RIKEN and Intel Corporation (hereafter referred to as Intel) have signed a memorandum of understanding on collaboration and cooperation to accelerate joint research in next-generation computing fields such as AI (artificial intelligence), high-performance computing, and quantum computers. The signing ceremony was concluded on May 18, 2023. As part of this MOU, RIKEN will work with Intel Foundry Services (IFS) to prototype these new solutions.

JEDEC Solid State Technology Association and Compute Express Link (CXL) Consortium today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to formalize collaboration between the two organizations. The agreement outlines the formation of a joint work group to provide a forum that facilitates communication and sharing of information, requirements, recommendations and requests with the intent that this exchange of information will help standards developed by each organization augment one another.

"The MOU between JEDEC and CXL Consortium will establish a framework for ongoing communication to align future efforts between the two organizations. The joint work group will collaborate on useful solutions for form factors, management, security, and DRAM and other memory technologies," said Siamak Tavallaei, CXL Consortium President.

Foxconn's ambitions as a semiconductor player are growing with yet another potential joint venture being announced, this time in Malaysia. Hang on, Foxconn doesn't make semiconductors you might be thinking right now, but the company has actually owned semiconductor fabs since 2016, when it acquired Sharp and ended up with an 8-inch fab in Fukuyama in Japan. Foxconn has also tried to buy an 8-inch fab in Malaysia in 2020, as well as trying to take over Taiwanese non-volatile memory manufacturer Macronix at one point. It seems like the company has decided to take a different route this year, with news of a joint venture in India and now plans of another joint venture with Dagang NeXchange Berhad (DNex) in Malaysia.

The two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU), although it's a subsidiary of Foxconn, Big Innovation Holding Limited (BIH) that actually signed the paperwork. The MOU is about building a 12-inch fab according to Focus Taiwan/CNA which reports that the fab will be making chips using 40 to 28 nm processes. It's possible that this will be for the various EV projects that Foxconn is involved with and it would be a less risky way to enter the semiconductor market for Foxconn. The fab is said to be able to output 40,000 wafers a month once it starts, although when this will be is anyone's guess at the moment. Foxconn's focus is on what the company calls the 3 plus 3 initiative, which relates to electrical vehicles, robotics and healthcare solutions, which are built in AI, semiconductors and communication technologies, all presumably from within Foxconn. Time will tell if Foxconn manages to pull this off, but until the construction of the fab has started, this is nothing more than a potential project for Foxconn.

Samsung and Western Digital today signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that implies that the two companies will join their efforts to create next-generation data placement, processing, and fabrics (D2PF) storage technologies. The MOU states that the two companies will collaborate on creating Zoned Storage devices, including ZNS (Zoned Namespaces) SSDs and SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) HDDs. The ZNS SSD initiative is a challenge of creating entirely new SSDs that work on the ZNS principle instead of traditional block-based drives. Opposite to data in traditional SSDs written in blocks, ZNS SSDs will place data into zones and have software understand where each bit of information is written without excessive read/write action. Another benefit of ZNS is that managing data allows less garbage collection, thus higher efficiency.

Software adoption for ZNS makes it hard, and Samsung's conjoined efforts with Western Digital aim to simplify it. Western Digital notes that "In addition, this collaboration is expected to serve as a starting point to expand zone-based (e.g. ZNS, SMR) device interfaces, as well as future-generation, high-capacity storage devices with enhanced data placement and processing technologies. At a later stage, these initiatives will be expanded to include other emerging D2PF technologies such as computational storage and storage fabrics including NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF)." So, with further development of ZNS, Samsung and Western Digital will collab on more advanced storage options as well.

The Compute Express Link (CXL) Consortium and Gen-Z Consortium today announced their execution of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), describing a mutual plan for collaboration between the two organizations. The agreement shows the commitment each organization is making to promote interoperability between the technologies, while leveraging and further developing complementary capabilities of each technology.

"CXL technology and Gen-Z are gearing up to make big strides across the device connectivity ecosystem. Each technology brings different yet complementary interconnect capabilities required for high-speed communications," said Jim Pappas, board chair, CXL Consortium. "We are looking forward to collaborating with the Gen-Z Consortium to enable great innovations for the Cloud and IT world."

GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF ), the world's leading specialty foundry, and GlobalWafers Co., Ltd. (GWC), one of the top three silicon wafer manufacturers in the world, today announced they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to develop a long-term supply agreement for 300 mm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers.

GWC is one of the world's leading manufacturers of 200 mm SOI wafers, and has a long and ongoing relationship with GF for supplying 200 mm SOI wafers. GWC also manufactures 300 mm SOI wafers, and under the anticipated supply agreement, GWC and GF will collaborate closely to significantly expand GWC's 300 mm SOI wafer manufacturing capacity.

PC hardware enthusiasts all over (but particularly in our own forums) have been adamant in how this is one of the worst times to be building a new system. And it's true; the DIY market is a mess right now, as our own btarunr mentioned in his latest editorial; so much so, that in a full reversal of years and years of experience, users might now actually be better served in the $/performance department by buying their systems from boutique retailers, than by acquiring all of the parts separately. It's a mad, mad world out there, for a multitude of reasons; but one such reason is DRAM pricing. And fortunately, it seems that China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) is on the verge of signing a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) with Samsung that might help the DRAM market as a whole.