On the day of TSMC's celebration of the mass production start of its 3 nm node, news out of Taiwan suggests that all of its top 10 customers have cut their orders for 2023. However, the cuts are unlikely to affect its new node, but rather its existing nodes, with the 7 and 6 nm nodes said to be hit the hardest, by as much as a 50 percent utilisation reduction in the first quarter of 2023. The 28 nm and 5 and 4 nm nodes are also said to be affected, although it's unclear by how much at this point in time.

Revenue is expected to fall by at least 15 percent in the first quarter of 2023 for TSMC, based on numbers from DigiTimes. The fact that TSMC has increased its 2023 pricing by six percent should at least help offset some of the potential losses for the company, but it all depends on the demand for the rest of the year. Demand for mobile devices is down globally, which is part of the reason why so many of TSMC's customers have cut back their orders, as Apple, Qualcomm and Mediatek all produce their mobile SoCs at TSMC. Add to this that the demand for computers and new computer components are also down, largely due to the current pricing and TSMC is in for a tough time next year.

Shipments of monitor panels have fallen over the quarters this year due to various factors that have caused disruptions across the global economy and politics. TrendForce projects that shipments of monitor panels will total just around 158 million pieces for 2022, showing a YoY decline of 8.8%.

According to TrendForce's research on the market for display panels, monitor panels experienced a large downward shipment correction later than did TV and NB panels. For TV panels, the correction phase began in 3Q21. Turning to NB panels, a steep decline in shipments occurred in 2Q22. As for monitor panels, their shipments had not fallen significantly until 3Q22. With the correction taking place at a later time, the eventual rebound will also occur at a more distant time in the future. Since monitor brands are still holding an excessively high level of panel inventory at this moment, shipments of monitor panels are forecasted to drop again by 5.3% QoQ for 1Q23.

Chinese processor designers need help creating a leading-edge design that satisfies their needs, with the imposed sanctions and restrictions of Western countries. However, designers are using creative ways to make a server processor to fulfill their needs. According to the latest Sina report, Chinese company Loongson has developed a 32-core processor using chiplet technology. Previously, the company announced its 16-core 3C5000 processor based on LA464 cores, which utilize LoongArch ISA. Loongson used chiplet technology to fuse two 3C5000 processors into a single-socket solution called 3D5000, which features 32 LA464 cores to create a higher-performing design. Based on the LGA-4129 package, the chip size is 75.4x58.5×6.5 mm.

The company claims that the typical power consumption is rated for 130 Watts at 2.0 GHz or 170 Watts at 2.2 GHz, with TDP power consumption not exceeding 300 Watts at 2.2 GHz even with peaks. The performance of the new 3D5000 processor, measured using SPEC2006, is 400 points and 800 points for single-socket and dual-socket servers, respectively. The four-socket server is expected to reach 1600 points in the same benchmark, so scaling is advertised as linear. Loongson hopes to provide samples to industry partners in the first half of 2023 with an unknown price tag.

According to news out of Taiwan, TSMC will hold a ceremony to mark the official mass production start of its 3 nm node on the 29th of December. This is said to help "shatter doubts about de-Taiwanization" or in simpler terms, that Taiwan will lose its golden goose as TSMC invests abroad. The 3 nm fab—known as fab 18—is based in southern Taiwan's Tainan and the ceremony also marks the start of an expansion of TSMC's most advanced fab. TSMC is said to be kicking off its N3E node production sometime in the second half of 2023, followed by its N3P node in 2024, all of which should take place at fab 18, which also produces 5 nm wafers.

In related news, according to Reuters, a Japanese lawmaker from the ruling party has said that TSMC is considering a second plant in Japan, in addition to its current joint venture that is already under construction. TSMC's response to Reuters was that the company isn't ruling out Japan for future fabs, but that the company doesn't have any current plans. At the same time, TSMC is said to be sending executives to Dresden, Germany in early 2023, for a second round of talks about building a fab to help support the European auto industry, although this would be a 28/22 nm fab, which is far from cutting edge these days, although a lot more advanced than most fabs making chips for the auto industry.

As we're nearing the end of 2022, there is more news about layoffs and this time around it's Micron that is looking at laying off some 10 percent of its workforce. The company announced its FQ1 '23 earnings today, or fiscal quarter one 2023, since not all companies follow the standard year when it comes to financial reporting. Micron saw revenues of US$4,085 billion for the quarter, down from US$6,643 billion in the previous quarter and down from US$7,687 billion the same quarter a year ago. However, the company made a net loss of US$195 million.

Micron's CEO Sanjay Mehrotra stated "Micron's strong technology, manufacturing and financial position put us on solid footing to navigate the near-term environment, and we are taking decisive actions to cut our supply and expenses. We expect improving customer inventories to enable higher revenue in the fiscal second half, and to deliver strong profitability once we get past this downturn." These decisive actions include cutting 10 percent of its workforce according to Reuters, although this won't take place until sometime in 2023. Micron is also planning a cut in its CAPEX plans for its fiscal 2024, i.e. the company won't be investing as heavily as planned in new fabs, despite being granted money to do so by the US government.

Thermaltake, the leading PC DIY premium brand for Case, Cooling, Gaming peripherals, and Enthusiast memory solutions, will be kicking off the new year at the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Thermaltake is ready to deliver the latest chassis, power, cooling, memory, and gaming solutions to PC DIY enthusiasts, modders, and gamers worldwide. The Thermaltake CES 2023 Exhibition will take place at the Venetian Resort Hotel Las Vegas, Lvl 2, Veronese 2402 Suite, from January 4th to the 7th.

Thermaltake, a pioneer in PC cooling innovation, is introducing a new event theme, "Stay Cool, Game On," which focuses on bringing users cutting-edge thermal advancements. In recent years, the demand for high-performing PCs has skyrocketed to fulfill the heavy workloads required for hardcore gaming, professional streaming, and video editing. These PCs require the most advanced cooling solutions. Thermaltake's team of engineers has developed new technologies and software that will revolutionize traditional PC DIY & cooling. Besides cooling-centric designs, visitors can expect to see PC MOD masterpieces from the world's top modders and other innovations on show. Meanwhile, Thermaltake will host several prize giveaways. More details can be found on Thermaltake's social media.

Team Group's creator series T-CREATE launches three DDR5 memory products: T-CREATE EXPERT DDR5 Desktop Memory, T-CREATE CLASSIC DDR5 Desktop Memory, and T-CREATE CLASSIC DDR5 Laptop Memory, comprehensively tailored for creators' demands. Equipped with a variety of frequency specifications from 5,200 to 6,400 MHz and a maximum storage capacity of 32 GB per module, the newly launched products offer a smooth experience for creators working on 4K/8K ultra-high-resolution video editing, professional 3D illustration software and system, as well as multitasking on their desktop computers and laptops.

Specifically built for heavy and complicated processing needs, T-CREATE EXPERT DDR5 Desktop Memory comes in ultra-high frequency options of 6,400 MHz and 6,000 MHz. Paired with low latency specifications, it features unprecedentedly exceptional performance and robust stability to fully support the complex operations and computing demands in professional 3D rendering and long-form super-high resolution video editing. Creators can ensure authenticity and optimal quality in each frame.

Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography, or as the company is more commonly known, ASML, is apparently set to build a new factory in Taiwan for the production of advanced semiconductor lithography equipment. The new factory is said to be built in the Linkou area of New Taipei City and at the same time, bring with it its European supply chain, according to Taiwan Vice Premier Shen Jong-chin.

The new factory in Linkou is still some time away, as construction will only start in July, 2023. It will apparently be ASML's largest investment in Taiwan to date, although an exact figure of the investment wasn't given, but the new factory will take up 6.68 hectares or 66,800 square metres, suggesting it'll be a rather large facility. That said, not all the land will be used for the clean room facilities, as there will also be office buildings and warehouse buildings adjacent to the factory. No details on which suppliers ASML will bring with it to Taiwan, but it's likely that the likes of Zeiss, who supplies many of the mirrors in ASML's machines, will be setting up a local presence, alongside other key ASML suppliers. ASML already has an office in Hsinchu, about an hour south of New Taipei City.

Currently, the US has an exclusion in place when it comes to import tariffs relating to graphics cards and GPUs imported from China, but the exclusion is set to expire on the 31st of December this year. So far, the US government has been quiet on whether or not the import tariff will be reinstated or not. If the tariff was to be reinstated, US consumers are looking at a 25 percent import duty on graphics cards, starting on the 1st of January, 2023.

There's no easy way to circumvent the tariff either, as it includes items like "printed circuit assemblies, constituting unfinished logic boards," according to Tom's Hardware. Not all graphics cards are made in China though, but the majority of graphics cards are today. It's possible that NVIDIA's move of its logistics center from Hong Kong to Taiwan could have some relation to this as well, as NVIDIA would then be shipping products out of Taiwan, rather than China, depending on how the US Customs classifies Hong Kong these days. We should know what happens in a month's time, but a 25 percent import duty on graphics cards will likely kill most sales, as most people already find them overpriced. This would of course affect AMD and NVIDIA, as well as their partners in the same way, unless they make their graphics cards outside of China.

TrendForce estimates that global shipments of VR devices will come to around 8.58 million units for 2022, showing a YoY drop of 5.3%. There are three notable factors behind the decline. First, the ongoing high inflation has been suppressing the consumer demand for end products this year. Second, VR brands have either opted to not release a new product this year or pushed back the schedule for releasing a new product. Lastly, the demand for Meta's Quest devices has been dampened by a significant pricing adjustment. As for 2023, TrendForce forecasts that global shipments of VR devices will bounce back to a total of 10.35 million units and show a YoY growth of 20.6%. New products including the Sony PS VR2 and the Meta Quest 3 are scheduled for release next year, so they are expected to be a significant demand driver.

Meta has been the most aggressive in committing resources into the VR/AR market. However, the effect of its attempt to offer hardware at a low price has been quite disproportionate to its massive investments in related technologies. Due to mounting cost pressure, Meta has adjusted its pricing strategy for Quest devices. The Meta Quest 2, in particular, is now priced at US$1,499, which is more than three times its previous price. On account of this price hike and its relatively short battery life, the Quest Pro will unlikely follow the footsteps of the Quest 2 with respect to maintaining a strong shipment growth momentum. TrendForce estimates that that shipments of the Quest Pro will reach just to the level of 250,000 units for 2022. Meta will have to wait until next year, when the Quest 3 hit the market, to again see a notable positive growth in its shipments of VR devices. TrendForce currently forecasts that Meta's shipments for 2023 will total around 7.25 million units.

According to data from Gartner, the semiconductor market is expected to decline by up to 3.6 percent in 2023, from a growth of 4 percent this year and 26.3 percent in 2021. This might not be surprising to those that have followed recent developments in the semiconductor market, but it also looks like revenue for 2023 will be closer to that of 2021. This might in part be related to higher costs of manufacturing, but consumer demand is expected to be down in 2023, largely due to less disposable income, related to the current situation with rising inflation and increasing costs elsewhere.

Gartner claims that the enterprise market has been relatively stable and the consulting firm isn't expecting the enterprise market to decline as much as the consumer market when it comes to semiconductor demand. That said, Gartner is expecting the memory market to decline by up to 16.2 percent in 2023, as there's already an oversupply in the market. Likewise, it expects that the NAND flash market will see a decline by up to 13.7 percent in 2023. What isn't clear is how this weaker demand will affect retail prices, but as we've already seen, the DRAM and NAND flash manufacturers have already hit the brakes, to try and prevent a price crash.

Xilinx Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), now part of AMD, are always in demand in the semiconductor industry. Today, AMD has shared a letter to Xilinx customers that the selected FPGA device series will receive an 8-25% price increase. Citing AMD's investment into the supply chain, along with increased prices from the suppliers, Xilinx FPGAs will get more expensive. From January 9, 2023, the cost of the Spartan 6 series will increase by 25%, the price of the Versal series will not increase, and all other Xilinx products will increase by 8%. Interestingly, the older series manufactured on 40-28 nm nodes will increase while the latest Versal series doesn't experience any change.

Regarding lead times, the 16 nm UltraScale+ series, 20 nm UltraScale series, and 28 nm 7 series all take 20 weeks from order to delivery, which will remain until the third quarter of 2023. You can read the entire document below.

Based on the latest data and research, TrendForce has further corrected down the projected YoY growth rate of whole server shipments for 2023 to 2.8%. Three factors are behind this revision. First, lead time has started to return to its usual length for most orders related to server components from 3Q23 onward. Seeing this, server OEMs and cloud service providers (CSPs) have also begun to correct the component mismatch issue by lowering demand for items that are in excess while maintaining a constant inventory level for items that are still in tight supply. This development, in turn, has reduced the flow of server orders going to ODMs. Second, the wave of demand that was generated earlier from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is dissipating. Hence, expansion activities have cooled off noticeably for services such as video streaming, e-commerce, etc. Among CSPs, Meta, Google, and ByteDance (TikTok) have lowered their server procurement quantities for next year. Lastly, the global economic outlook has remained fairly negative, so companies across most industry sectors have formulated a more conservative expenditure plan and scaled back IT-related spending for next year.

According to TrendForce, global notebook shipments in 4Q22 are likely to decline to 42.9 million units, down 7.2% QoQ and 32.3% YoY, lower than the same period before the pandemic. In addition, market demand is affected by negative factors such as inventory, the Russian-Ukrainian war, and rising inflation, leading to a downward revision of notebook market shipments in 2022 to 189 million units, a 23% decline YoY, with the proportion of shipments in the first and second half of the year at 53:47, the first top-heavy scenario in the past ten years.

According to research, the structural imbalance between notebook market supply and demand remains unresolved at present, leading this year's notebook shipments to present a downward movement trend quarter by quarter. TrendForce believes, after current inventory pressure gradually returns to a healthy level, Chromebooks may be the first wave of products that will see a recovery in demand by 2Q23 and traditional cyclical growth momentum is expected to return to the market, with shipments set to rebound slightly from 14.44 million in 2022 to 16.2 million units.

Intel's upcoming Sapphire Rapids processors have faced multiple delays over the past few years. Built on Intel 7 manufacturing process, the CPU is supposed to bring new advances for Intel's clients and significant performance uplifts. However, TrendForce reports that the mass production of Sapphire Rapids processors will be delayed from Q4 of 2022 to the first half of 2023. The reason for this (yet another) delay is that the Sapphire Rapids MCC die is facing a meager yield on Intel 7 manufacturing technology, estimated to be at only 50-60% at the time of writing. Economically, this die-yielding percentage is not profitable for Intel since many dies are turning out to be defective.

This move will stop many OEMs and cloud service providers (CSPs) from rolling out products based on the Sapphire Rapids design and will have to delay it until next year's mass production. On the contrary, AMD is likely to reap the benefits of Intel's delay, and AMD's x86 server market share will jump from 15% in 2022 to 23% in 2023. Given that AMD ships processors with the highest core counts, many companies will opt for AMD's solutions in their data centers. With more companies being concerned by their TCO measures with rising energy costs, favors fall in the hand of single-socket servers.

According to the latest TrendForce research, pandemic-induced materials shortages abated in the second half of this year and the supply and delivery of short-term materials has recovered significantly. However, assuming materials supply is secure and demand can be met, the annual growth rate of server shipments in 2023 is estimated to be only 3.7%, which is lower than 5.1% in 2022.

TrendForce indicates that this growth slowdown is due to three factors. First, once material mismatch issues had eased, buyers began adjusting previously placed purchase order overruns. Thus, ODM orders also decreased but this will not affect the 2022 shipment volume of whole servers for the time being. Second, due to the impact of rising inflation and weakness in the overall economy, corporate capital investment may trend more conservative and IT-related investment will emphasize flexibility, such as the replacement of certain server terminals with cloud services. Third, geopolitical changes will drive the continuing emergence of demand for small-scale data centers and previous construction of hyperscale data centers will slow. The recent ban on military/HPC servers issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce on October 7 has a very low market share in terms of its application category, so the impact on the overall server market is limited at present. However, if the scope of the ban is expanded further in the future, it will herald a more significant slowdown risk for China's server shipment momentum in 2023.

Today, we shared our vision for the next era of the Windows PC, where the PC and the cloud intersect and tap into innovative AI technology that unlocks new experiences. So that each of us can participate, be seen, heard and express our creativity.

For nearly 40 years, the Windows PC has held a place at the center of our lives. It's contributed to new levels of productivity, kept us all connected, and unlocked our creativity and potential through innovations we couldn't have imagined when we first began this journey. Just think about how far we've come in how people interact with it. From the very first text-based keyboard input to the precision of point and click with the mouse, up to today, where touch, voice, pen and gestures all help people use the Windows PC more naturally and intuitively. From its inception, Surface has been a catalyst for that change.

Global fab equipment spending for front-end facilities is expected to increase approximately 9% year-over-year (YOY) to a new all-time high of US$99 billion in 2022, SEMI announced today in its latest quarterly World Fab Forecast report. The report also shows the global fab equipment industry increasing capacity this year and again in 2023. "After achieving a record level in 2022, the global fab equipment market is projected to remain healthy next year driven by new fabs and upgrade activity," said Ajit Manocha, SEMI President and CEO.

Taiwan is expected to lead fab equipment spending in 2022, increasing investments 47% YOY to US$30 billion, followed by Korea at US$22.2 billion, a 5.5% decline, and China at US$22 billion, a 11.7% drop from its peak last year. Europe/Mideast this year is forecast to log record high spending of US$6.6 billion, a 141% YOY surge this year though outlays remain comparatively smaller than in other regions. Strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) advanced technologies is driving the region's jump in spending. The Americas and Southeast Asia are also expected to register record high investments in 2023.

Today, Intel introduces a new processor for the essential product space: Intel Processor. The new offering will replace the Intel Pentium and Intel Celeron branding in the 2023 notebook product stack.

"Whether for work or play, the importance of the PC has only become more apparent as the torrid pace of technological development continues to shape the world. Intel is committed to driving innovation to benefit users, and our entry-level processor families have been crucial for raising the PC standard across all price points. The new Intel Processor branding will simplify our offerings so users can focus on choosing the right processor for their needs." -Josh Newman, Intel vice president and interim general manager of Mobile Client Platforms

During Evercore ISI TMT conference, Intel announced that the company would continue to lose market share, with a possible bounce back in the coming years. According to the latest report, Intel's CEO Pat Gelsinger announced that he expects the company to continue to lose its market share to AMD as the competition has "too much momentum" going for it. AMD's Ryzen and EPYC processors continue to deliver power and efficiency performance figures, which drives customers towards the company. On the other hand, Intel expects a competing product, especially in the data center business with Sapphire Rapids Xeon processors, set to arrive in 2023. Pat Gelsinger noted, "Competition just has too much momentum, and we haven't executed well enough. So we expect that bottoming. The business will be growing, but we do expect that there continues to be some share losses. We're not keeping up with the overall TAM growth until we get later into '25 and '26 when we start regaining share, material share gains."

The only down years that are supposed to show a toll of solid competition are 2022 and 2023. As far as creating a bounceback, Intel targets 2025 and 2026. "Now, obviously, in 2024, we think we're competitive. 2025, we think we're back to unquestioned leadership with our transistors and process technology," noted CEO Gelsinger. Additionally, he had a say about the emerging Arm CPUs competing for the same server market share as Intel and AMD do so, stating that "Well, when we deliver the Forest product line, we deliver power performance leadership versus all Arm alternatives, as well. So now you go to a cloud service provider, and you say, 'Well, why would I go through that butt ugly, heavy software lift to an ARM architecture versus continuing on the x86 family?"

Comcast today announced it has begun a nationwide rollout of multi-gig Internet speeds - that will reach more than 50 million homes and businesses before the end of 2025 - making it the largest- and fastest-ever multi-gig deployment in the United States. New speeds will be paired with Comcast's multi-gig Wi-Fi experience, which delivers the industry's best combination of speed, coverage, and control, powered by one of the world's first Wi-Fi 6E Gateways.

As part of this initiative, Comcast is accelerating the transformation of its network to a virtualized cloud-based architecture that is fully prepared for 10G and DOCSIS 4.0. Comcast will begin offering 10G-enabled multi-gig symmetrical services in 2023.

Tumultuous times are ahead for the PC and tablet markets according to a new forecast from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. Global shipments of traditional PCs are forecast to decline 12.8% in 2022 to 305.3 million units while tablet shipments will fall 6.8% to 156.8 million. Inflation, a weakening global economy, and the surge in buying over the past two years are the leading causes for the reduced outlook.

Further contraction is also expected in 2023 as consumer demand has slowed, the education demand has been largely fulfilled, and enterprise demand gets pushed out due to worsening macroeconomic conditions. The combined market for PCs and tablets is forecast to decline 2.6% in 2023 before returning to growth in 2024.

LINE Games Corporation announced today that it will participate online in Europe's biggest game exhibition Gamescom 2022 to showcase its upcoming PC title Quantum Knights. On August 24, LINE Games will present Quantum Knights on the official website of Gamescom 2022 with a new gameplay trailer. Currently in development by Space Dive Games, Quantum Knights is an online third-person looter shooter for PC. Set in a medieval fantasy open world where magic and firearms coexist, Quantum Knights offers stylish action based on shooter game's dynamic combat and movement mechanisms.

Each firearm featured in Quantum Knights has its own unique design and can be enhanced by carving in magic circles, which allows for the player to tailor the character's specialty and combat style accordingly. LINE Games plans on releasing Quantum Knights in 2023, and has opened a dedicated teaser site and social media channel where intrigued players can take a first look at the game.

Based on a report by TrendForce, Intel has yet again had to push back its upcoming Meteor Lake CPUs and it now appears that Intel will only be launching Meteor Lake towards the end of 2023. It's unclear why there has been yet another delay, but Intel is said to have cancelled most of its orders with TSMC for the 3 nm tGPU that Intel will have made at TSMC, for 2023. The knock-on effect of this, is that TSMC is said to be slowing down its production line expansion towards 3 nm, as the company is now unsure if it'll be able to fill its order books for all of 2023. TSMC's main customer for the 3 nm node is still going to be Apple, but with the loss of what is likely to be around six months worth of production from Intel, TSMC is said to be considering cutting its CapEx for 2023.

TSMC's other customers, such as AMD, MediaTek and Qualcomm aren't planning on moving to 3 nm until 2024, so unless there's a change in plans from either of these companies, or increased demand from Apple, TSMC is said to hit the brakes when it comes to starting up new, cutting edge production lines next year. TSMC is also likely to see reduced revenues during 2023 due to Intel's change of plans, although it's too early to make any assumptions. TrendForce also suggests that Intel might still use TSMC's 3 nm node as a backup plan, if Intel would fail to execute on moving to the Intel 4 process, but considering how complex it is to move a design between different foundry processes, this seems unlikely.

Global fab equipment spending for front-end facilities is expected to increase 20% year-over-year (YOY) to an all-time high of US$109 billion in 2022, marking a third consecutive year of growth following a 42% surge in 2021, SEMI announced today in its latest quarterly World Fab Forecast report. Fab equipment investment in 2023 is expected to remain strong.

"The global semiconductor equipment industry remains on track to cross the $100 billion threshold for the first time as shown in our latest update of the World Fab Forecast,"said Ajit Manocha, president and CEO of SEMI. "This historic milestone puts an exclamation point on the current run of unprecedented industry growth."