2023 Latest Semiconductor News from March 5th to 11th

New AMD 3D V-Cache™ Technology 

AMD's new 3D V-Cache technology stacks an additional L3 SRAM die directly on the center of the Computing Chip (CCD) die to isolate it from the heat-generating core. This cache boosts the chip capacity equipped with L3 V-Cache to 96MB, improving the performance of latency-sensitive applications such as games.

Fujitsu to make Arm-based Chip for Server

Fujitsu will build its own Arm processor and use it in the Fugaku supercomputer, and commercialize it for use in the PRIMEHPC FX1000 and FX700 systems, and HPE also uses the chip in its Apollo 80 high-performance computing (HPC) platform. The chip, currently named MONAKA, is expected to be released in 2027. The plan is to deliver higher performance with lower energy consumption to achieve a carbon-neutral and sustainable society.

TSMC plans to hire more than 6,000 engineers

In 2023, TSMC will look for engineers with associate, bachelor, master, or doctorate degrees in electrical engineering or software-related fields in various cities across Taiwan, and it is expected to recruit about 6,000 engineers.

Is the semiconductor industry collectively overwintering?

Since the second half of 2022, the economic downturn has affected to the chip industry, resulting in a sharp decline in demand. Coupled with the influence of geopolitical and other factors, the decline of global semiconductors has accelerated. On the one hand, the performance of chip companies has fallen sharply, and fabs have also adjusted their investments; on the other hand, in order to save expenses, global technology companies, including semiconductor companies, have started a new round of layoffs.

Germany plans to ban Huawei, ZTE from some 5G networks

Reuters quoted German media Zeit Online on March 7 as reporting that the German government plans to ban telecom operators from using certain control components from Huawei and ZTE in their 5G networks. The ban could include components already built into the network, requiring operators to remove and replace them.

New yellow iPhone 14 and Plus launched

Apple launched the yellow iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus on March 7. Judging from the news announced by Apple official website, it will accept pre-orders on March 10 and start shipping on March 14. As Apple said, the new yellow color will add more color options to the series this spring, and consumers will have new choices in color matching when purchasing.

Samsung wins orders for power devices from Infineon

According to Taiwan media Digitimes, in order to develop the power semiconductor business, Samsung and Infineon will continue to cooperate. Since 2022, the Samsung Foundry Department will receive orders for power semiconductor products designed by Infineon. Samsung is betting its hopes on OEM orders for automotive system-on-chip (SoC), hoping to make up for shrinking memory sales and falling prices.

Netherlands restrict the export of DUV lithography

According to several media reports, the Dutch Times reported on March 9 that the Dutch government stated that it plans to implement new restrictions on the export of semiconductor technology and implement them before summer. The Minister of Trade of the Netherlands specifically pointed out that a technology that will be affected is DUV lithography tech. For the sake of national security, it is necessary to take measures to supervise this technology.

Huawei abandons UK's 1.2 billion project?

In 2018, Huawei spent 1 billion pounds to build a research and development base near Cambridge, England. It only cost 37 million pounds to buy land, hoping to use it as its optoelectronic international headquarters. But as international pressure mounts, Huawei's future in the UK is also coming into question.

The Daily Telegraph reported that Huawei had abandoned plans to build the research park. In fact, although Huawei won planning permission in 2020 and promised to complete the first phase of construction by 2021, so far it has not broken ground. South Cambridgeshire councilors said their requests had gone unanswered by Huawei, with planning permission for its construction expiring in more than five months. That said, Huawei has until August to start.

Silicon Valley Bank（SVB）Collapse

It is reported that the U.S. Congress is communicating with the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and other regulatory authorities to discuss how to deal with the failure of Silicon Valley Bank SVB. SVB is the biggest bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis. And the whole crash happened within 48 hours. The incident shook stock markets around the world, with banking stocks taking a dive.