Compile | High song Edit | Jiang Xinbai Wisdom news on May 24, yesterday, Nikkei Asia reported that US storage manufacturer Micron is challenging Samsung Electronics’ position in the semiconductor storage industry. The latest quarterly financial reports of Micron and Samsung Electronics show that in the first quarter of 2021, Samsung’s semiconductor business operating profit margin was 18%, while Micron reached 20%. And in the past five years, Samsung Electronics’ market share in DRAM and NAND flash memory products has declined, while Micron has increased by 3% and 1%, respectively. The Nikkei Asian Review stated that the reason why Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor business profit margin has declined is that, in addition to weather such as snowstorms in Texas, it is also possible that Micron’s rapid progress in the memory chip manufacturing process has made Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor storage division more competitive. decline. Because the memory chip business is the main source of profit for Samsung Electronics, it is also an important income component of the semiconductor business. The decline in Samsung Electronics’ profitability in this area may also affect the company’s other businesses such as foundry, display devices and smart phones. ▲The quarterly operating margin changes of Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron (Source: Nikkei Asia) 1. Micron hires Japanese and Korean engineers, technical strength may be comparable to Samsung It is reported that the Texas blizzard in the United States has caused losses to some semiconductor companies. In mid-February, a blizzard occurred in Texas, the United States, causing a large-scale power outage. This also caused the local chip factories of Samsung Electronics, NXP, and Infineon to shut down for a period of time, while Micron, which had no factories in Texas, escaped the disaster. In addition, Nikkei Asia believes that the reason for the decline in the profit margin of Samsung’s storage business is inseparable from the decline in the competitiveness of its products. At present, Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor storage business revenue is about 49 billion U.S. dollars (about 315.2 billion yuan), accounting for about 40% of the global market, and still ranking first in the world. In terms of technology, Jin-man, vice president of Samsung Electronics, said in a conference call on April 29 that Samsung Electronics has the highest proportion of 15nm DRAM and will continue to take the lead in 14nm DRAM in the second half of the year. But on the other hand, Micron has begun mass production of DRAM particles based on the 1α process, and is the first company in the world to mass produce the fourth-generation 10nm DRAM; in terms of NAND flash memory, Micron has also taken the lead in launching 176-layer NAND flash products. , And walked in front of Samsung Electronics. During Micron’s 2021 second fiscal quarter (December 2020-February 2021) earnings conference call, its CEO Sanjay Mehrotra mentioned that Micron’s cutting-edge products will be mass-produced as planned and will become Micron’s 2022 leading product. Insiders believe that Micron’s rapid technological development is due to the support of many overseas engineers. It is reported that Micron is hiring a large number of Japanese and Korean engineers from storage vendors such as Kioxia (formerly Toshiba Semiconductor), SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, and is developing storage chip manufacturing processes in factories in the United States and Japan. In addition, Micron also acquired Japanese storage manufacturer Elpida in 2013. Elpida has many excellent DRAM engineers. After using these engineers to complete the process research and development, Micron has already possessed the technical capabilities that rival Samsung Electronics. 2. Micron is eating away at Samsung’s storage market share According to data from the British consulting company Omdia, Samsung Electronics’ DRAM market share is as high as 41.7% in 2020, ranking first in the market. SK Hynix and Micron occupy the second and third positions with 29.4% and 23.5% market shares respectively. But in the first quarter of this year, SK Hynix’s operating profit margin was only 16%, ranking last among the three companies. Samsung Electronics, Micron and SK Hynix together accounted for 94.6% of the DRAM market. This makes the market highly concentrated and allows the three companies to obtain high profits. In 2018, the hot DRAM market allowed Samsung Electronics, Micron and SK Hynix to achieve operating profit margins of more than 50%. Behind the high profit margin is the investment adjustment strategy adopted by Samsung Electronics. For example, when DRAM prices in the market begin to fall, Samsung Electronics will adjust the amount of investment to maintain a balance between supply and demand. Because Samsung Electronics monopolizes cutting-edge DRAM products and has an overwhelming market share, this strategy has effectively maintained the stability of the DRAM market. ▲ DRAM market share in 2020 (Source: Nikkei Asia) Nikkei Asia said that if Micron’s technological improvements threaten Samsung’s market position, it may intensify the competition between the two or cause turbulence in the DRAM market. In fact, Micron has begun to eat away at Samsung Electronics’ DRAM market share. In 2016, Samsung Electronics’ DRAM market share was 46.6%, and fell to 41.7% in 2020. In addition, Samsung Electronics’ market share of NAND flash memory products has also fallen from 36.1% to about 34% in 5 years. From 2016 to 2020, the market share of Micron’s DRAM and NAND flash memory products increased by 3% and 1%, respectively, to 23.5% and 11.2%. For Samsung Electronics, the semiconductor storage business has always been its main source of profit, and it often provides financial support for other businesses. At present, in order to compete with TSMC in the foundry field, Samsung Electronics is continuously increasing its investment in the foundry business; and its R&D investment in display screens and smartphones is also increasing. If Samsung Electronics’ profitability in the storage field declines, it may affect the company’s other businesses. Conclusion: Samsung’s profitability is still above the average level, and the competitive situation may continue Although Samsung’s operating profit margin was 18% in the first quarter of this year, which is a decline from previous periods, in the manufacturing sector, this ratio is still above the average level. In addition, Samsung Electronics has a larger business scope than Micron, and has a certain degree of anti-risk capabilities. It is difficult for the competition between the two to distinguish the winner or loser in the short term. In the current global shortage of cores, the importance of Samsung’s foundry business is also increasing, and the storage business may be fed back in the future. In the future, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron will continue to have a triumphant position in the DRAM market for some time. What can determine the final outcome will also be the landing experience and actual performance of various products. Source: Nikkei Asia

One athlete who escaped death recounted the race details and attracted more than 100,000 followers. The athlete emphasized that the weather was good on the morning of the race, but the sudden arrival of the storm made it impossible for all athletes to react. The athletes did not send warm clothes at the starting place, but chose checkpoints (CP – water, food, clothes – PV) according to a pre-calculated schedule. As recounted by this athlete, he sent warm clothes at checkpoint 6, which is about 60 km. Therefore, athletes all start running with short clothes such as shorts, short-sleeved shirts, in the context of low temperatures. The athletes started the race with fairly short clothes, suitable for warm weather. Photo: Weibo. “Normally I would run about 2km to warm up, but with that weather, I couldn’t warm up,” the athlete said. “Things started to get complicated after CP2, when the rain fell heavily and most athletes escaped the forest. The rain was swept into the eyes by the wind, making the athletes unable to see anything, even when wearing glasses. is the most difficult part when it lasts 8 km with an altitude of up to 1,000 m. When climbing to the top, there is no water, food or even a place to rest. Athletes can’t even give up here, that’s the thing. The only thing they can do is climb down to CP4”. According to this athlete, most of the accidents came from the time at CP3 because the wind was very strong, the body temperature dropped quickly due to the heavy rain. “When I got close to CP3, I saw many other athletes give up and climb down. They said they couldn’t stand it anymore,” this athlete recounted. Each athlete will pay 1,000 yuan to participate in this race. If completed, they will receive 1,600 yuan, 600 yuan profit. “I look at the athletes giving up and think: This is how you guys wasted 1,600 yuan?. Now I just want to slap myself when I think back.” SCMP quotes the athletes who survived. “In the end, I decided to DNF (give up). I only had one thought, I can’t die here. I consider myself lucky because I made the decision to give up just at the moment when I felt my temperature start to drop. I should have DNF a little earlier. I put my finger in my mouth to warm it up but it turned out that my tongue was also numb. I was so engrossed in my own experience that I didn’t know when I was hypothermic, the temperature was. body temperature will just continuously drop very quickly and also quickly become life-threatening.” Twenty-one athletes were killed, although rescue teams searched all night. Photo: Weibo. When giving up to the tent, this athlete revealed that many people who defied the weather to continue the race had fallen. There is a 60-year-old athlete who even fainted on the mountain, in need of an emergency rescue team. The athletes who went down, even if they wanted to save, could not because they were exhausted. Ma Shuzi, a female athlete who survived, shared: “The takeaway from this race is to survive.” Hundreds of policemen went up the mountain to rescue trapped athletes from noon, but it was not until 4 pm that the race was officially canceled. Many top athletes in the running world in China are recognized Famous Chinese marathon runner, Liang Jing, died in this disastrous race. Huang Guanjun, the deaf athlete who won the marathon for the deaf at the 2019 Paralympic Games held in Tianjin, shared the same fate as Liang Jing. Baiyin City Mayor Zhang Xuchen, along with many other officials, bowed in apology: “As the organizers of the event, we feel deeply sorry and self-blame, and express our deep condolences to the victims. to the victims and send our condolences to their families and those injured.” “Provincial authorities have set up an investigation team to find out the cause of the incident,” Zhang said. According to the Yahoo! , repeated calls to Baiyin City went unanswered.

The technology giants like Amazon, SpaceX, OneWeb continuously pour money to invest in satellite Internet. Photo: TechCrunch In recent years, satellite broadband is becoming an increasingly popular way to connect to the Internet. Major space companies are also in the race to build ultra-high-speed Internet services through orbiting satellites. Now, the field is forming a model similar to the “Seven Warring Heroes”. The companies are all moving towards a common goal: competing to be the biggest brand in broadband satellite and SpaceX’s position with Starlink dominance is being challenged. SpaceX’s Starlink project SpaceX boss – Elon Musk Of all the companies, SpaceX is the one involved with the most satellite launches. Its Starlink project has more than 1,350 satellites in orbit and plans to launch 42,000 satellites by mid-2027. Eventually, SpaceX hopes to have thousands of satellites around the Earth to establish a global network. Starlink’s Beta “Better than Nothing” was launched last October and attracted more than 10,000 users in six different countries. Starlink’s business model connects customers directly with satellites without the intervention of telecom companies between the two parties. Users register for Starlink service through the website. Once the order is accepted, Starlink will send the hardware set to the customer, which includes a tripod, WiFi router and satellite antenna. Monthly subscription fee is $ 99, and maximum download speed can reach 210 Mbps. Starlink is expanding rapidly and plans to install antennas on vehicles and connect them to satellite networks. According to the test of Internet analytics service developer Ookla, the download speed when using SpaceX’s satellite Internet is 95% faster than the normal Internet in the United States. Project Kuiper from Amazon The Amazon project is named Kuiper In 2018, Amazon’s Kuiper Project was revealed. At that time, government documents showed that the tech giant was working to build global space-based Internet services. The goal of the project is to launch 3236 satellites into a 630 km long orbit, very close to the 550 km altitude of the Starlink satellite. In January of this year, the US Federal Communications Commission approved the Kuiper Project to launch Amazon satellites into space before July 2029, and connect them to antennas on Earth to provide translation. Internet service. As of July 30, 2026, 50% of the project’s satellites will operate. Like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, the boss of Amazon, also owns a private rocket and space service company called Blue Orgin. Although no specific plans have been announced, the company is believed to be in charge of bringing the Kuiper satellite into orbit. OneWeb The Soyuz-2.1b carrier missile carries 36 OneWeb satellites that take off from the launch pad of the Vostocini launch pad. OneWeb is a UK owned broadband satellite provider. It currently has 146 satellites in orbit, 1,200 km from the ground and plans to launch a total of 648 satellites to provide global Internet service. In November last year, the company got out of bankruptcy thanks to the British government and India’s Bharti Group. OneWeb hopes to provide Internet services to the entire UK by June. Its latest service will cover the highest latitudes in the world, including Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Russia and Nordic countries. This British company provides a B2B model, provides satellite Internet to telecom companies, then the telecom companies deliver services to customers. Both SpaceX and OneWeb launched satellites into space on March 25, clearly showing a race between the world’s two leading powers in space technology. Hughes Net Satellite team Hughes Jupiter 2 Hughes Net is the largest satellite Internet provider in the United States. It relies on geostationary orbit (GEO) satellites 36,210 km away to transmit the Internet back to earth. The main difference between a satellite operating in low Earth Orbit (LEO) and a geostationary satellite is that GEO satellites can cause delays in video calls and public calls. other technology. However, the GEO satellites are in a fixed position, so unlike LEO satellites, they will not travel in orbit but target a specific area. The Hughes Network has more than 1.5 million users and six satellites in orbit, covering different areas of North America, South America and Canada, including Mexico, Brazil and Chile. The last satellite that Hughes launched was in June 2018 and its goal is to put another satellite, called Jupiter 3, into orbit by the second half of 2022. It is said that this will be a commercial satellite. the biggest ever. Hughes’ satellite service costs range from $ 59.99 to $ 149.99 per month and download speeds of 25Mbps. The kit is priced at $ 249.99, and the installation costs $ 199. The company also offers public WiFi hotspots for rural Latin America for people who cannot afford subscription fees. Telesat Daniel Goldberg, CEO and President of Telesat, Canada’s satellite operator Telesat has 15 GEO satellites at an altitude of 35,000 km above Earth. The company also plans to build an LEO Internet called “LightSpeed”. The first 298 satellites built by Thales Alenia Space are scheduled to launch in early 2023 and provide global services by 2024. According to reports, Goldberg confirmed at the 2021 LEO Satellite Digital Forum on April 6 that the LightSpeed ​​project would cost $ 5 billion. This is much cheaper than the projects of SpaceX and Amazon, which are more than $ 10 billion. Goldberg recently stated that Telesat has the best pricing in the market. In 2019, Telesat signed a launch agreement with Blue Origin to use New Glenn rockets to send LEO satellites into orbit. David Wendling, Telesat’s chief technology officer, revealed that the company has three other startups underway. ViaSat ViaSat application on smartphone ViaSat is headquartered in California, USA, operates five GEO satellites at an altitude of about 35,000 km from the Earth’s surface. The company will put three extremely powerful GEO satellites into orbit by the beginning of 2022 and achieve globalization goals until 2023. ViaSat also plans to put 288 satellites into orbit LEO by 2026. ViaSat executive chairman and co-founder Mark Dankberg said the GEO and LEO satellites would complement each other. ViaSat is working hard to create a “multi-orbit satellite Internet where users can seamlessly use GEO satellites and LEO satellites.” In December 2020, Viasat asked the FCC to study Starlink’s potential environmental impact. In response, Musk wrote on Twitter: “Obviously, Starlink is a ‘threat’ to Viasat’s profits.” Eutelsat Eutelsat is Europe’s satellite operator with 39 GEO satellites at an altitude of 46,000 km. The company now provides Internet services to the regions of Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and plans to launch another satellite called Konnect VHTS to cover the rest of Europe. Michel Azibert, Executive Vice President of Eutelsat, said: “Konnect VHTS will change the rules of the game and allow Eutelsat to seamlessly deliver powerful Internet services to users at prices comparable to the above operators. ground.” Azibert says Eutelsat’s satellite service “is much lower than Starlink, very well suited to the rural markets we’re targeting in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.” Eutelsat was founded in 1977 and launched its first satellite in 1983.

U.S. halts use of Johnson / Johnson vaccine

The implementation of johnson&johnson’s (J&J)one-dose Covid-19 vaccine was halted on April 13 when regulators announced they were reviewing rare cases of blood clots after receiving it. The move could prompt thousands of people expected to get the J&J vaccine this week to find an alternative.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) both recommend halting the distribution of the J&J vaccine after recording 6 cases of cerebral vein sinus thrombosis (CVST).

Illustration: Reuters

Symptoms are noted in women between the ages of 18-48 and appear 6-13 days after the J&J. vaccine injection. “Among cases of coaalysis in the U.S., one person has died and one patient is in critical condition,” said Peter Marks, head of the FDA’s Center for Biological Research and Evaluation.

However, stopping the use of the J&J vaccine in the US when there are only a few cases of blood clots has raised questions about over-reactions.

Speaking at the White House on April 13, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that the CDC and FDA have acted “with extreme caution” and stressed that the decision to recommend stopping the use of the J&J vaccine is only temporary.

“I don’t think they made the decision in a hurry,” Mr. Fauci said.

Despite this, the move left those planning to get the J&J vaccine confused and raised concerns that it could cause hesitation over covid-19 vaccination.

Earlier, 15 million J&J vaccines were damaged due to production errors at a factory. In Colorado, three mass vaccination points stopped using the J&J vaccine last week after 11 people reported symptoms of nausea and dizziness after receiving the vaccine.

For regulators, halting the use of the J&J vaccine has made it difficult to meet the urgent need for vaccines during the pandemic. When investigating the issue, U.S. officials must also try to maintain public confidence in the vaccination program. The suspension of J&J vaccination shows that regulators are taking potential issues seriously, but if they can’t find an answer yet, it could make people more concerned about vaccinations.

Link between J&J vaccine and cerebral vein sinus thrombosis

Cerebral vein sinus thrombosis (CVST) is a condition in which blood clots are formed in the veins and sinuses of the brain. This is a rare form of a stroke. In the general population, this symptom occurs in about 5 out of 1 million people. Symptoms of CVST include headache, blurred vision, convulsions, and loss of body control.

However, there are a number of factors that cause regulators to pay attention to cases of CVST after a single dose of J&J. Mr. Marks explained that, patients with blood clots also have tinglet reduction, the condition of tinglets in the blood decreases to very low levels, leading to bleeding and bruising. The combination of blood clots and low tinglets prevents patients from using common anti-coaculation treatments such as heparin, a blood thinner. That’s why health officials want to halt J&J.J. vaccinations until concerns can be investigated and give new guidance if necessary.

In addition, another factor is the cases of blood clots that occur in young women, who usually do not face a high risk of suffering from this disease.

The suspension of the J&J vaccine has been reminiscent of many European countries suspending all or part of the Covid-19 AstraZeneca vaccination program due to fears of blood clots. In March, the European Medicines Regulator (EMA) halted distribution of the AstraZeneca vaccine before allowing it to continue. Later, regulators concluded the AstraZeneca vaccine did not increase the risk of blood clots.

“This is a safe and effective vaccine. The benefits of vaccines in protecting people from the risk of dying and hospitalization from Covid-19 are far greater than the possible risks,” EMA Executive Director Emer Cooke said at a press conference in March.

Both the AstraZeneca vaccine and the Johnson /Johnson vaccine are based on modified adenovirus vectors. Adenovirus is a separate virus designed to provide DNA instructions to cellsto make the mutable protein of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

Nearly 7 million people in the U.S. who have been vaccinated with the J&J. Vaccine AstraZeneca are still under review and have not yet begun distribution in the U.S., even though the country’s government has purchased millions of doses of the vaccine.

The link between the J&J vaccine and symptoms of cerebral vein sinus thrombosis has not yet been clarified, but Vox has made several assumptions.

“Mutant proteins are produced using instructions from vaccines,” said Robert Brodsky, Director of hematological division at Johns Hopkins University. In some cases, mutating proteins can trigger the response of the immune system. That immune response can also damage the tinglets, causing symptoms such as blood clots.

In addition, if a spike in a protein can trigger this reaction, it is likely that the virus is intact that can also activate CVST in vulnerable people.

Rare complications that create major public health challenges

The Covid-19 vaccine has been tested on tens of thousands of people in clinical trials, and all three licensed vaccines in the U.S., Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, and Johnson & Johnson have all been proven safe, with levels of side effects being mild to medium.

Health workers prepare J&j’s Covid-19 vaccine shots in Detroit on April 12. Photo: AP

But as the number of people taking part in vaccine trials increased from thousands to millions, rare complications began to appear.

That happened to Pfizer/BioNTech after the vaccine was distributed to the market. Some people after vaccination experience a severe allergic reaction to the Pfizer vaccine. Similar problems also appeared with the Moderna vaccine. In January, the CDC estimated that the rate of allergic reactions to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was 11.1 per 1 million vaccinations, while the rate of the Moderna vaccine was 2.5 per 1 million vaccinations.

Health officials have revised the vaccination process to screen people with a history of severe allergies. They also asked the person after vaccination to stay for 15 minutes for monitoring, as most allergic reactions occur during that time period.

Regulators can add screening criteria for people at higher risk for blood clots before getting the J&J vaccine.

It’s too early to say whether regulators will do the right thing when it comes to halting J&J vaccinations. Studying potential vaccine issues can boost people’s confidence in vaccinations, but can also cause confusion and fear of complications, making more people more vigilant.

What about those who have received the J&J vaccine?

Dr Fauci said that, for those who had received the J&J vaccine more than a month ago, they didn’t need to worry. However, those who have recently received the J&J vaccine and begin to have symptoms associated with cerebral sinus thrombosis should inform their doctor. “6-13 days after vaccination will be the time of symptoms,” Mr Fauci said.