Intel CEO Believes The Chip Shortage Could Last Until 2023

 The new PlayStation and Xbox consoles are already in their second year, and getting your hands on one is still as difficult as ever.

This is due to a number of factors, including the rise of internet bots that acquire these consoles automatically, the resale market, and more, but arguably the most important factor is the continuous chip scarcity. Because these chips are utilized in the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles, Sony and Xbox are unable to create as many as they would want as soon as they would like. Unfortunately, after AMD CEO Lisa Su predicted that the chip scarcity would persist until 2022 in October, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich now predicts that it would remain until 2023.

According to Nikkei Asia, the United States could expect supply shortages owing to a scarcity of semiconductors used not only in next-generation consoles and PCs, but also in other technologies such as automobiles and other vehicles.

“The overall semiconductor shortage is quite significant and the semiconductor industry was growing about 5% per year before COVID,’ Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said during a press conference recently. “COVID disrupted the supply chains, causing it to go negative. Demand exploded 20% year-over-year and disrupted supply chains created a very large gap…and that exploding demand has persisted.” 

Gelsinger went on to say that building capacity to solve this gap and demand magnitude takes time. He also stated that Intel is expanding its facilities to deal with the shortfall in Arizona and New Mexico, and that he expects more to come to the United States and Europe.

This chip scarcity has impacted PlayStation and Xbox, as everyone looking to buy a new-gen system knows, but it has also had a significant impact on Nintendo. The Japanese business recently said in November that between now and March, it plans to produce 20% fewer Switch consoles, putting sales projections back by around 6 million units.

2021 iPhone Rumored To Have Apple Developed Modem

Apple and Intel have signed an agreement for Apple to acquire the majority of Intel’s smartphone modem business, the company plans to internally develop 5G modems in its 2021 iPhones, according to Reuters.

For the 2019 and 2020 models, they’ll continue to have Qualcomm modems. The replacement of Qualcomm is likely to happen in phases “as Apple builds up its ability to ensure that its modems work on all the networks and countries where Apple sells phones,” Reuters adds.

Apple Will Reportedly Replace Intel Chips With Its Own In 2020

Apple has been manufacturing chips to use in its Macs for a while now. The company also makes its own chips for iOS and Apple Watch devices. Now, according to Bloomberg, Apple plans to replace Intel's Mac chips, starting as early as 2020. The process to replace Intel processors is still in the early stages, say Bloomberg's sources. Apple made chips make sense for the tech company, especially in the wake of some recent high-profile security issues around chip architecture. It won't be the first time Apple has switched the chips that power its computing devices, of course, with the switch to PowerPC architecture in the early '90s and then Intel in the mid-2000s. We've reached out to Apple for comment and will update this post if we hear back.

Apple Confirms Many Of Its Devices Are Affected By Processor Exploits

Apple has confirmed that its devices are affected by the "Spectre" and "Meltdown" processor exploits. "All Mac systems and iOS devices are affected, but there are no known exploits impacting customers at this time," the company said in a forum post. "Since exploiting many of these issues requires a malicious app to be loaded on your Mac or iOS device, we recommend downloading software only from trusted sources such as the App Store." The company plans mitigations "in the coming days" for Safari, to defend against Spectre, and says it's already released mitigations in iOS 11.2, macOS 10.13.2, and tvOS 11.2 to help defend against Meltdown. The Apple Watch isn't affected by the exploit. 

Intel's Next Gen Core Processors Cannon Lake Could Be Delayed To Late 2018

Intel's next generation of Core processors, Cannon Lake, could arrive later than initially believed. Intel has rescheduled the release of its next-generation Cannon Lake-based processors to the end of 2018, reports DigiTimes. This could delay the anticipated 32GB MacBook Pro. The 10nm Cannon Lake CPUs are expected to see up to 25% performance improvement and 45% less power consumption compared to existing 14nm Kaby Lake processors. However, Intel has reportedly been facing difficulties with its 10nm process, according to DigiTimes. The Cannon Lake processors, originally set for launch in 2017, have seen their launch schedule revised three times: first to the end of 2017 or early 2018, then to the mid-2018, and now the end of 2018. Cannon Lake processors include support for LPDDR4 memory, which could allow for the creation of a MacBook Pro with up to 32GB of memory without a RAM controller. Currently, the limit for Kaby Lake Mac laptops is 16GB.

Intel To Introduce Their New 8th Gen Processors Soon

Intel has announced a big event for August 21 where they'll talk about their latest 8th generation i7 Core processors. The special even will broadcast live on their Intel-Facebook web page at 8 AM PDT. Intel's Senior VP of their client computing group will go into details about their next-generation i5 and i7 processors. Additionally, a VR creator and imaging technologist will be on hand to bring the power of the new Intel processors to life. Intel further noted that the new processors will be in computers for the holiday season.

Intel Announces An All In One VR Headset, Project Alloy

Intel has announced Project Alloy, which is an all in one VR headset that doesn't need to be connected to a phone or computer. Alloy can also track rooms on its own, and it tracks your fingers for interacting with virtual objects. There's also a camera that lets you see other objects in your room, as well as nearby people. It's part of Intel's push around "merged reality," which combines both VR and augmented reality into a single cohesive experience. We still don't know what the Project Alloy hardware consists of, or what it will cost. But it's an important step for the future of VR and AR. What do you think of Project Alloy ?

Intel Announces Its First 10-Core Desktop CPU

Intel has announced its first 10-core desktop CPU, the Core i7-6950X Extreme Edition, today at Computex. The new processor will run at 3GHz (with boost speeds up to 3.5GHz), pack in 25MB of cache and feature Intel's new Turbo Boost 3.0 technology. Just but be prepared for you and you wallet crying, as the 10-core i7 Extreme Edition will cost $1,723. Intel claims it's 2X as fast as the quad-core i7 6700K when it comes to 3D rendering, and 35% faster than the last-gen Core i7-5960X. It's 25 % faster than the 5960X when it comes to gaming in 4K while encoding and broadcasting a 1080p Twitch stream. The new Extreme Edition of i7 processors will also be available in an 8-core version (the i7-6900K for $1,089) and 6-core variants (the $617 i7-6850K and the $434 i7-6800K). All of the new chips also support DDR4-2400 RAM.

Microsoft Acquires Havok From Intel

Microsoft has announced that it has acquired Intel’s Havok software. The softwares logo has  popped up in games over the last 15 years, being that its been used in a majority of them. Besides it being used for Microsoft’s Crackdown 3, Havok has been used in Destiny, Sonic Generations, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, and Infamous: Second Son. Microsoft says that the toolset will complement DirectX12, Visual Studio, and Azure cloud services. Microsoft plans to bring Havok to the cloud as it begins its own work with the tools. “We will continue to innovate for the benefit of development partners,” the company writes. “Part of this innovation will include building the most complete cloud service, which we’ve just started to show through games like Crackdown 3.” What do you think of this acquisition ?

Apple Releases New iMac And MacBook Pro

Apple announced updates to its 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display lineup and a new $1,999 configuration of the 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K Display, The refreshed MacBook Pro and iMac models are available through the Apple Store, Apple Online Store and authorized resellers starting today. The new 15-inch MacBook Pro has gained all the expected updates similar to the 13-inch model, a Force Touch trackpad, faster flash storage, longer battery life, and better graphics. The new MacBook Pro comes in 2.2GHz and 2.5GHz configurations for $1,999 and $2,499. Both configurations come with a quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB memory, and Intel Iris Pro Graphics cards, with the higher-end 2.5GHz model gaining expected boosts in flash storage and memory. The iMac line that received an update today was a new $1,999 configuration of the 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display. The new model is a 3.3GHz configuration with a quad-core Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of memory, and 1T hard drive. What do you think of the updates ? Do you see yourself buying one of these computers ? 

Could We Be Seeing A New iMac And MacBook Pro Soon ?

A new 15 inch MacBook Pro and 27 inch non Retina iMac are rumored to be coming this Wednesday, according to the website MacGeneration. Apple last updated the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro in March, giving it a new Force Touch trackpad along with new Intel Core processors and a graphics boost. Today’s report doesn’t give us any details on what the 15-inch MacBook will pack under the hood, but it wouldn’t be surpassing if we did see this new processor appear in the MacBook Pro. This would be the first 15 inch Apple notebook to come with Force Touch technology, which Apple has been incorporating into more and more of its devices, including the MacBook, Apple Watch. There are no details on the 27-inch iMac, other than that it is the non-Retina model which Apple will most likely give an upgrade to. It might be more likely to get the iMac and MacBook updates at WWDC. I know WWDC has been more developer focused then product focused over the years but hey, you never know.
UPDATE 5/19/15 - The new iMac and MacBook Pro have been released, To read about them click here

  

Apple Announces New 27 Inch iMac With Retina 5K Display

Apple has recently announced a new 27-inch iMac with Retina 5k Display. It starts at $2499 with 8GB RAM, 3.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i5, AMD Radeon R9 M290X and 1TB Fusion Drive as the base model.The new 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K Display is available starting today.