ARM Announces New Immortalis Mobile GPU With Ray-Tracing Support

Arm recently announced its latest flagship GPU, the Immortalis-G715. The new mobile GPU is the first of its kind to implement hardware-based ray tracing for mobile.

The Immortalis-G715 signals ARM’s shift in bringing its products into the mainstream, in the same way that Sony and Microsoft brought ray-tracing to their respective consoles. Specs-wise, the new mobile GPU is built on top of Mali and designed to accommodate between 10 and 16-cores, with a promised performance boost of up to 15% over previous generation Mali GPUs. This is alongside double the architectural machine learning (ML) improvements. 

With the presence of hardware accelerated ray-tracing, Andy Craigen, director of Product Management at ARM. says that the Immortalis-G715 will use approximately 4% of power per the shader core area while delivering more than 300% performance improvement. The trade-off here is that the Immortalis can and will use significant power, energy, and area within the SoC it is attached to.

The company has not provided any more particular details on what devices the Immortalis-G715 will be featured in, but you may expect that the first phones that have them will arrive at the beginning of 2023. 

Moving on, Arm also announced the Mali-G715 and Mali-G615 as premium GPUs, which are aimed at devices with lesser pricing, but with fewer cores and no ray tracing support. The Mali-G615 has 6 cores or less while the Mali-G715 has 7 to 9 cores respectively, but unlike the Immortalis-G715, they will only have Variable Rate Shading that provides up to 40% on frames per second (FPS) and Execution Engine.

ARM also gave a glimpse of its roadmap, which said that it plans on following up Immortalis other flagship mobile GPU next year, codenamed “Titan”, while it plans on bringing “Krake” in 2024. The chipmaker did not indicate if it intends to extend the same hardware-based ray-tracing to the other two.

MY2022 Beijing Winter Olympics App Reportedly Riddled With Security Flaws

Canadian cybersecurity group Citizen Lab has released a report which listed down several security vulnerabilities in the MY2022 app which has been designed for extensive use at the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics in Bejing next month.

For context, all participants, journalists, and attendees of the event are required to download the app 14 days prior to their departure to China. Aside from health monitoring, the app also includes features such as messaging, file transfers, Olympic news, and city guide services for Beijing.

According to Citizen Lab, the app fails to validate SSL certificates which means it is not able to properly verify to whom it is sending data. This would allow hackers to spoof trusted servers and display fake instructions to users, as well as access sensitive information in health customs forms.

Not only that, but the Toronto-based researchers also found that MY2022 fails to encrypt sensitive metadata, which includes the names of message senders, receivers, and their user account identifiers. This means that it is possible for a lot of parties including ISPs or even someone that is connected to an unsecured wifi access point, to access the data.

The most worrying part is the group found that the app allows users to report politically-sensitive content and uncovered a censorship keyword list in the Android version in a file named “illegalwords.txt”. The list contains 2,442 keywords, with the majority of them being politically motivated or involving vulgar words, though it appears that the list is inactive.

In response to the report, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said that the MY2022 app has been independently assessed and was found to have no critical vulnerabilities. The Beijing Organising Committee for the games did not respond to the findings, but they released an update to the iOS version which did not fix any of the issues. Instead, a new feature called “Green Health Code” was added to collect travel document information and medical history information and was found to be similarly vulnerable.

Nevertheless, several countries have warned athletes not to bring their personal devices to China over fears of cybersecurity threats. For example, the U.S Olympic & Paralympic Committee have recommended the usage of burner phones as well as rental or disposable computers. On another hand, the Dutch Olympic Committee reportedly will be providing phones and laptops to athletes and staff which will be subsequently disposed once they come back from Beijing.

Apple MacBook Pro with M1 Pro and M1 Max Now Available For Malaysia

Aside from the 3rd generation AirPods, the new MacBook Pro (MBP) with M1 Pro and M1 Max processors are now available from Apple Malaysia’s website as well. All these products were first introduced during the company’s Unleashed event last month.

For those who missed the launch, the M1 Pro and M1 Max processors are available for both MBP 14 and 16. In terms of CPU, the M1 Pro is available with 8 and 10-core options which is also inclusive of 14 and 16-core GPU respectively, alongside up to 32GB of unified memory.

On another hand, the M1 Max comes with a 10-core CPU as standard while you can choose to obtain it with either 24 or 32-core GPU together with up to 64GB unified memory. In addition to that, the chip also has double the memory bandwidth of M1 Pro at 4000GB/s.

Meanwhile, other new elements that Apple has introduced through the latest MBP 14 and 16 are thinner screen bezels as well as a notch on their ProMotion 120Hz displays which houses the new 1080p FaceTime HD. These new models also marked the return of MagSafe charging, SDXC reader, and HDMI 2.0 port although the company has also decided to remove the Touch Bar.

Depending on the exact specs that you choose, the price of M1 Pro-based MBP starts at RM8,799 and can go all the way to RM21,999. As for the M1 Max variants, the price ranges from RM12,399 to RM25,199 and all of them can be obtained through Apple Malaysia’s website right away.

AMD Announces Partnership With MediaTek With Development Of RZ600 Series Wi-Fi 6E Modules

AMD and MediaTek recently confirmed their partnership with each other by announcing that they are currently developing a new series of Wi-Fi 6E modules, dubbed the RZ600 series. The new Wi-Fi modules are expected to appear in next-generation Ryzen-powered laptops, as well as desktop PC components, starting in 2022 and well into the future.

The RZ600 Series Wi-Fi 6E modules will comprise two models: the RZ616 and RZ608, and both modules will house MediaTek’s Fliogic 330P chipset. Specs-wise, both modules will support the latest Wi-Fi 6E 2×2 and the latest Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity standards. What sets the two apart lies in the supported channels: the RZ616 module will support the new 6GHz spectrum at 160MHz channel bandwidths, with PHY rates of up to 2.4Gbps. The RZ608 module, on the other hand, supports the 6GHz spectrum at bandwidths up to 80MHz, and just half the maximum PHY rate of the RZ616, at 1.2Gbps.

On top of that, the new RZ600 series modules are small and M.2-ready, with the RZ616 available in two sizes, 2230 and 1216, while the RZ608 is only available in the 2230 configuration.

We’ve mentioned in the past that this isn’t the first AMD and MediaTek have gotten into bed together. To that end, the RZ608 module has already been around for a while and was ultimately rebranded as the MediaTek MT7921K. On that note, it is possible that the RZ608 module being listed here is an updated version of the original that only supported Wi-Fi 6 and not Wi-Fi 6E.

Also, in the case of MediaTek, the semiconductor maker has been around the block with several other major technology brands, including NVIDIA and Google.

Kioxia Claims “World’s Smallest” Title With BG5 Series PCIe 4.0 SSDs

Kioxia recently launched its BG5 series of client SSDs. While the storage medium may seem nothing out of the ordinary, Kioxia claims that it is also the world’s smallest PCIe NVMe Gen4 SSD in the world.

Specifically, the BG5 series comes in the usual M.2 form factor, but instead of just a standard 2280 length, Kioxia’s new family of SSDs is also available the 2230 form factor. As mentioned, the SSD also uses the PCIe 4.0 interface, which is exceedingly rare among memory and storage makers. Further, the SSD uses Kioxia’s 112-layer BiCS5 3D NAND memory with a 1.2GT/s interface, and is available in three storage capacities: 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB.

In terms of performance, the BG5 PCIe 4.0 SSDs aren’t the fastest we’ve seen on the market, with maximum sequential read and write speeds of 3500MB/s and 2900MB/s, respectively, plus random read and write speeds of 500000 IOPS and 450000 IOPS. We’re guessing that’s the price Kioxia had to pay in order to cram in all the PCIe 4.0 related technology, into a form factor that is usually reserved for AX Wi-Fi modules.

Speaking of downsides, it should be noted that the BG5 series SSDs do not come in the Ball Grid Array (BGA) form factor, meaning that any OEM or laptop maker who wishes to solder the storage modules onto their laptop PCBs are out of luck.

At the time of writing, Kioxia did not specify pricing or availability dates for the BG5 series, but it has stated it is currently sampling the product to several key industry players and customers.

Sony And TSMC Reportedly Joining Forces To Tackle Chip Shortage With Japan’s Help

Japanese tech company Sony and Taiwanese semiconductor giant TSMC may be joining forces to help tackle the ongoing global chip shortage, according to reports published independently by Reuters and Nikkei. It is said that both companies are considering a partnership to co-establish a new semiconductor factory in Japan, which is expected to be up and running by 2024.

People familiar with the matter told the publications that the new plant will be based at a Sony-owned location in Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture, close to the company’s own image sensor factory (shown above). The project is said to cost US$7 billion in investment from both Sony and TSMC, with half of it reportedly covered by the Japanese government. The new factory will be managed by the Taiwanese semiconductor giant, the sources added.

Reuters and Nikkei reports that the plant would manufacture chips for cameras, cars and other purposes – all of which have recently seen a drop in production capacity due to the ongoing shortage. Both Sony and TSMC declined to comment regarding this potential partnership when approached by the publications. Meanwhile, Nikkei believes that Japanese automotive parts manufacturer Denso is also interested in the project.

If accurate, the new factory by Sony and TSMC would definitely contribute to other efforts that are also aiming to ramp up the manufacturing of semiconductors. However, it will still take some time until it is able to help with the production, seeing that the plant will only be operational in 2024. Moreover, Sony and TSMC themselves – as well as other major companies such as IBM and Foxconn – have noted that the chip shortage will likely continue for another few years until the strong demand for semiconductors could be met.

Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut Review: More Narrative Greatness With A Touch Of Grit

You’re probably tired of hearing this from me, but Ghost of Tsushima is great. And it got even better when Sucker Punch Productions gave it a free multiplayer component. For the most part, that’s already a lot to give for a single game, and many were expecting the studio to work on a sequel. But then the company announced a Director’s Cut, which included the Iki Island expansion.

And to put it simply, the expansion is also great – for all the same reasons that made the base game so enjoyable. So let’s talk about that. Being built on an amazing foundation, the only remaining element was a new story to tell, and boy did Sucker Punch pull it off again.

Another setting, Another Mongol Invasion

Being the continuation of the main story in Ghost of Tsushima, the Director’s Cut expansion naturally kept the Mongol invasion as an important part of the story. Very early on, the story makes clear that the events of the Iki Island expansion happen some time after the main game. That, and there is a canon ending to the base game, which forces you to make a decision after the final duel. There is also what I see as a very minor retcon in the base game’s story in order to tell this one. Which is fine, because it wasn’t a major detail back in the base game.

Though this time, the game takes a sharper turn from the road that history has provided. Which is actually fine, because it’s sort of necessary for the story that the expansion is trying to tell. And the story is essentially one of Sakai Jin dealing with the ghost of his own past.

This time, the fictional invading force is an oddly specific Mongolian tribe led by the a Shaman known as the “Eagle”, Ankhsar Khatun. For context, Khatun is the female equivalent of Khan. As the plot progresses, she managed to poison Jin with a special drug that amplifies his darkest thoughts and suppressed memories. And it is through dealing with this poison that Jin faces his past, contemplates what he should or should not have done, and learns to deal with his choices at the end. Again, not the most original of stories, but with a past as grey as his, it makes for a compelling story all the same.

Of course, not everyone is as lucky, or mentally strong, as Jin. Many of the others on Iki Island were poisoned by the Eagle, and have subsequently irreparably lost their minds. And as Jin fights his inner demons, he also helps the locals fight off the Mongols so that this new threat does not take over the island, and move on not only to Tsushima, but the Japanese mainland as well.

Depicting The True Greyness Of The Warrior Class

The relative greyness throughout Jin’s past also reflects the greyness of the role of the samurai during that era. This makes it a far more realistic depiction of the warrior class of the time. Quite the contrast to the main game, which reinforces the stereotypical idealised version of bushido.

Without going into anymore detail, it’s safe to say that the samurai had to do some really nasty stuff in order to serve their lord, and act as peacekeepers. Honour in battle is certainly far from the focus this time around, and I’ll leave it there to avoid the risk of spoiling the story any further.

New Toys To Play With

There are also three new enemy types added to Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut. One, which you’ll be introduced to very early on, is the shaman, who makes nearby enemies more resilient to damage, and fights like a spearman up close. Another looks like your average grunt, but can swap between dual swords, sword and shield, and pole-arm at will, and even has a unique pole-arm move set. And the final one is a new brute with a double-bladed pole-arm, who is a lot faster than the others in its class. Enemies in general also can take more hits before going down. All that being said, this list looks to be exclusive to the Iki Island region.

On another note, one improvement that you can expect to be transferrable to the main game is more varied stealth assassination animations. Ditto a new chiburi sheathing animation that was previously exclusive to boss duels. That being said, it’s unclear if these are part of the Director’s Cut, or part of the overall improvements that Sucker Punch promised. What’s definitely a new addition thanks to the Director’s Cut is a new armour set with its own unique set of skills, which is a lot of fun and very overpowered if you have quick reflexes in combat. Your horse gets some love too, which comes in both practical and comedic flavours.

Iki The Animal Sanctuary

If you like animals, then the Iki Island expansion has a treat for you – mostly in the form of three more animal types that you can pet. Scattered around the new area are animal sanctuaries for the monkey, deer and cat. The expansion adds a new limited gameplay mechanic that allows a more active use of your flute in these sanctuaries. Play them well, and the animals will calm down enough to trust you and let you pet them. They appear throughout the expanded area, but you can only pet them in their respective sanctuaries.

This is still quite the major improvement over the foxes in the main game. Beyond a single quest in Act II, the only time foxes appear are near their dens, from which they lead you to the nearest fox shrine. You can also only pet them once, if you see them after praying to said shrines. Beyond that, the foxes of Tsushima appear to completely vanish from the island. And unlike the foxes, as long as you return to the sanctuaries on Iki, you can pet the animals as often as you like.

PS5 Exclusive Features Not A Must, With One Exception

Having reviewed the Director’s Cut on a PS5, I’ll say that the improvements on this version of the game are mostly unimportant. Sure, you get constant 60fps gameplay rather than 30fps, but the DualSense features like haptic feedback and adaptive triggers are not really all that big an improvement. This is especially the case for the latter, which was a little disappointing after having experienced what Insomniac did with Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.

All that being said, if you want Japanese lip sync, then unfortunately the PS5 version is a must. It’s a strange thing to be locked behind the latest-generation console. I don’t know if this is a hardware limitation, and I have a hard time believing that it is the case, but here we are. Translations are still whack, with some names translated completely differently. But since these are remnants of the base game, there isn’t much that can be done there short of overhauling the text of from it.

Conclusion

If you can’t get enough of Ghost of Tsushima, then the Director’s Cut is for you. Since it’s built on the bones of such a brilliant game, there’s little that can go wrong. And thankfully, not only did nothing go wrong, but we got another compelling, albeit shorter story experience to continue where the base game left off.

In terms of landmass, the in-game version of the Iki Island is about a third of Tsushima. Though in terms of actual story, it feels a lot more than just a third of the main game. Because of this, the story feels faster – and better – paced. And because of the smaller landmass you can wrap things up pretty quickly. This includes all the side quests, challenges and collectibles, simply because there’s less traversing in between.

For this review, I’ve done almost all there is to do in slightly over 12 hours. Your experience may be quicker if you forgo the collectibles, and play on a difficulty that’s lower than Lethal+. Though that being said, I feel the desire to finish my current playthrough and go for a third one, this time completing the game in canonical order, while making use of the new toys for more of the base game. You don’t have to do that, because in an update quite late into the review cycle, Sucker Punch has added the ability to replay boss duels and outpost captures.

But for all the praise I pile onto this, I must reiterate one criticism. And that’s the fact that Japanese lip sync is locked behind the PS5 version. As I mentioned before, I can live without the DualSense improvements. I can also live without 60fps gameplay, although having it is certainly nice. But by far the one thing that drastically improved my enjoyment of the game is the Japanese lip sync. And it really feels unfair for those who don’t have the console but want to experience Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut at its best state, narratively speaking.

If you’ve never experienced Ghost of Tsushima, definitely jump into the PS5 version of the Director’s Cut. If you don’t yet have the console, then I would say you wait until after you get it. For those who have experienced the base game, I’d say that the new elements and replayabllity makes it worth its asking price, regardless of if you’re upgrading to the PS4 or PS5 versions.

Elon Musk In Talks With Airlines To Offer Starlink Connectivity In-Flight

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, recently said that he was in talks with several airlines about the possibility of installing his space company’s Starlink internet service on planes. Musk confirmed his actions via his official Twitter account when asked if he had any plans on making the SpaceX service accessible as an in-flight service.

Musk’s original tweet was written in regards to the popular mobile game, Genshin Impact, and technically doesn’t bear any relevance to the Starlink topic.

For those of you who have been living under a rock, Starlink is an internet service under SpaceX, aimed at providing internet connectivity throughout the world via thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit. To date, the product’s landing page says that its data speeds vary between 50Mbps and 150Mbps, plus a latency between 20ms and 40ms in “most locations”. That said, Musk did promise that that speed will soon be increased to 300Mbps but gave no specific timeline as for when that will be. As for how its consumers are able to access the internet connection, consumers are sent a satellite dish that acts as the hub. Further, the company has been accepting deposits from interested Malaysians since February this year.

Musk doesn’t elaborate any further on how he intends to make the service a reality, but Starlink’s own vice president, Jonathan Hofeller did confirm that the company already has an “aviation product” in development. That said, the prospect of gaining access to speeds in excess of 150Mb/s would be a game changer, especially given how limited the current offer for in-flight internet connectivity is.

Nintendo Makes Its Presence Official In Southeast Asia With Singaporean Website

While there are plenty of ways to get your hands on a Nintendo Switch here in Malaysia, the company doesn’t actually have an official presence. Never mind in the country, the company doesn’t even have an official presence in Southeast Asia. But it looks like this are changing, as the company now has an official Singaporean website.

The website itself is pretty bare bones, and you would be forgiven to go as far as to say that it’s still incomplete. One of the few things that give the impression are the URL for the games. None of them are referred to by name, instead they get a serial number equivalent that’s made up of four letters – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is just “aaaa” for example.

And then there’s the fact that there’s no mention of price pretty much anywhere. Not for the games, nor for the hardware. This may have something to do with the fact that Nintendo also has official stores on Shopee and Lazada, also only for Singapore.

This is quite the change for Nintendo, which has generally left the supply of its hardware to the regional distributor Maxsoft, or M.M.Soft in Malaysia. That being said, it remains to be seen if this will actually change anything for customers, especially when it comes to the prices of hardware.

As for the website itself, it may be a might-as-well move for the company. After all, Universal Studios Singapore is also getting a Super Nintendo World theme expansion which, according to Geek Culture, is scheduled to be completed in 2025.

Apple Reportedly Cancels Plan To Release iPad Air With OLED Display For 2022

Earlier in June this year, renowned analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple would be updating certain 2022 iPad models with OLED displays, starting with the next-generation iPad Air. However, according to a recent investor note obtained by MacRumors, Kuo now says the company has allegedly decided to exclude the Air variant from receiving this upgrade.

Instead, it is said that the company will continue featuring LCD displays for next year’s iPad Air model. The analyst states that one reason behind this was due to costs as well as quality concerns, which did not meet Apple’s expectations. This also seemingly corroborates with a report by The Elec that was published back in late September, which suggests that Apple has called off a joint-project with Samsung to use an OLED display developed by the South Korean giant for a forthcoming iPad Air model.

Meanwhile, an earlier prediction of Kuo’s suggests that Apple is upgrading the 11-inch iPad Pro to feature a mini LED display – a tech that is already included in the current generation 12.9-inch Pro model. It is also mentioned in the investor note that Kuo claims Apple intends to have the new 11-inch model to be the “focus of [the] iPad line in 2022,” and concluded that releasing an OLED-equipped iPad Air would be detrimental to its potential sales.

While Kuo’s track record of predicting future Apple’s releases has been accurate to a certain degree, it is still advisable to take the information provided by the analyst with a pinch of salt. Whether his predictions are accurate or not will only be determined when Apple officially unveils its 2022 iPad line-up, which – as most of us are aware – is still far off.

Samsung Confirms Ray-Tracing Support With Exynos 2200 SoC

Samsung has confirmed that its upcoming Exynos 2200 SoC will indeed ship out with support for ray-tracing. Support for feature, which is currently an optional aesthetic available for desktop GPUs, is possible thanks in no small part to the Korean tech giant’s collaboration with the CPU and GPU maker, AMD.

The confirmation was posted by the brand itself via its official account, Samsung Exynos, on the Chinese social media platform, Weibo. Technically speaking, the post sounds more like the company giving the equivalent of a layman’s breakdown about the functions of ray-tracing, followed by a quick confirmation of the technology’s presence in its upcoming Exynos 2200 SoC.

As it stands, initial reports already point towards the Exynos 2200 using an 8-core layout, running in a 4+3+1 configuration. Specifically, that’s four high-efficiency cores running at 1.73GHz, three mid-tier cores at 2.5GHz, and one high-performance core at 2.59GHz. The GPU, codenamed “Voyager”, are provided by AMD and are based on its RDNA2 GPU architecture. Further, it is rumoured to feature six Compute Unit, which translates into 384 Stream Processors, along with six Ray Accelerators.

Incidentally, the posting also included a poster that allegedly shows the difference between a GPU running without and with ray-tracing cores. For that matter, we strongly suggest to treat the image with a moderate amount of skepticism, for the simple fact that activating ray-tracing does not add additional burning vehicles to the scene.

New Samsung S4 Monitor Comes With Pop-Up Webcam And Windows Hello

Samsung has launched a new monitor focused on hybrid workers and students doing distance learning. The 24-inch Webcam Monitor S4 has 2W built-in speakers, microphones, and a stealthily-hidden pop-up webcam so users don’t need to have a bulky setup full of accessories.

The 2-megapixel FHD webcam comes equipped with an infrared camera that acts as a biometric sensor, making it Windows Hello certified. All you need to do is push down on the pop-up camera and it’ll immediately activate. Samsung claims that the monitor logs in the user and unlocks in as little as two seconds through facial recognition. Windows Hello also allows users to use the feature in lieu of passwords for Windows 10 devices, apps, and websites, similar to Face and Touch ID on Apple Devices.

The 24-inch IPS monitor only has a 1080p resolution with 250 nits of typical brightness and only runs at 75Hz but that should be enough for online meetings and even online classes. It also has a wide 178-degree viewing angle with flicker-free, low blue light features that Samsung claims will reduce eye strain. As a bonus for gamers, the monitor is compatible with AMD FreeSync.

You’ll be happy to hear that the VESA compatible stand is also height adjustable, as well as being able to tilt, swivel, and pivot for customisable ergonomics. As for peripherals, the Webcam Monitor S4 comes with three USB 3.0 type-A ports, Display Port 1.2, HDMI 1.4, audio out, and even a VGA port.

Local pricing and availability have not been revealed yet but it’s being sold in the US for USD$319 (~RM1327). For that matter, the S4 monitor is being made available in the US, Europe, South Korea, and Southeast Asia, which means we should be officially getting it soon. Keep in mind that even with the built-in webcam, you’ll still need to connect a desktop computer or laptop to use the monitor for video conferencing.

NVIDIA Rumoured To Relaunch GeForce RTX 2060 With Double The Graphics Memory

Back at the start of this year, a rumour began circling online that NVIDIA was planning to resurrect its Turing-powered GeForce RTX 2060, with one difference: instead of 6GB GDDR6, the revived card would instead have 8GB GDDR6. Recently, a new rumour is now suggesting that the amount of graphics memory has increased again.

According to sources close to Videocardz, NVIDIA is supposedly planning on making an RTX 2060 with as much as 12GB of GDDR6 memory, which is just as much as the non-Ti version of the Ampere-based RTX 3060. The card, goes by the model number PG161 and uses the same TU106-300 GPU as the original RTX 2060, save for the “KX” name at the end of the GPU ID.

First announced during CES 2019, the RTX 2060 has long been considered an entry-level GeForce card for the Turing GPU range. The card was popular amongst many gamers, mainly for its price-to-performance ratio and the fact that, like its brethren, it was capable of performing real-time ray-tracing, when and where applicable. Production of the card was quietly discontinued by NVIDIA last year, just as the company announced its current Ampere-based RTX 30 series graphics card.

NVIDIA’s supposed decision to resurrect the RTX 2060 has also been seen as the GPU brand’s way of tackling the ongoing shortage of its RTX 30 series GPUs. Moreover, its CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang, has also said that the shortage is likely to last well into 2022.