As designing and manufacturing large monolithic ICs became more complex, related challenges regarding yield and cost have emerged for semiconductor companies, which boosts the popularity of chiplets. Now the wave has been spreading to the memory sector. According to a report by TheElec, SK hynix intends to integrate the chiplet technology into its memory controllers over the next three years to improve cost management.

In January, the company applied for a brand name called MOSAIC, which represents its chiplet technology, the report notes.

Citing SK hynix Executive Vice President Moon Ki-ill, the report notes that the company currently collaborates with TSMC as the foundry for manufacturing its controllers.

However, within the next two to three years, parts of the controller would be manufactured with advanced nodes, while other sections will use legacy nodes, the report states. Moon added that the company is currently developing technology to connect these different sections.

Moon further explains that while TSMC manufactures the controllers for SK hynix, the memory giant itself is responsible for the packaging work. In the future, under the structure of chiplets, a chip can be divided into separate parts with various functions, and then reconnected to achieve similar performances as if they were a single integrated chip, according to TheElec.

In this scenario, function A might use TSMC’s 7nm node, while function B and C could be produced using legacy nodes from TSMC or another foundry. This approach would enables SK hynix to better manage the costs of its DRAM and NAND products, the report notes.

According to the definition of EDA and Intelligent System Design provider Cadence, chiplet technology results in versatile and customizable modular chips, which leads to reduced development timelines and costs.

The creation and adoption of chiplet standards like UCIe enable seamless integration of chiplets into System-on-Chips (SoCs), unlocking new possibilities in computing and technology applications, according to Cadence.

In addition to SK hynix, Samsung has also brought up plans to adopt the chiplet technology. In July, according to an announcement with Japanese startup Preferred Networks, the two companies plan to showcase groundbreaking AI chiplet solutions for the next-generation data center and generative AI computing market.

According to an earlier report by Gizmochina, Samsung is also said to be mulling to apply 3D chiplet technology to its Exynos mobile APs.

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• [News] The Era of Heterogeneous Integration Approaches: Who Shall Dominate the Advanced Packaging Field?

(Photo credit: SK hynix)

NVIDIA’s market leadership has garnered significant attention from other industry players. According to a report from Financial Times, several smaller companies, including Cerebras, d-Matrix, and Grog, have raised hundreds of millions of dollars and are launching new products, hoping to carve out a niche in the market.

Cerebras, founded in 2016, recently unveiled its new platform, Cerebras Inference, based on its CS-3 chip. The company even claims its solution is 20 times faster than NVIDIA’s current generation Hopper for AI inference, and at a fraction of the cost.

Per another report from the Economic Daily News, in March this year, Cerebras also launched the WSE-3 processor designed for training AI models, manufactured using TSMC’s 5nm process. At that time, Cerebras confirmed plans for an IPO and has confidentially filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Notably, Andrew Feldman, CEO of Cerebras, further noted that they have already secured meaningful customers from NVIDIA.

d-Matrix, established five years ago, is launching a new funding round with a target of raising over USD 20 million. This follows their USD 11 million Series B round led by Temasek, completed less than a year ago.

The company plans to fully launch its Corsair platform by the end of the year and is integrating its products with open-source software, including Triton, which competes with NVIDIA’s CUDA. Several of NVIDIA’s largest customers support the use of open-source software.

Groq, founded in the same year as Cerebras and led by a team from Google’s Tensor Processing Unit division, recently raised $64 million from investors including BlackRock Private Equity Partners, giving it a valuation of $2.8 billion.

Despite the rush to find and support the next NVIDIA, semiconductor startups are facing significant challenges, according to the Financial Times.

For example, chipmaker Graphcore was acquired by SoftBank last month for just over USD 6 billion, falling short of the approximately USD 7 billion it had raised from venture capital since its founding in 2016.

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• [News] HBM Manufacturers Encounter Challenges in NVIDIA Quality Tests, Raising Concerns over Yield and Production
• [News] NVIDIA Reportedly Overwhelms TSMC with 3 and 4-Nanometer Orders

(Photo credit: Cerebras)

According to data released by the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) on August 27th, Japan’s semiconductor manufacturing equipment sales continue to soar, with July sales up by about 20%, marking four consecutive months of double-digit growth. Sales from January to July reached a historic high for the period.

Reportedly, the sales of Japan-made chip equipment in July 2024 (based on a 3-month average basis, including exports) reached JPY 348.092 billion, a significant 23.6% increase compared to the same month last year.

This marks the seventh consecutive month of growth and the fourth consecutive month with over 10% growth. Monthly sales have surpassed JPY 300 billion for nine straight months.

Compared to the previous month (June 2024), sales increased by 1.2%, marking the eighth monthly growth in nine months.

From January to July 2024, Japan’s chip equipment sales totaled JPY 2.480115 trillion, a 16.7% increase compared to the same period last year. This figure surpasses the previous record of JPY 2.134268 trillion set in 2022, setting a new all-time high.

The upward trend is in accordance with the observation by Japan’s chip equipment giant Tokyo Electron (TEL) and the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI).

Tokyo Electron (TEL) announced in its August 8 financial report that due to strong investments in AI servers, the 2024 global wafer fab equipment (WFE) market size has been revised upward from the previous estimate of around USD 100 billion (up 5% year-on-year) to over USD 100 billion.

The Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) forecast report released on July 10 predicts that global chip equipment sales in 2024 are estimated to increase by 3.4% year-over-year to USD 109 billion, surpassing the USD 107.4 billion record set in 2022.

Read more

• [News] Booming GPU and HBM Demand Pushes Japanese Chip Equipment Annual Sales to Record High
• [News] Booming Sales of Japanese Semiconductor Equipment Continue to Break Records, Reportedly Surpassing JPY 300 Billion

(Photo credit: TEL)

As per sources cited in a report from Reuters, it’s revealed that former Intel board member Lip-Bu Tan stepped down after just two years due to disagreements with CEO Pat Gelsinger and other board members.

Two years ago, former Cadence Design Systems CEO Lip-Bu Tan was invited to join Intel’s board of directors to help reverse the company’s operational decline and restore its position as a chipmaker.

In October 2023, his role was expanded to oversee Intel’s manufacturing operations. However, he reportedly stepped down from Intel’s board last week.

The regulatory filings submitted last week have indicated that Tan’s departure from the board was due to a personal decision to reprioritize various commitments, though he remains supportive of Intel and its critical work.

Yet, Reuters further reported that Lip-Bu Tan, a seasoned semiconductor industry veteran, expressed frustration bloated workforce, risk aversion, and lagging AI strategies. This suggests uncertainty around Intel’s efforts to return to profitability.

As of now, neither Intel nor Tan’s venture capital firm, Walden Catalyst, have commented on the matter.

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• [News] The Semiconductor Giant Falling from Grace: Intel and the CEOs Who Changed Its Destiny
• [News] Intel Has Offloaded Stake in ARM, Reportedly Raising nearly USD 150 Million

(Photo credit: Intel)

According to TrendForce’s latest memory spot price trend report, regarding DRAM spot prices, improvements are unlikely in the near term as reballed chip supply remains plentiful and DDR5 price pressure emerges. As for NAND flash, several suppliers have also lowered their official prices amidst ongoing sluggishness of demand. Details are as follows:

DRAM Spot Price:

The spot market has shown no signs of improvement this week and prices continue to fall. In addition to weak channel demand, the supply of reballed chips also remains plentiful. Moreover, a South Korean supplier has recently slightly increased its supply of DDR5 products to the spot market, generating more downward price pressure. Hence, improvements in current spot price trends are unlikely in the near term. The average spot price of the mainstream chips (i.e., DDR4 1Gx8 2666MT/s) dropped by 0.25% from US$1.978 last week to US$1.973 this week.

NAND Flash Spot Price:

Several suppliers have lowered their official prices amidst ongoing sluggishness of demand, and spot prices could continue to weaken if demand for consumer products remains lackluster. Spot prices for 512Gb TLC wafers have dropped by 0.71% this week, arriving at US$3.211.