News & Reviews:   semiconductor

After launching the flagship 4nm Dimensity 9000 chip, MediaTek still hasn't finished its job as it has a mid-range chip pending. According to well-known tipster Digital Chat Station, the semiconductor manufacturer could soon launch the 5nm Dimesnity 8000 to power next year's mid-range devices.

TSMC's favourite customer is undoubtedly Apple, as most of its sales belong to the Cupertino-based company. Therefore, the semiconductor manufacturer would leave the best to the tech giant, and it might have made someone jealous. According to a recent report, AMD is considering switching to Samsung for its 3nm products due to the TSMC's special treatment for Apple.

Back in July 2020, it was reported that Samsung would skip the 4nm chip manufacturing node. Sources suggest that Samsung's competitor, TSMC, would launch its first 3nm chip by 2H 2022, so Samsung decided to go straight to 3nm to get ahead of its competition. And it looks like the rumour is true!

It looks like AMD is planning to contribute its technology to another smartphone chip maker besides Samsung. According to the latest report from DigiTimes, MediaTek could be the next to enjoy the benefits of the RDNA graphics chip. However, do note that everything is still in the discussion stage, so it's best to not get your hopes up yet.

The global chip shortage issue persists by having the wait time hit 21 weeks, the longest it has ever been. To put it simply, companies would now have to wait that long after placing their orders with the semiconductor manufacturers.

In September 2020, Nvidia had announced its plan to acquire Arm from SoftBank for about 40 billion USD (~RM164 billion). However, Qualcomm has jumped out of the middle of nowhere recently and offered to invest in the semiconductor company rather than purchase it outright, in the event Arm rejects the deal offered by Nvidia.

Based on a report by tweaktown.com, it seems that there was a rumour going around that TSMC could increase the price per wafer by up to 25% in the near future. With that being said, it could potentially affect the prices of products equipped with TSMC-made chips by up to 25% as well.

A new report is claiming that Apple was the largest buyer of semiconductor chips in 2020. According to Gartner, the tech giant had spent 53.6 billion USD (~RM216 billion) and took 11.9% of the global market share, representing 24% growth year-on-year. Let's read on to find out why Apple had to spend so much on semiconductors.

As the pandemic continues to hit the market, it seems that Qualcomm might have a shortage on its semiconductor. In fact, the company themselves gave a warning that they are struggling a bit to meet the demand, as confirmed by CEO Cristiano Amon.

For those familiar with mobile devices, you'll often see the terms 7nm or 5nm. These are the process nodes that chip makers have to manufacture components like mobile chipsets. For Samsung, new reports claim that Samsung could be looking to skip the 4nm process and go straight for 3nm in other to beat TSMC to the punch.