➀ Reputable leaker Billbil-Kun reports that Death Stranding 2 pre-orders are expected to start in March, with a release date likely announced at SXSW 2025.

➁ The game will have a Standard Edition at $69.99 and a Collector's Edition at $229.

➂ The leak also confirms that Death Stranding 2 will launch with a physical Standard Edition, priced at $69.99 USD / 69.99 EUR, along with a Collector's Edition planned for North America and Europe, retailing at $229 USD.

➀ The Q4 DRAM market grew 9.9%, reaching over $28 billion;

➁ Seasonal Q1 weakness and weakening CSP demand are expected to lower prices in the current quarter;

➂ Samsung remained the top DRAM supplier with $11.25 billion in revenue, followed by Hynix and Micron.

➀ Dr. Prady Gupta is the Founder and Chief Scientist at Infinita Lab and Infinita Materials, focusing on materials testing and specialized chemicals for high-tech industries.

➁ Infinita Lab offers a network of over 2,000 accredited labs for comprehensive materials testing services.

➂ Infinita Materials specializes in custom inorganic chemicals for sectors like semiconductors and batteries.

➀ Lois Rossmann, a renowned RepairTuber, expresses disappointment with Brother's shift towards becoming an 'anti-consumer printer company';

➁ Brother's recent firmware updates have disabled third-party toner and prevented color registration functionality on color devices;

➂ Older firmware versions are being removed from support portals, making it difficult for users to roll back updates.

➀ NAND manufacturers are often overlooked in the AI boom despite their role in storage.

➁ The demand for DRAM, especially HBM, in AI computing far outstrips that for NAND, which is primarily used for secondary storage.

➂ The NAND market has experienced ups and downs, with a surge in demand for enterprise SSDs driven by AI servers and a decline in consumer demand.

➃ SanDisk's HBF technology offers a potential new direction for NAND, providing high bandwidth and capacity for AI inference applications.

➄ NAND manufacturers are exploring other avenues, such as increasing storage density and optimizing production capacity, to adapt to the AI market.

➀ This paper discusses the post-silicon validation of the IBM POWER9 processor, highlighting its significance in the context of increasing multi-core processor adoption by hyperscalers.

➁ IBM's Threadmill, a tool for processor verification, has been enhanced since the POWER7, including optimized template allocation and debugging strategies for multi-core write drops.

➂ The validation methodology for POWER9 has significantly improved bug detection rates compared to POWER8, with new techniques like AI prioritization and hardware irritators to induce bugs.

➀ The storage market, including NAND and DRAM, has been severely impacted since the third quarter of 2021, with DRAM prices falling by 57% and NAND prices by 55%;

➁ The market began to recover in the second half of 2023, driven by the rise of AI and the demand for HBM in AI chips;

➂ However, the warm season did not last long, and the storage market seems to be facing another winter at the beginning of 2025;

➃ NAND prices are expected to remain low in the first half of 2025, but SSD shipments are expected to increase in the second half due to growing demand for AI servers;

➄ DRAM prices are also expected to decline significantly in the first quarter of 2025, mainly due to weak consumer demand and excess supply of DDR4 memory modules;

➅ The DRAM industry is expected to shift its focus to DDR5 and HBM in the future, as these technologies are becoming increasingly important in data centers and AI applications.

➀ Traditional RF board design strategies are insufficient for high frequencies and dense layouts;

➁ Keysight and Modelithics collaborate on an advanced RF board simulation workflow;

➂ The use of 3D passive component models enhances simulation accuracy and reduces the risk of board re-spins.

Genesem, a fab equipment manufacturer, has supplied a package sorter for the final testing of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to a South Korean chip-maker. This is Genesem's first deal of this kind with the chip-maker. The sorter is also compatible with HBM inspection equipment that Nvidia requested.

➀ The impact of generative AI will lead to a sharp increase in DRAM wafer demand.

➁ DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, has released a large-scale language model (LLM) called DeepSeek-R1, which is comparable to OpenAI's GPT-4.

➂ DeepSeek's R1 was developed in just two months at a cost of 5.6 million US dollars, a fraction of what other companies spend.

➃ The rise of smartphones is an example of disruptive innovation, replacing PCs in the market.

➄ The growth of AI servers, especially those with AI semiconductors, is expected to drive the demand for advanced node logic and DRAM wafers.

➅ The demand for DRAM wafers is expected to soar as generative AI becomes more prevalent.

➆ The global wafer demand is projected to increase significantly due to various factors, including government subsidies and the rise of AI.

➀ Samsung's top chip executive visited Nvidia's headquarters in the US;

➁ He brought a sample of the company's latest 1b DRAM;

➂ The purpose of the visit was to discuss the potential use of the improved DRAM for HBM.

➀ Anduril Industries, led by Palmer Luckey, is set to take over the US Army's Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) program, pending Department of Defense approval.

➁ The program includes advanced headgear with AR capabilities, and Anduril will manage production and development with Microsoft Azure as the preferred cloud provider.

➂ Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus VR and Anduril Industries, sees this as a deeply personal achievement, emphasizing the potential of the technology to save lives.

➀ The SIA reports that the semiconductor sales in 2024 reached $627 billion, a 19.1% increase from the $526.8 billion in 2023.

➁ The market topped $600 billion for the first time last year and is expected to see double-digit revenue growth this year.

➂ Logic led the market in 2024 with $212.6 billion in sales, followed by memories, which grew 78.9% year-on-year to reach $165.1 billion.

Hanwha Precision Machinery is on the verge of officially securing orders from SK Hynix for thermal compression (TC) bonders used in the production of high-bandwidth memory (HBM). Sources indicate that the equipment manufacturer is in the final stages of verification with the chip-maker.

➀ Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) is shipping a TLC NAND with 294 layers, 232 of which are active;

➁ The new device has the same number of active layers as the company's previous generation NAND;

➂ The reason for the increase in dummy layers is unclear.

➀ Sourcengine reports that the Q4 market stabilized due to memory production;

➁ However, low consumer demand kept prices low and lead times declining;

➂ The exception was for AI components, where demand spikes caused shortages for HBM and SSDs;

➃ Prices are expected to stay low throughout H1.

➀ SK hynix reported record earnings, operating profits, and net income for 2024.

➁ The company attributes its success to increased sales of AI memory products, including HBM3 and HBM3E for the latest accelerators.

➂ SK hynix plans to increase HBM3E supply, develop HBM4, and transition to advanced processes for DDR5 and LPDDR5 production.