During the CES 2024 international show, Wacom, one of the leaders in the digital design space, unveiled the new Wacom Cintiq Pro and Wacom One tablets. The company also showcased its digital rights management software, Yuify, and introduced Wacom Bridge, a tool designed to enhance remote collaborative workflows for studios. The new Wacom Cintiq Pro line, including the Pro 27, 22, and 17, was developed in collaboration with professionals in virtual production, VFX, CG, and animation. The latest Wacom Cintiq Pro 27, with its precision and best-in-class color fidelity, is poised to take virtual production workflows to the next level. Color accuracy is crucial in virtual production workflows, and the Wacom Cintiq Pro 27 delivers 100% Rec. 709 and 98% DCI-P3 color accuracy. Its 4K display, with 10-bit color, offers high color performance and calibration options, reducing the traditional setup footprint without compromising performance.

The new Wacom Pro Pen 3, redesigned for ergonomic comfort and customization, complements the Cintiq Pro 27's eight Express Keys and multi-touch screen, offering a harmonious workflow. Wacom Bridge, developed in partnership with AWS NICE DCV and Splashtop, is a technology solution that enhances the use of Wacom products on supported remote desktop connections, catering to the needs of remote and hybrid work environments. The Wacom One line, first launched in 2019, has been redesigned and upgraded, offering more options and customization opportunities. The line includes the Wacom One 13 and 12 displays and the Wacom One Medium and Small pen tablets. Finally, Wacom's commitment to protecting artists' work is embodied in "Yuify", a service that allows artists to protect their artwork, manage usage rights, and establish legally binding license permissions. This digital rights management platform enables creators to conveniently manage their authorship records and sign licenses and contracts.

TrendForce reports that the DRAM contract prices are estimated to increase by approximately 13-18% in 1Q24 with mobile DRAM leading the surge. It appears that due to the unclear demand outlook for the entire year of 2024, manufacturers believe that sustained production cuts are necessary to maintain the supply-demand balance in the memory industry.

PC DRAM: The market is buzzing with unfilled DDR5 orders, while savvy buyers brace for a continued surge in DDR4 prices, keeping procurement engines running. This trend, however, is shadowed by a gradual industry pivot toward DDR5, casting uncertainty over the expansion of DDR4 bit procurement volumes. Despite this, both DDR4 and DDR5 prices have yet to hit the target set by manufacturers, and buyers seem ready to ride the wave of price hikes into 1Q24. This sets the stage for an estimated 10-15% in PC DRAM contract prices, with DDR5 poised to take the lead over DDR4 in this pricing rally.

Acer today shared its commitment to carbon neutrality for its Aspire Vero laptop line, starting from the new Aspire Vero 16 (AV16-51P). Following international standards for carbon footprint calculation and carbon neutrality, actions are taken at each stage of the device lifecycle to minimize its carbon footprint, and then, high-quality carbon credits will be applied to attain carbon neutrality.

"To help tackle the increasing challenges posed by climate change, on the product side, Acer is proposing 'conscious technology' designed and made with consideration for the future," said Jerry Kao, COO, Acer Inc. "On the corporate side, Acer has joined the RE100 initiative and committed to achieving 100% renewable electricity by 2035. We have also pledged to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050."

A somewhat expected result of the November 17th export ban on RTX 4090 GPUs to China has been that AMD's top offerings; recently rumored to soon suffer the same fate, have been selling faster than AMD or its partners can make them. Predicting the worst, some OEMs such as Dell have allegedly already set their own self-imposed restrictions on the export of both Radeon and Instinct cards to China. Meanwhile insiders in board channels have not yet received any official warning that they can no longer sell RX 7900 XTXs or XTs to DIY markets, however vendors and consumers alike sense an oncoming storm and unable to get RTX 4090s are buying up as many of the high end Radeons as they can.

It's said that AMD's production capacity for this surge in sales has been underwhelming, and supply to Chinese board partners has been barely trickling in. This lack of incoming supply of the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT, restriction or not, is creating a shortage of cards in China that is expected to impact the remainder of Q4 2023 and much of Q1 2024. With no immediate restrictions expected for AMD's top cards it's possible that they could react and ramp up exports to cover the demand, however that could be risky if AMD is trying to avoid being targeted.

NVIDIA's most recent FY3Q24 financial reports reveal record-high revenue coming from its data center segment, driven by escalating demand for AI servers from major North American CSPs. However, TrendForce points out that recent US government sanctions targeting China have impacted NVIDIA's business in the region. Despite strong shipments of NVIDIA's high-end GPUs—and the rapid introduction of compliant products such as the H20, L20, and L2—Chinese cloud operators are still in the testing phase, making substantial revenue contributions to NVIDIA unlikely in Q4. Gradual shipments increases are expected from the first quarter of 2024.

The US ban continues to influence China's foundry market as Chinese CSPs' high-end AI server shipments potentially drop below 4% next year
TrendForce reports that North American CSPs like Microsoft, Google, and AWS will remain key drivers of high-end AI servers (including those with NVIDIA, AMD, or other high-end ASIC chips) from 2023 to 2024. Their estimated shipments are expected to be 24%, 18.6%, and 16.3%, respectively, for 2024. Chinese CSPs such as ByteDance, Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent (BBAT) are projected to have a combined shipment share of approximately 6.3% in 2023. However, this could decrease to less than 4% in 2024, considering the current and potential future impacts of the ban.

NVIDIA is reportedly rushing shipments of GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs to China in anticipation of expected export restrictions. We have already reported that NVIDIA might be canceling 5 billion US Dollars worth of orders. The US government will require an export license for shipping RTX 4090s to China, effectively restricting sales to the country. NVIDIA's add-in-board (AIB) partners are reportedly working at full capacity to produce as many RTX 4090 products for the Chinese market as possible before the potential restriction on November 17. While it remains unclear whether the export restrictions will ultimately be implemented, the anticipation of such measures has prompted NVIDIA and its partners to accelerate their production.

The Tweet that feeds this information is coming from Zed Wang, a well-known hardware leaker with historically accurate insights into NVIDIA's operations, who claims that "NVIDIA has been shipping tons of AD102 for AICs this week to manufacture as much RTX 4090 as possible before the original restriction date of RTX 4090 in China. It is still unclear whether the restriction will become true or not. But all AICs are at their full power in producing RTX 4090, regardless of that."

We're excited to share that Framework Laptop 16 made it into TIME's Best Inventions of 2023! This is our second product winning this award, with the original Framework Laptop making it onto the cover in 2021. Dave2D also got an early hands-on with a DVT2 engineering sample over the weekend and was surprised by the refinement of the design. This was a random development unit, and the final product has further improvement on mechanical fit and finish.

We know that the many of you who have placed pre-orders are eager to get your hands on the product. We're coming up to the end of the DVT2 phase, which is the final engineering phase of our product development process. The Framework engineering and supply chain teams are heads down now on engineering validation, completing firmware development, and readying manufacturing. This is by far the most complex product we've built, both from a design and an operational perspective, and we're putting everything we have into getting it right. We've made dozens of small mechanical and electrical changes over the last couple of months, and we'll be sharing some highlights on these over the coming weeks along with more detail on the schedule for mass production.

Micron Technology, Inc., one of the world's largest semiconductor companies, today marked a historic day with the opening of its new cutting-edge assembly and test facility in Batu Kawan, Penang, alongside the celebration of Micron's 45th anniversary. A ceremony officiated by Chief Minister of Penang, Yang Amat Berhormat Tuan Chow Kon Yeow, underscored the regional significance of Micron's expansion, highlighting the company's four and a half decades of innovation and excellence.

Micron previously invested $1 billion and will add up to another billion including construction and full equipping of this new facility over the next few years in Penang to increase factory space to a total of 1.5 million square feet. This expansion enables Micron Malaysia to boost production output and further strengthen its assembly and test capabilities, allowing it to supply leading-edge NAND, PCDRAM and SSD modules to meet the growing demand for transformative technologies such as artificial intelligence and autonomous or electric vehicles.

According to Korean business news publication ChosunBiz, both Samsung and TSMC are struggling with their 3 nm node yields. The two companies have different approaches to their 3 nm nodes, with Samsung using GAA FET (Gate All Around), whereas TSMC is continuing with its FinFET technology. That said, TSMC has at least five known 3 nm nodes, of which two should be in production by now, assuming N3E has proved to be reliable enough to kick off. Samsung on the other hand has three known 3 nm nodes, with only one in production so far, called 3GAE.

ChosunBiz reports that neither company is getting the kind of yields that you'd expect from a node that should have been in volume production for around a year by now, with Samsung apparently being somewhat better than TSMC. At 60 and 50 percent respectively, neither Samsung nor TSMC are anywhere near decent yields. Anything below 70 percent is considered very poor and even the 60 percent claim in Samsungs case, is apparently limited to some kind of Chinese mining ASIC and doesn't include the SRAM you find in most modern processors. ChosunBiz also mentions a source familiar with Samsung's foundry business who mentions a yield closer to 50 percent for the company. The same source also mentions that Samsung needs to reach at least 70 percent yield to be able to attract major customers to its 3 nm node.

TrendForce research indicates that in 1H23, the utilization rate of 8-inch production capacity primarily benefited from sporadic inventory restocking orders for Driver ICs in the second quarter. Additionally, wafer foundries initiated pricing strategies to encourage clients into early orders, offering solid backup. However, in 2H23, persistent macroeconomic and inventory challenges led to the evaporation of an anticipated demand surge.

Meanwhile, stockpiles in automotive and industrial control segments grew after meeting initial shortages, tempering demand. Under fierce price competition from PMIC leader Texas Instruments (TI), inventory reductions for Fabless and other IDMs were drastically inhibited. With IDMs ushering in output from their new plants and pulling back outsourced orders, this compounded reductions to wafer foundries. This dynamic saw 8-inch production capacity utilization dipping to 50-60% in the second half of the year. Both Tier 1 and Tier 2/3 8-inch wafer foundries saw a more lackluster capacity utilization performance compared to the first half of the year.

We continue to be on track to start shipments before the end of the month on the new Framework Laptop 13 (AMD Ryzen 7040 Series). Last week we shared that SMT (Mainboard production) had started, and this week we've begun final assembly of laptops. We also pulled some early units to send out to press reviewers to make sure that you can see exactly where we've landed on performance and battery life.

We have another happy bit of news to share with you: our Lead System Architect Kieran was able to implement a firmware solution to reduce power consumption when using HDMI and DP Expansion Cards on the back two slots. The only remaining power issue is with USB-A Expansion Cards on the back slots, which we are investigating a future USB-A Expansion Card hardware revision to resolve.

TSMC has gained the Taiwanese government's approval to invest $4.5 billion in its main North American manufacturing hub—Fab 21 is located in the greater Phoenix area. Mass production at the Arizona foundry has been delayed into 2025 due to behind-schedule equipment installations and various workforce-related issues, but a limited trial run is reported to begin early next year. Mid-last month, the TSMC executive board sought approval from Taiwan's Investment Commission for an additional overseas spend (the Arizona operation is registered as a subsidiary company).

This request was approved by the commission yesterday (September 18)—a $3.5 billion cash injection was already given the thumbs-up back in March. Exact areas of expenditure have not been declared to the public, but Taiwanese media outlets believe that the second phase of funds will be marked for working capital expenses at the North American division. Short-term business costs include the purchase of inventory (e.g raw materials), day-to-day operating expenses and resolvement of short-term debts. Mark Liu, TSMC's chairman, recently expressed optimism about goings-on at Arizona's Fab 21—mentioning significant progress made over the spring and summer period.

Mass production at TSMC's Phoenix, Arizona Fab 21 facility has been delayed until 2025, but the top brass are keen to get some activity started at their North American foundry—it is possible that they want to avoid potential contract breaches, caused by various setbacks. Taiwan's Money DJ (interpreted by TrendForce) reports that a pilot scheme will be implemented by the first quarter of 2024—industry sources believe that a small batch trial run will result in 4000 to 5000 wafer starts per month (WSPM). Setup delays have dropped projected efficiency ratings—analysts reckon that the Arizona plant cannot match the sheer effectiveness of operations back in Taiwan.

TrendForce cites a number of factors, including: "a shortage of skilled equipment installation personnel, local union protests, and differences in overseas safety regulations have caused delays in equipment installation." TSMC chairman Mark Liu expressed optimism about the situation earlier this month—citing significant progress (at the Fab 21 site) over the past five months as an early sign of success for the project. Insiders claim that TSMC is considering a major upgrade of its currently in-construction Japanese facility—extra capacity at the existing location and a second foundry could be on the table.

According to the latest report from Nikkei, HP, the world's second-largest PC manufacturer after Lenovo, is making strategic shifts in its laptop production bases. In a move that reflects broader trends among tech giants, HP is collaborating with various Electronic Manufacturing Service (EMS) providers to move a significant part of its laptop production out of China to other countries such as Thailand, Mexico, and eventually Vietnam. For 2023 alone, the production outside of China is expected to range from a few million units up to 5 million, a noteworthy figure given HP's total global PC shipments of 55.2 million units. Commercial notebooks are slated for production in Mexico, catering to HP's primary market, North America, with consumer laptops made in Thailand. Additionally, a shift to Vietnam is on the horizon for 2024. Thailand's mature PC supplier ecosystem is anticipated to facilitate a smoother transition for HP.

HP's reconfiguration of manufacturing locations aligns with similar initiatives by other tech giants. Dell, for example, is also reducing its reliance on Chinese-made chips and aims to manufacture at least 20% of its laptops in Vietnam this year. Apple has likewise commenced MacBook production in the same country. Several factors are driving these relocations, with rising manufacturing costs in China, including labor recruitment challenges and increased labor costs, being key among them. Geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China also weigh in on these decisions, especially since the U.S. is a crucial market for both HP and Dell. Despite the diversification, HP reaffirms its commitment to continue operations in China, particularly in Chongqing, a significant laptop production hub since 2008.

MediaTek and TSMC today announced that MediaTek has successfully developed its first chip using TSMC's leading-edge 3 nm technology, taping out MediaTek's flagship Dimensity system-on-chip (SoC) with volume production expected next year. This marks a significant milestone in the long-standing strategic partnership between MediaTek and TSMC, with both companies taking full advantage of their strengths in chip design and manufacturing to jointly create flagship SoCs with high performance and low power features, empowering global end devices.

"We are committed to our vision of using the world's most advanced technology to create cutting edge products that improve our lives in meaningful ways," said Joe Chen, President of MediaTek. "TSMC's consistent and high-quality manufacturing capabilities enable MediaTek to fully demonstrate its superior design in flagship chipsets, offering the highest performance and quality solutions to our global customers and enhancing the user experience in the flagship market."

ASML's CEO, Peter Wennink, has announced that his team will be shipping out the first pilot tool (a high-NA EUV system) in its next product line before the end of this year. Reuters reports that supply chain problems have caused hold-ups along the way, but the Dutch multinational corporation is confident in delivering its next-gen opening salvo—these high numerical aperture EUV machines are large enough to warrant transportation via truck, and their per unit cost is over €300 million (~$322 million). The most demanding of chipmakers will be snapping up ASML's behemoth apparatuses in order to produce improved (i.e. smaller) chips over the next ten years.

Wennink spoke to Reuters at an industry event (that took place in Eindhoven): "A few suppliers had some difficulties in actually ramping up and also giving us the right level of technological quality, so that led to some delay. But in fact the first shipment is still this year." The CEO expects to see a growth in revenue thanks to burgeoning interest in AI-oriented silicon—new manufacturing facilities in Arizona and Taiwan are primed to adopt high-NA EUV machines in 2024. Key clients will be experimenting with these new machines (EXE:5200), before a full push into commercial production—logic chip makers have demanded that they get priority access over memory manufacturers. Intel has made declarations, in the recent past, that its foundries are first in line to receive ASML's latest and greatest tools.

China has sharply increased imports of semiconductor manufacturing equipment in recent months, customs data reveals. The country's purchases of chip production tools surged to record highs of nearly $5 billion in June and July, a 70% increase versus the same period last year, which amounted to $2.9 billion. The spike comes right before export restrictions on advanced chipmaking equipment are implemented by the U.S. and its allies. The moves aim to slow China's technological advancement, but Chinese chipmakers are stockpiling to avoid disruptions. Much of the equipment comes from the Netherlands and Japan, which have imposed licensing requirements on certain tool exports. While it's unclear how many are affected, the rush suggests China wants to expand production capacity and buffer against supply chain issues.

Chinese firms like SMIC and YMTC rely heavily on U.S., Dutch, and Japanese suppliers for cutting-edge manufacturing equipment. They are utilizing imported tools to boost the output of mature chips not subject to controls, particularly for electric vehicles, renewable energy, and industrial applications. Significantly, imports from the Netherlands doubled as lithography machines were delivered to Chinese foundries. Purchases from Japan also rose as companies procured etching tools and wafer coaters after 2020 U.S. restrictions. Newly established foundries backed by local governments contributed as Beijing pushed chip production expansions. Despite export control challenges, China aims to keep advancing its semiconductor capabilities. The import spike highlights intensified efforts to build self-sufficiency using older technology not covered by current limits.

TrendForce highlights in its latest report that memory suppliers are boosting their production capacity in response to escalating orders from NVIDIA and CSPs for their in-house designed chips. These efforts include the expansion of TSV production lines to increase HBM output. Forecasts based on current production plans from suppliers indicate a remarkable 105% annual increase in HBM bit supply by 2024. However, due to the time required for TSV expansion, which encompasses equipment delivery and testing (9 to 12 months), the majority of HBM capacity is expected to materialize by 2Q24.

TrendForce analysis indicates that 2023 to 2024 will be pivotal years for AI development, triggering substantial demand for AI Training chips and thereby boosting HBM utilization. However, as the focus pivots to Inference, the annual growth rate for AI Training chips and HBM is expected to taper off slightly. The imminent boom in HBM production has presented suppliers with a difficult situation: they will need to strike a balance between meeting customer demand to expand market share and avoiding a surplus due to overproduction. Another concern is the potential risk of overbooking, as buyers, anticipating an HBM shortage, might inflate their demand.

Stan Shih, the co-founder & honorary chairman of Acer Inc., thinks that the USA will have hard time catching up with Asian semiconductor production facilities. Yahoo Taiwan managed to extract some choice comments from the multi-faceted businessman—he believes that the US government's initiative to boost native chip making will not be enough to match existing overseas strongholds. A key area of focus was volume output—Shih reckons that North America is already too far behind Asian counterpart industries, with Acer's home base of Taiwan being particularly strong (in his opinion). Workplace culture and state of the art equipment are cited as the main pillars for success.

Shih observed that that US chip industry has historically been far too reliant on outsourcing (going back many decades) production to foreign facilities, and Asia's position has been fortified thanks to long established and optimized supply chains—he thinks that the American system is not mature enough to reach parity. On a semi-related note, TSMC is reportedly struggling to get its new US facility fully operational—company chairman Mark Liu (according to Tom's Hardware): "said that the Taiwanese company would delay mass production of its Arizona fab from early 2024 to 2025, partly due to a lack of cleanroom tools necessary to produce chips at scale." TSMC has been transferring staff from its home turf to plug staffing gaps at the Phoenix facility—Liu divulged his latest batch of complaints during an earnings conference (last Thursday): "We are encountering certain challenges, as there is an insufficient number of skilled workers with the specialized expertise required for equipment installation in a semiconductor-grade facility."

The Council has today approved the regulation to strengthen Europe's semiconductor ecosystem, better known as the 'Chips Act'. This is the last step in the decision-making procedure. The Chips Act aims to create the conditions for the development of a European industrial base in the field of semiconductors, attract investment, promote research and innovation and prepare Europe for any future chip supply crisis. The programme should mobilise €43 billion in public and private investment (€3.3 billion from the EU budget), with the objective of doubling the EU's global market share in semiconductors, from 10% now to at least 20% by 2030.

With the Chips Act, Europe will be a frontrunner in the world semiconductors race. We can already see it in action: new production plants, new investments, new research projects. And in the long run, this will also contribute to the renaissance of our industry and the reduction of our foreign dependencies. - Héctor Gómez Hernández, Spanish Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism

Somewhat out of the blue, Silicon Box has announced the opening of its US$2 billion semiconductor assembly plant in Singapore. The "startup" is founded by several of Marvell's founders, suggesting the company has the right pedigree to compete in what is sure to be a very competitive market over the next few years. Silicon Box is not a foundry and will at least at this point in time, not be involved in foundry services, but instead the company will focus on advanced chip packaging technologies, focusing on chiplets.

The company is promising "faster time-to-market, lower new device design cost" on its very rudimentary website, something the company has yet to prove to be capable of. However, its new plant in Singapore covers 73,000 square metres and is said to feature state of the art production equipment for turning chiplets into chips. The factory is said to create some 1,200 jobs in Singapore, suggesting that this is a company that means business. According to a comment by company founder and CEO BJ Han to Reuters, "customers had been lining up" since before the completion of the assembly plant. Silicon Box is expecting to have several AI chipset companies as its customers, including Tenstorrent, which so far is the only officially mentioned client. Time will tell if Silicon Box can compete with established chip packaging businesses and if they can deliver on their promise to be faster and cheaper than the competition.

When PlayStation VR2 released earlier this year, it offered players a chance to experience virtual game worlds bristling with detail and immersive features. PS VR2 was the culmination of several years of development, which included multiple prototypes and testing approaches. To learn more, we asked PS VR2's Product Manager Yasuo Takahashi about the development process of the innovative headset and PlayStation VR2 Sense Controller, and also gained insight into the various prototypes that were created as part of this process.

PlayStation Blog: When did development for the PS VR2 headset start?
Yasuo Takahashi: Research on future VR technology was being conducted even prior to the launch of the original PlayStation VR as part of our R&D efforts. After PS VR's launch in 2016, discussion around what the next generation of VR would look like began in earnest. We went back and reviewed those R&D findings and we started prototyping various technologies at the beginning of 2017. Early that same year, we began detailed conversations on what features should be implemented in the new product, and which specific technologies we should explore further.

According to news out of Korea, NVIDIA is considering Samsung as a partner not only for HBM3 memory, but also as a potential partner when it comes to 2.5D chip packaging. The latter is due to TSMC having limited capacity when it comes to handling all of its customers advanced chip packaging needs, although Samsung is apparently not the only potential partner NVIDIA is looking at. Taiwan based SPIL and US based Amkor Technology are two alternative candidates for the 2.5D chip packaging according to the Elec.

As far as HBM3 memory goes, NVIDIA doesn't have as many potential options, with SK Hynix being its current partner, who NVIDIA will continue to work with when it comes to HBM memory for its high-end AI accelerators and GPUs. It's likely that Samsung is trying to win NVIDIA back as a foundry customer, by proving that it's capable of handling the chip packaging for NVIDIA. Samsung will likely use its I-Cube 2.5D packaging technology and the Elec suggests that Samsung would still be using TSMC made GPU wafers which will be mated with Samsung HMB3 memory. Samsung has as yet not started its mass production of HMB3 memory, but have sampled customers with evaluation samples that are said to have received very positive feedback. For now, nothing has been agreed and TSMC is, as we know, looking to expand its 2.5D packaging business by over 40 percent, but the question is how quickly TSMC can move before its customers consider other competitors.

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today announced that it has initiated mass production of its new automotive Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 3.1 memory solution optimized for in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems. The new solution offers the industry's lowest energy consumption, enabling car manufacturers to provide the best mobility experience for consumers.

The UFS 3.1 lineup will come in 128, 256 and 512-gigabyte (GB) variants to meet different needs of customers. The enhanced lineup allows more efficient battery life management to future automotive applications such as electric or autonomous vehicles. The 256 GB model, for instance, has reduced its energy consumption by about 33% compared to the previous generation product. The 256 GB model also provides a sequential write speed of 700-megabytes-per-second (MB/s) and a sequential read speed of 2,000 MB/s.

TrendForce reports that OEMs have continued making concerted efforts to scale back production. However, given that the trajectory of market demand is still unclear, it's expected that the NAND Flash market will continue to be in a state of oversupply in 3Q23. Cautious inventory management by buyers is preventing a stabilization in NAND Flash prices even with an anticipated seasonal surge in demand for 2H23. TrendForce predicts that NAND Flash wafers will be the first to see a price hike in 3Q23 as prices for module products such as SSDs, eMMCs, and UFS will likely continue to fall due to tepid downstream demand. Consequently, the overall ASP of NAND Flash is forecast to continue dropping by about 3~8% in 3Q23, though a possibility exists prices may recover in 4Q23.

Client SSD: Although notebook shipments are expected to gradually recover in 3Q23, reversing an oversupply of SSD will continue to be challenging. Furthermore, a portion of suppliers have implemented aggressive promotions to secure customer orders and hit shipping targets in light of weakened demand and less-than-satisfactory order volumes from major clients, putting pressure on other suppliers. TrendForce estimates that the ASP of client SSDs will fall by 8~13% in the third quarter.