semiconductors
Latest
TSMC is building a second chip plant to meet US semiconductor demand
The White House and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing co. (TSMC) have announced plans to build a second chip plant in Arizona.
US set to impose more trade restrictions on Chinese AI and supercomputer companies
The White House is set to unveil rules that would further restrict access to advanced computing technology in China that could be used by its military.
Biden administration reveals details of its $50 billion chip investment plan
Over half of the funding will go toward advanced chip manufacturing.
Senate passes bill to boost US chip manufacturing
The Senate has passed the CHIPS and Science Act, a bill that promises to boost domestic chip production.
EU unveils a $49 billion plan to address chip shortages
Along with a US effort to bolster semiconductor production, the Chips Act aims to prevent future scarcity.
Why the global chip shortage isn't ending anytime soon
The semiconductor chip crisis is real, and it's had a serious impact on our lives.
Sony reportedly cuts PS5 production again as chip shortages and shipment issues bite
Sony's PlayStation 5 may not be able to beat the PS4's first year sales record due to an ongoing component shortage.
Lawmakers propose 25 percent tax credit to incentivize domestic chip production
A group of bipartisan lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee have introduced legislation that seeks to incentivize chipmakers to manufacture their silicon in the US.
Intel wants to make chips for automakers to help with the global shortage
Intel has laid out a plan to help automakers dealing with the global semiconductor shortage that has left companies like GM canceling production shifts.
Apple to invest over $1 billion in new Munich silicon facility
Apple is investing a billion euros over the next three years in a German research and development project that will see it build a European Silicon Design Center for 5G tech in Munich.
Biden will review tech supply chains to reduce dependence on China
President Biden is reviewing supply chains for processors, batteries and other key tech companies to reduce dependence on China.
Joe Biden will tackle global chip shortage with executive order
The Biden administration is planning “aggressive steps” to alleviate the global semiconductor shortage, Bloomberg reports.
Ford and Nissan will cut vehicle production due to a chip shortage
Ford and Nissan are idling factories and cutting vehicle production as they deal with chip shortages.
US slaps trade restrictions on China's top chipmaker
The US has put limits on exports to China's top chip manufacturer, SMIC, potentially hurting a host of Chinese tech compaines.
US tightens restrictions on Huawei to close trade loopholes
The US is expanding trade restrictions meant to limit Huawei's access to semiconductors.
Samsung invests in logic chip R&D to take on Qualcomm and TSMC
Samsung's chip division is its most lucrative, but memory chip prices are falling and the company's overall operating profits are slipping. In response, Samsung just announced a $116 billion investment in non-memory chip R&D and production infrastructure. Some see that as a move to sell chips to other companies and take on competitors like Qualcomm, Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC).
Chinese tech at CES: Politics is temporary, business is permanent
At the start of 2018, the US imposed a series of tariffs on Chinese products ranging from solar cells through to home appliances. It was the escalation of rhetoric between the two countries over fears that the US-China trade deficit had become too high. According to US Census Bureau statistics for 2018, the US bought $447 billion worth of Chinese goods, but only $102.4 billion went the opposite way. An additional $200 billion tariff package targeting the technology industry was due to be levied on January 1st, 2019.
Samsung commits $22 billion to AI, 5G and future tech
Thanks to the success of its smartphones, TVs, appliance and especially chips, Samsung is sitting on a large pile of cash. The company just announced that it will spend a lot of that to develop artificial intelligence, biopharmaceuticals, 5G wireless systems and other futuristic tech. The aim is to become more diversified and less dependent on declining smartphone and electronics markets. In total, Samsung will spend 25 trillion won ($22 billion) over the next three years, as part of an overall 180 trillion won ($160 billion) plan.
MIT is redesigning power converters to make the grid more efficient
Electrical efficiency affects a massive number of devices, from the relatively tiny phones in our pockets all the way up to electric cars and the power grids keeping our houses running. Power converters are a particularly important part of the equation, as they're the devices that bring the high voltages coming through power lines down to more manageable levels for household outlets. MIT, along with semiconductor company IQE, Columbia University, IBM and the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology have announced some breakthroughs on making that part of the equation more efficient.
Super-thin semiconductors delay the 'death' of silicon
Silicon has been the backbone of processors for decades, but it's rapidly approaching its physical limits: making a chip on a process smaller than 5 nanometers is usually impossible without introducing problems. How is Moore's Law for chip complexity going to survive? Stanford researchers have a solution: augment it with materials that outdo silicon where it counts. They've pinpointed two semiconductors, hafnium diselenide and zirconium diselenide, that can be made extremely thin (just three atoms thick) while self-insulating far more effectively than silicon. You could get transistors that are 10 times smaller than the smallest you get from silicon alone -- 5nm chips would seem bloated compared to what's possible with these diselenides.
