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August 26, 2021
šŸŒŠ Good morning! Choppy seas ahead for your electronics...
TSMC's warning

Todayā€™s bit of bad news, if true, has been a long time coming, with DigiTimes ($) reporting the biggest semiconductor wafer fabrication player, TSCM, is flagging a price hike in 2022 of up to 20%:

  • ā€œTSMC has notified clients of an about 10% price hike for its sub-16nm process manufacturing, with the new prices set to be effective starting 2022, according to sources at IC design houses.ā€
  • It would be the companyā€™s steepest single increase, and no doubt represents material price increases and supply chain squeezing of margins.
  • TSMC also confirmed a delay to its next-gen 3nm manufacturing this week.
  • TSMC doesnā€™t disclose its pricing, though the DigiTimes report suggests that the company seeks to bump up a 28nm wafer to ā€œnearly $3000ā€ starting in Jan 2022.
  • By comparison, and noting this is based on guesstimates by retired engineers, thereā€™s also a rumor 5nm wafers are priced at something like $17,000.
  • You can try a silicon cost calculator here, though youā€™d have to consider it accurate-ish at best (Adapteva).

Uh-oh:

  • If accurate, and applied wholesale to all clients, that would obviously include chips like Appleā€™s A-series and M-series, Qualcomm, Intel, and AMD.
  • Meaning, of course, CPUs, GPUs, SoCs, and the like will cost more, reducing margins for manufacturers, and/or being passed to us, the consumers, on smartphones, iPhones, PCs, and so on.
  • Itā€™s all down to things like shipping rates going through the roof to an 11-year high, steel prices rising, shortages ā€” and the problem is that what would seem to be a short-term problem rolls on (Bloomberg).Ā 
  • Phil Levy, the chief economist at Flexport, told The New York Times: ā€œIā€™m less in that ā€˜transitoryā€™ camp and more in the ā€˜we have reason to be concernedā€™ camp.ā€
  • Other shortage rumors include launch dates for new smartphones slipping a few weeks from planned dates.
Roundup

āŒš Fitbit Charge 5 guide: What you need to know about Fitbitā€™s new fitness tracker (Android Authority).

šŸ“¶ Google Pixel 6 modem wonā€™t be from Qualcomm, which makes sense given Samsungā€™s behind it, but it may mean itā€™s more of a Samsung-derivative chip rumor suggests (Android Authority).

šŸ“³ Your smartphone might get ā€˜smartā€™ RAM soon with AI processing built-in, somehow? (Android Authority).

šŸ¤¦ā€ā™‚ļø A decade and a half of instability: The history of Google messaging apps (Ars Technica).

šŸ” Google and Microsoft will invest $30 billion in cybersecurity over the next five years: ā€œThatā€™s $10 billion from Google, $20 billion from Microsoft and $0 billion from Apple.ā€ (Engadget).

šŸ“¦ US PC market grows 17% in Q2 2021 as laptop popularity booms: ~36.8 million units were shipped in the US for Q2, according to Canalys. Apple held down second, with Mac laptop shipments up 24%, though iPads sold less. Samsung numbers up 50% (ZDNet).

šŸŽ® The biggest trailers and announcements from Gamescomā€™s two hour show, including Halo, Horizon Forbidden West, and Death Stranding. (The Verge).

šŸ‘‰ Microsoftā€™s Panos Panay now directly advises CEO Satya Nadella: now an Executive Vice President (The Verge).

šŸ’» Gateway 14.1-inch Ultra Slim Notebook (2021) review: Legen-dairy budget laptop returns, though only to Walmart (CNET).

šŸŽ¶ Kanyeā€™s Donda Stem player is here: you can remix-it-yourself gadget (Engadget).

šŸ¤øā€ā™‚ļø PokĆ©mon Go changes gym, pokĆ©stop distances after fan uproar (Kotaku).

ā—€ The OnlyFans Porn Ban has been reversed, but good luck reassuring creators (Wired).

šŸš¢ The first crewless electric cargo ship begins its maiden voyage this year (Engadget).

šŸ§± A crane system that lifts up blocks to create gravity-based renewable energy storage at grid-scale has received $100M in funding (pv magazine).

šŸ›« Dawn Aerospace conducts five flights of its suborbital spaceplane (TechCrunch).

šŸ§Š The sinking of the Titanic (r/gifs).

Throwback Thursday

Itā€™s been 30 years since a 21-year-old Linus Torvalds sent a message to newsgroup comp.os.minix, starting the creation of Linux.

Hereā€™s someoneā€™s autographed printout:

torvalds

Hereā€™s hoping at least one of these emails you receive is considered even 0.01% as important in 30 years šŸ˜‰

Tristan Rayner, Senior Editor.

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