There is quite a bit of news on how various component manufacturers have fared at the beginning of 2015 and not much of it is good. Gigabyte has seen revenues drop almost 20% compared to this time last year and a significantly higher overall drop and while MSI is up almost 4% when compared to this quarter in 2014, February saw a drop of over 25% and over the total year a drop of nearly 8%. TSMC has taken a hit of 28% over this month though it is showing around 33% growth over the past year thanks to its many contract wins over the past few months. Transcend, Lite-On and panel maker HannStar all also reported losses over this time as did overseas notebook designers such as Wistron, Compal and Inventec.
Intel is doing well though perhaps not as profitably as they would like, and we know that NVIDIA had a great 2014 but not primarily because of growth in the market but by poaching from another company which has been struggling but not as much as previous years. The PC industry is far from dead but 2014 was not a kind year.
"Gigabyte Technology has reported consolidated revenues of NT$3.216 billion (US$101.93million) for February 2015, representing a 39.31% drop on month and 26.75% drop on year.
The company has totaled NT$8.515 billion in year-to-date revenues, down 18.47% compared with the same time last year."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- The SHOCKING storage truth: Everyone's buying spinning rust @ The Register
- iOS 8.2 shoves a non-deletable Apple Watch app onto your iPhone @ The Inquirer
- Ouch! Google crocks capacitors and deviates DRAM to root Linux @ The Register
- 2015 Hackaday Prize: Build Something that Matters @ Hack a Day
The US tech industry is
The US tech industry is starting to see fallout from the NSA info that’s come to life recently. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150226/07114230147/wake-nsa-leaks-china-drops-major-us-tech-companies-its-approved-supplier-list.shtml 1.3 bn customers alienated by the NSA and this is just the beginning. Things are going to get a lot worse for US tech companies because once the NSA backdoors are discovered, only people in the US will want to buy US hardware and software. Combine a general downward trend with a lack of trust and confidence in US made tech products and things in the US are not looking good in that sector- which is one of the few booming sectors in our economy right now.
best part of that article is
best part of that article is that Anonymous posters are labeled as “Anonymous Coward,”, especially when countered with the fact that the article is about a lack of privacy.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the long run but honestly money will talk and interested parties will always find a way to get what they want assuming they have the money and influence.
The “Anonymous Coward” trope
The “Anonymous Coward” trope has been around since the early days of the net. Techdirt adopted it not to scorn its users but to pay homage to the internet which makes the site possible.
While a little on the extreme side, Techdirt is a great site, and acts as a spotlight shining brightly on the corruption that has infested every aspect of this world.
And there is no greater
And there is no greater corruption and deceit than in the technology sector, or any other sector from the past, just look at AT&T(AKA Ma Bell), just look at what some of the baby Bell’s have grown into! Also there is The Standard OIL TRUST, that very monopolistic entity, that necessitated the need to prefix the word/noun Trust, with the anit- in antitrust, and the need for laws that insure fair play in many markets, if the laws would only just be enforced. Good old Bill G.(M$) has so much in common with John D.(Standard Oil) that they could be trust-brothers.
It’s Nvidia’s 3.5 = 4, or now Apple’s fictitious USB “3.1 Gen 1” misleading the uninformed, about a USB Type-c cabling connector plug form factor, and cabeling/plug electrical Standard. Apple’s marketing hopes the misinformed will see the USB Type-c plug, and automatically associate it with the promised 10Gbs data transfer speed, but in truth the Apple specs documentation states “USB 3.1 Gen 1 (up to 5 Gbps)” and there is no official USB “Gen 1” USB 3.1 spec, there is a USB type-c cabling/plug form factor/electrical Gen 1 spec, that uses the USB 3.0 data transfer/protocol 5Gps speed(controller chip), and there in NO SUCH THING as “USB 3.1 Gen 1”, and it should be properly and un-surreptitiously called USB Type-c Gen 1 specification(Uses the USB 3.0 data protocol controller/chip), Apple is clearly doing the Nvidia thing here, and should be called out on the facts.
USB 3.0 is called SuperSpeed
USB 3.1 is called Enhanced SuperSpeed
USB Type-c is the plug fromfactor, electrical, plug pinout standard.
USB type-c Gen 1 mode uses the USB 3.0 data protocol.*
USB type-c Gen 2 mode uses the USB 3.1 data protocol.*
* all the USB protocals/standards are engineered to be backwards compatible with the earlier data protocols/standards. The data protocol handling is the job of the USB controller chip, usually attached to the motherboard on laptop/mobile devices, for PCs, attatched to the motherboard, or in PCI slotted device.
Apple’s use of the USB specifications’ nomenclature is misleading. No such animal as “USB 3.1 Gen 1”, it should be called USB type-c Gen 1. The 3.1 number is incorrect/misleading and non necessary. Be Very aware that getting a device that has A USB type-c plug, does not guarantee getting a USB 3.1 controller chip, and the USB 3.1 protocol/data speeds of 10Gbs!
The US tech industry is so
The US tech industry is so full of charlatans, scammers, and snake oil salesmen that people are turning away form technology!
Take Apples new 12 inch MacBook It’s hyping USB 3.1 “Gen 1” (up to 5 Gbps) but the USB 3.1 controller specification(not the Type-C plug electrical/form factor specification) is supposed to support 10gbs.
The Type-C plug electrical/form factor specification is backwards compatable with the USB 3.0/2.0 controller chips, the Type-c plug form factor can be attached to a USB 3.0/2.0 controller chip, and the Type-c electrical specification, and pinout assures no circuits will be fried, should someone attach an earlier USB standard devise to a USB type-c form factor plug via an adaptor. Apple is attaching its Type-c in the new MacBook to a USB 3.0 controller on the motherboard and mislabeling it “USB 3.1 Gen 1 (up to 5 Gbps)”.
USB 3.1 “generation 1” controller chips do not exist, the USB 3.1 controller spec clearly states 10gbs, the separate USB type-c plug form factor and electrical specification is backwards compatible with the USB 3.0/2.0 earlier controllers, and having a USB type-c plug does not guarantee a USB 3.1 controller will have to be supplied by the device’s OEM. USB “Gen 1” is merely a USB 3.0 controller chip wired to a USB type-C plug.
The USB type-c plug form factor/electrical standard allows for earlier USB 3.0/2.0 controllers to be wired through a USB Type-c plug. The “Gen 1” is all marketing and Apple is using the Type-c plug standard’s new electrical options to provide the power for the new MacBook, but you are not getting a USB 3.1 controller chip on the motherboard, you are getting a USB 3.0 controller chip wired through a USB TYPE-C plug. Do not assume that USB 3.1 controllers will ever/always come with the Type-c plug the Type-c plug standard clearly states this!
3.5 GDDR
3.5 GDDR
I think what is happening is
I think what is happening is each move to smaller architect takes longer and longer .
With mobile being biggest part there just not big change from one yrs model to next cause slow transition to new processes .
Its only going to get worse ,what happens when we get to 7nm ,things will really slow down like a brick .
It all comes down to
It all comes down to stagnation in the PC space.
Monitor technology has moved along at a snails pace, while smartphone screens have evolved rapidly.
PC CPUs have moved along at a snails pace, while smartphone chips have evolved rapidly.
SSDs have stagnated. The max capacity ceiling for consumer drives have been at 1TB for how long now? SATA III has been saturated for how long now? We’ve been hearing about NVMe and PCI integration for how long now? And there are how many drives and boards available that actually take advantage of them?
GPUs: Re-brands or skyrocketing prices. Take your pick.
MotherboardsChipsets: Yay, more SATA Ports i didn’t need. Where’s the increased DMI bandwidth? The 10GBit networking?
PSUs: Titanium woohoo. A few percentage points more efficient than platinum.
Mice and Keyboards? The ones i have work just fine.
Unemployment and workforce participation? If you ignore the nonsense government stats and look at the real numbers they’re at great depression levels. No work, no money, no buy.
Did i miss anything?
Crashing revenues? No surprises here.
It’s stagnation caused by
It’s stagnation caused by lack of competition. Intel has no reason to drastically improve the performance of its CPU cores, or add more cores to its mainstream lines. Intel is so busy with its contra revenue attempts at getting into the mobile market, and its ultrabook obsession(Fueled by Apple envy)! Intel has made a determined effort to market and push the low powered i3, i5, i7(dual core U/M) SKUs onto the whole market, and create some new trend of higher pricing, Apple style, thin at the expense of performance Intel based and foisted on the laptop/PC market, crap. People are looking at the new Intel offerings, comparing the benchmarks to their older Intel SKUs, and figuring out that performance wise the new Intel CPU cores do not offer enough improvement of the previous generation parts.
Nvidia’s 3.5 = 4, fiasco and other marketing misdeeds, as well as its mobile GPU thermal throttling/forced driver overclocking disabling issues, that can be indirectly tied to Intel’s ultrabook thin and light obsession! For sure, all those thin and light form-factor laptop design SKUs that Intel’s ultrabook initiative is foisting on the market is leading to mobile discrete GPU thermal headroom issues. Laptops are thin and light enough, and the new PC/desktop market has been put in near mothballs, waiting for some newer generation desktop SKU to arrive, after being continually delayed for so long now. The Mainstream laptop market has been purposely supplanted buy this thin and light craze, and what does Intel care, Intel can get more dual core i7 U/M SKUs on a wafer and price them near what a quad core i7 costs, and milk the uncompetitive market further, beyond what just the Apple Intel based SKUs allow, The very reason for the ultrabook marketing campaign in the first place, sell less processing power for more money.
The marketing/MBAs and non technical CEOs have taken complete control of the Technology companies, and the technology market is more of a classical Retail market, just look at Apple, and the folks pushing the form over function, Apple is a retailer first and foremost, and not a technology company, sure they employ engineers(Damn Good microarchitectural engineers), but the front facing, and management structure is all retail, just look at Apple’s retail locations, and online store, not much on the technological side of their brochures, as little technical information as possible, even for those that are technically proficient.
The Technology market heydays are gone, over, the technology companies are all about the Ads, and sales volumes! The Internet and search engines are all about the same thing that broadcast television was about in the over the airwaves TV days, eyeballs and Ads, and making sure those eyeballs see as much ads as possible. The internet is the new airwaves/wire-waves, and the devices/OSs are designed as appliances first, with functionality outside of the appliance mode restricted/discouraged. PCs/Laptops/tablets/phones are the new boob-tubes and the internet is just another delivery method.