The new US plant of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) is unlikely to get the most advanced chip technology before factories in Taiwan owing to complex compliance issues, local construction regulations and various permitting requirements, the company’s chief executive said. TSMC chairman and chief executive C C Wei said building the new factory in Arizona has taken at least twice as long as in Taiwan, in comments detailing specific challenges for the US as the country seeks to rebuild its domestic semiconductor manufacturing sector. “Every step requires a permit, and after the permit is approved, it takes at least twice as long as in Taiwan,” Wei said late on Thursday at a National Taiwan University event. He added that it would therefore be hard for TSMC to use its latest
Category Archives: SCI-TECH
Jan
Line-up of SUVs and bakkies will be headlined by the diesel-engine Tank 300 and the facelift P Series that will be renamed P300. Part of its ever expanding product range, Great Wall Motors (GWM) has confirmed the arrival of four additional models to the South African market in the first and second quarters of the year. P300 Announced at the local market launch of the Haval H7 this week, Baoding’s second arrival will be the revised P-Series bakkie that adopts the P300 moniker as per the local market Shanhai Cannon wearing the P500 nameplate. ALSO READ: GWM bringing facelift P-Series to South Africa but with a new name Unveiled in China last June, and expected to debut locally in the first quarter, the P300’s exterior revisions from the current P-Series
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas’ Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom have little in common ideologically, but the two have both been vocal supporters of an idea that’s been rapidly gaining bipartisan ground in the states: Students’ cellphones need to be banned during the school day. At least eight states have enacted such bans over the past two years, and proposals are being considered in several more states this year. Here is a look at the push by states for such bans. The push for cellphone bans has been driven by concerns about the impact screen time has on children’s mental health and complaints from teachers that cellphones have become a constant distraction in the classroom. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, who has called on
Jan
Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up MiniMax has launched a new series of open-source models, intensifying the competition among mainland technology firms to deliver cost-effective AI systems that can rival top offerings from US competitors. The Shanghai-based company on Tuesday unveiled the MiniMax-01 large language model (LLM) family, which includes a general-purpose foundational model, the MiniMax-Text-01, and the multimodal MiniMax-VL-01 with visual capabilities. LLMs are the tech that powers text-generating AI products such as ChatGPT . In benchmark tests that MiniMax posted to its official WeChat account, the new foundational language model was shown to be on par with the world’s leading AI models in evaluations that included maths problem solving, domain knowledge, the ability to follow instructions, and avoiding hallucinations or factual errors. MiniMax’s release of an industry-leading AI system
Jan
Gen Z founder Pryce Yebesi has secured $3M for his recently launched startup, Open Ledger, which aims to modernize accounting for businesses with AI-driven solutions. The funding round was led by Kindred Ventures with participation from Adventure Fund, Jonathan Chang from Brex, Guy Friedman, the CEO of SteadyMD, and Zach Abrams, who just sold his company Bridge to Stripe. The company will use the new capital to hire talent in product, engineering, and business development. Ideating Open Ledger Pryce Yebesi, 24, already made waves in the tech world by selling his crypto invoicing company, Utopia Labs, to Coinbase. The idea for Open Ledger came to him while he was still working on Utopia Labs. He realized that the businesses he worked with were using outdated accounting softwares. Related Post: How
Jan
EVs with a heat pump retain 83% of their real-world range in freezing temperatures on average. Meanwhile, EVs without a heat pump lose roughly 25% of their real-world range on average. Having a heat pump isn’t everything, though; some EVs without one can still deliver over 80% of their real-world range in the cold. No matter what type of car you drive, cold weather means the fuel efficiency will go down. In the case of combustion cars, the fuel consumption will go up because cold air is denser than warm air, and because the fluids are colder, which leads to increased friction. In the case of electric vehicles, more heat is needed to warm the cabin–and because EVs are much more efficient than ICE cars, there’s little to no waste
Jan
Chinese telecommunications gear giant Huawei Technologies will work with the steel and aviation industries to drive the use of digital and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies through a deal with industrial conglomerate Fangda Group Industrial. Huawei signed strategic partnership deals on Friday with Hainan Airlines Holding and Fangda Special Steel Technology, both owned by Fangda Group. The collaboration focuses on smart transformation, trial applications of AI large language models (LLM), the low-altitude economy and other areas, according to a statement issued by the conglomerate, whose business interests also cover the carbon, healthcare and commerce sectors. The deal between Huawei and Fangda comes as the Shenzhen-based technology giant is deepening its footprint in traditional industries to empower China’s conventional businesses with its AI and communication technologies. Fangda chairman Fang Wei said the
Jan
Upstate New York winters are no joke. Up where I live, we started getting bombed with January- and February-style cold weather as early as Thanksgiving, sending the high temperatures down into the low 30s most days if we were lucky. There are lots of ways to deal with this. One method I highly recommend is to invest in some high-quality wool socks; an even better idea is to get a plane ticket to somewhere warmer. But if you’re an electric vehicle owner and you need to leave your car alone for a few weeks at a time, and you know it’s going to be parked somewhere very cold, what sort of range can you expect when you return? We know that cold temperatures in particular are the enemy of lithium-ion
Jan
Atlanta Tech Village, the fourth-largest tech hub in the U.S., has opened its second location in Atlanta’s South Downtown. Spearheaded by David Cummings, Jon Birdsong, and other prominent innovators, ATV Sylvan is a uniquely distinctive space for up-and-coming builders and innovators. This week’s ribbon-cutting ceremony attracted founders, investors, city council members, and startup ecosystem builders. Named after the historic Sylvan Hotel, the revamped building offers flexible office options for entrepreneurs, from solopreneurs to fast-growing businesses. “The next generation of Atlanta success stories will be written here in these historic downtown buildings,” Mayor Dickens added during the opening ceremony. “A new generation of builders and dreamers [will find] the infrastructure, the resources, and the community they need to scale even faster.” The Making of ATV Sylvan: A Historic Edifice The project
Jan
Social media giant Meta announced Friday it is dismantling its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes across the company, marking another major shift in strategy as it aligns with politically conservative priorities. In an internal memo to employees, the company outlined sweeping changes including the elimination of its diverse slate hiring approach and the disbanding of its DEI team. The move comes amid what Meta describes as “a changing legal and policy landscape” following recent Supreme Court decisions against programmes that allowed for increased diversity priorities at US universities. The memo, first reported by Axios, landed days after Meta abruptly overhauled its content moderation policies, including ending its US fact-checking programme on Facebook and Instagram, in a major shift that conforms with the priorities of incoming US president Donald Trump.
Jan
Apple has formed a new data-processing venture in Shanghai , according to business registry information, as the US tech giant’s bid to bring artificial intelligence (AI) services to iPhones in mainland China remains in limbo. Established on Friday with a registered capital of US$35 million, Apple Technology Development (Shanghai) will focus on software development, big data services, storage services and data processing, according to Chinese business registry platform Tianyancha. Tejas Kirit Gala, who heads Apple’s multiple entities in the country, serves as the legal representative of the new firm, which is wholly owned by Apple South Asia, according to Tianyancha. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. The Cupertino, California-based company’s latest move comes amid growing challenges in China, the world’s biggest smartphone market, where
Jan
With dry and windy conditions anticipated, a critical fire risk has been issued. Another round of Santa Ana winds is forecast to sweep into Los Angeles on Thursday night into Friday morning, putting most of the region under a critical fire risk, as emergency responders battle to contain five quickly spreading wildfires. The wind in the region relaxed overnight as the low pressure, which was helping enhance the wind, is moving away into Texas. But high pressure is building from the north and that will help to tighten the pressure gradient over Southern California, producing more gusty winds. An ABC News graphic shows the fire forecast in Southern California on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. ABC News Those winds may help spread the five sprawling wildfires that are spread around the
Jan
Meta is studying how halting fact checking on its platforms would fare under EU law, a French minister said Wednesday, although the change so far only affects the US. Meta stunned the social media world Tuesday with its announcement that it would abandon professional fact checking in the US in favour of user-generated “Community Notes”, similar to those found on Elon Musk’s X platform. The Facebook and Instagram parent company “assured us that they plan to respect our rules and that they are keeping in mind this impact study, which is underway”, junior minister for digital technologies Clara Chappaz told AFP. A 3D printed logo of Meta is placed on laptop keyboard in this illustration taken on November 2, 2021. Photo: Reuters The study would aim to “understand what the
Jan
Meta co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies on Capitol Hill in 2018. Photo: CHIP SOMODEVILLA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/Getty Images via AFPSource: AFP The clean cut hair has grown, his college kid’s hoodie is now a gold chain, and his politics have swerved hard right. Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Facebook and Instagram, on Tuesday accused governments and so-called legacy media of pushing censorship, and vowed to take his world-dominating platforms back to their “roots.” “We’re restoring free expression on our platforms,” he asserted in a video posted on his social networks on Tuesday, in which he announces the end of fact-checking in the US. The out-of-the blue pivot to Trumpian talking points has perplexed many of Zuckerberg’s closest watchers, but the tech pioneer’s sudden alignment with the
Jan
Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang said on Tuesday that MediaTek will be able to sell the desktop central processor chip the two companies unveiled this week and that Nvidia has undisclosed plans for the chip. On Monday at CES 2025, Nvidia unveiled a desktop computer called Project DIGITS. The machine uses Nvidia’s latest “Blackwell” AI chip and will cost US$3,000. It contains a new central processor, or CPU, which Nvidia and MediaTek worked to create. Responding to an analyst’s question during an investor presentation, Huang said Nvidia tapped MediaTek to co-design an energy-efficient CPU that could be sold more widely. “Now they could provide that to us, and they could keep that for themselves and serve the market. And so it was a great win-win,” Huang said. MediaTek has partnered