Friday, December 30, 2016

Apple has not admitted iPhone6s battery problem

According to foreign media reports, if you are using the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6s, you may encounter battery problems. The most common situation is that even if the phone shows the battery still has enough power, but the iPhone6 ​​or iPhone 6s may still automatically shut down automatically.
Moreover, this is not a new problem, because the first time earlier this year, users have raised this issue. According to the "Forbes" reported that Apple official forums related information posted, a complaint about non-iPhone 6s models have TV problems post has more than 62 pages of replies, many of which users are said to be upgrading iOS10.2 After the problem, the problem is more obvious after the update, has seriously affected the normal use of the user. ff300r17ke3
Apple officials also launched a limited range of battery replacement items for the iPhone 6s and announced that the software upgrade will help other iPhone models to solve the battery problem. However, from the current situation, the effect of software upgrades seems very limited.
In this regard, "Fortune" magazine editor Jeff - John - Roberts (Jeff John Roberts) that the most annoying thing about this is that Apple refused to clarify where the problem in the end. Moreover, the company has been "pretending" other models do not exist similar problems, but only for some iPhone6s models start a limited range of battery replacement project.
It is reported that Roberts had their own iPhone 6 battery problems encountered, and "Fortune" magazine at least five employees of the iPhone 6 also encountered a similar problem. Roberts revealed that he learned that Apple retail store employees will provide users with an unusual solution, that Apple can re-install the firmware to the iPhone 6 in question, but this method may lead to the loss of important data, including short message content . cm1000ha-24h
Apple officially issued a formal statement to the Fortune magazine, although Apple in the statement written in a lot of text, but always evasive does not directly recognize the safety of its equipment battery, Apple's statement reads as follows:
We always work hard and are committed to providing the best products, user experience and customer support. We believe that this is the Apple user satisfaction in China and the world smartphone manufacturers have been the leading reason.
We have been very serious about customer complaints, including a limited number of iPhone abnormal shutdown. We also need to thank the media for conveying this issue to us. In the face of these problems, we will launch a formal investigation, and will carry out a detailed analysis of the involved equipment. When we find the problem, Apple will provide users with possible solutions.
Company survey found that in September 2015 and October during the production of a small amount of iPhone 6s used in the manufacturing process with too much outside air mixed with the battery parts. Two weeks ago, we launched a free replacement project for affected batteries around the world. Once again, we apologize for the inconvenience this has caused to users, but it must be noted that this is not a security issue.
At the same time, there are a small number of models not affected by the list of users also reflect their own equipment there is the problem of automatic shutdown, it is because some models will be in normal use for the purpose of protecting the device circuit components automatically shut down. To gather more information on this issue, we will have an additional diagnostic feature built into the iOS software update expected next week. By collecting this information, we can improve the algorithm used to manage battery performance and shutdown. And if this improvement proved to be feasible, we will be added to the future of the software update push.

Monday, December 12, 2016

KIT researches multi-core processors for automotive and industrial applications

Safety-critical applications in automotive, aviation and industry 4.0 will require a significant increase in digital computing performance. This can be provided via Multicore technologies. The ARAMiS II project, developed at the KIT, aims to increase safety, efficiency and comfort by using multicore technologies in vehicles, aircraft and production facilities.
The demand for digital computing performance is increasing enormously, among other things by highly automated vehicles and real-time networked machines, but also by the increasing integration and interaction with other products and services. The use of Multicore technologies significantly increases the computing power of embedded systems in vehicles, aircraft or industrial plants. Multicore processors have multiple processor cores that must work in parallel. This can increase the computing power enormously, but the development is more complex for several processor cores - for example, when it comes to timing or critical point critical requirements. 7101j52zqe22
Multicore processors are now used successfully in many applications, such as PCs, tablets and smartphones. However, safety-critical applications in mobility and industry require additional complex requirements, which is why multi-core systems have hardly become established in industrial embedded applications or in the automotive industry. The requirements for strict safety certifications have so far hardly been met by these building blocks .
"In the new ARAMiS II project, we are creating the indispensable methodological prerequisites to increase safety, efficiency and comfort in the use of multicore technologies and make them industrially available. The results of ARAMiS II are supplemented by standardization activities of the domains concerned and are thus made available to other industry partners. "Says Professor Jürgen Becker, spokesman of the institute management of the Institute for Information Technology (ITIV) of the KIT and together with Falco Bapp of the ITIV coordinator of ARAMiS II. 7201k2zge
In its predecessor, the ARAMiS project, KIT has successfully demonstrated with numerous partners from research and industry that multicore technologies can be used and integrated in safety-critical applications. Based on this, ARAMiS II is to develop, develop and optimize the efficient development processes, especially the systematic tool chain and the industrial platforms with the necessary methods, for the reliable use of multicore architectures. Demonstrators in the domains of automotive engineering, aerospace and industrial automation should demonstrate the applicability of the developed concepts and methods across all domains.
In a kick-off meeting on 1 and 2 December 2016, all partners identified the next activities in the six subprojects: applications and requirements, structured multicore development, multicore methods and tools, multicore platforms, and architectural patterns , Implementation and evaluation, results assurance and utilization.
The consortium of ARAMiS II consists of 33 partners. In addition to renowned research facilities, leading manufacturers from the automotive and aerospace industries as well as the industrial sector as well as various suppliers, software and tool manufacturers are participating. Continental, for example, is an industry spokesman in ARAMiS II, Audi, Bosch, Airbus and Siemens.
Like its predecessor, ARAMiS II has been designed for three years; The project volume totals more than 26 million euros. ARAMiS II is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with around 15 million euros.

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Chip industry turnover of over 240 billion US dollars within two years

After a series of mergers and acquisitions, the chip industry, traders have to take a break, and the market for them to choose high-quality transactions are not many.
In the past two years, semiconductor companies have completed more than $ 240 billion in mergers and acquisitions, according to Dealogic, a financial data provider. So far this year, the semiconductor industry M & A transaction size of 130.2 billion US dollars, setting a new record, higher than last year's record 16% higher. Large transactions led to the overall transaction volume, but this is not a small transaction. Over the past two years, six deals have exceeded $ 10 billion and three have exceeded $ 30 billion.
Why is the M & A deal in the chip industry slowing? The reason is simple: there are not many high-quality chip companies available in the market, and most of the companies that want to buy have completed their own deals. Qualcomm took out most of its $ 30 billion in cash reserves to fund the acquisition of NXP Semiconductors. Broadcom has completed a $ 37 billion merger with Avago Technologies earlier this year and has invested another $ 5.5 billion to acquire the network equipment company Brocade Communications Systems. According to financial information provider FactSet, Intel spent more than $ 15 billion last year on acquiring Altera, and then acquired or planned to acquire 12 smaller companies. 50yxf100mce8x11.5
This year's chip industry mergers and acquisitions scale set a new record
Regulatory opposition is another factor restricting chip industry M & A transactions, at least in the chip manufacturing equipment segment of the field is the case. Wafer-equipment makers Lam Research and KLA-Tencor canceled a $ 10.6 billion merger last month after a rigorous review by the US Department of Justice. Applied Materials last year to try to $ 29 billion merger with Tokyo Electronics, but also by the United States Department of Justice of the opposition. Regulatory objections may discourage other chip companies from pursuing larger-scale deals.
Price is also an obstacle, the performance of chip stocks far better than other technology industry stocks. So far this year, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has risen more than 25%, while the Nasdaq Composite Index rose only 4%. Nvidia and AMD are often rumored to buy, with the growth rate of growth this year, the two companies' share price has more than doubled. 6437288-2
But chip companies will continue to look for ways to drive growth in low interest rates. Technology companies will be more interested in the automotive field, which acquired from Qualcomm NXP, Samsung 8 billion US dollars acquisition of Harman International can be seen.
A handful of chip companies are not involved in the recent takeover binge. Over the past two years, Nvidia has only acquired a small company, currently sitting on about 3.7 billion US dollars in net cash. Texas Instruments is currently the fourth-largest chip company, since 2011 to $ 6.5 billion acquisition of National Semiconductor, Texas Instruments has never had a deal.
However, these companies will also carefully selected acquisition targets. Texas Instruments CFO in September this year, said at the Investment Conference, the company mainly in the autonomous areas in the next four to five years to bring value-added transactions. In the recent acquisition of frequent transactions, the choice of Texas Instruments less and less.

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Three-layer electrode structure design to improve the energy density of lithium batteries 30%

Yang Yuan, an assistant professor at Columbia University's School of Materials Science and Engineering, has developed a new approach to increasing the energy density of lithium-ion batteries. His three-layer structure of electrodes in the bare air environment to maintain stability, thus making the battery more durable, further reduce the manufacturing cost. The study can increase the energy density of lithium batteries 10-30%, related papers published in early October in the "Nano Letters" periodicals.
Graphite / PMMA / Li three-layer electrode in a battery electrolyte for 24 hours before (left) and after (right). Prior to immersion in the electrolyte, the three-layer electrode is stable in air. After soaking, lithium and graphite reaction, the color turns yellow. Source: Columbia University
"When lithium batteries are charged for the first time, they lose as much as 5-20% of their energy in the first cycle," Yang said. "We have been able to avoid this loss through structural improvements. The approach has great potential for increasing battery life and is expected to be used in portable electronic devices and electric vehicles. " gmf32024abtw
During the first charge after production, a portion of the electrolyte in the lithium battery will change from a liquid state to a solid state due to a reduction reaction and adhere to the negative electrode of the battery. This process is irreversible and reduces the stored energy of the battery.
In the current electrode manufacturing technology, this process to bring the loss of about 10%, but for high-capacity next-generation anode material, such as silicon, the loss will reach 20-30%, which will greatly reduce the battery Of the actual available capacity.
In order to compensate for such initial loss, the conventional method is to add some lithium-rich material to the electrode. However, since most of these materials are unstable in the air environment, they must be manufactured in dry air, which is completely free from moisture, and therefore, the manufacturing cost of the battery is greatly increased.
Yang Yuan developed the three-electrode structure is to ensure that the electrode can be completed in the ordinary air environment to complete the manufacturing.
First of all, he used a layer of "PMMA" (that is, common plexiglass material), to isolate the lithium and air and moisture contact; PMMA polymer and then add a layer of artificial graphite or silicon nanoparticles and other active materials; He allows the PMMA polymer layer to dissolve in the cell electrolyte, thereby conducting lithium and the electrode material. msp430f436ipzr
"This allows us to avoid the air contact between unstable lithium and lithiated electrodes, which can be done in normal air environments and make it easier to produce battery electrodes," Yang explained.
Three-layer structure of the electrode production process: PMMA in the initial state to ensure that lithium does not react with the moisture in the air. When PMMA is dissolved by the battery electrolyte, the graphite contacts with the lithium to compensate for the initial loss due to the reduction of the electrolyte. Source: Columbia University
Yang's method reduced the loss of the existing graphite electrode from 8% to 0.3% and the loss of the silicon electrode from -13% to -15% (negative indicates that the capacity of the battery was taught as the initial state due to the addition of the new lithium material There is an increase). The excess lithium can compensate for the loss of capacity in the subsequent cycle, and thus the cycle life of the battery can be further enhanced.
Li-ion battery energy density (or capacity) in the past 25 years has maintained an annual growth rate of 5-7%, and Yang Yuan research to further improve the growth rate provides a feasibility program. His team is now working to reduce the thickness of PMMA coating in order to reduce its proportion in lithium batteries lower, and strive to achieve industrial production.
"The three-layer electrode design is cleverly designed to produce lithium metal-containing electrodes under normal air conditions," said Yale Wang, assistant professor of chemistry at Yale University. "The initial coulombic efficiency of the electrode has been a major challenge for the lithium-ion battery industry, This simple and effective compensation technology will cause great interest.

Monday, October 10, 2016

Intel OEM Spreadtrum 14nm chip sample this month

Intel has the world's most advanced semiconductor technology in the FinFET process than other manufacturers more than two years in advance of production, 14nm FinFET process although the dystocia, but still than TSMC, Samsung earlier, and Intel's process is the best , The gate distance is the real 14nm level, the other two are water. From the beginning of the transition began in the first half, Intel foundry as a breakthrough point, to win over LG Electronics, and now a customer confirmed that China's Spreadtrum will also use Intel 14nm process foundry, the fastest chip-related October You can sample.
Intel has no doubt in the wafer manufacturing strength, there have been sporadic OEM cooperation, but not many customers, mainly FPGA companies such as Altera, the results of Intel's own customers to the acquisition. Spreadtrum for Intel is not an outsider - Spreadtrum and another company Rui Dike were purple company acquired, and later set up a Unisplendour Company, and Intel Corporation to spend $ 1.5 billion stake in exhibition Rui, accounting for 20% of shares, That is, Intel is now a major shareholder of Spreadtrum. VKI50-12P1
Intel spent so much money to buy shares will naturally not be no good, in addition to planning the Chinese market, it is estimated that OEM cooperation is one of the contents of the negotiations before. Spreadtrum's CEO Li Liyou last year, said on 2016 will use Intel 14nm process foundry chip, there are media broke the news that Intel's 14nm process based on the chip can be the fastest in October to sample, progress is still very fast.
The news pointed out that Spreadtrum's 14nm chip will attract Samsung's orders, is expected to related Samsung mid-range phone will come out in 2017. Samsung has long been the company's VIP customers, although we rarely see based on the Spreadtrum chip (but also a lot of Spreadtrum baseband) smart phone, but in the 3G chip and overseas markets, Samsung Indeed there are many mobile phone is the use of Spreadtrum chip.
According to statistics in June of this year, Spreadtrum + Reddy in the global mobile phone chip market share reached 25.4%, more than MediaTek 24.7%.
On the other hand, cooperation with Intel does not mean that Spreadtrum to give up TSMC, they will still use the latter's 16nm and 28nm process, which is the first use of TSMC SC9860 16nm FFC process mobile phone chips, competitors MediaTek P20, The end of this year will be able to market.
Spreadtrum's accession to the Intel OEM business is a good start, after Intel announced the expansion of foundry business, we know that a customer is LG Electronics, in the 14nm and the future 10nm process OEM, LG will be Intel OEM business, an important partner, but LG ARM chip from the research for a long time, has not broken any movement, far worse than the Samsung Exynos processor. PM15CSJ060
According to the original text, Intel now has about 2,000 employees in China, South Korea, Japan and other Asian customers in Shanghai, there is a team dedicated to serving Chinese customers.

Thursday, September 22, 2016

LED industry will enter a chip packaging and integration route

LED is a kind of electrical energy into light capable of semiconductor electronic components. Such electronic components appear as early as 1962, can only be issued early low-light red, followed by the development of other versions of monochromatic light, the light energy emitted today throughout visible light, infrared and ultraviolet light, luminosity also increased to a considerable luminosity. The use is also made at first as indicator, display panels; With the continuous advancement of technology, light-emitting diodes have been widely used in monitors, televisions and lighting decorative lighting.
    
2010-2016 LED penetration in the market will have a substantial increase, in which the home market rose from 6% to 49%, outdoor lighting increased from 5-40%, while the largest commercial lighting will appear development, rising from 2-51%. With lower LED costs, prices fall, and the policy out of incandescent light, China LED market is growing rapidly, LED lighting penetration gradually increase in 2015 has reached 32%, has become a mainstream source. LED output value of 154 billion yuan from 2011 to 2015, an increase of 396.7 billion yuan, CAGR of 26.69%. lm2594
    
2016 - 2021 China is the development of LED industry analysis and investment potential study shows that the rapid development of China's LED industry is increasingly competitive. Benefit ratio of domestic chip to enhance access to technology as well flip a mature power efficient high-power LED chips, 2011-2015 upstream LED chip industry output value increased year by year, CAGR of 21.32%. 2015 China LED chip industry output value reached 13 billion yuan, an increase of 8.3% slowdown. Midstream LED packaging industry also developed rapidly. 2011-2015 CAGR of 19.01%. The rapid development of China's domestic packaging companies also intensified global competition, China LED packaging industry has entered a period out of competition.
    
LED artificial intelligence replace the equipment, increase production efficiency, reduce production costs. LED as a typical labor-intensive industries, the upstream, midstream and downstream equipment to replace artificial intelligence, LED is expected to increase production efficiency, reduce production costs, and thus LED intelligent equipment has a huge market space. In LED upstream industry, for photovoltaic involving LED chips Prober. LED chip LED Prober for sorting measurement point links. The accuracy and stability of the test device has a very high demand, mainly Taiwan Whitby, MPI ASM and Hong Kong and other major manufacturers, except for Optoelectronic outside yet there are other domestic enterprises involved. Localization services for photovoltaic has advantages, point measuring machines have been mass production, and by the international manufacturers of quality certification. On the midstream industry, LED spectral taping equipment is part of the LED package of essential tool for LED light products, color, electrical, appearance one by one to detect, classify, and taping receipts, to ensure consistency of the three sex. For photovoltaic technology has a profound accumulation in packaging automation, packaging factory to China positive transformation from labor-intensive to capital-intensive, in line with industry trends to create 4.0 smart factory has promoted. hd74ls00p
    
Quality LED industry core technology and high-end products are generally held in foreign hands, but with the rapid development of China's LED business, our core technology and core patents in foreign manufacturers have quietly changed hands this pattern. Upstream has taken shape throughout the next period of time lead to new competition big changes? Chinese and foreign market background is different, the development of chip and packaging industry in Europe and America and Japan and South Korea is different, whether it is research and development, technology infrastructure, industry or stage of development, the future have the opportunity to take the package and chip integration route.

Monday, September 12, 2016

TSMC 10nm production by the end of Apple's customer lock MediaTek Qualcomm Hass

TSMC 10nm by the end of mass production, according to the equipment industry sources, including sea, MediaTek, Qualcomm, Apple and other four major customers, is expected end of this year is expected to complete chip design decision (tape-out), and have started booking TSMC 10nm production next year. TSMC, the first quarter of next year 10 nanometers can contribute revenue in the 10 nanometer production capacity quickly pulled a quarterly basis, the revenue growth momentum strong operating performance this year will be significantly better.
    
In addition, TSMC 7 nanometers estimated to be completed by the first half of next year chip design finalized, the first quarter of 2018, mass production, which currently includes programmable logic gate array (FPGA) maker Xilinx (Xilinx), graphics chip maker Huida (NVIDIA) two 16 nanometer customers have been identified across the 10 nanometer process generation directly with TSMC 7 nm to cooperate. 20t201da2
    
TSMC in the 12-inch wafer Fab 15 Section 5 has completed the first 10 nanometer capacity building, the recent trial production was better than expected, the first 10-nanometer chip has reached a satisfactory yield, there will be three 10-nanometer chips have been complete the design finalized by the end of the wafer and now there will be more to complete the design finalized, the first quarter of next year is expected to start contributing revenue. TSMC continued expansion section 6 and section 7, in addition to support for future 10-nanometer production, but also in some capacity in 2018 will be converted into 7 nanometers enter mass production.
It is understood that TSMC 10 nanometer customers, Continental Huawei Hass Group's semiconductor operation most active Hass phone network processor chip and has been determined to be the TSMC 10 nm process mass production, the fastest at the end of this year will enter volume production. MediaTek mobile phone chip maker also plans to speed up the miniature 10 nanometer, next year the launch of Helio X30 will use TSMC 10 nm production, the fastest in the first quarter next year may begin to expand the cast sheet. u83133169
Qualcomm next-generation 10 nanometer chip Snapdragon 830 phone still commissioned by Samsung OEM, but Qualcomm branched out into the ARM architecture server high-performance computing (HPC) chip market's first 10 nanometer processors, but not to the Samsung production, but TSMC by the steering committee, the same is expected to be finalized before the end to complete the design and mass production.
    
Moreover, this year, Apple TSMC 16-nanometer production A10 Fusion applications processor, has 14 production volume in the park TSMC 12-inch wafer Fab, next generation applications processor A11 is almost exclusively determined by the generation of TSMC continues to win work orders, A11 is expected to be completed by the end of October the design finalized, the second quarter of next year begin commissioned by the TSMC 10-nanometer process chip foundry cast, and will continue to use TSMC's second-generation integrated fan-out wafer level package (InFO WLP) technology.