TSMC is focused on getting its advanced packaging production capacity to new levels, with the company boosting advanced packaging capacity at its Zhonghe, Nanka, and Jiake fabs, which are "all in the process of expanding production".

The news is coming from Taiwanese media outlet Ctee, reporting that the Chiayi Science Park was finalized this year and is expected to build two advanced packaging plants first. The first phase of Jiake will see the breaking ground ceremony in the coming weeks, and into operation in the second half of the year.

The second phase of Jiake is expected to begin construction in Q2 2024, with operation in Q1 2027 which is still a few years away, which Ctee reports will continue to expand the market share of AI and HPC.

The HBM market is unstoppable right now, attached to the insatiable AI demand that is fueling SK hynix and Micron to sell all of their HBM memory allocation for 2024, and 2025.

In a new report from TrendForce, Senior Research Vice President Avril Wu says that the HBM market is poised for robust growth, "driven by significant premiums and increased capacity needs for AI chips". HBM unit sales are multiple times higher than conventional DRAM, and about 5x higher than DDR5.

Wu explains: "This pricing, combined with product iterations in AI chip technology that increase single-device HBM capacity, is expected to dramatically raise HBM's share in both the capacity and market value of the DRAM market from 2023 to 2025. Specifically, HBM's share of total DRAM bit capacity is estimated to rise from 2% in 2023 to 5% in 2024 and surpass 10% by 2025. In terms of market value, HBM is projected to account for more than 20% of the total DRAM market value starting in 2024, potentially exceeding 30% by 2025".

AMD and NVIDIA are both pumping out new generations of AI hardware, with the two GPU giants eating all of TSMC's advanced packaging capacity for not just 2024, but also 2025.

In a new report from UDN, the site reports that TSMC will contract advanced packaging production capacity of its in-house CoWoS and SoIC for this and next year, as AI GPU hardware orders aren't slowing down. TSMC expects revenue contributed by server AI processors to more than double this year, and once NVIDIA's new Blackwell B200 AI GPUs are being pumped out later this year, 2025 is going to be a bananas year for TSMC.

In response to the insatiable AI demand, TSMC is now actively expanding its advanced packaging production capacity, with industry estimates that TSMC's CoWoS monthly production capacity will be between 45,000 and 50,000 by the end of 2024. This is a gigantic 3x increase from the 15,000 in 2023, and it's expected to hit 50,000 in 2025.

Resident Evil 9 will apparently take some cues from Dead Island when it releases in 2025.

New reports from insider DuskGolem may shed new light on Capcom's plans for the next mainline Resident Evil game. According to inside sources, Resident Evil 9 has been in development since 2018 and has had the longest dev time of any game in the series (7 years). Sources also say RE9 has the biggest budget out of all of the zombie-infested survival games.

But what about the locale? It sounds like Resident Evil 9 could be similar to Techland's 2011 hit Dead Island. DuskGolem further states that RE9 will take place in a "fictional rural town on an island in the Southeast Asia Sea inspired by Singapore specifically."

Sony's new PlayStation 5 Pro won't have a unique devkit design, Digital Foundry reports.

The PS5 Pro makes some big leaps over the base PS5 that was released in 2020. The mid-gen upgrade is a combination of brawn and brains, complete with a new RDNA 3.0 GPU with a +45% uptick in power alongside new AI-powered image reconstruction technology to deliver more convincing 4K visuals from 1080p inputs. While the specs are pretty different, there's one area where both the PS5 and PS5 Pro will stay the same: Their devkits.

According to Digital Foundry, who has received info from Sony's developer portal, the PS5 Pro devkit is identical to the original PS5's. You know, that V-shaped manta ray design that popped up everywhere--including in watermarked patent images.

Sony's new mid-gen PlayStation 5 Pro upgrade is expected to have an AMD RDNA 3 GPU that's capable of max speeds of 2.35GHz.

New reports from Digital Foundry highlight new upgrades in Sony's upcoming PS5 Pro. More documentation for the PS5 Pro has been leaked via Sony's developer portal, and this time we have new info on the PS5 Pro's GPU solution.

According to the reports, the PS5 Pro's GPU will have 60 RDNA 3.0 Compute Units (CUs) and can boost to a whopping 2.35GHz, which indicates a max 36 TFLOPs of compute power. That's a 5.4% increase over the PS5's 2.23GHz max GPU speeds. This boost will be hard to achieve and maintain, though, and only certain games are expected to really push the PS5 Pro to its 2.35GHz GPU speeds.

After days of review bombing, Sony has officially reversed its controversial decision with Helldivers 2.

Good news for PC players: Helldivers 2 will no longer require a PlayStation Network account in order to play. Sony had originally mandated that all Helldivers 2 users on Steam would have to make a PSN account and link it to their Steam account by June 4 or else they wouldn't be able to keep playing.

This caused massive backlash, leading to over 100,000 negative reviews for Helldivers 2 on Steam. Valve also started to delist Helldivers 2 in the dozens of countries that couldn't make a PSN account, and lots of refunds were issued. Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead tried to triage the issue, working with Sony behind the scenes and promising updates soon. Now Sony has made the decision to just scrap its original mandate altogether.

Apple has today announced five new games for Apple Arcade subscribers to download with games compatible with the iPhone, iPad, and Mac - and one is even available for play on the Apple Vision Pro.

Rabbids: Legends of the Multiverse, Return to Monkey Island+, Tomb of the Mask+, Fabulous - Wedding Disaster+, and Apple Vision Pro spatial title Where Cards Fall will all launch in Apple Arcade at some point in the next month. And because these games are Apple Arcade titles they won't have any ads or in-app purchases and they're all available for download for free so long as you're an Apple Arcade subscriber.

Where Cards Fall is the Apple Arcade title and a 202 Apple Design Award winner. The game features tactile, accessible controls that have been designed for the Apple Vision Pro and will see players use gestures to manipulate and bring houses of cards to life, Apple's press release says.

While there are plenty of foldable phones on the market right now Apple does not make any of them. The foldable iPhone is something that many have assumed that Apple has plans for but so far, there has been little to suggest that a launch is imminent. Now, a new report suggests that Apple is readying a foldable device for next year - but it won't be an iPhone,

That's according to Haitong International Securities analyst Jeff Pu in a research note seen by 9to5Mac. According to Pu Apple will begin mass production of a 20.3-inch foldable device in 2025 followed by a foldable iPhone that is set to be ready for late 2026. There have long been rumors of Apple working on a foldable device of some sort with a display of around 20 inches, and it would seem that's the device that Pu is talking about here.

Previous claims have come from the well-connected supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo although he had said that the foldable MacBook would be ready for launch in 2027. Display supply chain analyst Ross Young had suggested a 2026 or 2027 launch was possible, but the suggestion that a 2025 launch could be in the cards is the most optimistic report we've seen to date.

Apple has already confirmed that it intends to hold an online event tomorrow, May 7 and while the company hasn't yet confirmed what it will entail, there are strong rumors that it will unveil new iPads and accessories. Now, a new update to the company's website has given us another indication of what we can expect - and it strongly hints that there will be a new Apple Pencil as part of the big event.

Rumors have already suggested that an Apple Pencil 3 is set to be announced, while a more recent report suggests that we can expect that accessory to be called the Apple Pencil Pro. That came after a reference to an Apple Pencil Pro was found in the code of the Japanese Apple website, and now a change to the US website has again hinted at a new Apple Pencil announcement.

The change, reported by 9to5Mac, comes as Apple updated the teaser on its website that cycles between different illustrations of the Apple logo. However, those on an iPhone can use their finger to erase the currently displayed illustration while those on a Mac can use the mouse instead. When the logo has been fully erased a new animation replaces it.