IF / News

Chipsets

Hailo Technologies, a secretive Israeli company that has raised USD21M in venture capital to date. Hailo is launching smaller-than-a-penny Hailo-8, which the company is now sampling with “select partners” across multiple industries. Hailo-8 is capable of 26 tera operations per second (TOPs) — more than double that of chips like Gyrfalcon’s Lightspeeur 2801, which maxes out at 9.3 TOPs, and CEVA’s NeuPro, which can reach 12.5 TOPs. (VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Silicon Angle, Teller China)

Shanghai-based Zhaoxin Semiconductor is launching Kaixian series KX-6000, which features the real SoC design, using 16nm process. The processor is based on x86 standard architecture, compatible with x86 32/64-bit instructions, supports SSE4.2 / AVX extended instruction set, up to 8 CPU cores, clock speed up to 3.0GHz, supports dual channel DDR4 memory, and has a maximum capacity of 64GB. The KX-6000 chip will be mass-produced in Sept 2019. The first customer service is Lenovo, Tsinghua Tongfang, Onda and other enterprises, for all-in-one, desktop machine and server market. (My Drivers, CN Beta, Tencent)

Samsung’s roadmap includes four FinFET-based processes from 7nm down to 4nm that leverage extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology as well as 3nm Gate-All-Around (GAA), or MBCFET. In 2H19, Samsung is scheduled to start the mass production of 6nm process devices and complete the development of 4nm process. The product design of Samsung’s 5nm FinFET process, which was developed in Apr 2019, is expected to be completed in the second half of this year and go under mass production in 1H20. (My Drivers, AnandTech, Samsung)

Touch Display

DigiLens, a California-based startup developing displays for augmented reality (AR) devices, has announced that it has closed a USD50M oversubscribed series C round led by Universal Display Corporation’s UDC Ventures, Samsung Ventures, Pokémon Go creator Niantic, Continental AG, Sony Innovation Fund, and Mitsubishi’s Diamond Edge Ventures. (VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Yivian, Sina)

Camera

OPPO will allegedly announce a smartphone with under display camera in 2019. The full display will have a front camera hidden behind the pixels. When the camera is launched, the pixels over the camera are dislocated and the camera lens will appear. (Android Headlines, Tencent, Sohu, Twitter, GizPrix)

Memory

Due to frictions from the US-China trade dispute, China’s two DRAM giants are showing clear signs of slowing. According to TrendForce, Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC), which forms the main bulwark of NAND flash development in China, will be mass producing 64-layer Xtacking 3D NAND products this year end as scheduled. YMTC’s capacity expansion in 2020 is projected to impact supply and prices in the global NAND flash market. (CN Beta, TrendForce[cn], TrendForce, press)

Earlier 2019, Micron announced their intention to buy out Intel’s stake of their memory technology joint venture, IM Flash Technologies. According to the company’s latest filing, Micron will pay Intel approximately USD1.3B~1.5B for their stake and associated debt, with the expectation of closing the deal by the end of Oct 2019. (AnandTech, SEC, TechNews, Tom’s Hardware, CN Beta)

SK Hynix’s second phase of the memory chip packaging test project of 16,000m² in Chongqing Xiyong Microelectronics Park has been completed, is expected to be installed in mid-June 2019. It is expected to start production in 3Q19. Then, the total production capacity of the project will increase 2.5 times. The annual output of the chip will account for more than 40% of the entire SK Hynix’s flash memory, becoming the largest overseas test base for SK Hynix. (My Drivers, ESM China)

SK Hynix has announced that it has started sampling the company’s long-awaited 1 Tb 96-layer QLC NAND flash memory. Silicon Motion has already started development of turn-key SSDs featuring the new type of memory, whereas SK Hynix itself is working on its own datacenter drives based on QLC. SSDs using the new devices will be available sometime in 2020. (AnandTech, SK Hynix, Sohu, China Flash Market)

Toshiba says China’s slowing economy is one of the main reasons for a sharp decline in its operating profit. Toshiba sold its prized memory-chip unit Jun 2018 as part of an attempt to restructure itself. The firm has announced a plan to cut about 350 jobs in a semiconductor subsidiary. (CN Beta, TechNews, NHK)

Connectivity

Vodafone is turning on its 5G service on 3 Jul 2019 in the UK, with the bonus that it will be available at the same price as 4G for both businesses and consumers. The  5G networks will be available in 7 cities at launch, with a further 12 to come later 2019. The network will start selling 5G-enabled handsets, as well as a 5G home router for fixed-line, high-speed broadband access. (CN Beta, TechRadar, BBC, CNET)

Phone

Through a litigation mediation of the Higher People’s Court of Guangdong Province, Huawei Technologies and Samsung (China) Investment have reached a settlement for a series of infringement disputes related to the standard-essential patents. In the past 8 years, the companies filed over 40 lawsuits. (GizChina, CN Beta, Gizmo China, My Drivers)

Samsung India’s chief marketing officer, Ranjivjit Singh has revealed that the company has sold 5M units of its Galaxy A series smartphones, generating sales of over USD1 B since it began selling the devices in Mar 2019. (GSM Arena, Reuters)

LG Electronics has received over 100,000 orders for its first 5G smartphone, LG V50 ThinQ 5G, the first weekend of sales in Korea, since it is launched on 10 May 2019. It is 3 times as many units as the V40 ThinQ in its first week of sales. (My Drivers, Korea Times, Telecom Paper)

OnePlus 7 Pro 5G will be launched alongside UK’s Everything Everywhere (EE) 5G network. EE’s 5G network is expected to launch in the UK’s 4 capital cities, as well as Birmingham and Manchester, later in 2019, with a wider rollout planned. (GSM Arena, Pocket-Lint, TechRadar)

OnePlus 7 Pro and 7 are announced, equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, under-display fingerprint scanner: 7 Pro – 6.67” 3120×1440 QHD+ Fluid AMOLED, rear tri 48MP-16MP ultrawide- 8MP tele + front motorized pop-up 16MP, 6+128GB / 8+256GB, 4000mAh 30W fast charging, EUR549 / EUR599. 7 – 6.41” 1080×2340 FHD+ Fluid AMOLED, rear dual 48MP-5MP + front 16MP, 6+128GB or 8/12+256GB, 3700mAh 20W fast charging, EUR700 / EUR750 / EUR820. (Android Authority, GSM Arena, GSM Arena)

Realme X is announced in China – 6.53” 1080×2340 FHD+ AMOLED, Qualcomm Snapdragon 710, rear dual 48MP-5MP + front motorized pop-up 16MP, 4+64 / 6+64 / 8+128GB, Android 9.0, under-display fingerprint scanner, 3765mAh 20W fast charging, CNY1,499 / CNY1,599 / CNY1,799. (Android Authority, GSM Arena, Android Central)

Realme X Lite is launched in China – 6.3” 2340×1080 FHD+ IPS, Qualcomm Snapdragon 710, rear dual 16MP-5MP + front 25MP,  4+64 / 6+64 / 6+128GB, Android 9.0, rear fingerprint scanner, 4045mAh 20W fast charging, CNY1,199 / CNY1,299 / CNY 1,499. (Gizmo China, NDTV, Times Now News, Indian Express)

Automotive

Hyundai and sister company Kia Motors have announced that they are investing EUR80M (about USD90M) in Croatian electric hypercar startup Rimac. In exchange for the investment, the Korean automakers will gain access to Rimac’s tech. They already have plans to build an electric prototype of one of Hyundai’s N brand performance cars as well as a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle by 2020. (The Verge, TechCrunch, Rimac, Auto Chat)

Payment

Samsung’s mobile payment service, Samsung Pay, has hit KRW40T (~USD33.65B) in accumulated transaction volume in South Korea. The number of subscribers has also surpassed the 14M mark as of April 2019. (GSM Arena, Pulse News, Sam Mobile, Sohu)

Softbank-backed ride hailing firm Ola in India has launched its credit card in partnership with public lender State Bank of India (SBI). The company is targeting to issue 10 million cards by the end of 2022. Ola currently offers Ola Money wallet, postpaid billing and micro-insurance for rides taken on the Ola platform. (TechCrunch, Money Control)