Framing It: 2.11.2020

The memory industry is cyclical. Power from rain, and satellites docking with other satellites. Now’s the time to get started with 6G.

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Supplyframe

4 min readFeb 11, 2020

The semiconductor industry just had its worst year since the dot-com bubble. This report comes from Bloomberg, and there are many, many causes for these results but surprisingly little reason to worry.
The biggest reason for the semiconductor slump is the trade war between the US and China; yes, people are selling fewer chips because of the trade war.
Another reason is memory. Prices for memory chips are cyclical, and they have been for thirty years. The computer industry ran out of DRAM chips in the summer of 1988.
More recently (in 2011), floods in Thailand cut supplies of Flash memory. This meant other suppliers ramped up production, putting a glut of chips on the market. Suppliers then cut production, driving prices up, and the cycle repeated. We’re simply in the trough of a wave in Flash memory production.
The solution to this boom-and-bust cycle of memory production is arbitrage, but no one seems to be doing that. If you’ve got a billion dollars burning a hole in your pocket, there’s a business idea for you.

The European Parliament has passed a resolution urging the European Commission to pass a law establishing rules mandating a common charger for all mobile devices. This means USB-C.
The rules will apply to all mobile devices, and while it doesn’t explicitly name USB-C as the port, everyone is thinking it.
In 2009, the European Commission got Apple, Samsung, Huawei, and Nokia to sign a memo to harmonize chargers for new models of phones. This led to the rise of the USB micro connector in nearly all phones.
But this doesn’t mandate the port on the device; only the charger. Everyone could pull an Apple and put a USB-C port on the charger, and include a USB-C to whatever cable with the phone, as Apple did with the 30-pin and Lightning connector.

In the journal Nature, researchers at the City University of Hong Kong have developed an electrical generator powered by falling drops of water.
This device is constructed with a PTFE film on top of ITO glass, connected by an aluminum electrode. All of these materials are widely used in manufacturing; PTFE is the non-stick coating on frying pans, and ITO glass is what your smartphone screen is made of.
The output of this device allows for several LEDs to turn on, providing light from falling raindrops.

A drone will soon repair a satellite. Northrop Grumman’s Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV-1) will soon meet up with a satellite in orbit, where it will dock and then become the engine for a satellite at the end of its life.
MEV-1 is meeting up with Intelsat 901, currently in geosynchronous orbit above the Atlantic Ocean. Intelsat 901 is at the end of its life, out of fuel, and ready to be moved into a graveyard orbit.
The repair drone will dock with Intelsat 901’s engine bell, after which Intelsat will be moved to another orbit. It’s possible MEV-1 could undock after that, and go move another satellite.

IEEE reports as 5G wireless rolls out, experts look ahead to 6G.
That’s great and all, but I feel like we can nip this whole thing in the bud. The trademark for ‘6G’ is dead. We could trademark ‘6G’ right now and end this before it begins: