The Qualcomm Computex 2024 Keynote Live Blog (10:30pm PT/05:30 UTC)
For our second keynote of the day for Computex, we have the 4th Musketeer of the great PC powers, Qualcomm. Slated to be the most PC-focused of the four keynotes, company CEO Cristiano Amon will be presenting a keynote entitled “The PC Reborn.” And while Amon is no stranger to giving keynotes, this is slated to be his most PC-centric keynote yet, giving Computex attendees a clearer idea of how focused Qualcomm will be on the PC market with their new Windows-on-Arm SoCs.
The big focus for today's keynote is expected to be the Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus SoCs, which Qualcomm announced over half a year ago, and has been touting ever since. Now, the first consumer devices based on these chips are just a couple of weeks away from shipping, so Qualcomm is in their final promotional push for their new Windows-on-Arm platform. As a result, Qualcomm should have a lot more hardware to show off, with final silicon and shipping SKUs already defined.
While Snapdragon X is not Qualcomm’s first effort to ship an Arm-based SoC for Windows devices – there are 3 generations of 8cx Gen 3 platforms that everyone is happy never to mention again – the Snapdragon X is Qualcomm’s most serious effort yet. At its core is the new, high-performance/high-efficiency Oryon CPU core, which combined with the rest of Qualcomm’s tried-and-true mobile hardware experience, the company is hoping to mold into a revolutionary Arm-based SoC for Windows laptops. The company is also counting on a decade of software development on Microsoft’s part to make the Windows-on-Arm ecosystem whole, not to mention as frictionless as possible.
Besides energy efficiency, Qualcomm’s other big push is on the burgeoning field of NPUs. The Snapdragon X NPU is rated to deliver 45 TOPS of INT8 performance, which makes it the first PC NPU to meet Microsoft’s hardware requirement for Windows 11 Copilot+ AI functionality. So Qualcomm is looking to leverage this time-limited opportunity to be the first to offer new functionality in the Windows space – a privilege normally reserved for Intel or AMD.
Come join us at 10:30pm PT / 01:30am ET / 05:30 UTC to get all the details.
Live Blog
Posted by The Techinical Support
The Endorfy Fortis 5 Dual Fan CPU Cooler Review: Towering Value Standard CPU coolers, while adequate for managing basic thermal loads, often fall short in terms of noise reduction and superior cooling efficiency. This limitation drives advanced users and system builders to seek aftermarket solutions tailored to their specific needs. The high-end aftermarket cooler market is highly competitive, with manufacturers striving to offer products with exceptional performance.
Endorfy, previously known as SilentiumPC, is a Polish manufacturer that has undergone a significant transformation to expand its presence in global markets. The brand is known for delivering high-performance cooling solutions with a strong focus on balancing efficiency and affordability. By rebranding as Endorfy, the company aims to enter premium market segments while continuing to offer reliable, high-quality cooling products.
SilentiumPC became very popular in the value/mainstream segments of the PC market with their products, the spearhead of which probably was the Fera 5 cooler that we reviewed a little over two years ago and had a remarkable value for money. Today’s review places Endorfy’s largest CPU cooler, the Fortis 5 Dual Fan, on our laboratory test bench. The Fortis 5 is the largest CPU air cooler the company currently offers and is significantly more expensive than the Fera 5, yet it still is a single-tower cooler that strives to strike a balance between value, compatibility, and performance.
Cases/Cooling/PSUs
The Endorfy Fortis 5 Dual Fan CPU Cooler Review: Towering Value Standard CPU coolers, while adequate for managing basic thermal loads, often fall short in terms of noise reduction and superior cooling efficiency. This limitation drives advanced users and system builders to seek aftermarket solutions tailored to their specific needs. The high-end aftermarket cooler market is highly competitive, with manufacturers striving to offer products with exceptional performance.
Endorfy, previously known as SilentiumPC, is a Polish manufacturer that has undergone a significant transformation to expand its presence in global markets. The brand is known for delivering high-performance cooling solutions with a strong focus on balancing efficiency and affordability. By rebranding as Endorfy, the company aims to enter premium market segments while continuing to offer reliable, high-quality cooling products.
SilentiumPC became very popular in the value/mainstream segments of the PC market with their products, the spearhead of which probably was the Fera 5 cooler that we reviewed a little over two years ago and had a remarkable value for money. Today’s review places Endorfy’s largest CPU cooler, the Fortis 5 Dual Fan, on our laboratory test bench. The Fortis 5 is the largest CPU air cooler the company currently offers and is significantly more expensive than the Fera 5, yet it still is a single-tower cooler that strives to strike a balance between value, compatibility, and performance.
Cases/Cooling/PSUs
U.S. Signs $1.5B in CHIPS Act Agreements With Amkor and SKhynix for Chip Packaging Plants 
Under the CHIPS & Science Act, the U.S. government provided tens of billions of dollars in grants and loans to the world's leading maker of chips, such as Intel, Samsung, and TSMC, which will significantly expand the country's semiconductor production industry in the coming years. However, most chips are typically tested, assembled, and packaged in Asia, which has left the American supply chain incomplete. Addressing this last gap in the government's domestic chip production plans, these past couple of weeks the U.S. government signed memorandums of understanding worth about $1.5 billion with Amkor and SK hynix to support their efforts to build chip packaging facilities in the U.S.
Amkor to Build Advanced Packaging Facility with Apple in Mind
Amkor plans to build a $2 billion advanced packaging facility near Peoria, Arizona, to test and assemble chips produced by TSMC at its Fab 21 near Phoenix, Arizona. The company signed a MOU that offers $400 million in direct funding and access to $200 million in loans under the CHIPS & Science Act. In addition, the company plans to take advantage of a 25% investment tax credit on eligible capital expenditures.
Set to be strategically positioned near TSMC's upcoming Fab 21 complex in Arizona, Amkor's Peoria facility will occupy 55 acres and, when fully completed, will feature over 500,000 square feet (46,451 square meters) of cleanroom space, more than twice the size of Amkor's advanced packaging site in Vietnam. Although the company has not disclosed the exact capacity or the specific technologies the facility will support, it is expected to cater to a wide range of industries, including automotive, high-performance computing, and mobile technologies. This suggests the new plant will offer diverse packaging solutions, including traditional, 2.5D, and 3D technologies.
Amkor has collaborated extensively with Apple on the vision and initial setup of the Peoria facility, as Apple is slated to be the facility's first and largest customer, marking a significant commitment from the tech giant. This partnership highlights the importance of the new facility in reinforcing the U.S. semiconductor supply chain and positioning Amkor as a key partner for companies relying on TSMC's manufacturing capabilities. The project is expected to generate around 2,000 jobs and is scheduled to begin operations in 2027.
SK hynix to Build HBM4 in the U.S.
This week SK hynix also signed a preliminary agreement with the U.S. government to receive up to $450 million in direct funding and $500 million in loans to build an advanced memory packaging facility in West Lafayette, Indiana.
The proposed facility is scheduled to begin operations in 2028, which means that it will assemble HBM4 or HBM4E memory. Meanwhile, DRAM devices for high bandwidth memory (HBM) stacks will still be produced in South Korea. Nonetheless, packing finished HBM4/HBM4E in the U.S. and possibly integrating these memory modules with high-end processors is a big deal.
In addition to building its packaging plant, SK hynix plans to collaborate with Purdue University and other local research institutions to advance semiconductor technology and packaging innovations. This partnership is intended to bolster research and development in the region, positioning the facility as a hub for AI technology and skilled employment.
Semiconductors
Kioxia Details BiCS 8 NAND at FMS 2024: 218 Layers With Superior Scaling 
Kioxia's booth at FMS 2024 was a busy one with multiple technology demonstrations keeping visitors occupied. A walk-through of the BiCS 8 manufacturing process was the first to grab my attention. Kioxia and Western Digital announced the sampling of BiCS 8 in March 2023. We had touched briefly upon its CMOS Bonded Array (CBA) scheme in our coverage of Kioxial's 2Tb QLC NAND device and coverage of Western Digital's 128 TB QLC enterprise SSD proof-of-concept demonstration. At Kioxia's booth, we got more insights.
Traditionally, fabrication of flash chips involved placement of the associate logic circuitry (CMOS process) around the periphery of the flash array. The process then moved on to putting the CMOS under the cell array, but the wafer development process was serialized with the CMOS logic getting fabricated first followed by the cell array on top. However, this has some challenges because the cell array requires a high-temperature processing step to ensure higher reliability that can be detrimental to the health of the CMOS logic. Thanks to recent advancements in wafer bonding techniques, the new CBA process allows the CMOS wafer and cell array wafer to be processed independently in parallel and then pieced together, as shown in the models above.
The BiCS 8 3D NAND incorporates 218 layers, compared to 112 layers in BiCS 5 and 162 layers in BiCS 6. The company decided to skip over BiCS 7 (or, rather, it was probably a short-lived generation meant as an internal test vehicle). The generation retains the four-plane charge trap structure of BiCS 6. In its TLC avatar, it is available as a 1 Tbit device. The QLC version is available in two capacities - 1 Tbit and 2 Tbit.
Kioxia also noted that while the number of layers (218) doesn't compare favorably with the latest layer counts from the competition, its lateral scaling / cell shrinkage has enabled it to be competitive in terms of bit density as well as operating speeds (3200 MT/s). For reference, the latest shipping NAND from Micron - the G9 - has 276 layers with a bit density in TLC mode of 21 Gbit/mm2, and operates at up to 3600 MT/s. However, its 232L NAND operates only up to 2400 MT/s and has a bit density of 14.6 Gbit/mm2.
It must be noted that the CBA hybrid bonding process has advantages over the current processes used by other vendors - including Micron's CMOS under array (CuA) and SK hynix's 4D PUC (periphery-under-chip) developed in the late 2010s. It is expected that other NAND vendors will also move eventually to some variant of the hybrid bonding scheme used by Kioxia.
Storage
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