TECHNOLOGY
Tablet sales shifting: IEK
Large tablet computers and hybrid laptop-tablet products will drive sales of the entire tablet market this year, the Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center (IEK) said in a report. An increasing number of large products will be launched as the market for 7-inch to 8-inch tablets erodes under pressure from larger smartphones, the center said. Although 7-inch to 8-inch entries will still dominate the global market, those that are 9 inches or larger will soar from 118 million units this year to 219 million units in 2018, the center predicted. The market for large tablet computers will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17 percent over the 2013 to 2018 period, outpacing the projected 15 percent growth for the wider tablet market, it said.
MANUFACTURING
Firm eyes Q4 for 4G chip
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) said on Saturday that it has scheduled commercial production of its first 64-bit octa-core chips to begin in the fourth quarter of this year for the planned 4G long-term evolution network. Market analysts said the product targets the huge Chinese market, where the Chinese government awarded four 4G licenses in December last year.
TECHNOLOGY
Facebook likes Hsinchu lab
A Facebook Inc-led data center certification laboratory will be opened today in Hsinchu, according to the Industrial Technology Research Institute. Established on Dec. 27 last year to become the first of its kind in the world, the Open Compute Project lab will test whether the hardware, software and operating systems of global applicants meet Facebook’s server design standards, the institute said in a statement.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to