Mannerisms

Only time will tell whether or not Nvidia’s current valuation is justified but one thing is certain: Its market capitalisation of roughly $3 trillion is based on expectations for future growth more than it is on current results. While Nvidia saw its revenue and profit grow at an extraordinary pace over the past year, it is still far from the ...

Thanks to IDC for this one – the top five smartphone companies in Q2: Top 5 Companies, Worldwide Smartphone Shipments, Market Share, and Year-Over-Year Growth, Q2 2024 (Preliminary results, shipments in millions of units) Company 2Q24 Shipments 2Q24 Market Share 2Q23 Shipments 2Q23 Market Share 2Q24/2Q23 Growth 1. Samsung 53.9 18.9% 53.5 20.0% 0.7% 2. Apple 45.2 15.8% 44.5 16.6% ...

The European Semiconductor Industry Association (ESIA) is reported to have asked for a Chips Act 2 without the preliminary courtesy of accounting for the benefits obtained from Chips Act 1. It’s obvious why not – there aren’t any benefits. The goal of boosting EU chip output to 20% of the world market has zero chance of being achieved. The aspiration ...

A NEW transistor from Texas Instruments Ltd., is completely British in conception. development and production. So, 64 years ago, starts a story in Electronics Weekly’s edition of October 26 1960 The story continues: This is the first device to originate entirely from the Bedford works, and we are assured it will not be the last. Texas Instruments, US, are interested ...

Amid reports about Intel considering selling off its fabs, no one seems to be considering the fact that next year is the year Intel said it will regain industry process leadership. If it succeeds in taking industry process leadership, which is not impossible because it is trying to run a process with more advanced features than the production processes TSMC ...

I’ve been up against a snag in my bid to get back into government under the new political regime, Ed confides to his diary. At first they seemed keen to have me back in some kind of science or technology job but then a junior minister seems to have taken exception to me. It seems he fancies himself as a ...

21 years ago NEC introduced a laptop powered by aN internal fuel cell. The fuel cell technology behind the PC was first shown at Nano Tech 2003 in February. NEC’s fuel cell at a glance Average output 14W Maximum output 24W Voltage 12V Cell weight 900g Fuel weight 300g PC+cell weight 2 kg PC size 288x280x40mm Run time 5hour approx ...

“Momentum for generative AI is accelerating,” said Jensen Huang at Nvidia’s Q2 earnings call on Wednesday, but not if you look at the company’s numbers. In Q1 revenues were $26bn, in Q2 $30bn and in Q3 they are expected to be $32bn while the  Q2 margin of 75 was below the Q1 margin of 78.  Not accelerating. The share price ...

These sculptures stand on the site of  a celebrated lab: Though some dubbed it  ‘Paranoid Place’. Moral: Genius Has Downsides

The smart money is betting that China won’t invade Taiwan, says a piece in the Nikkei by Philip Hou and Eric Guyot which argues that $25 billion of foreign company investment in Taiwan in the last seven years from the likes of AMD, ASML, Alphabet, Micron, Microsoft, Nvidia, Yahoo and other suggest that corporate analysts discount the prospect of war. ...

The US Open, which kicked off on Monday, is offering the largest purse in tennis history – $75 million. Both singles champions will take home $3.6 million, while first round losers take home $100,000 for the first time. Professional tennis  players are essentially self-employed, covering their own expenses, including travel, accommodation and wages for coaches and other staff. Those who ...

Thanks to  Counterpoint Research for this one – the top seven semiconductor companies measured by market share based on revenue:  

PLANS for the start next year of experimental tests of satellite communications in which the GPO will take part were announced in a White Paper published last week by Mr. J. R. Bevins, Postmaster-General. So, 63 years ago, started a story in uppercase Electronics Weekly’sc edition of April 5, 1961 The satellites are to be launched in America by the ...

On December 26 1991,  the USSR was officially disbanded and fifteen new countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia were created. The chart below marks them with a squiggly red line. Many of the 15  had already formalised declarations of independence before the legal dissolution of the USSR. The parliament of Ukraine had already declared independence in August Eastern Germany ...

I’m in a pickle. After I left Ministerial Office I accepted the Chairmanship of  an importer and distributor of ICs, Ed confides to his diary. The salary was so large I should probably have smelled a rat, but I was flattered to be approached and it was run by a couple of old industry mates. Now I have learnt that the ...

Back in early 2003, it was being said that the silicon foundry business model would have to change if firms were to recover from low profit margins and low growth rates. “The era of high margins for the current foundry model has gone forever,” said Bob Tsao, chairman of foundry firm UMC at its February investor conference. Under a new ...

Two deadly crashes in late 2018 and early 2019 in Ethiopia and Indonesia of Boeing 737 Max planes led to the grounding of all MAX planes for more than 1.5 years. Boeing lost billions from fines and  canceled orders and posted a loss of almost almost $3 billion in Q2 of 2019. The planes were finally cleared to fly again ...

There was once a company which had 85% of the worldwide DRAM market. It was bought for $345 million in 1979 and sold for $71 million in 1985. Moral: Circumstances change quickly in the chip industry

When politicians want to boost their countries’ chip industry  there’s not much they can do except throw money at it. The sort of money politicians like to throw at the chip industry is big money and the only thing the chip industry can do with big money is build fabs. The problem with that is that a fab is more ...

Yesterday was National Radio Day. Austria and Germany are, according to a Statista Consumer Insights survey, the countries where people are most likely to switch on a radio. 17% of Austrians and 16% of Germans say they listen to the radio for at least 11 hours a week. By contrast under 5% of the citizens of  Mexico and  Korea considered themselves ...