"China delivered the latest salvo in an escalating semiconductor war with the U.S.," reports Bloomberg, "announcing that Micron Technology Inc. products have failed to pass a cybersecurity review in the country." In a statement Sunday, Beijing warned operators of key infrastructure against buying the company's goods, saying it found "relatively serious" cybersecurity risks in Micron products sold in the country. The components caused "significant security risks to our critical information infrastructure supply chain," which would affect national security, according to the statement from the Cyberspace Administration of China, or CAC...

Chinese officials privately say that the probe of Micron is part of a broader trend toward the dominance of "pro-retaliation" voices in Beijing, where national security concerns increasingly trump economic arguments. "No one should understand this decision by CAC as anything but retaliation for the US's export controls on semiconductors," said Holden Triplett, founder of Trenchcoat Advisors and a former FBI counterintelligence official in Beijing. "No foreign business operating in China should be deceived by this subterfuge. These are political actions pure and simple, and any business could be the next one to be made an example of." The move brings fresh uncertainty to the other US chipmakers that sell to China, the world's biggest market for semiconductors.
The article notes pointedly that memory chips "aren't usually considered a cybersecurity risk because they don't require any specific software or run code. They're mostly basic grids of transistors used for storing data and, as such, haven't typically been a vector of attack for hackers." The Associated Press describes China's move as "stepping up a feud with Washington over technology and security," adding that Chinese officials "appear to be struggling to find ways to retaliate without hurting China's smartphone producers and other industries and efforts to develop its own processor chip suppliers," which import more than $300 billion in foreign chips every year. An official review of Micron under China's increasingly stringent information security laws was announced April 4, hours after Japan joined Washington in imposing restrictions on Chinese access to technology to make processor chips on security grounds. Foreign companies have been rattled by police raids on two consulting firms, Bain & Co. and Capvision, and a due diligence firm, Mintz Group. Chinese authorities have declined to explain the raids but said foreign companies are obliged to obey the law.

There's shortages of young semiconductor engineers around the world, reports IEEE Spectrum — partially explained by this quote from Intel's director of university research collaboration. "We hear from academics that we're losing EE students to software. But we also need the software. I think it's a totality of 'We need more students in STEM careers.'"

So after America's CHIPS and Science Act "aimed at kick-starting chip manufacturing in the United States," the article notes that universities must attempt bring the U.S. "the qualified workforce needed to run these plants and design the chips." The United States today manufactures just 12 percent of the world's chips, down from 37 percent in 1990, according to a September 2020 report by the Semiconductor Industry Association. Over those decades, experts say, semiconductor and hardware education has stagnated. But for the CHIPS Act to succeed, each fab will need hundreds of skilled engineers and technicians of all stripes, with training ranging from two-year associate degrees to Ph.D.s. Engineering schools in the United States are now racing to produce that talent... There were around 20,000 job openings in the semiconductor industry at the end of 2022, according to Peter Bermel, an electrical and computer engineering professor at Purdue University. "Even if there's limited growth in this field, you'd need a minimum of 50,000 more hires in the next five years. We need to ramp up our efforts really quickly...."

More than being a partner, Intel sees itself as a catalyst for upgrading the higher-education system to produce the workforce it needs, says the company's director of university research collaboration, Gabriela Cruz Thompson. One of the few semiconductor companies still producing most of its wafers in the United States, Intel is expanding its fabs in Arizona, New Mexico, and Oregon. Of the 7,000 jobs created as a result, about 70 percent will be for people with two-year degrees... Since COVID, however, Intel has struggled to find enough operators and technicians with two-year degrees to keep the foundries running. This makes community colleges a crucial piece of the microelectronics workforce puzzle, Thompson says. In Ohio, the company is giving most of its educational funds to technical and community colleges so they can add semiconductor-specific training to existing advanced manufacturing programs. Intel is also asking universities to provide hands-on clean-room experience to community college students.

Samsung and Silicon Labs in Austin are similarly investing in neighboring community colleges and technical schools via scholarships, summer internships, and mentorship programs.
Beyond the deserts of Arizona, chipmakers are eyeing the America's midwest, the article points out (with its "abundance of research universities and technical colleges.")

• Indiana's Purdue launched a new interdisciplinary Semiconductor Degrees Program (building on its Defense Department-funded SCALE program which teaches how to build semiconductors for space), and they've partnered with a local community college to offer training for jobs at the West Lafayette foundry SkyWater.

• The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign offers an Advanced Systems Design class "which leads senior-year undergrads through every step of making an integrated circuit."

• Intel has pledged $50 million to 80 higher-education institutions in Ohio to "upgrade their curricula, train and hire faculty, and provide equipment," including the funding of a Center for Advanced Semiconductor Fabrication Research and Education to teach semiconductor-related skills to more than just electrical engineering majors.

Last week the Telegraph reported that a recent firmware update to HP printers "prevents customers from using any cartridges other than those fitted with an HP chip, which are often more expensive. If the customer tries to use a non-HP ink cartridge, the printer will refuse to print."

Some HP "Officejet" printers can disable this "dynamic security" through a firmware update, PC World reported earlier this week. But HP still defends the feature, arguing it's "to protect HP's innovations and intellectual property, maintain the integrity of our printing systems, ensure the best customer printing experience, and protect customers from counterfeit and third-party ink cartridges that do not contain an original HP security chip and infringe HP's intellectual property."

Meanwhile, Engadget now reports that "a software update Hewlett-Packard released earlier this month for its OfficeJet printers is causing some of those devices to become unusable." After downloading the faulty software, the built-in touchscreen on an affected printer will display a blue screen with the error code 83C0000B. Unfortunately, there appears to be no way for someone to fix a printer broken in this way on their own, partly because factory resetting an HP OfficeJet requires interacting with the printer's touchscreen display. For the moment, HP customers report the only solution to the problem is to send a broken printer back to the company for service.
BleepingComputer says the firmware update "has been bricking HP Office Jet printers worldwide since it was released earlier this month..." "Our teams are working diligently to address the blue screen error affecting a limited number of HP OfficeJet Pro 9020e printers," HP told BleepingComputer... Since the issues surfaced, multiple threads have been started by people from the U.S., the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, Poland, New Zealand, and France who had their printers bricked, some with more than a dozen pages of reports.

"HP has no solution at this time. Hidden service menu is not showing, and the printer is not booting anymore. Only a blue screen," one customer said.

"I talked to HP Customer Service and they told me they don't have a solution to fix this firmware issue, at the moment," another added.

"Driving an electric vehicle in Texas is soon to become more expensive," reports Gizmodo: Governor Greg Abbott signed a law (SB 505) on May 13 instituting new fees for registering and owning EVs in the state. Under the bill, electric car owners will have to pay $400 upon registering their vehicle. Then, every subsequent year, EV drivers will have to shell out an additional $200. Both of those fees are on top of the cost of the standard annual registration renewal fees, which are $50.75 each year for most passenger cars and trucks.

At least 32 states currently have special electric vehicle registration fees, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures. These range from $50 in places like Colorado, Hawaii, and South Dakota to $274 (starting in 2028) in a recently passed piece of Tennessee legislation...

Like many other states that have instituted EV fees, the reasoning behind the Lone Star State's new law is that electric car drivers don't buy gas. Taxes at the fuel pump are the primary way that most states, Texas included, amass funds for road construction, maintenance, and other driving-related infrastructure.
The bill's author told a local news station that "with the growing use of EVs, the revenue from the fuel tax is decreasing, which diminishes our ability to fund road improvements for all drivers."

But Gizmodo notes that Texas's gas tax "is among the lowest in the country, at just $0.20 per gallon." (And the average car uses less than 500 gallons a year, according to the American Petroleum Institute.)

Apple is reportedly expanding its involvement in the mass production of micro-LED displays to reduce its reliance on Samsung and gain more control over the supply chain. Nikkei Asia reports: Apple has spent heavily on the development of micro-LED displays over the past decade and once production starts, it intends to perform the critical "mass transfer" step of the manufacturing process itself, according to sources involved in the project. The mass transfer step involves moving at least tens of thousands of tiny micro-LED chips onto substrates. This process will be carried out at Apple's secretive R&D facilities in the Longtan District in the northern Taiwanese city of Taoyuan, according to multiple people with direct knowledge of the project.

Displays are one of the most expensive components in all of Apple's devices. Since the American company first introduced OLED displays on its iPhone in 2017, its reliance on Samsung Display for the screens has only grown. To reduce that dependence and gain price-bargaining power, Apple tried to bring in other suppliers, namely LG Display and China's display champion BOE Technology, but they lag the South Korean leader in terms of technology and quality stability, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.

"Apple has spent at least $1 billion on the R&D and samples for micro-LED technologies in the past nearly 10 years," said one of the people who has been directly involved in the project for years. "It wants to secure more control over the next-gen display technologies for its future products." For the project, Apple is partnering with suppliers like ams-Osram for micro-LED components, LG Display for the substrates -- also called backplates -- and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. for 12-inch wafers. In addition to designing the driver integrated circuits for the micro-LED screens, Apple even designed some of the production equipment itself to better control the mass transfer process, according to two of the people with direct knowledge of the matter. "It doesn't mean that Apple will always do the mass transfer on its own. But it shows how determined Apple is to allocate resources to have more control over [these] next-gen display technologies in its own hands," one of the sources said.

"Apple's ultimate plan is to introduce the technologies on its iPhone, which is its key revenue source and has much bigger volume, to justify the investments over the years," added one of the sources.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Tom's Hardware: YouTuber Jeff Geerling recently flew over to the UK to sit down with Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton for a chat about shortages, predictions, the Raspberry Pi Pico and other hot topics. The short of it is that stock levels are improving, close to Upton's 2022 prediction and that we are now seeing better stock levels than 2022 as Raspberry Pi slowly catches up with the backlog. Upton explained the reasoning behind prioritizing OEM customers over consumers, and addresses some of the negativity that was levied on Raspberry Pi by a minority of the passionate and vocal community.

The video starts with Geerling candidly explaining that his trip to the UK was not funded by Raspberry Pi, rather it was funded via sponsorship and Patreon supporters. With that out of the way Geerling covers a series of topics with Upton, and we've been through the video and pulled out the key points, with timestamps for you to listen to. In regard to the company's product and shipment progress, Upton said: "So quarter one this year was our worst quarter in terms of production and shipment. [...] We did about 750 to 800,000 units in Q1 this year [due to shifting production during the Christmas period]."

With progress being made on filling backlog and availability, Upton said the company expects to move two million units in the second quarter, with the third and fourth quarters of 2023 being "unconstrained."

Spacetop, a $2,000 laptop developed by two former Magic Leap employees, replaces the traditional screen with augmented reality glasses featuring a 100-inch virtual display. Axios reports: The company is selling 1,000 of the devices as part of an early access program, with hopes of using the feedback to inform a broader launch. The Spacetop runs a custom operating system, with its backers touting the ability to run Web-based applications such as Zoom, Google Workspace and Figma. And it's not promising this first version will be for power users or gamers, saying those folks should probably wait for a later version.

The Tel Aviv-based company behind the startup, Sightful, is led by CEO Tamir Berliner and COO Tomer Kahan, both formerly of AR headset maker Magic Leap. They have raised $61 million in venture funding. The devices are being manufactured by Wistron, a major contract manufacturer of laptops, while the required AR glasses come from Nreal. Those interested can sign up now, with the devices promised for shipping starting in July.

Sightful says the glasses offer 1080p resolution per eye, which they promise is enough to offer sub-pixel viewing resolution. In a pinch the Spacetop can also connect to a traditional monitor for some features, with more available later via software updates. Further reading:
I used the world's first augmented reality laptop (The Verge)
Meet Spacetop, a radical new laptop with no screen (PCWorld)
New Spacetop Laptop Puts Your Workspace in the Air (The New Stack)

Dublin-based company Gazelle Wind Power has developed a modular floating offshore wind turbine design that it claims is more affordable than traditional designs. The Register reports: While it still has to be anchored to the seafloor, Gazelle's design places the anchor cables on a trio of articulated arms that help the platform move with the motion of the ocean. To ensure the turbine tower itself stays stationary, a counterweight hangs from the center of the platform; Gazelle claims this will reduce the turbine's pitch to less than five degrees, which the company said will greatly reduce wear and tear on the tower. Despite those design changes, the result is a turbine base that Gazelle reckons is smaller, lighter and 30 percent cheaper to deploy compared to traditional semi-submersible designs, it said. Speaking to IEEE Spectrum recently, Gazelle CTO Jason Wormald claimed the counterbalanced turbine was designed from the ground up, so to speak, for the offshore wind industry.

Gazelle's design has yet to be fielded - it's working on a pilot project in Portugal with renewable energy firm WAM Horizon, whose Chairman also serves as a non-executive director at Gazelle -- but if test results scale well it could mean every 1GW of third-generation Gazelle towers deployed would use 71kt less steel, preventing around 100kt of carbon dioxide emissions, the company claims. Gazelle also touts its modular design, which it said doesn't require any specialized equipment, like cranes or custom-built launch vessels, as another way in which it reduces environmental impacts.

Hanging on to your favorite wireless mouse just got a little easier thanks to a new partnership between Logitech and DIY repair specialists iFixit. The Verge: The two companies are working together to reduce unnecessary e-waste and help customers repair their own out-of-warranty Logitech hardware by supplying spare parts, batteries, and repair guides for "select products." Everything will eventually be housed in the iFixit Logitech Repair Hub, with parts available to purchase as needed or within "Fix Kits" that provide everything needed to complete the repair, such as tools and precision bit sets. Starting "this summer," Logitech's MX Master and MX Anywhere mouse models will be the first products to receive spare parts. Pricing information has not been disclosed yet, and Logitech hasn't mentioned any other devices that will receive the iFixit genuine replacement parts and repair guide treatment.

India is unveiling a 170 billion-rupee ($2.1 billion) financial incentive plan to draw makers of laptops, tablets and other hardware to the South Asian nation as companies look to diversify supply chains beyond China. From a report: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is capitalizing on the early success of Apple's local assembly operations -- which have helped the US company produce about 7% of its global iPhone output -- to pitch the country as a viable global manufacturing hub. New Delhi wants to bring more tech production to India after China's trade war with the US and its strict Covid policies prompted companies to weigh other options. Apple has yet to begin making iPads or MacBook laptops in India, but fresh incentives could push the Cupertino, California-based company to consider such moves. Other manufacturers who could take advantage of the new measures include Dell, HP and Asustek Computer.

According to Agence France-Presse, France has opened an investigation into planned obsolescence of Apple products. From the report: The probe into purported misleading commercial practices and planned obsolescence has been under way since December, the Paris prosecutor's office said. It follows a complaint filed by the Halt Planned Obsolescence (HOP) association.

HOP said it hoped the investigation would demonstrate the iPhone maker was "associating the serial numbers of spare parts to those of a smartphone, including via microchips, giving the manufacturer the possibility of restricting repairs by non-approved repairers or to remotely degrade a smartphone repaired with generic parts." The association called on Apple "to guarantee the right to repair devices under the logic of real circular economy."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: StorCentric, the holding company for the Drobo and Retrospect brands, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late June 2022. Now, AppleInsider reports that, based on an email sent by StorCentric, the bankruptcy shifted from reorganization-minded Chapter 11 to liquidation-focused Chapter 7 in late April.

The writing for Drobo was on the wall, or at least on its website. Text at the top of the homepage notes that, as of January 27, 2023, Drobo products and support for them are no longer available. "Drobo support has transitioned to a self-service model," the site reads. "We thank you for being a Drobo customer and entrusting us with your data." Drobo began in 2005 as Data Robotics and launched into the tech consciousness with the original Drobo, a "storage robot." The marquee feature was being able to hot-swap drives of nearly any size without migrating data.

CNET explores the potential of "marine energy," starting with "an ambitious endeavor nearing completion off the coast of Oregon, where 7 miles of conduit were laid under the floor of the Pacific Ocean using pioneering horizontal drilling techniques." Soon, thick cables will be run through that conduit to connect the mainland to PacWave, an offshore experimental testbed built to develop and demonstrate new technology that converts the power of waves into onshore electricity. Once fully operational (as soon as 2025), PacWave could generate up to 20 megawatts, enough to power a few thousand homes.

"I get really excited about wave energy because the resource is so large," Levi Kilcher, a senior scientist with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, told me. Kilcher is a lead author on the 2021 National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) report that compiled available data on marine energy sources in the US, including waves, tides and ocean currents. The team found that the total energy potential is equal to more than half (57%) of the electricity generated in the U.S. in a single year...

Waves are just one potential source of marine energy that scientists and officials are investigating. Andrea Copping, a senior researcher at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, says there's renewed interest in another form of marine energy: ocean thermal energy conversion, or OTEC, which involves bringing up colder water from deeper parts of the ocean. This chilly flow then goes through a heat exchange process with warmer surface water, similar to the way home heat pumps exchange hot and cold air. That process drives a turbine to generate electricity... A small OTEC plant has been functioning in Hawaii for years. Copping believes new commitments from the U.S. government hold promise for the future of the technology, which has also seen significant interest in Japan and other surrounding nations.

It's possible that concern over climate change could unlock new sources of funding for OTEC... There's also the added bonus that the cold water pipes can double as a form of air conditioning in the tropical locales where OTEC works best.

Engadget writes: Apple is testing an M3 chipset with a 12-core processor and 18-core GPU, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman reports a source sent him App Store developer logs that show the chip running on an unannounced MacBook Pro with macOS 14. He speculates the M3 variant Apple is testing is the base-level M3 Pro the company plans to release sometime next year...

[T]he M3 Pro reportedly features 50 percent more CPU cores than its first-generation predecessor.
From Gurman's original article: I'm sure you're wondering: How can Apple possibly fit that many cores on a chip? The answer is the 3-nanometer manufacturing process, which the company will be switching to with its M3 line. That approach allows for higher-density chips, meaning a designer can fit more cores into an already small processor.

775 million people around the world didn't have electricity last year, according to the International Energy Agency. But the Associated Press points out that's changing in some of the world's most remote places — thanks to off-grid solar systems.

Here's a typical example from the world's fourth most-populous country... Before electricity came to the village a bit less than two years ago, the day ended when the sun went down. Villagers in Laindeha, on the island of Sumba in eastern Indonesia, would set aside the mats they were weaving or coffee they were sorting to sell at the market as the light faded.

A few families who could afford them would start noisy generators that rumbled into the night, emitting plumes of smoke. Some people wired lightbulbs to old car batteries, which would quickly die or burn out appliances, as they had no regulator. Children sometimes studied by makeshift oil lamps, but these occasionally burned down homes when knocked over by the wind. That's changed since grassroots social enterprise projects have brought small, individual solar panel systems to Laindeha and villages like it across the island...

Around the world, hundreds of millions of people live in communities without regular access to power, and off-grid solar systems like these are bringing limited access to electricity to places like these years before power grids reach them... Indonesia has brought electricity to millions of people in recent years, going from 85% to nearly 97% coverage between 2005 and 2020, according to World Bank data. But there are still more than half a million people in Indonesia living in places the grid doesn't reach.

While barriers still remain, experts say off-grid solar programs on the island could be replicated across the vast archipelago nation, bringing renewable energy to remote communities.