Street Wars – Attack of the Cones
Why is the state of the robotaxi operation in San Francisco what it is today? There is neither consequence nor accountability when Cruise and Waymo block public transit and first responders.
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Moving AI-Driven Data Between Tools and Fabs
What’s at stake:
Using AI as a tool is an idea broadly embraced in the semiconductor industry. But putting AI into practice needs validated data easily shared within the flow of design, testing and manufacturing. Stakes are high for an industry that must now forced to handle data coming from many sources in different forms.
The semiconductor industry’s quest for consistent data is foremost in discussions at the Semicon West and Design Automation Conference this week in San Francisco.
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The Future of Chiplets
By Ron Wilson
What’s at stake:
What lies in the future for chiplets? They could change the structure of the semiconductor industry, freeing it from the geriatric grip of Moore’s Law and the hegemony of three giant manufacturers. Or they could, like thin-film hybrids and multidie packages before them, withdraw into a few application niches where their challenges are manageable and their costs acceptable.
Jim Keller’s Journey from CPUs to CEO
What’s at stake:
Although regarded as a “natural” in computer architecture, Jim Keller acknowledges he had to work hard to develop skills that enable him to lead thousands of engineers. How did he do it? What worked? What didn’t? Keller traces his evolution for us.
Practically everyone in the semiconductor world knows who Jim Keller is. The legendary CPU designer is revered throughout the engineering community.
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Pilot v. Autopilot: Who’s The Boss?
Understanding human-factor science is the key to safety—in designing aircraft or automobiles.
The Secret Life of a Quantum Computing CEO
By Adele Hars
What’s at stake:
Quantum computing is a hot field. All the major industry players worldwide are working on it, with hefty help from governments and investors. Expectations are running high. At stake is who will hold the key to the new technology that could touch everything from pharmaceuticals to cybersecurity, AI, finance, healthcare, logistics and more.
France is a hotbed of quantum startups. At the end of 2022, CEA-Leti, the giant French microelectronics lab in Grenoble, added to the pack by spinning off its quantum hardware division. To head up the new company, called Siquance, CEA-Leti named Maud Vinet as CEO and Co-Founder. No surprise, perhaps, as Vinet had spent the last five years heading up Leti’s quantum hardware division.
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Chips, Politics, High Numbers
By Peter Clarke
Don’t trust the headline-grabbing numbers.
We’ve had a spate of semiconductor factory announcements in recent days from the U.S. semiconductor leaders Intel and Micron. They mentioned multibillion-dollar sums of money. Those who made timely appearances in such announcement were leaders of governments despite their busy agendas.
Read More »Chips, Politics, High Numbers
Jim Keller Sketches AI Strategy to Bypass Nvidia
What’s at stake:
In an AI market totally dominated by Nvidia, breaking the GPU giant’s logjam is, at minimum, a challenge for anyone, even a legendary CPU architect. However, Jim Keller’s secret weapon is not his reputation. It’s his belief that open-source policies accelerate innovation.
Jim Keller is a legendary CPU architect, his name linked to a host of commercially successful processors. Over three decades in several organizations, Keller, as a hands-on engineer, worked with or led teams who have developed architecture ranging from Alpha at Digital Equipment Corporation, K8, K12 and Zen at AMD, Apple’s A4, A5 and other apps processors, to the Full Self-Driving (FSD) Computer chip at Tesla.
Keller resembles a talented actor with a nose for great scripts and starring in a string of award-winning movies. However, it remains to be seen whether Tenstorrent, an AI hardware startup where Keller graduated from early investor to CEO today, will be the winner in the evolving AI race.
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Intel Hones Funding Plans for its Mammoth Fab Splurge
By Bolaji Ojo
What’s at stake ?
Intel Corp.’s fab building spree has put it on the hook for capital expenditure valued at tens of billions of dollars at a time of dwindling cash flow. Western governments are supportive and Intel, too, is deploying a financial approach unusual in the chip sector. Will these suffice? Quite unlikely. Intel cannot pull back, however, so it will have to take on even more loans to fulfill its burgeoning fab pledges.
Intel Corp. wants to dramatically alter the semiconductor production landscape.
If it succeeds, the chipmaker will dramatically shift a hefty chunk of manufacturing activities swiftly from one region to another, accelerate the rebalancing of the electronics supply chain and impact the dynamics of economic, geopolitical and security discourse between the world’s major powers.
Interfacing in a Faceless Era
By David Benjamin
From the first time I heard it, I cringed at the utterance of the word “interface.” It’s a relatively new term, coined to describe contact via an electronic device. It’s not just ugly. It’s an oxymoron. The machines that enable interfaces are a means to avoid the indignity of showing one’s face.
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