROG Swift OLED PG27AQDM, but now retailers have started to put the display up for pre-order and it looks like for once, ASUS hasn't priced its products higher than the competition. In the US, it appears that the PG27AQDM will retail for US$999, which is the same price that LG is asking for its equivalent Ultragear OLED 27GR95QE-B. ASUS does claim to have higher typical brightness at 450 cd/m² vs a mere 200 cd/m² for the LG, yet somehow also claim to have half the power consumption.

A swift jump over the pond and the PG27AQDM looks a little less exciting, with it coming in at £1,098.95 in the UK and €1,299.99 in Germany and as much as 14,990 kr in Sweden, which puts all three nations at well over US$1,100 excluding any local VAT. That makes LG's Ultragear OLED the far more attractive option in Europe, as it's cheaper in all three countries by the equivalent of around US$100. For those still interested, the bad news is that the display won't arrive in retail until sometime in mid or end of April, depending on the country you live in.

Those that are waiting for the Ryzen 7 7800X3D are in luck as the April 6th launch is just around the corner, and although we knew that the US launch price is set at $449, AMD did not give out any details about the price in Europe. Thankfully, first listings have started to appear, showing it in some stores at €530. Earlier, Computerbase gave an estimated price of around €509, considering that other two SKUs, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D and the Ryzen 9 7900X3D, both are 13 percent more expensive in Europe.

As spotted earlier by Videocardz, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D has appeared in Slovenia, listed at €530, which is pretty close to the estimated price. Another listing from Germany shows it listed at €607, which is a bit more expensive. This comes as a surprise considering that the tax in Slovenia is 22 percent, while in Germany it is set at 19 percent. Of course, some stores will try to add the early adopters tax as well, raising the price well above the MSRP, as the Ryzen 7 7800X3D could be quite popular.

According to TrendForce's latest survey of the global foundry market, electronics brands began adjusting their inventories in 2Q22, but foundries were unable to rapidly adapt to this development because they reside in the more upper portion of the supply chain. Moreover, revising procurement quantities of long-term foundry contracts takes time as well. Hence, only some tier-2 and -3 foundries were able to immediately respond to the changes in their clients' demand. Also, among them, 8-inch wafer foundries made a more pronounced reduction in their capacity utilization rates. As for the remaining foundries, the downward corrections that they made to their capacity utilization rates did not become noticeable until 4Q22. Hence, in 4Q22, the quarterly total revenue of the global top 10 foundries registered a QoQ decline for the first time after 13 consecutive quarters of positive growth. The quarterly total revenue of the top 10 foundries came to US$33,530 million, reflecting a drop of 4.7% from 3Q22. Moving into 1Q23, TrendForce projects that the quarterly total revenue of the top 10 will show an even steeper drop on account of seasonality and the uncertain macroeconomic situation.

Last month, reports were saying that Intel wanted an additional €3.2 billion from the German government in subsidies to build its fab in Magdeburg, but apparently that wasn't nearly enough, as the company has increased its demands to somewhere between €4 billion to €5 billion. What triggered Intel to go ask the German government for even more cash is most likely a combination of things, as Intel is going to want to cover increases in costs courtesy of interest hikes and the inflation that's going on globally, alongside soaring energy prices in Europe. The expected cost of the new fab is said to have increased from €17 billion to €30 billion, which is not exactly pocket change.

In a statement to Bloomberg, Intel said that "disruptions in the global economy have resulted in increased costs, from construction materials to energy," and continued "We appreciate the constructive dialogue with the federal government to address the cost gap that exists with building in other locations and make this project globally competitive." The construction start of the Magdeburg fab has already been delayed and according to Bloomberg, Intel is also considering delaying its planned assembly factory in Italy. It doesn't look promising for either party, as Intel seems to want to spend as little as possible on building its new facilities, while expecting various governments around the world to prop it up until the new facilities are making money. Hopefully neither nation will agree to Intel changing the terms of the deals, as it could cost more nations more than they would earn in long term revenue from Intel.

IQM Quantum Computers (IQM), the European leader in quantum computers, announced today it has been selected to deliver quantum processing units for the first Spanish quantum computer to be installed at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) and integrated into the MareNostrum 5 supercomputer, the most powerful in Spain. "This is another example of our European leadership, demonstrating our commitment to advancing the Spanish quantum ecosystem in collaboration with both public and private institutions. Through our office in Madrid, we are also able to provide the necessary support for this project."

IQM is a member of the consortium led by Spanish companies Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech and GMV that was selected by Quantum Spain, an initiative promoted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation through the Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence (SEDIA) in December 2022, to build the first quantum computer for public use in Southern Europe.

EK, the leading liquid cooling gear manufacturer, is announcing the availability of two high-performance liquid cooling solutions for the AMD Ryzen processor family based on the AMD AM5 socket. These single-socket AM5 water blocks are available in both the standard and the 1U-compatible format designed specifically for server racks.

EK-Pro CPU WB AM5 Ni + Inox
Being a dedicated workstation-grade water block for AMD AM5 processors, the EK-Pro CPU WB AM5 Ni + Inox water block features two standard G1/4" threaded ports on its top. Built with performance, reliability, serviceability, and no compromises in mind, this enterprise-grade cooling solution is intended for desktops, workstations, and taller server racks. The water block's top is CNC-machined from durable black POM Acetal, and the hold-down bracket is made of laser-cut stainless steel.

Atos today announces a contract to build and install a new high-performance computer for the Max Planck Society, a world-leading science and technology research organization. The new system will be based on Atos' latest BullSequana XH3000 platform, which is powered by AMD EPYC CPUs and Instinct accelerators. In its final configuration, the application performance will be three times higher than the current "Cobra" system, which is also based on Atos technologies.

The new supercomputer, with a total order value of over 20 million euros, will be operated by the Max Planck Computing and Data Facility (MPCDF) in Garching near Munich and will provide high-performance computing (HPC) capacity for many institutes of the Max Planck Society. Particularly demanding scientific projects, such as those in astrophysics, life science research, materials research, plasma physics, and AI will benefit from the high-performance capabilities of the new system.

TrendForce's recent analysis of the foundry market reveals that demand continues to slide for all types of mature and advanced nodes. The major IC design houses have cut wafer input for 1Q23 and will likely scale back further for 2Q23. Currently, foundries are expected to maintain a lower-than-ideal level of capacity utilization rate in the first two quarters of this year. Some nodes could experience a steeper demand drop in 2Q23 as there are still no signs of a significant rebound in wafer orders. Looking ahead to the second half of this year, orders will likely pick up for some components that underwent an inventory correction at an earlier time. However, the state of the global economy will remain the largest variable that affect demand, and the recovery of individual foundries' capacity utilization rates will not occur as quickly as expected. Taking these factors into account, TrendForce currently forecasts that global foundry revenue will drop by around 4% YoY for 2023. The projected decline for 2023 is more severe when compared with the one that was recorded for 2019.

According to multiple reports and sources close to Tom's Hardware, Intel and Microsoft have quietly resumed operations and a basic level of support in Russia. As to comply with sanctions imposed by Europe, the UK, and US, Intel and Microsoft are forbidden to sell any new technology within the state of Russia. This has made Intel and Microsoft block official software downloads. However, Intel has stated that the company is obliged to provide warranty services that are a part of purchasing an Intel product. "Intel continues to comply with all applicable export regulations and sanctions in the countries in which it operates. This includes compliance with the sanctions and export controls against Russia and Belarus issued by the US and allied nations. Access to resources that meet driver update needs, such as the Intel Download Center and Intel Download Support Assistant (IDSA), are part of Intel's warranty obligations," said Intel, adding that "There have been no recent changes to our operations."

These changes are not exactly "recent," as reports close to Tom's Hardware have noted that downloads were resumed towards the end of 2022. Izvestia and CNews reported that users could access the Intel download portal without VPN and IP masking. This required finding a download section through Google/Yandex, as the official Intel Russia website is still not officially reachable by Russian IPs.

According to news out of Taiwan, TSMC will hold a ceremony to mark the official mass production start of its 3 nm node on the 29th of December. This is said to help "shatter doubts about de-Taiwanization" or in simpler terms, that Taiwan will lose its golden goose as TSMC invests abroad. The 3 nm fab—known as fab 18—is based in southern Taiwan's Tainan and the ceremony also marks the start of an expansion of TSMC's most advanced fab. TSMC is said to be kicking off its N3E node production sometime in the second half of 2023, followed by its N3P node in 2024, all of which should take place at fab 18, which also produces 5 nm wafers.

In related news, according to Reuters, a Japanese lawmaker from the ruling party has said that TSMC is considering a second plant in Japan, in addition to its current joint venture that is already under construction. TSMC's response to Reuters was that the company isn't ruling out Japan for future fabs, but that the company doesn't have any current plans. At the same time, TSMC is said to be sending executives to Dresden, Germany in early 2023, for a second round of talks about building a fab to help support the European auto industry, although this would be a 28/22 nm fab, which is far from cutting edge these days, although a lot more advanced than most fabs making chips for the auto industry.

The worldwide semiconductor industry is projected to invest more than $500 billion in 84 volume chipmaking facilities starting construction from 2021 to 2023, with segments including automotive and high-performance computing fueling the spending increases, SEMI announced today in its latest quarterly World Fab Forecast report. The projected growth in global factory count includes a record high 33 new semiconductor manufacturing facilities starting construction this year and 28 more in 2023.

"The latest SEMI World Fab Forecast update reflects the increasing strategic importance of semiconductors to countries and a wide array of industries worldwide," said Ajit Manocha, SEMI president and CEO. "The report underscores the significant impact of government incentives in expanding production capacity and strengthening supply chains. With the bullish long-term outlook for the industry, rising investments in semiconductor manufacturing are critical to laying the groundwork for secular growth driven by a diverse range of emerging applications."

The Federal Trade Commission is seeking to block technology giant Microsoft Corp. from acquiring leading video game developer Activision Blizzard, Inc. and its blockbuster gaming franchises such as Call of Duty, alleging that the $69 billion deal, Microsoft's largest ever and the largest ever in the video gaming industry, would enable Microsoft to suppress competitors to its Xbox gaming consoles and its rapidly growing subscription content and cloud-gaming business.

In a complaint issued today, the FTC pointed to Microsoft's record of acquiring and using valuable gaming content to suppress competition from rival consoles, including its acquisition of ZeniMax, parent company of Bethesda Softworks (a well-known game developer). Microsoft decided to make several of Bethesda's titles including Starfield and Redfall Microsoft exclusives despite assurances it had given to European antitrust authorities that it had no incentive to withhold games from rival consoles.

The 60th edition of the TOP500 reveals that the Frontier system is still the only true exascale machine on the list.

With an HPL score of 1.102 EFlop/s, the Frontier machine at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) did not improve upon the score it reached on the June 2022 list. That said, Frontier's near-tripling of the HPL score received by second-place winner is still a major victory for computer science. On top of that, Frontier demonstrated a score of 7.94 EFlop/s on the HPL-MxP benchmark, which measures performance for mixed-precision calculation. Frontier is based on the HPE Cray EX235a architecture and it relies on AMD EPYC 64C 2 GHz processor. The system has 8,730,112 cores and a power efficiency rating of 52.23 gigaflops/watt. It also relies on gigabit ethernet for data transfer.

SiPearl, the company designing the highperformance, low-power microprocessor for European supercomputers, has entered into a business collaboration agreement with AMD to provide a joint offering for exascale supercomputing systems, combining SiPearl's HPC microprocessor, Rhea, with AMD Instinct accelerators.

Initially, AMD and SiPearl will jointly assess the interoperability of the AMD ROCm open software with the SiPearl Rhea microprocessor and build an optimized software solution that would strengthen the capabilities of a SiPearl microprocessor combined with an AMD Instinct accelerator. This joint work targets porting and optimization activities of the AMD HIP backend, openMP compilers and libraries, will enable scientific applications to benefit from both technologies.

During The Wall Street Journal Tech Live conference, Greg Joswiak—Apple's SVP of worldwide marketing—begrudgingly said that Apple will comply with the European Union's USB-C charging mandate. He said that Apple has been in a "little bit of disagreement" with the EU over the change to a common charging standard. He made a comment about the fact that the EU initially wanted to standardise on micro USB for charging, but admitted that it never happened. He also claimed that neither USB-C or Apple's own lightning connector would exist today if micro USB had been mandated as the charging standard over 10 years ago, which may or may not be true.

According to Greg Joswiak, Apple feels that their change to chargers fitted with a USB-C port is good enough, since it allows anyone to plug in a USB-C cable into Apple's chargers and charge whatever device they like, regardless of the device connector. However, he conveniently forgot to mention that for such a scenario to work, everyone would have to carry a charging cable around with them, the part most people forget about. He also claimed that moving to USB-C means additional e-waste, due to a billion plus lightning cables being in the market already. The argument doesn't seem to hold though, as it's not as if current Apple device owners are just going to throw out their current devices, because Apple is being forced to move to USB-C. The same holds true for most people who have micro USB devices, they didn't throw them away just because they got some USB-C devices. In fairness, the Lightning cables would end up as e-waste at some point in the future, but so do many old cables of every single type over time. Apple would've preferred the EU not to interfere, as the company believes its solution is superior to USB-C for its customers.

Semiconductor manufacturers worldwide are forecast to expand 300 mm fab capacity at a nearly 10% compound average growth rate (CAGR) from 2022 to 2025, reaching an all-time high of 9.2 million wafers per month (wpm), SEMI announced today in its 300 mm Fab Outlook to 2025 report. Strong demand for automotive semiconductors and new government funding and incentive programs in multiple regions are driving much of the growth.

"While shortages of some chips have eased and supply of others has remained tight, the semiconductor industry is laying the groundwork to meet longer-term demand for a broad range of emerging applications as it expands 300 mm fab capacity," said Ajit Manocha, SEMI President and CEO. "SEMI is currently tracking 67 new 300 mm fabs or major additions of new lines expected to start construction from 2022 to 2025."

From 2024, all mobile devices in the European Union will have to use USB-C as the standard charging port, courtesy of a new law that was passed by the European Parliament. This means that mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones and headsets, handheld videogame consoles and portable speakers, e-readers, keyboards, mice, portable navigation systems and earbuds, all have to sport a USB-C port for charging in the near future. Many of these devices already do, with the main exception being Apple, although many lower-end devices still rely on micro USB, due to the lower cost. The European Parliament voted 602 in favour of the new law, with only 13 parliamentarians being against and eight that abstained, which shows that most EU nations were in favour of the move.

From 2026, laptops which adhere to the USB PD 3.0 standard, i.e. up to 100 Watts, will be required to charge via USB-C as well. As such, it seems like the EU didn't enforce support for USB PD 3.1, which goes up to 240 Watts. The EU is also planning on enforcing a common wireless charging standard, which is expected to come into effect by the end of 2024. It's not clear which standard will be chosen, but it's highly likely to be the Qi standard, as it's the most commonly used wireless charging standard.

Global fab equipment spending for front-end facilities is expected to increase approximately 9% year-over-year (YOY) to a new all-time high of US$99 billion in 2022, SEMI announced today in its latest quarterly World Fab Forecast report. The report also shows the global fab equipment industry increasing capacity this year and again in 2023. "After achieving a record level in 2022, the global fab equipment market is projected to remain healthy next year driven by new fabs and upgrade activity," said Ajit Manocha, SEMI President and CEO.

Taiwan is expected to lead fab equipment spending in 2022, increasing investments 47% YOY to US$30 billion, followed by Korea at US$22.2 billion, a 5.5% decline, and China at US$22 billion, a 11.7% drop from its peak last year. Europe/Mideast this year is forecast to log record high spending of US$6.6 billion, a 141% YOY surge this year though outlays remain comparatively smaller than in other regions. Strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) advanced technologies is driving the region's jump in spending. The Americas and Southeast Asia are also expected to register record high investments in 2023.