Gadgetory

but we did another hardware news recap this week's pretty big so memory suppliers are now facing a class action lawsuit never saw that one coming in tiles got a 10 nanometer delay which is hugely problematic and we also have Intel documents showing an X 399 and Cannon Lake support on Z 390 so lots of talk about this week before that this video is brought to you by I fix it's brand new man 2 driver kit the iFixit Manta kit is a universal repair tool kit that includes 112 steel bits redesigned from the ground up with longer necks for four millimeter bits allowing more precision when working on components the $60 iFixit Manta kit has everything from pentalobe drivers to why drivers and standard bits learn more at the link in the description below quick Cheon merge update before getting into the memory supplier class action we have these new glass crystals that have the GN teardown logo in 3d as 3d laser engrave they're available on store gamers Nexus thought net we have a small one here we call it I guess medium is what we're calling it we have a keychain and then we have a large glass crystal with a teardown logo that is suitable for hand-to-hand combat and you can buy it on the store but also we are planning to use these as awards for manufacturers at events when they do something actually worthy of accolade which is rarely will probably give one out of here but either way in all seriousness we're looking forward to using them as awards we a lot of the partners do great things at shows and we want to make sure that we give them attention they have something to show for it and say look what we got from the most critical outlet on YouTube those guys are assholes but they gave us an award so that'll be fun but also you can buy it on store I can't resist on it so first real news item memory supplier class actions we've previously reported on Chinese government bodies investigating memory suppliers for what might be price-fixing at the time is what they were looking into we reported in our latest ask GN one of the two episodes that memory suppliers claims to be making more money than ever and also more money than God in one direct quote from a source I spoke with so they're doing pretty well right now for money and just to be really clear when we say memory suppliers referring to SK Hynix micron and Samsung Prime net primarily there are three of them who make the memory that we all interface with daily it does not mean Coursera Kingston g.skill guile any of the other manufacturers who buy the memory from the suppliers and stick it on to a PCB with a heatsink basically so this is strictly talking about the suppliers there are three of them who control effectively 100% of the market so this class action has come about because of the DRAM pricing right now a quick few notes here DRAM sales the server and enterprise groups are just fine they're doing about sixty percent margins from some of the suppliers which should give you an idea of why we don't matter in the enthusiasts space if you're spending maybe a hundred bucks for a kid of memory and you're hoping to spend less than that then why would you sell to enthusiasts if you can sell to a server user hundreds of gigabytes if not terabytes for sixty percent margins kind of puts into perspective just how small our side of the industry is and also the same wafers have to be used for GPU memory for phone memory for flash in some cases where the suppliers create flash at some of the fabs and also for all the other different types of DRAM out there and cache memory and all that's the first small devices to so you're sharing a lot of space we know for facts through direct sources that some memory suppliers make as much as $8,000 profit per wafer with the super fabs the 15 billion dollar super fabrication facilities as they're called putting out hundreds of thousands or over a hundred thousand in the low-end cases wafers per month at eight thousand dollars profit per wafer they're doing pretty well so HBS of law is now filing a class-action lawsuit against micron Samsung and SK Hynix and HBS law is alleging conspiracy to fix prices for memory and also know that this lawsuit it's currently in complaint form so there's no proof right now nothing has proven at this time there's no proof that there is price fixing or collusion or any other foul play there's just a lot of allegations coming from this particular loss law firm which is a filed class-action lawsuit currently a come Planes and that means that they're basically representing people who have purchased memory from these three defendants so memory suppliers have been found guilty of collusion for price-fixing in the past but the trouble is that in the past as with other cases of wrongdoing in the industry typically the company committing the wrongdoing profits more than the fine and they end up in a market position of dominance where the fines are negligible anyway look at Intel and what they did when they worked with Dell in very special ways on the CPU side of things so as a reminder as of this instant there's nothing proven and there's no active investigation or discovery it's a complaint filed by a law firm after a complaint is filed just so you know the defendants have 21 days to respond or motion to dismiss we should know the response within a month or so and then we'll see where it goes from there the plaintiffs for the case alleged that samsung micron and hynek's quote defendants combined and contracted to fix raise maintain or stabilize the prices at which DRAM was sold in the United States from at least June 1st 2016 to February 1st 2018 further stating that quote defendants conspiracy artificially inflated prices for DRAM throughout the supply chain that were ultimately passed through the plaintiffs and the class causing them to pay more for DRAM products and they would otherwise would have absent defendants conspiracy the complaint also states quote beginning no later than early 2016 through statements to investors and the industry micron called on Samsung and SK Hynix the two other DRAM manufacturers to engage in supply discipline for example on March 30th 2016 micron was specifically asked whether it would engage in supply cuts and micron CEO Mark Durkin responded that micron would be foolish to be the first ones to take capacity off microns at CFO further confirmed that micron it would not unilaterally cut production quote it's a really ill-advised move to be unilaterally cutting production but at the same time micron reassured competitors that quote our focus is not on market share micron told its competitors that it would cease trying to take market share from Samson and Hynek so these are all quotes from the document which is in some cases quoting executives at micron this is more or less saying that micron in its statements noted publicly that it would be moving its focus to profit or profit per wafer rather than to market share and expansion of market share taking over more of the market when you only have three suppliers and you're focusing on making as much money as you can and really squeezing those wafers where all the money they have it's starting to look a bit strange but that's where the allegations come in so this part is equally interesting and what I wanted to read for you on February first this is a quote 2018 it was reported that Samsung and the NDRC that's the Chinese governing body that we mentioned earlier the governing body that began investigating for price fixing in December last year which we reported on they're saying that the NDRC and Samsung entered into a Memorandum of Understanding where Samsung agreed to increase manufacturing capacity the MDRC investigation and agreement with Samsung caused defendants conduct that change as they increased capacity and the class period came to an end after February 1st 2018 DRM prices fell as a result of this change in behavior so we'll have to wait and see what happens here as noted there's no hard evidence yet there's a lot of consequential evidence and things that look really fishy and strange given the timing of everything I will provide some level of opinion here and say that it does not seem completely out of sorts that there would be some kind of foul play or very shady but legal play going on within the DRM and memory supplier industry right now they're making tons of money their stock prices are insane if we can pop a stock chart on the screen if we haven't already for micron or hynek's those would be the ones to look at can't really look at Samsung's because they make so much stuff that it just it becomes kind of invisible what's causing what but micron in hynek's our memory suppliers first and foremost you look at their stock charts you look at the price of memory they go up in unison so basically the the less product they make the more money they make so if there is intentional constriction of supply and there are three manufacturers in the world that's potentially a problem if they're all doing it but we'll see where this goes it's still allegations it's a complaint this isn't actually an investigation or discovery at this time we'll definitely be following the story though Knox news items also pretty big Intel has a huge 10 nanometer delay problem and dont's delayed their 10 nanometer process once again it's been years in the attempts at making now so this time they're citing more production problems and I will instead be shipping 14 nanometer iterations later this year in the form of whiskey lake for client pcs and cascade lake for server and data center Intel originally promised 10 nanometer parts back in 2015 however multiple delays saw in time of the target date to 2017 and now onward 2017 became second half of 2018 which is not happening at this point and as of now and I won't begin hvm until an unspecified time in 2019 for what it's worth Intel claims to be shipping 10 Ana meter in low volumes presently but will not disclose what products and to whom they've gone to in the meantime and Tahoe has effectively been stuck at 40 nanometers since 2014 Intel cites issues like aggressive scaling and density as well as problems with their multi patterning process for generating it too many yield reducing defects to ship 10 nanometer cost-effectively until I admitted they bit off more than they could chew by increasing density 2.7 X for the 10 nanometer transition comparatively Intel only increased density by 2.4 acts for the jump to 14 nanometers Intel is revisiting their 7 nanometer plans accordingly learning from the production problems that 10 nanometer has been fraught with Intel asurs us and everyone else that they've defined fixes and improvements at this time and have a plan of action but will take time to impact yields in a significant and positive way the hiring of Jim Keller a former MD engineer one who was largely responsible for the Zen architecture and I believe previously Athlon 64 recent hiring of Jim Keller to lead the silicon engineering group can be taken as a signal fire that intel has to succumb to stagnation and essentially cede some advantage while they try and get back to grips with their ten nanometer process and their competitors so we'll see where this goes but two major items there that we just went over ten nanometers delayed Jim Keller networks at Intel having left Tesla and previously AMD and to some extent Apple a long time ago also interesting from Intel last week was the AMD news show this one's the Intel news show and the release notes for a recent version of Intel's at Rapid Storage Technology or rst it's all suggested that the Z 390 chipset would replace the current flagship Z 370 and will supposedly be compatible with Intel's 10 nanometer Cannon Lake if it ever exists additionally a new AG DT X 299 successor is ostensibly coming in the form of X 399 X 399 is listed as supporting both coffee-like and Cannon Lake parts and we can tell you from our own information that you can expect to see some new Intel motherboards coming up in the next couple of months we're not sure when they'll be launching but keep an eye on Computex that tends to be where we see things like that copy text by the way May 31st is when we'll be there it goes from something like June 5th to June 9th and we'll be on site reporting on everything so make sure you subscribe so you can catch our coverage of the show also as noted previously from the newsroom at Intel's website Intel has hired silicon engineer and former Xen architect Jim Keller to become senior VP of silicon engineering Keller has worked at AMD Tesla and Apple this move comes just ahead of the news that Intel is delaying its troubled ten nanometer process yet again this no doubt implies that Intel wants to assure investors that their 10 nanometer ramps have their full attention next thanks to the volatile memory market Samsung has unseated Intel as the world's top chip vendor however fleeting their lead maybe at 14.2% vs. Intel's 14-point zero percent regardless this is a significant feat as Intel has held that spot for more than 25 years Intel emerged as the world's top semiconductor man back in 1992 when you could purchase the Intel 486 processor now there is one AMD news item how could there not be after the last two years of AMD news items and they revealed that they have working seven nanometer GPU silicon running in their labs in the form of a Radeon instinct with Vega architecture the silicon is fabricated on TSM c7 and of your process as well and these future 7 nanometre graphics cards and these says that they are on track to sample these seven nanometer GPUs and epic two CPUs later this year there's not much to say about this one yet but it's interesting and there's a job listing on indeed at the website that shows Corsair is looking to hire a product manager for displays for gaming monitors we've continued to see Corsair foray into many facets of PC hardware everything from memory to power supplies cases and generally leading the charge with RGB LED is something that they are very proud of it and this also by the way includes chairs and soon to openly water cooling parts so now they're adding monitors to that list the last news item here is just a couple of hardware sales we spotted the first ones kind of depressing EVGA is 1070 t is C gaming is presently $510 after a $100 discount from B&H photo and some other retailer websites that will link in the description below 510 bucks is pretty close to what they were supposed to sell for so yes calling it a sale from $100 over MSRP down back to basically MSRP is sort of disingenuous but at least it's close to MSRP now one of the better deals we've seen if you can call it that lately basically the 1070 TI's were supposed were originally 450 to 510 so being at five times pretty close also of course our vengeance lpx eight gigabytes to buy four gigabyte kit at 3000 Hertz currently a hundred ten bucks only two times what it should be which is still a decent discount from where wise so that's all for this one you can find those links in the description below along with everything else as always go to patreon.com/scishow stop that directly go to store ty cameras nexus not match let's pick up one of our GN mod mats on backorder or one of the new GN glass crystals with the tear down logo subscribe for more I'll see you all next time