Daily Authority: Price hikes 📈 https://ift.tt/3oK25R3

Good morning! Choppy seas ahead for your electronics...

TSMC's warning

Today’s bit of bad news, if true, has been a long time coming, with DigiTimes ($) reporting the biggest semiconductor wafer fabrication player, TSCM, is flagging a price hike in 2022 of up to 20%:

• “TSMC has notified clients of an about 10% price hike for its sub-16nm process manufacturing, with the new prices set to be effective starting 2022, according to sources at IC design houses.”
• It would be the company's steepest single increase, and no doubt represents material price increases and supply chain squeezing of margins.
• TSMC also confirmed a delay to its next-gen 3nm manufacturing this week.
• TSMC doesn’t disclose its pricing, though the DigiTimes report suggests that the company seeks to bump up a 28nm wafer to “nearly $3000” starting in Jan 2022.
• By comparison, and noting this is based on guesstimates by retired engineers, there’s also a rumor 5nm wafers are priced at something like $17,000.
• You can try a silicon cost calculator here, though you’d have to consider it accurate-ish at best (Adapteva).

Uh-oh:

• If accurate, and applied wholesale to all clients, that would obviously include chips like Apple’s A-series and M-series, Qualcomm, Intel, and AMD.
• Meaning, of course, CPUs, GPUs, SoCs, and the like will cost more, reducing margins for manufacturers, and/or being passed to us, the consumers, on smartphones, iPhones, PCs, and so on.
• It’s all down to things like shipping rates going through the roof to an 11-year high, steel prices rising, shortages — and the problem is that what would seem to be a short-term problem rolls on (Bloomberg). 
• Phil Levy, the chief economist at Flexport, told The New York Times: “I’m less in that ‘transitory’ camp and more in the ‘we have reason to be concerned’ camp.”
• Other shortage rumors include launch dates for new smartphones slipping a few weeks from planned dates.

Roundup

Fitbit Charge 5 guide: What you need to know about Fitbit's new fitness tracker (Android Authority).

Google Pixel 6 modem won't be from Qualcomm, which makes sense given Samsung’s behind it, but it may mean it’s more of a Samsung-derivative chip rumor suggests (Android Authority).

Your smartphone might get 'smart' RAM soon with AI processing built-in, somehow? (Android Authority).

A decade and a half of instability: The history of Google messaging apps (Ars Technica).

Google and Microsoft will invest $30 billion in cybersecurity over the next five years: “That's $10 billion from Google, $20 billion from Microsoft and $0 billion from Apple.” (Engadget).

US PC market grows 17% in Q2 2021 as laptop popularity booms: ~36.8 million units were shipped in the US for Q2, according to Canalys. Apple held down second, with Mac laptop shipments up 24%, though iPads sold less. Samsung numbers up 50% (ZDNet).

The biggest trailers and announcements from Gamescom’s two hour show, including Halo, Horizon Forbidden West, and Death Stranding. (The Verge).

Microsoft’s Panos Panay now directly advises CEO Satya Nadella: now an Executive Vice President (The Verge).

Gateway 14.1-inch Ultra Slim Notebook (2021) review: Legen-dairy budget laptop returns, though only to Walmart (CNET).

Kanye’s Donda Stem player is here: you can remix-it-yourself gadget (Engadget).

Pokémon Go changes gym, pokéstop distances after fan uproar (Kotaku).

The OnlyFans Porn Ban has been reversed, but good luck reassuring creators (Wired).

The first crewless electric cargo ship begins its maiden voyage this year (Engadget).

A crane system that lifts up blocks to create gravity-based renewable energy storage at grid-scale has received $100M in funding (pv magazine).

Dawn Aerospace conducts five flights of its suborbital spaceplane (TechCrunch).

The sinking of the Titanic (r/gifs).

Throwback Thursday

It’s been 30 years since a 21-year-old Linus Torvalds sent a message to newsgroup comp.os.minix, starting the creation of Linux.

Here’s someone’s autographed printout:

• I don’t have an all-time ranking on hand, but this piece of history is way up there with Satoshi’s Bitcoin white paper as being a moment in time of monumental importance.
• And, er, the Queen’s first email (The Guardian) in 1976? 
• Jokes aside, we talk about Linux around in these parts, at times, as being part of Android.
• Rob Triggs and Gary Sims have more on the great Linux to Android path.

Here's hoping at least one of these emails you receive is considered even 0.01% as important in 30 years

Tristan Rayner, Senior Editor.

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