Electronic Design Automation in Shift-Left Age
Siemens EDA builds toward package-board-mechanical integration.
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After Covid, MCU Makers Gambled … and Lost. What’s Next?
By Bolaji Ojo
What’s at stake:
The microcontroller market is in shambles because suppliers let their guards down, excessively adding production capacities because of wildly optimistic forecasts and doubled orders for components from customers. The recovery of the MCU market will take several years. As they rebuild, vendors must also review their recent experiences and try (again) to install safeguards against reoccurrence of the errors that are today hurting the sector.
In June, 2023, the Ojo-Yoshida Report asked: What’s Next for Microchip’s Steve Sanghi? The answer came in a sudden rush this week.
Sanghi, founder and former CEO of Microchip Technology Inc., is back again in the corner office, having stepped in temporarily to assume leadership of the company from Ganesh Moorthy, who will retire as of the end of November.
A scamp might say Moorthy, a 23-year veteran of Microchip who took over from Sanghi in 2021, was pushed out due to sales problems at the microcontroller vendor. That would not be totally untrue. Microchip is hurting, alongside the rest of the microcontroller market. Other MCU CEOs may be spared, but most suppliers in the sector are rambling through the roughest gloom in the history of the market with at least one year of tepid growth ahead.
It’s rough saying it – and perhaps a tad unfair – but microcontroller vendors mainly have themselves to blame for the mess.
Read More »After Covid, MCU Makers Gambled … and Lost. What’s Next?
Who, What, When and How of Photonic Processors
Players in the electronics industry are busy boning up on optical computing.
An onslaught of new processors aimed at high performance computing is enabling photonics — always billed as a “next-gen” technology — to finally strut its stuff in the burgeoning AI market.
Photonic processors are no longer a curiosity. Some of them are emerging from the lab as commercial products integrated into PCIe periphery demonstrators.
Read More »Who, What, When and How of Photonic Processors
ST Charges its Edge AI Push with Biosensor MEMS
By Kolade Ojo
What’s at stake:
The big challenge for semiconductor companies racing to offer solutions for the deployment of AI at the edge is figuring out who will bear the responsibility for shaping the future of AI application devices. Should it be the companies developing the technology or the industries applying it? STMicroelectronics isn’t waiting for an answer, though. Rather, it is adding AI capabilities to existing technologies, including MEMS.
There is no doubt about the semiconductor industry’s prevailing focus today. It is artificial intelligence (AI), but not just the kind of AI products and expectations that have propelled Nvidia Corp. into the ranks of the world’s most valuable publicly-traded enterprises.
At the recently concluded Electronica 2024 Exhibition in Munich, AI was the most prominent topic and products. AI resounded throughout the Munich Messe halls as the rallying cry for innovation, with companies across the industry spectrum pushing promises to leverage advancements in the fast-growing market.
Read More »ST Charges its Edge AI Push with Biosensor MEMS
Q.ANT With First Optical Computer for AI
What’s at stake:
In the computing industry, artificial Intelligence has created an unprecedented industry-wide AI wave, on which everyone in the electronics sector wants to surf. This includes photonics. But, is photonic computing mature enough to convince hyperscalers to try it for at least part of their AI processing?
Photonics developers now have a fresh pitch to the AI community: By using photons for AI processing instead of solely depending on electrons, the computing industry can substantially reduce AI-induced energy gluttony at data centers.
Optical computing itself isn’t new. But what’s different now is that many photonic processor startups with optical computing products are scrambling to exploit the fast-growing demand for energy-efficient AI computing.
Michael Förtsch, CEO of Q.ANT, a Stuttgart, Germany-based photonic computing startup, told the Ojo-Yoshida Report: “If you’re not changing the way we compute, the energy supply for data centers is going to be the bottleneck for progress on the next big step in AI.”
Read More »Q.ANT With First Optical Computer for AI
Where Are We Headed with China?
By Bolaji Ojo
Death by a thousand cuts can quickly become a reality for certain segments of the electronics industry if swift action is not taken to address the question asked in the headline of this opinion piece.
Western governments, led by the US, have amassed a growing armada of rules, regulations, laws, and sanctions aimed at limiting China’s access to IP, innovations and technologies used in the development and production of advanced technology products. In addition, laws tightening or proscribing engagement with Chinese companies have been introduced in recent years.
Ask any industry executives, though, and it would be difficult getting an answer on the precise objectives of these actions, the role their companies are expected to play, and whether they see an end in sight to the tightening rules or a future where commerce can be conducted without severe national restrictions and penalties for violating drastic rules. The industry has accepted that geopolitics have become a staple of business, but they nevertheless puzzle about how long this will be and whether their views matter anymore.
Read More »Where Are We Headed with China?
Smarter, Safer, More Responsive: The Future of IoT Is Here
By embedding AI/ML capabilities directly into IoT devices, we enable real-time data analysis and decision-making at the source.
RISC-V: Epitome of Decoupled World
What’s at stake:
RISC-V cores are quietly seeping into the MCU fabric of the global automotive market. Of course, if you are focused only on the Western market, that’s not exactly what you see today. But, as Chinese OEMs turn massively toward RISC-V, the rest of the world needs a workable Plan B.
AI Past, Present, and Future (Part 1)
The more powerful AI becomes, the more polarizing it gets. Some people love it, others loathe it, and there are those who are becoming increasingly fearful of what may be coming our way.
Chip Industry’s Talent Drain: Can Apple Buck the Trend?
What’s at stake:
Despite passage of the CHIPS and Science Act, the U.S. semiconductor industry will continue to struggle with workforce problems. Issues include the absent “pipeline” (of engineering students aspiring to the semiconductor industry), and the long “ramp up” period (as long as eighteen months) before newly hired graduates can contribute to VLSI designs. At stake is the U.S. industry’s talent level for leadership in the global electronics industry.
First some background.
Many reports from think tanks, consulting firms (Deloitte, McKinsey, Brookings) and semiconductor industry associations (SEMI, SIA), are sounding the alarm of a widening talent shortage in the U.S. chip industry.
Deloitte analysts bluntly declared that the industry is facing “looming talent cliff and low industry appeal.” This is happening despite forecasts that the industry will reach a market size of $1 trillion by 2030, driven by increasing demand for advanced chips across sectors like AI, automotive, and industrial applications.
Read More »Chip Industry’s Talent Drain: Can Apple Buck the Trend?