Tag: chip shortage

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Shortage of chips costing as little as 50-cents disrupting the semiconductor industry

A chip shortage is causing disruptions in the semiconductor industry, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC) CEO, says.

As reported by Bloomberg, the chips cost between 50 cents and $10, and the shortage impacts several companies.

Sharing one example, TSMC CEO C.C. Wei told a group of attendees at a tech conference that ASML Holding NV, located in the Netherlands, is having difficulty securing $10 chips used for its extreme ultraviolet lithography systems.

Wei said TSMC is building more plants to keep up with demand. He said shortages in the automaker sector are the result of companies adding features to cars and increasing the amount of silicon used. In the mobile world, smartphones now require up to triple the number of power management chips compared to five years ago.

“The age of an efficient, globalized supply system has passed,” Wei said. “Costs are swiftly rising, including inflation.”

Source: Bloomberg

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Chip shortage may persist until 2024, according to Intel CEO

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has touched on his outlook on the global chip shortage heavily affecting the tech and semiconductor industry. Gelsinger now expects the shortage to last until 2024

During an interview with CNBC’s TechCheck, Gelsinger states that due to the constrained availability of critical manufacturing tools, the chip shortage could last well beyond this year. The ability to meet ongoing demand proves to be an ongoing obstacle.

“That’s part of the reason that we believe the overall semiconductor shortage will now drift into 2024, from our earlier estimates in 2023, just because the shortages have now hit equipment and some of those factory ramps will be more challenged,” Gelsinger said in the interview.

The global chip shortage first began during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chip manufacturing factories continue to face numerous disruptions and closures. Demand continues to rise as the need for semiconductors for consumer tech products is never-ending.

Gelsinger is still relatively new to Intel’s CEO role. He took over in February 2021 and invests heavily in diversifying chip manufacturing around the globe. Intel invests significantly in establishing semiconductor facilities in the U.S and Europe. Though, Asia is home to most factories.

“We’ve really invested in those equipment relationships, but that will be tempering the build-out of capacity for us and everybody else, but we believe we’re positioned better than the rest of the industry,” Gelsinger said.

The shortage of chips heavily affects the ability to readily purchase Intel chips and Apple products like the Mac. Sony also continues to struggle with demand for its PlayStation 5 as well. If Gelsinger’s analysis is correct, these trends could continue to escalate into 2024 at the very least.

Image credit: Intel

Source: CNBC

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Doug Bowser says Nintendo takes N64 emulation feedback ‘very seriously’

Nintendo released its Switch Online Expansion Pack back in October, which included access to official emulations of old N64 games like Mario Kart 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. However, following the launch, several people took to social media to complain about the quality of the emulation.

You can read the full details here, but in short, users reported input lag, sound delays, frame rate problems and more.

In an interview with The Verge, Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser responded to complaints, saying:

“We’re constantly looking for ways to make our online features and those games better and continuing to add value through more services and more games as we go forward. We take the feedback very seriously, and we’re continuing to look at ways to improve the overall performance. For us, it’s about quality and great content at a great value.”

Although the comment comes off as a rather uninspired PR statement, hopefully Nintendo backs it up with some work to improve the situation for customers.

Bowser also touched on other topics in the interview, including Switch sales — Nintendo cut its sales forecast between April 2021 and March 2022 by 1.5 million units due to the global chip shortage, and Bowser doesn’t expect that to change soon.

Finally, Bowser also talked about Joy-Con drift, a long-running issue plaguing the Switch:

“As we’ve gone through the first five and a half years of the Nintendo Switch, we’ve observed gameplay, we’ve observed as people have returned units how they’ve worn, and we’ve been making continuous improvements overall to the Joy-Con, including the analog stick. This latest version, Nintendo Switch OLED, has the same updated analog stick that’s now available in the original Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite.”

Those interested can check out the full interview from The Verge here.

Source: The Verge

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Samsung predicts record-high Q3 revenue, likely thanks to chip sales

Samsung Electronics has revealed its earnings predictions for the third quarter of this year — and the numbers look very good.

The South Korean company says its revenue could potentially hit KRW 73 trillion (roughly $76 billion CAD), with an operating profit of KRW 15.8 trillion (roughly $16 billion CAD).

If true, this would be Samsung’s highest-ever reported quarterly revenue.

Compared to last year, Samsung’s Q3 2021 numbers are currently 28 percent higher than they were in Q3 2020. It’s worth noting that the quarter that just ended — Q2 — also exceeded Q3’s 2020 numbers in terms of revenue.

While Samsung didn’t provide an official reason for the company’s financial gains, an analyst speaking to SamMobile suggested that the tech manufacturer likely got a boost from “higher chip sales and semiconductor prices.”

Samsung will report its final numbers for Q3 at the end of the month.

The company mentioned a few months ago that it expects its smartphone sales to return to pre-pandemic levels soon, but issues with the supply chain are causing delays.

Source: SamMobile