IF / News

Chipsets

ARM and TSMC have announced an industry-first 7nm silicon-proven chiplet system based on multiple ARM cores and leveraging TSMC’s Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging solution. This single proof-of-concept chiplet system successfully demonstrates the key technologies for building an HPC System-On-Chip (SoC) with ARM-based cores operating at 4GHz in a 7nm FinFET. (CN Beta, AnandTech, Tom’s Hardware, ARM)

TSMC has estimated its current full-year sales to be about flat with 2018, but its 2H19 / 1H19 sales are forecast to jump by 32%—more than 3 times the 10% growth rate expected for the entire IC industry in 2H19, based on IC Insights’ projection. In 2019, TSMC is expected to have 66% of its sales come from <40nm technology.  Moreover, IC Insights is forecasting that TSMC will have USD8.9B in 7nm revenue in 2019, representing about 26% of its total sales in 2019 and 33% of its 4Q19 revenue (thanks to customers Apple and Huawei). (IC Insights, press, CN Beta)

In addition to its tight 7nm chip supply, with delivery lead times extending to over 6 months, pure-play foundry TSMC has seen its supply of 16nm, 12nm and 10nm chips also fall short of demand recently, according to Digitimes. (Digitimes, CN Beta, My Drivers)

Touch Display

John Bayne, Corning’s senior VP and general manager for Gorilla Glass, has revealed that Corning is currently working on developing a better ultra-thin, durable and optically advantaged glass solution for the inside cover of a continuous display that can bend at a tight radius hundreds of thousands of times without significant damage at the fold. He believes that their glass solution will be ready in the next 12-18 months. (CN Beta, Fast Company)

Visionox has announced plans to establish a flexible and foldable OLED module factory in Guangzhou, China. Together with the local government, Visionox plans to invest CNY11.2B (around USD1.6B) in this new factory. The line focuses on 6-18” fully flexible AMOLED modules covering emerging applications such as curved surfaces, folding, wearables and automotive. (My Drivers, Sina, Sohu, OLED-Info)

In 2019, smartphone vendors are launching foldable phones, in which the protective cover was changed from the past glass material to a soft transparent colorless polyimide (CPI) film. The second largest polyimide film (PI film) vendor Mortech is believed to have a bright future. It is positive with the market demand for PI film, Mortech has completed the establishment of a new factory in Pingzhen Town, Taoyuan City in 2018. (Moore, Laoyaoba, 51Touch, UDN)

TCL’s China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT) has held a ground-breaking ceremony at the TCL Industrial Park in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India. The plant construction is divided into 2 phases——1^st phase plans to invest CNY1.53B and allocate 11 production lines, including 5 large-size panels and 6 small-size mobile phone panels. The plan is to produce 8M 26”-55” large-size TV panels and 30M 3.5”-8” small-size phone panels. (Laoyaoba, Xianji, Sohu)

The Gen-8.6 ultra-high-definition new display device production line project of Changsha HKC has officially started construction in Changsha Liuyang Economic Development Zone. The project has a total investment of CNY32B, and the new production line with a monthly capacity of 138,000 pieces glass substrate will produce 50”, 58”, 65”, 70” 8K LCD and OLED. (Laoyaoba, Xianji China)

Camera

Sony has released the specifications for a 47MP Micro Four Thirds (MFT) sensor capable of shooting up to 8K video up to 30 frames per second (fps), namely IMX492LQJ (also a monochrome IMX492LLJ version). the sensor can capture, in 10-bit mode with a 17:9 crop, 8K video (8192×4320 pixels) at up to 30 fps when paired with an SLVS-EC output interface. (CN Beta, Image Sensors World, DP Review)

Memory

Intel has announced that their next generation of 3D NAND flash memory will use 144 layers and come to market first with QLC-based SSDs, to be followed later by TLC-based SSDs. Their successor will be the Barlow Pass modules, planned to coincide with Cooper Lake (14nm) and Ice Lake (10nm) server processors scheduled for 2020. Intel is bringing up a “technology development line” for 3D XPoint at a facility in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. (Laoyaoba, Infotechlead, AnandTech)

According to TrendForce’s outlook of the DRAM market for 2020, the respective capital expenditures of the 3 major suppliers (Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron) are projected to drop by at least 10% YoY. The YoY growth of the total DRAM bit output in 2020 is also forecasted to be the lowest in the recent 10 years, at just 12.5%. The curb on the supply growth will set the stage for the general price rally in the middle of 2020. (Laoyaoba, TrendForce, press, TrendForce)

Biometrics

VoiceAI Technologies lead scientist Zhang Weibin has revealed that voiceprint recognition will become a new outlet for biometrics. Nowadays, voiceprint recognition is a bit like face recognition around 2013. It is in the early stage. The world’s first large-scale voiceprint identification technology in the national social security project (Indonesia) in the remote voiceprint authentication, using the technology of VoiceAI’s technology, in May 2018 has been launched in the first phase, covering 2.5M people, The accuracy rate measured in the actual landing project is as high as 99.7%. (KK News, Laoyaoba, HQEW)

Phone

Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business, has indicated that “Huawei has begun to buy components from Chinese manufacturers and cultivate domestic industrial chains”. Huawei’s annual procurement of components of USD60-70B is purchased from the United States, but now localized devices have indeed increased. (Laoyaoba, HQEW, Sina)

Huawei’s consumer business CEO Richard Yu has revealed that Huawei smart life system has covered multiple scenes in 5 major areas. Huawei smart life connected equipment has exceeded 150M units. Moreover, there are more than 50M users, more than 3,000 related products, and more than 600 industry eco partners, including more than 100 categories. (GizChina, IT Home, CNMO)

Google has just formalized the new version of Android Go—Android 10 Go Edition. Android 10 Go remains a version of Android particularly aimed at smartphones with a maximum of 1.5GB of RAM. Android 10 Go brings several new features to the user experience with Google apps. (GizChina, Google)

Samsung Galaxy A70s is announced in India – 6.7” 1080×2400 FHD+ Super AMOLED, Qualcomm Snapdragon 675, rear tri 64MP-8MP ultrawide-5MP depth + front 32MP, 6+128 / 8+128GB, Android 9.0, under display fingerprint, 4500mAh 25W, INR28,999 (USD410) / INR30,999 (USD440). (CN Beta, GSM Arena)

Sharp has announced 3 new AQUOS smartphones in Japan: Sense 3 / 3 Lite – 5.5” 2160×1080 FHD+ IGZO, Qualcomm Snapdragon 630, rear dual 12MP-12MP ultrawide / rear single 12MP + front 8MP, 4+64GB, Android 9.0, front fingerprint scanner, 4000mAh.  Sense 3 Plus – 6” 2220×1080 FHD+ IGZO, Qualcomm Snapdragon 636, rear dual 12.2MP-13.1MP ultrawide + front 8MP, 6+64 / 6+128GB, Android 9.0, front fingerprint scanner, 4000mAh. (Gizmo China, TME)

Wearables

Counterpoint Research reveals that close to 3 out of 5 respondents already have a pair of wireless headphones / earphones in the US. Nearly half of the respondents bought/received their hearables more than a year ago, and almost 40% of the respondents are willing to buy a hearable in 2020. The true wireless hearables reached 27M units in 2Q19, growing 56% quarter-on-quarter globally. At the end of 2019, the market is expected to reach 120M units globally.  (GSM Arena, Counterpoint, press)

The global shipments of smartwatches in 2019 are estimated to total around 62.63M units, according to TrendForce. TrendForce forecasts that the global smartphone shipments in 2020 will grow by 28.6% YoY to around 80.55M units. The total shipments of the Apple Watch devices for the same year are also forecasted to grow by 21.8% YoY to around 34M units. (Android Headlines, TrendForce, press, TrendForce)

Automotive

Lucid Motors has spent the last few years waiting to break ground on a brand-new factory in Casa Grande, Arizona, and the EV startup was finally able put things in motion late last year after it locked down a USD1B funding round from Saudi Arabia. (CN Beta, The Verge)