Qualcomm is Eating Mobileye’s Lunch
A string of design wins in key areas like driver monitoring has Qualcomm leading and Mobileye sputtering.
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Without CHIPS Act, Intel’s Gelsinger Would Delay Ohio Fabs
With the fate of U.S. semiconductor manufacturing incentives hanging by a thread, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is staging a last-ditch campaign to salvage CHIPS Act funding while emphasizing aggressive European steps toward reviving Western chip production.
Read More »Without CHIPS Act, Intel’s Gelsinger Would Delay Ohio Fabs
Delayed Mobileye IPO May Mean Delayed Intel IDM 2.0
Intel Corp. is reportedly postponing its plan to take driver-assist developer Mobileye public. The IPO could still happen in 2022, but the chip giant isn’t saying when — and the uncertainty over Mobileye’s immediate future might delay Intel’s ambitious semiconductor manufacturing expansion plan, dubbed IDM 2.0.
Read More »Delayed Mobileye IPO May Mean Delayed Intel IDM 2.0
Robotaxi Priorities: Avoid Crashes or Avoid Blame?
What’s at stake?
California DMV collision reports filed by autonomous–vehicle companies over the past 18 months reveal a curious pattern: Almost invariably, the blame for a crash is assigned to the human driver of the other car, casting the driverless vehicle the victim. Is this because human drivers are deemed to be organically erratic and irresponsible? Or, perhaps, are AVs driving too cautiously? A close reading of the data suggests a third possibility — that AVs are programmed to avoid blame rather than avoid accidents.
Intel, Ohio, and the Fool’s Errand
Examples abound of cities, counties, states and regions wasting taxpayer money on ill-fated efforts to attract shiny technology companies and their well-compensated jobs.
Read More »Intel, Ohio, and the Fool’s Errand
ST and GlobalFoundries Plan New 300mm Europe Chip Plant
By Bolaji Ojo
STMicroelectronics NV and U.S.-based contract chipmaker GlobalFoundries Inc. said they have agreed to establish a new 300mm semiconductor manufacturing fab in France with “significant financial support” from the French government. They expect the new fab to start production in 2024 and become fully operational by 2026 when it should start producing up to 620,000 wafers per year.
Read More »ST and GlobalFoundries Plan New 300mm Europe Chip Plant
Silicon Photonics: Who Should Be on Your Radar and Why
By Bolaji Ojo
What’s at stake
With silicon photonics promising to vastly accelerate data access and transmission, companies all along the supply chain are jumping in with both feet. Collaborations among rivals are critical at this early stage as companies work to steer the nascent market toward their take on the technology. It’s too early to tell which of these uneasy alliances will prevail, but a look at the partnerships may yield some clues.
Ayar Labs Mounts Chip-to-Chip Optical Connectivity Campaign
What’s at stake?
Ayar Labs, a startup focused on optical chip-to-chip interconnections, is gathering investors and semiconductor industry partners, including Intel, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Nvidia. Might its collaborators’ disparate demands for customization overstretch the startup’s engineering team?
Shedding Light on Silicon Photonics
By Ron Wilson
What’s at stake?
As new fabrication techniques and design tools emerge, the bandwidth, latency and energy-efficiency advantages of silicon photonics move closer to delivering data-driven applications and services. Researchers are pursuing multiple paths to deployment, with specific applications perhaps determining how best to harness light to connect chip components and computing platforms.
Let There Be Light
What’s at stake?
The need for speed and bandwidth is driving advances in silicon photonics. An ecosystem is coalescing around the light-based interconnects, with startups emerging to push the technology as established players like Intel scale transceivers and related photonic components. Leveraging current chip design and fabrication processes will be key to unleashing an anticipated Cambrian explosion of photonics-driven applications.