Don’t look now but NXP has just given itself a leg up in the market for robotic devices and AI at the Edge by adding 1,100 critical software engineering expertise to its employee roster via its planned acquisition of TTTech Auto. Of course, there’s a software-defined vehicle play also.
By Bolaji Ojo
Soon, the electronics world will be treated to a special news conference to be hosted by Intel Corp. When this event will take place is uncertain, but it will hopefully occur soon. What we are certain about is that it will be more consequential and involve more than what the semiconductor supplier announced this week.
Intel Capital is being set free, the company said. As an independent firm, Intel Capital “will have the flexibility to attract external capital,” the press statement noted.
That wasn’t the news anyone was expecting to hear from Intel, hence the flaccid market response. However, “this step supports our broader strategy to maximize the value of our assets while driving greater focus and efficiency across the business,” David Zinsner, interim co-CEO and CFO of Intel said, in a statement.
Read More »Intel: The Market Awaits Bigger News
By Steve Taranovich
What’s at stake:
Global powers are increasing their space-based capabilities over the next decade to secure their defense and economic interests. Creating a free-for-all environment presents unacceptable risks to global stability. Has Russia triggered the rush for unfettered space-based weapons systems?
Why did Russian Aerospace Forces launch the Kosmos 2553 satellite (to a highly unusual trajectory in a lonely orbit at 1,240 miles above the Earth) on February 5, 2022? Moscow tells the world they are testing their latest onboard instruments and systems. Given the lack of transparency about such programs, however, I am skeptical.
The United States Space Command is very interested in this Soviet satellite as it orbits the Earth every two hours in a “graveyard” orbit, a.k.a. the high-radiation “Van Allen belt,” a band where disposal or junk typically orbit, outside of common operational orbits.
Kosmos 2553 shares this particular orbit with 10 “dead” satellites that have floated within the belt for many years. The rarely used, high-radiation Van Allen belt circles planet Earth and satellites here eventually fall into the stratosphere and burn up. Why would Moscow put Kosmos 2553 in such an orbit around our planet?
Read More »Russian Kosmos 2553: Scientific Satellite or Weapon of Mass Destruction?
Auto OEMs and chipmakers from the EV world are grabbing attention at the Consumer Electronics Show
CES opened with a bang as the queue to hear Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stretched 200 meters long. Our Day 2 podcast concludes, AI is already the star this year at CES.
Mike Markowitz assumes the role of editor-in-chief at the Ojo-Yoshida Report with a mouthwatering introduction.
BREAKING NEWS
By Bolaji Ojo
NXP Semiconductor N.V. said it has struck a deal to purchase TTTech Auto, agreeing to pay $625 million for the Vienna-based company in a bid to strengthen its offerings in the areas of Software-Defined Vehicles (SDV).
The transaction, which NXP announced today at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), is a game-changer for the company, giving it accelerated inroad into partnerships with automakers developing SDV solutions. TTTech has deep relationships with automakers already, and it is expected that NXP will piggyback on these to further its own engagement with the transportation OEMs.
Read More »NXP Heats Up Auto Play with TTTech Auto Buy
By Peter Clarke
What’s at stake:
A new year and hope spring’s eternal. It should if you are working on AI-related technology. The rapid rise of different forms of AI – edge, hybrid, agentic and embodied or physical AI – means that Nvidia’s incumbency as semiconductor market leader is set to continue. For many others, the future is not looking so bright.
It would be all-too human to argue that the trend towards artificial intelligence that has been so strong over the last several years must be about to abate and allow some different innovation to be the forcing function for the technology sector in 2025.
The argument that exponential growth must end eventually is compelling. And it surely applies to the technology and to the semiconductor leader Nvidia.
And yet, while the annual doubling of revenue that Nvidia has shown will be hard to sustain, this human being thinks that AI will continue to be the driver of the semiconductor economy. Indeed, there is likely to be a renewed surge of interest in AI with the addition of prefixes such as edge, hybrid, agentic and embodied or physical.
Read More »Prefix AI, Nvidia and TSMC will dominate a slow 2025
By Bolaji Ojo
What’s at stake:
First, Seeing Machines scored a big lifeline, improving its balance sheet and its competitiveness. More importantly, the company’s profile received a huge boost, making it an even more notable player in the software-defined vehicles (SDV) market and in applications for driver and vehicle occupant monitoring.
Seeing Machines wrapped up 2024 in grand style, scoring a much-needed investment from Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric Mobility that executives believe will help the company further penetrate the automotive industry while boosting its balance sheet.
Japan’s Mitsubishi framed the transaction, in which it has purchased approximately 19.9 percent of Seeing Machines, as part of its efforts to comply with growing regulatory requirements in Europe and elsewhere to improve driver and passenger safety in automotives.
Read More »Mitsubishi Deal Boosts Seeing Machines in SDV Market
By Ron Wilson
What’s at stake:
Integrated circuits operating at high speed generate a lot of heat, enough to destroy themselves and their surroundings. With the advent of dense advanced-packaging modules for AI, the old solutions are no longer sufficient, and the race is on to find alternatives. The demands are intense, however, and all players, including EDA vendors and physical analysis solutions vendors will have to team up with design engineers to develop a common thermal model with packaging companies.
Recently discussions have flared up about thermal issues in advanced packaging. But since the beginning of the semiconductor industry heat has lurked just below the surface, threatening to bubble up and make a mess of project schedules and system performance.
Today, as the inexhaustible demands of AI drive a convergence of Angstrom-era dies, advanced 3D packaging, and liquid cooling, the pot is boiling over.
Read More »The Heat is on for Multi-die Design
