It’s the last Tuesday reset for World of Warcraft before The War Within arrives, and in many ways, the game is already off to the races. Of particular note is that the three-month Pandaria Remix event has concluded and all involved characters will wake up, blinking like newborn babes, in the light of normal servers […]
Fellow MMO housing fans, furbish up your design skills because we’re going to Janthir Wilds today. Yes, Guild Wars 2’s latest expansion officially rolls out today. Janthir Wilds is B2P for a one-time fee of $24.99 (on up if you want a loaded pack), which includes all four major patches as they roll out over […]
For Battle Bards’ penultimate episode, Syp and Syl explore some EPIC battle music across many MMOs. After all, if we’re going to go out in style, that style’s going to be loud enough to blast a hole in your eardrums! We also learn that nobody likes the Flute Guy. Battle Bards is the world’s first, best, […]
We’ve gone through a lot of different names for what are now being called Allied Societies in Final Fantasy XIV, but I think this one finally captures both what the idea is for these quests and the space that FFXIV has narratively staked out for these quests. It was one thing when it was Amalj’aa […]
Since the launch of World of Warcraft, players have been waiting for and longing to have housing. It still has not happened. The reasons given range from being adjacent to plausible to just feeling outright silly, but the details don’t particularly matter in context; what matters is that we’re still sitting here without housing in […]
Braid: Anniversary Edition has "sold like dog shit", according to its creator Jonathan Blow.
Blow regularly streams on Twitch and has discussed the sales performance of the Braid re-release on a number of occasions since its release in May.
YouTube channel Blow Fan has pieced together a montage of clips from Blow's streams (spotted by VGC), in which he bluntly shares his thoughts on the sales of Braid: Anniversary Edition.
Braid: Anniversary Edition has "sold like dog shit", according to its creator Jonathan Blow.
Blow regularly streams on Twitch and has discussed the sales performance of the Braid re-release on a number of occasions since its release in May.
YouTube channel Blow Fan has pieced together a montage of clips from Blow's streams (spotted by VGC), in which he bluntly shares his thoughts on the sales of Braid: Anniversary Edition.
Blow discussed the remasters sales performance across several Twitch streams since its release back in May, going so far as to suggest that the studio's "future is uncertain" as a result of low sales.
Blow discussed the remasters sales performance across several Twitch streams since its release back in May, going so far as to suggest that the studio's "future is uncertain" as a result of low sales.
The first Destiny 2 clan to complete The Final Shape's raid has unlocked a final mission for all Guardians to close out the sci-fi shooter's expansive story.
It took the Parabellum clan 19 hours to work their way through Salvation’s Edge – and what a triumph it was – but the bigger surprise was that as the cut-scenes played out the end of Destiny's epic decade, a hitherto secret mission became available to all players, regardless of whether or not they'd gotten through the raid themselves.
The mission – called Excision – accommodates 12 players in a stunning crescendo that's sure to squeeze even the steeliest Guardian heart.
Anyone who attempted Destiny 2’s raid, Salvation’s Edge, assumed it would be days until someone claimed the win but, surprisingly, this was not the case! A record-breaking team has claimed victory after 19 relentless hours, just 11 minutes longer than the previous longest time recorded. So, who won the world’s first race for Destiny 2 Salvation’s Edge raid?
Salvation’s Edge Winners Confirmed by Bungie
Salvation’s Edge went live on Friday 7 June, 2024 at 1 pm ET. Players quickly launched into the race to see if they would be the first to the finish. Unfortunately for many teams, it became undeniable this was no simple battle and the foes were of a superior power level! When 12 hours had passed and no winner was declared, project leader Catarina Macedo announced: “The Witness is the biggest threat the universe has ever seen. We warned you.”
Day of the Devs returned for its 12th annual summer event with another Summer Game Fest post-show that gave the not-E3 microphone to the creators behind some of the most promising-looking upcoming games. Whether you like noir-influenced point-and-click adventures or nostalgia-fueled retro RPGs, the event once again…
There’s just over a month left until Dawntrail, the next expansion for Square Enix’s hit MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV, releases in early access. Yet we still don’t know too much about the next chapter of the game, beyond it being a kind of summer vacation for players. That mystery is intentional, as the story is a big…
Look, you've had 15 years to play that well-regarded time-bending puzzler sitting in your Steam library, staring at you this whole time. Well, now you can have another 15 years. Braid Anniversary Edition is out on Steam now, a high definition remastering of a classic indie. It got stuck in time following a few delays but it's finally defrosted now. The sharper look will appeal to pixel perfectionists, but there are also 40 new levels for serial rewinders. And - for those interested in the thought processes of designer Jonathan Blow - a bunch of developer commentary.
Braid: Anniversary Edition (or Braid, Anniversary Edition as it's officially styled) has been delayed by two weeks. The remake is now set to launch for PlayStation, Switch, and PC on 15th May, with Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One versions arriving a day later, on 16th May.
Developer Jonathan Blow revealed his time-manipulating platform-puzzler would be getting an enhanced Anniversary Edition all the way back in 2020, and a release of 30th April 2024 was finally confirmed last November, placing its launch squarely in the original's 15th birthday year.
News of a brief delay for Braid: Anniversary Edition was shared today in a press release, but no reason for its later-than-expected arrival has been given. On the upside, the announcement brings news of a previously undisclosed feature: 40 new levels. These consist of 14 commentary index levels (15 in the mobile version), used to navigate the game's 15+ hours of commentary, 12 alternate design levels with explanatory commentary, plus 13 new full puzzle levels, featuring 16 puzzle pieces that'll combine to form a new frame.
Braid: Anniversary Edition (or Braid, Anniversary Edition as it's officially styled) has been delayed by two weeks. The remake is now set to launch for PlayStation, Switch, and PC on 15th May, with Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One versions arriving a day later, on 16th May.
Developer Jonathan Blow revealed his time-manipulating platform-puzzler would be getting an enhanced Anniversary Edition all the way back in 2020, and a release of 30th April 2024 was finally confirmed last November, placing its launch squarely in the original's 15th birthday year.
News of a brief delay for Braid: Anniversary Edition was shared today in a press release, but no reason for its later-than-expected arrival has been given. On the upside, the announcement brings news of a previously undisclosed feature: 40 new levels. These consist of 14 commentary index levels (15 in the mobile version), used to navigate the game's 15+ hours of commentary, 12 alternate design levels with explanatory commentary, plus 13 new full puzzle levels, featuring 16 puzzle pieces that'll combine to form a new frame.
The Anniversary Edition of Braid was originally announced almost four years ago, and originally meant to be out sometime in 2021. As such, the latest delay to Jonathan Blow’s time-rewinding puzzle-platformer - which sees its date pushed back two weeks into the middle of next month - feels like a relative drop in the hourglass.
India approved the construction of two fabs and a packaging house, for a total investment of about $15.2 billion, according to multiple sources. One fab will be jointly owned by Tata and Taiwan’s Powerchip. The second fab will be a joint investment between CG Power, Japan’s Renesas Electronics, and Thailand’s Stars Microelectronics. Tata will run the packaging facility, as well. India expects these efforts will add 20,000 advanced technology jobs and 60,000 indirect jobs, according to the Times of India. The country has been talking about building a fab for at least the past couple of decades, but funding never materialized.
The U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC) issued a CHIPS Act-based Notice of Funding Opportunity for R&D to establish and accelerate domestic capacity for advanced packaging substrates and substrate materials. The U.S. Secretary of Commerce said the government is prioritizing CHIPS Act funding for projects that will be operational by 2030 and anticipates America will produce 20% of the world’s leading-edge logic chips by the end of the decade.
The top three foundries plan to implement backside power delivery as soon as the 2nm node, setting the stage for faster and more efficient switching in chips, reduced routing congestion, and lower noise across multiple metal layers. But this novel approach to optimizing logic performance depends on advances in lithography, etching, polishing, and bonding processes.
Intel spun out Altera as a standalone FPGA company, the culmination of a rebranding and reorganization of its former Programmable Solutions Group. The move follows Intel’s decision to keep Intel Foundry at arm’s length, with a clean line between the foundry and the company’s processor business.
Multiple new hardware micro-architecture vulnerabilities were published in the latest Common Weakness Enumeration release this week, all related to transient execution (CWE 1420-1423).
The U.S. Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) published a technical report calling for the adoption of memory safe programming languages, aiming to reduce the attack surface in cyberspace and anticipate systemic security risk with better diagnostics. The DoC also is seeking information ahead of an inquiry into Chinese-made connected vehicles “to understand the extent of the technology in these cars that can capture wide swaths of data or remotely disable or manipulate connected vehicles.”
Micron began mass production of a new high-bandwidth chip for AI. The company said the HBM3E will be a key component in NVIDIA’s H2000 Tensor Core GPUs, set to begin shipping in the second quarter of 2024. HBM is a key component of 2.5D advanced packages.
Samsung developed a 36GB HBM3E 12H DRAM, saying it sets new records for bandwidth. The company achieved this by using advanced thermal compression non-conductive film, which allowed it to cram 12 layers into the area normally taken up by 8. This is a novel way of increasing DRAM density.
Keysight introduced QuantumPro, a design and simulation tool, plus workflow, for quantum computers. It combines five functionalities into the Advanced Design System (ADS) 2024 platform. Keysight also introduced its AI Data Center Test Platform, which includes pre-packaged benchmarking apps and dataset analysis tools.
Synopsys announced a 1.6T Ethernet IP solution, including 1.6T MAC and PCS Ethernet controllers, 224G Ethernet PHY IP, and verification IP.
Tenstorrent, Japan’s Leading-Edge Semiconductor Technology Center (LSTC) , and Rapidus are co-designing AI chips. LSTC will use Tenstorrent’s RISC-V and Chiplet IP for its forthcoming edge 2nm AI accelerator.
This week’s Systems and Designnewsletter features these top stories:
2.5D Integration: Big Chip Or Small PCB: Defining whether a 5D device is a PCB shrunk to fit into a package or a chip that extends beyond the limits of a single die can have significant design consequences.
Accellera Preps New Standard For Clock-Domain Crossing: New standard aims to streamline the clock-domain crossing flow.
Thinking Big: From Chips To Systems: Aart de Geus discusses the shift from chips to systems, next-generation transistors, and what’s required to build multi-die devices.
Integration challenges for RISC-V: Modifying the source code allows for democratization of design, but it adds some hurdles for design teams (video).
Demand for high-end AI servers is driven by four American companies, which will account for 60% of global demand in 2024, according to Trendforce. NVIDIA is projected to continue leading the market, with AMD closing the gap due its lower cost model.
The EU consortium PREVAIL is accepting design proposals as it seeks to develop next-gen edge-AI technologies. Anchors include CEA-Leti, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, imec, and VTT, which will use their 300mm fabrication, design, and test facilities to validate prototypes.
Siemens joined an initiative to expand educational opportunities in the semiconductor space around the world. The Semiconductor Education Alliance was launched by Arm in 2023 and focuses on helping teach skills in IC design and EDA.
Q-CTRLannounced partnerships with six firms that it says will expand access to its performance-management software and quantum technologies. Wolfram, Aqarios, and qBraid will integrate Q-CTRL’s Fire Opal technology into their products, while Qblox, Keysight, and Quantware will utilize Q-CTRL’s Boulder Opal hardware system.
NTT, Red Hat, NVIDIA, and Fujitsu teamed up to provide data pipeline acceleration and contain orchestration technologies targeted at real-time AI analysis of massive data sets at the edge.
Manufacturing and Test
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Office of Electricity launched the American-Made Silicon Carbide (SiC) Packaging Prize. This $2.25 million contest invites competitors to propose, design, build, and test state-of-the-art SiC semiconductor packaging prototypes.
Applied Materials introduced products and solutions for patterning issues in the “angstrom era,” including line edge roughness, tip-to-tip spacing limitations, bridge defects, and edge placement errors.
imecreported progress made in EUV processes, masks and metrology in preparation for high-NA EUV. It also identified advanced node lithography and etch related processes that contribute the most to direct emissions of CO2, along with proposed solutions.
proteanTecs will participate in the Arm Total Design ecosystem, which now includes more than 20 companies united around a charter to accelerate and simplify the development of custom SoCs based on Arm Neoverse compute subsystems.
NikkeiAsia took an in-depth look at Japan’s semiconductor ecosystem and concluded it is ripe for revival with investments from TSMC, Samsung, and Micron, among others. TrendForce came to a similar conclusion, pointing to the fast pace of Japan’s resurgence, including the opening of TSMC’s fab.
FormFactorclosed its sale of its Suzhou and Shanghai companies to Grand Junction Semiconductor for $25M in cash.
The eBeam Initiative celebrated its 15th anniversary and welcomed a new member, FUJIFILM. The group also uncorked its fourth survey of its members technology using deep learning in the photomask-to-wafer manufacturing flow.
Automotive
Appleshuttered its electric car project after 10 years of development. The chaotic effort cost the company billions of dollars, according to The New York Times.
Infineon released new automotive programmable SoCs with fifth-gen human machine interface (HMI) technology, offering improved sensitivity in three packages. The MCU offers up to 84 GPIOs and 384 KB of flash memory. The company also released automotive and industrial-grade 750V G1 discrete SiC MOSFETs aimed at applications such as EV charging, onboard chargers, DC-DC converters, energy, solid state circuit breakers, and data centers.
Cadence expanded its Tensilica IP portfolio to boost computation for automotive sensor fusion applications. Vision, radar, lidar, and AI processing are combined in a single DSP for multi-modal, sensor-based system designs.
Ansys will continue translating fast computing into fast cars, as the company’s partnership with Oracle Red Bull Racing was renewed. The Formula 1 team uses Ansys technology to improve car aerodynamics and ensure the safety of its vehicles.
Lazer SportadoptedSiemens’ Xcelerator portfolio to connect 3D design with 3D printing for prototyping and digital simulation of its sustainable KinetiCore cycling helmet.
The chair of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) suggested automakers that sell internet-connected cars should be subject to a telecommunications law aiming to protect domestic violence survivors, reports CNBC. This is due to emerging cases of stalking through vehicle location tracking technology and remote control of functions like locking doors or honking the horn.
BYD‘s CEO said the company does not plan to enter the U.S. market because it is complicated and electrification has slowed down, reports Yahoo Finance. Meanwhile, the first shipment of BYD vehicles arrived in Europe, according to DW News.
Ascent Solar Technologies’ solar module products will fly on NASA’s upcoming Lightweight Integrated Solar Array and AnTenna (LISA-T) mission.
Security
Researchers at Texas A&M University and the University of Delaware proposed the first red-team attack on graph neural network (GNN)-based techniques in hardware security.
A panel of four experts discuss mounting concerns over quantum security, auto architectures, and supply chain resiliency.
Synopsys released its ninth annual Open Source Security and Risk Analysis report, finding that 74% of code bases contained high-risk open-source vulnerabilities, up 54% since last year.
President Biden issued an executive order to prevent the large-scale transfer of Americans’ personal data to countries of concern. Types of data include genomic, biometric, personal health, geolocation, financial, and other personally identifiable information, which bad actors can use to track and scam Americans.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0 to provide a comprehensive view for managing cybersecurity risk.
The EU Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) published a study on best practices for cyber crisis management, saying the geopolitical situation continues to impact the cyber threat landscape and planning for threats and incidents is vital for crisis management.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $45 million to protect the energy sector from cyberattacks.
The National Security Agency (NSA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and others published an advisory on Russian cyber actors using compromised routers. Also the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), and partners advised of tactics used by Russian Foreign Intelligence Service cyber actors to gain initial access into a cloud environment.
CISA, the FBI, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) updated an advisory concerning the ALPHV Blackcat ransomware as a service (RaaS), which primarily targets the healthcare sector.
CISA also published a guide to support university cybersecurity clinics and issued other alerts.
Pervasive Computing and AI
Renesas expanded its RZ family of MPUs with a single-chip AI accelerator that offers 10 TOPS per watt power efficiency and delivers AI inference performance of up to 80 TOPS without a cooling fan. The chip is aimed at next-gen robotics with vision AI and real-time control.
Infineon launched dual-phase power modules to help data centers meet the power demands of AI GPU platforms. The company also released a family of solid-state isolators to deliver faster switching with up to 70% lower power dissipation.
Fig. 1: Infineon’s dual phase power modules: Source: Infineon
Amber Semiconductor announced a reference design for brushless motor applications using its AC to DC conversion semiconductor system to power ST‘s STM32 MCUs.
Micron released its universal flash storage (UFS) 4.0 package at just 9×13 mm, built on 232-layer 3D NAND and offering up to 1 terabyte capacity to enable next-gen phone designs and larger batteries.
LG and Meta teamed up to develop extended reality (XR) products, content, services, and platforms within the virtual space.
Microsoft and Mistral AI partnered to accelerate AI innovation and to develop and deploy Mistral’s next-gen large language models (LLMs).
Microsoft’s vice chair and president announced the company’s AI access principles, governing how it will operate AI datacenter infrastructure and other AI assets around the world.
Singtel and VMware partnered to enable enterprises to manage their connectivity and cloud infrastructure through the Singtel Paragon platform for 5G and edge cloud.
Keysight was selected as the Test Partner for the Deutsche Telekom Satellite NB-IoT Early Adopter Program, providing an end-to-end NB-IoT NTN testbed that allows designers and developers to validate reference designs for solutions using 3GPP Release 17 (Rel-17) NTN standards.
Global server shipments are predicted to increase by 2.05% in 2024, with AI servers accounting for about 12%, reports TrendForce. Also, the smartphone camera lens market is expected to rebound in 2024 with 3.8% growth driven by AI-smartphones, to reach about 4.22 billion units, reports TrendForce.
Yole released a smartphone camera comparison report with a focus on iPhone evolution and analysis of the structure, design, and teardown of each camera module, along with the CIS dimensions, technology node, and manufacturing processes.
Counterpoint released a number of 2023 reports on smartphone shipments by country and operator migrations to 5G.
Events
Find upcoming chip industry events here, including:
Event
Date
Location
International Symposium on FPGAs
Mar 3 – 5
Monterey, CA
DVCON: Design & Verification
Mar 4 – 7
San Jose, CA
ISES Japan 2024: International Semiconductor Executive Summit
As February comes to a close, Sony has removed the cloche to unveil March’s PlayStation Plus cuisine. (I’m feeling hungry right now, leave me alone.) The crop of free games you get next month for being a PS Plus subscriber is actually pretty solid, with the offerings including one of the best martial arts brawlers of…
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Fig. 1: Infineon’s dual phase power modules: Source: Infineon
