GrAI Matter Labs, a pioneer of brain-inspired ultra-low latency computing, announced today that it will be unveiling GrAI VIP, a full-stack AI system-on-chip platform, to partners and customers at GLOBAL INDUSTRIE, May 17th-20th, 2022. At GLOBAL INDUSTRIE, GML will demonstrate a live event-based, brain-inspired computing solution for purpose-built, efficient inference in a real-world application of robotics using the Life-Ready GrAI VIP chip. GrAI VIP is an industry-first near-sensor AI solution with 16-bit floating-point capability that achieves best-in-class performance with a low-power envelope. It opens up unparalleled applications that rely on understanding and transformations of signals produced by a multitude of sensors at the edge in Robotics, AR/VR, Smart Homes, Infotainment in automobiles and more.

"GrAI VIP is ready to deliver Life-Ready AI to industrial automation applications and revolutionize systems such as pick & place robots, cobots, and warehouse robots, as being demonstrated at the show," said Ingolf Held, CEO of GrAI Matter Labs. "GrAI Matter Labs has a pipeline of over $1 Million in pre-orders, and we are thrilled to enable our early-access partners and customers in industrial automation, consumer electronics, defence and more, with our GrAI VIP M.2 cards sampling today." "GML is targeting the $1 billion+ fast-growing market (20%+ per year) of endpoint AI with a unique approach backed by innovative technology," said Karl Freund, Founder and Principal Analyst at Cambrian-AI Research. "GML's 'Life-Ready' AI provides solutions that here-to-fore were simply impossible at such low footprint and power." AI application developers looking for high fidelity and low latency responses for their edge algorithms can now get early access to the GrAI VIP platform and drive game-changing products in industrial automation, consumer electronics, and more.

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, looking at NAND Flash wafers, the pricing of which more sensitively reflects the market, suppliers are increasingly motivated to cut prices in exchange for sales due to weak retail demand since March and a more conservative outlook for shipments of other end products. The price of NAND Flash wafers is expected to begin falling in May and the supply of NAND Flash will gradually overtake demand in 2H22. The price decline of NAND Flash wafers in 3Q22 may reach 5~10%.

At the same time, TrendForce indicates that February's contamination incident at Kioxia was expected to tighten the market in 2Q22 and 3Q22. However, as a consequence of rising inflation and the war between Russia and Ukraine, market demand for consumer products in the traditional peak season of the second half of the year is trending conservative and the prices of client SSD, eMMC, and UFS in 3Q22 will be flat compared to 2Q22, breaking from the original expectation that prices may rise. In terms of enterprise SSDs, as demand for data centers remains strong, no significant correction in demand has yet been observed. However, as the overall NAND Flash market gradually moves into oversupply, prices will only grow slightly by approximately 0~5% in 3Q22.

Intel and AMD will be releasing new CPUs that support DDR5 DRAM solutions for PCs and servers this year. In response, the DRAM industry led by South Korean suppliers is developing solutions to complement the arrival of the new CPUs. In the midst of the gradual shift to DDR5, DRAM suppliers will also scale back the supply of DDR3 solutions, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. With Korean suppliers accelerating their withdrawal from DDR3 production, Taiwanese suppliers yet to kick off mass production using newly installed capacities, and Chinese suppliers falling short of their expected yield rate, the global supply of DDR3 solutions will undergo an impending decline. With respect to the demand side, however, not only has the supply of networking chips been ramping up, but material shortage issues are also gradually easing. As such, buyers are now procuring DDR3 solutions ahead of time, resulting in a tight supply and demand situation in the DDR3 market. TrendForce therefore expects DDR3 DRAM prices to recover from a bearish first quarter and undergo a 0-5% QoQ increase in 2Q22.

Since the launch of AMD's Ryzen processors, the CPU market share has been reshaped in AMD's favor. Intel's offerings were matched by team red, and AMD quickly broke into the consumer market. However, according to the latest round of reports, it seems like that is no longer the case. As per the Japanese DIY market analysis from BCNR, sales of Intel processors started rising in mid-2021, and the company is managing to grab some market share from AMD. After nearly two years of dominance in the Japanese market, AMD is now behind Intel in sales, and team blue is getting back to its older setting.

Another source that is generally a pretty good indicator of the market share of Intel and AMD processor is PassMark. As users submit their benchmark runs, the PassMark software developer has updated the CPU market share statistics chart, mainly showing the desktop segment. It also concludes the same thing as BCRN: Intel is again gaining share in the CPU market. As it always goes hand-in-hand, AMD is losing the CPU marker share naturally. This is due to many reasons, and it seems like Intel's marketing and supply tactics are paying off. Intel now sits at 60% share, while AMD is set at 40%.

In 4Q21, NAND Flash bit shipments grew by only 3.3% QoQ, a significant decrease from the nearly 10% in 3Q21, according to TrendForce's investigations. ASP fell by nearly 5% and the overall industry posted revenue of US$18.5 billion, a QoQ decrease of 2.1%. This was primarily due to a decline in the purchase demand of various products and a market shift to oversupply causing a drop in contract prices. In 4Q21, with the exception of enterprise SSD, the supply of which was limited by insufficient upstream components, the prices of other NAND Flash products such as eMMC, UFS, and client SSD, all fell.

TrendForce's summary of NAND Flash market sales performance in 2021 is as follows: although there have been signs of weakening since 2H21, thanks to remote services and cloud demand driven by the pandemic, revenue performance still grew significantly compared to 2020. Revenue reached US$68.6 billion, up 21.1% YoY, the second-biggest increase since 2018.

AR/VR device shipments revised up to 14.19 million units in 2022, with an annual growth rate of 43.9%, according to TrendForce research. Growth momentum will come from increased demand for remote interactivity stemming from the pandemic, as well as Oculus Quest 2's price reduction strategy. Microsoft HoloLens 2 and Oculus Quest 2 are first in market share for AR and VR, respectively.

According to TrendForce, the topic of the Metaverse has driven brands to actively plan for and stimulate product shipment performance. However, the AR/VR device market has yet to experienced explosive growth due to two factors: component shortages and the difficulty of developing new technologies. In addition, cosmetic and size considerations have made the more optically and technically difficult Pancake design the first choice for new high-end products. Furthermore, various embedded tracking feedback technologies key to enhancing the user's immersive experience such as eye tracking and 6DoF further affect the development progress of a new product as a whole. Since there are no new foreboding products on the horizon, TrendForce believes, no other branded products have a chance at supplanting the current mainstream status of Oculus or Microsoft until at least 2023.

Global semiconductor sales revenue grew by a more than comfortable 25% in 2021, hitting a new record above $500 Billion for the first time. The data, part of Gartner's preliminary report on the state of the industry in 2021, bookends yet another year plagued with shortages and too little supply for the thirst of the consumer and business sectors. Naturally, supply constraints have led to higher ASP (Average Selling Prices) for the hardware that does get manufactured and distributed, as we've seen all too well in the graphics card market.

"As the global economy bounced back in 2021, shortages appeared throughout the semiconductor supply chain, particularly in the automotive industry," said Andrew Norwood, research vice president at Gartner. "The resulting combination of strong demand as well as logistics and raw material price increases drove semiconductors' average selling price higher (ASP), contributing to overall revenue growth in 2021.

Emerge, a social virtual connection company, today announced the launch of the Emerge Home system: the first product to enable immersive 'bare-hands' tactile experiences in the Metaverse. A recent study from National Research Group, uncovering consumer views of the Metaverse found that the majority are excited about the Metaverse, but 78% of consumers say "when interacting with people virtually, I miss the ability to physically touch and interact with them." Online, we miss non-verbal cues, sensory experiences, and ways of feeling things together. As virtual worlds become the epicenter of shared social experiences, they still lack a key pillar of our human experience - the ability to use our bare hands to feel, interact, and physically connect with those who matter most to us, our "inner circles".

The Emerge Home system consists of three components: the Emerge Wave-1 device, the Emerge Home social virtual experience, and the Emerge Home mobile app. The Emerge Wave-1 is a new tabletop device that invites your bare hands to be your controllers. Around the same footprint as a 13" laptop, it emits sculpted ultrasonic waves that allow users to feel and interact via touch in the virtual world. Through the use of Emerge's patented technology, the Emerge Wave-1 creates a mid-air field of interaction up to three feet above the device and 120 degrees around it.

To meet the demand for high-speed storage driven by big data, TEAMGROUP is utilizing its years of experience in computer storage solutions to launch the newest PCIe Gen5 SSD this year. In light of the generational advancements of PCIe 5.0, the company is actively committed to developing products using cutting-edge technologies. With its expertise in R&D and dedication to product excellence, the company is excited to enter the next era of SSD storage solutions and to deliver spectacular new products to the world.

TEAMGROUP is releasing its first PCIe Gen5 SSD under its gaming sub-brand T-FORCE as part of the CARDEA series. It is capable of maximum sequential read speeds of over 13,000 MB/s and write speeds exceeding 12,000 MB/s, and together with a maximum storage capacity of 4 TB, it will be the highest performance PCIe Gen5 flagship SSD on the market when launched. The T-FORCE PCIe Gen5 SSD will support the latest NVMe 2.0 and will be enhanced using proprietary technology to improve durability and product lifespan. The new hardware and support will enable its Gen5 SSDs to fully meet the needs of the gaming computing market, video streaming, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and other next-gen digital domains. TEAMGROUP plans to mass-produce T-FORCE CARDEA series' PCIe Gen5 SSD in 2022 Q3, and will also launch a variety of efficient cooling solutions for the PCIe Gen5 SSD. Together with its global motherboard manufacturing partners, TEAMGROUP will continue to refine specifications and technologies of the latest generation of SSDs to meet market demands and provide consumers around the world with a stable and rapid storage experience.

Demand for NAND Flash products will undergo a noticeable and cyclical downward correction in 1Q22 as major smartphone brands wind down their procurement activities for the peak season and ODMs prepare for the New Year holidays, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. As such, the NAND Flash market will remain in an oversupply situation, with prices continuing to undergo downward corrections accordingly. However, PC OEMs have been reinstating certain orders for client SSDs since early November in response to improvements in the supply of upstream semiconductor materials. By fulfilling these orders, suppliers are able to keep their inventory level relatively low, meaning they are not under as much pressure as previously expected to reduce inventory by lowering prices. Taking these factors into account, TrendForce expects NAND Flash ASP to undergo a 10-15% QoQ decline in 1Q22, during which NAND Flash prices will experience the most noticeable declines compared to the other quarters in 2022.

Regarding the price trend of NAND Flash products across the whole 2021, TrendForce further indicates that suppliers have actively transitioned their output to higher-layer technologies, resulting in a bit supply growth that noticeably outpaces demand, though the tight supply of components such as controller ICs and PMICs has constrained the production of NAND Flash end-products. Hence, the decline in contract prices of NAND Flash products has not been as severe as previously expected. Moving ahead to 2022, however, the supply of relevant components is expected to gradually improve, so the market for various NAND Flash products will also likely shift towards a noticeable oversupply. As a result, prices of NAND Flash products will steadily decline before the arrival of the peak season in 3Q22.

The current global pandemic has brought a lot of issues to the gaming community from all around the world. As there were emerging supply chain problems to deliver the latest hardware, especially GPUs, many consumers were left without a choice to obtain their special hardware at a reasonable price or even get a GPU at all. Those problems are soon going to get resolved, at least on NVIDIA's front. According to NVIDIA CFO's Colette Kress speech at the UBS Global TMT conference on Monday, the supply of NVIDIA graphics cards will improve in the second half of 2022.

"The company as a whole will take the appropriate work to continue to procure more supply," said Mrs. Kress. "We've been able to grow quite well during this year, each quarter, sequentially growing. And we do continue to plan to do that for Q4. So we believe we will be in a better situation in terms of supply when we look at the second half of next year." Another interesting tidbit was that the company has entered longer-term agreements with the supply chain, and that "longer-term can be more than a year." That could indicate that years could take before these agreements finalize and we see the results in better supply capacity, so nothing is certain at this point.

Due to material shortages caused by insufficient semiconductor supply, to date, power management IC (PMIC) prices remain on an upward trend, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. Average selling price (ASP) for 1H22 is forecast to increase by nearly 10%, reaching a record six year high.

In terms of the global supply chain, in addition to the production capacity of major IDM manufacturers including TI, Infineon, ADI, STMicroelectronics, NXP, ON Semiconductor, Renesas, Microchip, ROHM (Maxim has been acquired by ADI and Dialog by Renesas), IC design houses such as Qualcomm and MediaTek (MTK) have obtained a certain level of production capacity from foundries. Of these, TI is in a leadership position and the aforementioned companies possess a combined market share of over 80%.

Wish has become something of a phenomenon, in the sense that it has become Europe's go-to place for cheap gadgets, toys, clothing and more, most of which are delivered straight from the PRC to your front door. However, a lot of the products sold on Wish doesn't meet European safety regulations and now France's DGCCRF (direction générale de la concurrence, de la consommation et de la répression des fraudes) or in English, the General Directorate for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control, are going after Wish for selling substandard and even outright dangerous goods to French consumers.

There is clearly legit reasoning behind it all, as the DGCCRF ordered some 140 different products from Wish - of which most arrived directly from the PRC - and then proceeded to test them to see if they met European safety standards. Out of the 140 products, 45 percent were deemed outright dangerous, although when it came to electronic products, 90 percent were deemed dangerous and 95 percent were not certified for use in Europe. It's not clear how many of the products were electronic products though, which makes it a bit hard to judge how bad the situation really is.

As the global vaccination rate rose, and border restrictions in Europe and North America eased, social activities also began to enter a period of recovery, with the consumer electronics market seemingly ready for the arrival of the traditional peak season in 2H21, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. At the same time, however, the global supply chain was affected by delays in maritime transport, skyrocketing shipping costs, and component shortages, in addition to already-prohibitive price hikes for certain components in 1H21. Given the parallel rise in both material and manufacturing costs, the market for end products has not undergone the expected cyclical upturn in 2H21. Even so, the overall demand for and shipment of smartphones, notebook computers, and monitors experienced QoQ increases in 3Q21, thereby driving up businesses for major OSAT (outsourced semiconductor assembly and test) companies. For 3Q21, the revenues of the top 10 OSAT companies reached US$8.89 billion, a 31.6% YoY increase.

CaseLabs, one of the OG brands in the PC gaming community, went bankrupt in 2018 amid the supposed Trump tariffs, which pushed aluminium prices over 80% higher. With the company using aluminium as its exclusive material for cases, the high pricing structure of the source material forced the company to close. However, recently we have heard some rumors of CaseLabs making a comeback with the new ownership. Today, it seems like the new owner posted an online survey to get a better insight into the brand's legacy and just how valuable it is was to consumers.

Many will recall that CaseLabs made very modular cases designed for extreme water cooling. Many developed powerful rigs inside CaseLabs cases, with many still in use, thanks to the quality of the product. The new owner is Emil Rytterstedt, according to sources close to Gamers Nexus. And today, we assume that it is precisely this person that posted an online survey to get a better grasp of the community. You can check out the survey here and enter your thoughts on the brand.

While the global electronics supply chain experienced a chip shortage, the corresponding shortage of foundry capacities also led various foundries to raise their quotes, resulting in an over 20% YoY increase in the total annual revenues of the top 10 foundries for both 2020 and 2021, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. The top 10 foundries' annual revenue for 2021 is now expected to surpass US$100 billion. As TSMC leads yet another round of price hikes across the industry, annual foundry revenue for 2022 will likely reach US$117.69 billion, a 13.3% YoY increase.

TrendForce indicates that the combined CAPEX of the top 10 foundries surpassed US$50 billion in 2021, a 43% YoY increase. As new fab constructions and equipment move-ins gradually conclude next year, their combined CAPEX for 2022 is expected to undergo a 15% YoY increase and fall within the US$50-60 billion range. In addition, now that TSMC has officially announced the establishment of a new fab in Japan, total foundry CAPEX will likely increase further next year. TrendForce expects the foundry industry's total 8-inch and 12-inch wafer capacities to increase by 6% YoY and 14% YoY next year, respectively.

Today, we got another report about the potential problems with motherboards and graphics cards. At the moment of writing, the global supply chain of electronics is still under the shortage caused by the lack of sufficient supply of semiconductors and some other electronic components that cannot meet demand. There is a reported scarcity of copper and copper-clad laminates (CCLs), used as a base plate for manufacturing printed circuit boards (PCBs) that power every electronics product currently available. According to DigiTimes, the costs of copper foils used to make these CCLs are rising, putting significant pressure on motherboard and GPU makers to increase their price quotes.

As the materials used to create motherboards and GPUs are experiencing rising costs, that usually results in two types of actions taken by the manufacturer: a price increase or a reduced profit margin of the product. Copper pricing has risen by 35% since Q4 2020, so price growth is inevitable. With the increased MSRP representing a common trend in the computer industry for the past period, it could very easily translate into manufacturers boosting their pricing structure. That means that we, as consumers, could see higher prices of motherboards and graphics cards, especially those models with PCBs made out of high amount of copper layers.

The Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) market for gaming PCs posted another quarter of solid growth in 2021Q2, growing 10.8% YoY and recording 2.5 million units shipped, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). Approaching the end of 2021, growth is expected to continue, albeit at a lower rate than in recent quarters. 2021Q3 is predicted to grow at 6.1% YoY, while 2021Q4 has an anticipated rise of 4.8% YoY. While the momentum is stabilizing, long-term growth is still expected. In 2025, the PC gaming market is forecast to rise to 11.4 million units, with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.5%.

In Western Europe, 2021H1 saw demand in the market driven by consumers working from home, despite the loosening of lockdowns. With upcoming game releases in 2021H2 expected to increase graphical requirements, more gamers will be looking to refresh their PCs to game at the highest level. Therefore, acceleration of new/returning gamers is expected to continue in 2021. However, with component supply and logistics problems continuing, gaming PC production will be impacted too.

Growth rates remained strong in the enterprise segment of the wireless local area networking (WLAN) market in the second quarter of 2021 (2Q21) as the market increased 22.4% on a year-over-year basis to $1.7 billion, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Wireless LAN Tracker. In the consumer segment of the WLAN market, revenues declined 5.7% in the quarter to $2.3 billion, giving the combined enterprise and consumer WLAN markets year-over-year growth of 4.6% in 2Q21.

The growth in the enterprise-class segment of the market builds on a strong first quarter of 2021 when revenues increased 24.6% year over year. For the first half of 2021, the market increased 23.5% compared to first two quarters of 2020. Compared to the second quarter of 2019, 2Q21 revenues increased 10.8%, indicating that demand in the enterprise WLAN is strong.

At this year's Hot chips 33 conference, Samsung has presented its works on the upcoming DDR5 memory standard. The company has managed to achieve a lot of new developments, as the newer standard pairs with new technologies to deliver higher speeds and better capacity. The Korean company designed its DDR5 modules as 8-high (8H) stacked TSV (through silicon via) dies. In the previous DDR4 implementations, Samsung used 4-high (4H) stacked TSV dies, which are actually thicker than the latest 8-high implementations. To achieve the new thin design, Samsung has used thin wafer handling techniques, which resulted in a 40% reduction in gab between stacked dies. The new 8H DDR5 modules are only 1.0 mm thick, compared to the 1.2 mm of the older 4H modules.

When it comes to performance, Samsung expects the new DDR5 modules to deliver big. Running at 7.2 Gbps speeds, the Samsung-made RDIMM/LRDIMM modules can reach up to 512 GB in capacity. This is, of course, limited to the server/enterprise market. Regular consumers/PC users can expect to have UDIMMs with up to 64 GB of capacity. The aforementioned 7.2 Gbps speed is achieved at the specified 1.1 Volts of power, meaning that Samsung's implementation is very efficient. According to some estimations made by the company, the DDR5 crossover for the mainstream market is not expected before 2023/2024, meaning that there is still a lot of time for memory makers to refine their DDR5 products.

While the stay-at-home economy generated high demand for notebook computers from distance learning and WFH applications last year, global notebook shipment for 2020 underwent a nearly 26% YoY increase, which represented a significant departure from the cyclical 3% YoY increase/decrease that had historically taken place each year, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. The uptrend in notebook demand is expected to persist in 2021, during which notebook shipment will likely reach 236 million units, a 15% YoY increase. In particular, thanks to the surging demand for education notebooks, Chromebooks will become the primary growth driver in the notebook market. Regarding the shipment performance of various brands, Samsung and Apple will register the highest growths, with the former having Chromebooks account for nearly 50% of its total notebook shipment this year and the latter continuing to release MacBooks equipped with the M1 chip.

While demand for TVs underwent a slowdown in China and Europe due to the onset of the cyclical downturn, quarterly TV sales in North America reached a historical high in 1Q21 thanks to the proliferation of the stay-at-home economy and government-issued economic stimulus plans, such as the March 2021 handout of US$1,400 stimulus checks to most US citizens, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. Bullish TV sales in North America propelled global TV shipment for 1Q21 to 49.96 million units, a 24.2% QoQ decrease but an 11.5% YoY increase.

TrendForce further indicates that Hisense has been particularly aggressive in expanding in the overseas markets via consumer-friendly prices. Not only did Hisense successfully enter the top five list of the largest TV brands in North America in 1Q21, but the company's market share also surpassed 10% and reached 11.1%, with a 4.19 million unit quarterly TV shipment, which represents an 8.8% increase YoY.

Owing to high demand generated by the proliferation of WFH and distance education, monitor shipment for 2020 reached 140 million units, an 8.6% growth YoY, which represents the highest growth in about 10 years, according TrendForce's latest investigations. With demand persisting through 1H21, monitor shipment for 1Q21 underwent a staggering YoY increase of 34.1%, and this figure is projected to exceed 10% for 2Q21. Total monitor shipment for 2021 will likely reach 150 million units, a 7.3% growth YoY. Gaming monitors, which have been gaining attention in the monitor market, are expected to make up 17.3% of this total and reach 25.9 million units in shipment in 2021. In addition to being one of the most in-demand applications in the stay-at-home economy, this product category has long been a resource-intensive focus of monitor brands and panel suppliers alike.

As the global economy enters the post-pandemic era, technologies including 5G, WiFi6/6E, and HPC (high-performance computing) have been advancing rapidly, in turn bringing about a fundamental, structural change in the semiconductor industry as well, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. While the demand for certain devices such as notebook computers and TVs underwent a sharp uptick due to the onset of the stay-at-home economy, this demand will return to pre-pandemic levels once the pandemic has been brought under control as a result of the global vaccination drive. Nevertheless, the worldwide shift to next-gen telecommunication standards has brought about a replacement demand for telecom and networking devices, and this demand will continue to propel the semiconductor industry, resulting in high capacity utilization rates across the major foundries. As certain foundries continue to expand their production capacities this year, TrendForce expects total foundry revenue to reach a historical high of US$94.6 billion this year, an 11% growth YoY.