Posts

In a follow-up to the ongoingSeagatehard disk drive fiasco, German outletHeise.dehas uncovered a new method fraudsters use to sell used Seagate drives as new by manipulating their Field Accessible Reliability Metrics (FARM) values. This makes it increasingly difficult for consumers to detect tampered devices. Traditionally, buyers could identify used hard drives by comparing the operating hours reported in the SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) data with those in the FARM logs....

SK hynix has justannouncedthe introduction of its GDDR7 graphics memory, which it claims is the “industry’s best GDDR7.” Offering 32 Gbps operating speeds, it performs 60% faster than current-generation GDDR6 memory which is limited to around 24 Gbps. It also promises a 50% improvement in power efficiency, potentially reducing the power requirements and heat generated by next-generation graphics cards that will use this new memory. The company was able to achieve this jump in power efficiency by using new packaging techniques....

SK hynix hasinkeda memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Department of Commerce to secure up to $450 million in direct funding and access to $500 million in loans under the CHIPS and Science Act to build itsadvanced memory packaging facility in West Lafayette, Indiana. If the project becomes a success, then the U.S. will have its own supply of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), which is crucial for AI and HPC processors....

SK hynix will begin constructing its mega fab complex called the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster in March 2025, with a completion date estimated in 2046 (viaComputerBase). The complex, which includes four separate fabbing facilities, will cost at least 120 trillion Korean won or just shy of $90 billion. Once completed, it will likely be the largest fab complex in the world, and there’s even more room in the broader area for companies like Samsung to build other facilities....

If you’ve been in the market for a high-speed SSD on a budget, you should take a closer look at this offer fromAmazonon theSamsung 990 EVO 1TB SSD. This SSD isn’t the fastest on the market, but it has plenty of juice to carry your gaming needs. The Samsung 990 EVO 1TB SSD usually goes for around $149, but right now it’s been discounted to just $69 — its lowest price to date....

If you’ve got an Xbox Series X or Series S and need more storage, Seagate’s Expansion Card is the best way to get more room for that ever-growing backlog of games you keep promising yourself you’ll play. Right now atAmazon, you’re able to get one for 42% off the list price, now just $208 instead of $359. This might not be the all-time lowest-ever price we’ve seen on the expansion card; that honor falls to $193 during Black Friday....

If you’re a PC gamer, having a decent monitor on your desk as a window into your virtual worlds is paramount. While all of us would like to have an OLED panel with a blazing-fast 480 Hz refresh rate, let’s be honest, not all of us have budgets that allow for such expenditures. Luckily, there is a wealth of budget-oriented gaming monitors available to cater to your needs. While they won’t offer the highest refresh rates or resolutions, they often hit the sweet spot for value-driven gamers....

Although TSMC has committed to invest an additional$100 billion in its own Fab 21 campus in the U.S., a potential joint venture to run Intel’s manufacturing capacity is still in the works, according toReuters,citing four sources. TSMC would reportedly not own more than 50% of the proposed joint venture. A venture that would see leading American fabless chip designers — AMD, Broadcom, Nvidia, and Qualcomm — get stakes in the joint venture, which will be operated by TSMC....

TSMC has unveiled its new 4 nm-class production technology, N4C, a new fabrication process set to enhance the company’s 5nm-class production nodes by offering significant cost reductions and optimizing design efficiency. “We are not done with our 5nm and 4nm [technologies],” said Kevin Zhang, Vice President of Business Development at TSMC, at the company’sNorth American Technology Symposium 2024, where the new process was revealed. “From N5 to N4, we have achieved 4% density improvement optical shrink, and we continue to enhance the transistor performance....

A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck Southern Taiwan earlier today at 12:17 am, causing damage to several buildings near the epicenter. According toTaipei Times, the epicenter was some 37.9 kilometers or nearly 24 miles Southeast of Chiayi, putting it around 50 kilometers (around 31 miles) to the east of Tainan, where TSMC has at least four facilities, and some 115 kilometers (or nearly 72 miles) south of Taichung, where it has two fabs....

The U.S. government has uncovered a Chinese hacking campaign targeting Guam’s critical infrastructure, according toBloomberg. Guam is a key U.S. military outpost, a foothold on one of the remote Mariana Islands in the Pacific. China’s operation is reportedly called Volt Typhoon and it is meant to disrupt military and civilian operations in the event of conflict over Taiwan. The purported campaign focuses on infiltrating operational systems to prepare for potential sabotage, creating widespread vulnerabilities in Guam....

According to aBloombergreport, Amkor Technology, one of the world’s largests outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) providers, has inked a preliminary agreement with the U.S. government to receive funding for its newadvanced chip packaging and test facility in Peoria, Arizona. The facility will cost $2 billion and will be located close toTSMC’s upcoming Fab 21 complex in Arizonato support customers making chips there. Amkor’s new facility near Peoria, Arizona, its first domestic packaging site, will be the largest of its kind in the United States....

AMD’s upcoming Ryzen 9 9950X Zen 5 flagship, which will compete against thebest CPUs, is already breaking some world records with conventional liquid cooling. First discovered byHXL on X, a Ryzen 9 9950X owner has already submitted several benchmark runs to HWBot, featuring some potent results, including a top-five placement in the Time Spy Extreme CPU benchmark. The user submitted five benchmark runs to HWBot, one in 3D Mark Time Spy Extreme, two in the 3DMark CPU Profile (multi and single core), another in Cinebench 2003, and another in the HWBot x265 benchmark at 1080p....