Here is my list of electronics industry trends and predictions for 2016:
There was a huge set of mega mergers in electronics industry announced in 2015. In 2016 we will see less mergers and how well the existing mergers went. Not all of the major acquisitions will succeed. Probably the the biggest challenge in these mega-mergers is “creating merging cultures or–better yet–creating new ones”.
Makers and open hardware will boost innovation in 2016. Open source has worked well in the software community, and it is coming more to hardware side. Maker culture encourages people be creators of technology rather than just consumers of it. A combination of the maker movement and robotics is preparing children for a future in which innovation and creativity will be more important than ever: robotics is an effective way for children as young as four years old to get experience in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics as well as programming and computer science. The maker movement is inspiring children to tinker-to-learn. Popular DIY electronics platforms include Arduino, Lego Mindstorms, Raspberry Pi, Phiro and LittleBits. Some of those DIY electronics platforms like Arduino and Raspberry Pi are finding their ways into commercial products for example in 3D printing, industrial automation and Internet of Things application fields.
Open source processors core gains more traction in 2016. RISC-V is on the march as an open source alternative to ARM and Mips. Fifteen sponsors, including a handful of high tech giants, are queuing up to be the first members of its new trade group for RISC-V. Currently RISC-V runs Linux and NetBSD, but not Android, Windows or any major embedded RTOSes. Support for other operating systems is expected in 2016. For other open source processor designs, take a look at OpenCores.org, the world’s largest site/community for development of hardware IP cores as open source.
GaN will be more widely used and talked about in 2016. Gallium nitride (GaN) is a binary III/V direct bandgap semiconductor commonly used in bright light-emitting diodes since the 1990s. It has special properties for applications in optoelectronic, high-power and high-frequency devices. You will see more GaN power electronics components because GaN – in comparison to the best silicon alternative – will enable higher power density through the ability to switch at high frequencies. You can get GaN devices for example from GaN Systems, Infineon, Macom, and Texas Instruments. The emergence of GaN as the next leap forward in power transistors gives new life to Moore’s Law in power.
Power electronics is becoming more digital and connected in 2016. Software-defined power brings to bear critical need in modern power systems. Digital Power was the beginning of software-defined power using a microcontroller or a DSP. Software-defined power takes this to another level. Connectivity is the key to success for software-defined power and the PMBus will enable the efficient communication and connection between all power devices in computer systems. It seems that power architectures to become software defined, which will take advantage of digital power adaptability and introduce software control to manage the power continuously as operating conditions change. For example adaptive voltage scaling (AVS) is supported by the AVSBus is contained in the newest PMBus standard V 1.3. The use of power-optimization software algorithms and the concept of the Software Defined Power Architecture (SDPA) are all being seen as part of a brave new future for advanced board-power management.
Nanowires and new forms of memory like RRAM (resistive random access memory) and spintronics are also being researched, and could help scale down chips. Many “exotic” memory technologies are in the lab, and some are even in shipping product: Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM), Resistive RAM (ReRAM), Magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM), Nano-RAM (NRAM).
Nanotube research has been ongoing since 1991, but there has been long road to get practical nanotube transistor. It seems that we almost have the necessary parts of the puzzle in 2016. In 2015 IBM reported a successful auto-alligment method for placing them across the source and drain. Texas Instruments is now capable of growing wafer scale graphene and the Chinese have taken the lead in developing both graphene and nanotubes according to Lux Research.
While nanotubes provide the fastest channel material available today, III-V materials like gallium arsenide (GaAs) and indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) are all being explored by IBM, Intel, Imec and Samsung as transistor channels on silicon substrates. Dozen of researchers worldwide are experimenting with black phosphorus as an alternative to nanotubes and graphene for the next generation of semiconductors. Black phosphorus has the advantage of having a bandgap and works well alongside silicon photonics device. 3-Molybdenum disulphide MoS2 is also a contender for the next generation of semiconductors, due to its novel stacking properties.
Graphene has many fantastic properties and there has been new finding in it. I think it would be a good idea to follow development around magnetized graphene. Researchers make graphene magnetic, clearing the way for faster everything. I don’t expect practical products in 2016, but maybe something in next few years.
Optical communications is integrating deep into chips finally. There are many new contenders on the horizon for the true “next-generation” of optical communications with promising technologies in development in labs and research departments around the world. Silicon photonics is the study and application of photonic systems which use silicon as an optical medium. Silicon photonic devices can be made using existing semiconductor fabrication. Now we start to have technology to build optoelectronic microprocessors built using existing chip manufacturing. Engineers demo first processor that uses light for ultrafast communications. Optical communication could also potentially reduce chips’ power consumption on inter-chip-links and enable easily longer very fast links between ICs where needed. Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), which may enable engineers to exceed the properties of silicon in terms of energy efficiency and speed, moving researchers toward 2D on-chip optoelectronics for high-performance applications in optical communications and computing. To build practical systems with those ICs, we need to figure out how make easily fiber-to-chip coupling or how to manufacture practical optical printed circuit board (O-PCB).
Look development at self-directed assembly.Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and IBM have discovered a trenching capability that could be harnessed for building devices through self-directed assembly. The capability could potentially be used to integrate lasers, sensors, wave guides and other optical components into so called “lab-on-a-chip” devices.
Smaller chip geometries are come to mainstream in 2016. Chip advancements and cost savings slowed down with the current 14-nanometer process, which is used to make its latest PC, server and mobile chips. Other manufacturers are catching to 14 nm and beyond. GlobalFoundries start producing a central processing chip as well as a graphics processing chip using 14nm technology. After a lapse, Intel looks to catch up with Moore’s Law again with with upcoming 10-nanometer and 7-nm processes. Samsung revealed that it will soon begin production of a 10nm FinFET node, and that the chip will be in full production by the end of 2016. This is expected to be at around the same time as rival TSMC. TSMC 10nm process will require triple patterning. For mass marker products it seems that 10nm node, is still at least a year away. Intel delayed plans for 10nm processors while TSMC is stepping on the gas, hoping to attract business from the likes of Apple. The first Intel 10-nm chips, code-named Cannonlake, will ship in 2017.
Looks like Moore’s Law has some life in it yet, though for IBM creating a 7nm chip required exotic techniques and materials. IBM Research showed in 2015 a 7nm chip will hold 20 billion transistors manufactured by perfecting EUV lithography and using silicon-germanium channels for its finned field-effect transistors (FinFETs). Also Intel revealed that the end of the road for Silicon is nearing as alternative materials will be required for the 7nm node and beyond. Scaling Silicon transistors down has become increasingly difficult and expensive and at around 7nm it will prove to be downright impossible. IBM development partner Samsung is in a race to catch up with Intel by 2018 when the first 7nm products are expected. Expect Silicon Alternatives Coming By 2020. One very promising short-term Silicon alternative is III-V semiconductor based on two compounds: Indium gallium arsenide ( InGaAs ) and indium phosphide (InP). Intel’s future mobile chips may have some components based on gallium nitride (GaN), which is also an exotic III-V material.
Silicon and traditional technologies continue to be still pushed forward in 2016 successfully. It seems that the extension of 193nm immersion to 7nm and beyond is possible, yet it would require octuple patterning and other steps that would increase production costs. IBM Research earlier this year beat Intel to the 7nm node by perfecting EUV lithography and using silicon-germanium channels for its finned field-effect transistors (FinFETs). Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world’s largest foundry, said it has started work on a 5nm process to push ahead its most advanced technology. TSMC’s initial development work at 5nm may be yet another indication that EUV has been set back as an eventual replacement for immersion lithography.
It seems that 2016 could be the year for mass-adoption of 3D ICs and 3D memory. For over a decade, the terms 3D ICs and 3D memory have been used to refer to various technologies. 2016 could see some real advances and traction in the field as some truly 3D products are already shipping and more are promised to come soon. The most popular 3D category is that of 3D NAND flash memory: Samsung, Toshiba, Sandisk, Intel and Micron have all announced or started shipping flash that uses 3D silicon structure (we are currently seeing 128Gb-384Gb parts). Micron’s Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC) uses stacked DRAM die and through-silicon vias (TSVs) to create a high-bandwidth RAM subsystem with an abstracted interface (think DRAM with PCIe). Intel and Micron have announced production of a 3D crosspoint architecture high-endurance (1,000× NAND flash) nonvolatile memory.
The success of Apple’s portable computers, smartphones and tablets will lead to the fact that the company will buy as much as 25 per cent of world production of mobile DRAMs in 2016. In 2015 Apple bought 16.5 per cent of mobile DRAM.
After COP21 climate change summit reaches deal in Paris environmental compliance 2016 will become stronger business driver. Increasingly, electronics OEMs are realizing that environmental compliance goes beyond being a good corporate citizen. On the agenda for these businesses: climate change, water safety, waste management, and environmental compliance. Keep in mindenvironmental compliance requirements that include the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive, Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive 2002/95/EC (RoHS 1), and Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH). It’s a legal situation: If you do not comply with regulatory aspects of business, you are out of business. Some companies are leading the parade toward environmental compliance or learning as they go.
Connectivity is proliferating everything from cars to homes, realigning diverse markets. It needs to be done easily for user, reliably, efficiently and securely.It is being reported that communications technologies are responsible for about 2-4% of all of carbon footprint generated by human activity. The needs for communications and faster speeds is increasing in this every day more and more connected world – penetration of smart devices there was a tremendous increase in the amount of mobile data traffic from 2010 to 2014.Wi-Fi has become so ubiquitous in homes in so many parts of the world that you can now really start tapping into that by having additional devices. When IoT is forecasted to be 50 billion connections by 2020, with the current technologies this would increase power consumption considerably. The coming explosion of the Internet of Things (IoT) will also need more efficient data centers that will be taxed to their limits.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is enabling increased automation on the factory floor and throughout the supply chain, 3D printing is changing how we think about making components, and the cloud and big data are enabling new applications that provide an end-to-end view from the factory floor to the retail store. With all of these technological options converging, it will be hard for CIOs, IT executives, and manufacturing leaders keep up. IoT will also be hard for R&D.Internet of Things (IoT) designs mesh together several design domains in order to successfully develop a product. Individually, these design domains are challenging. Bringing them all together to create an IoT product can place extreme pressure on design teams. It’s still pretty darn tedious to get all these things connected, and there’s all these standards battles coming on. The rise of the Internet of Things and Web services is driving new design principles as Web services from companies such as Amazon, Facebook and Uber are setting new standards for user experiences. Designers should think about building their products so they can learn more about their users and be flexible in creating new ways to satisfy them – but in such way that the user’s don’t feel that they are spied on what they do.
Subthreshold Transistors and MCUs will be hot in 2016 because Internet of Things will be hot in 2016 and it needs very low power chips. The technology is not new as cheap digital watches use FETs operating in the subthreshold region, but decades digital designers have ignored this operating region, because FETs are hard to characterize there. Now subthreshold has invaded the embedded space thanks to Ambiq’s new Apollo MCU. PsiKick Inc. has designed a proof-of-concept wireless sensor node system-chip using conventional EDA tools and a 130nm mixed-signal CMOS that operates with sub-threshold voltages and opening up the prospect of self-powering Internet of Things (IoT) systems. I expect also other sub-threshold designs to emerge. ARM Holdings plc (Cambridge, England) is also working at sub- and near-threshold operation of ICs. TSMC has developed a series of processes characterized down to near threshold voltages (ULP family for ultra low power are processes). Intel will focus on its IoT strategy and next-generation low voltage mobile processors.
FPGAs in various forms are coming to be more widely use use in 2016 in many applications. They are not no longer limited to high-end aerospace, defense, and high-end industrial applications. There are different ways people use FPGA. Barrier of entry to FPGA development have lowered so that even home makers can use easily FPGAs with cheap FPGA development boards, free tools and open IP cores. There was already lots of interest in 2015 for using FPGA for accelerating computations as the next step after GPU. Intel bought Altera in 2015 and plans in 2016 to begin selling products with a Xeon chip and an Altera FPGA in a single package – possibly available in early 2016. Examples of applications that would be well-suited for use of ARM-based FPGAs, including industrial robots, pumps for medical devices, electric motor controllers, imaging systems, and machine vision systems. Examples of ARM-based FPGAs are such as Xilinx’s Zynq-7000 and Altera’s Cyclone V intertwine. Some Internet of Things (IoT) application could start to test ARM-based field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology, enabling the hardware to be adaptable to market and consumer demands – software updates on such systems become hardware updates. Other potential benefits would be design re-use, code portability, and security.
The trend towards module consolidation is applicable in many industries as the complexity of communication, data rates, data exchanges and networks increases. Consolidating ECU in vehicles is has already been big trend for several years, but the concept in applicable to many markets including medical, industrial and aerospace.
It seems to be that AXIe nears the tipping point in 2016. AXIe is a modular instrument standard similar to PXI in many respects, but utilizing a larger board format that allows higher power instruments and greater rack density. It relies chiefly on the same PCI Express fabric for data communication as PXI. AXIe-1 is the uber high end modular standard and there is also compatible AXIe-0 that aims at being a low cost alternative. Popular measurement standard AXIe, IVI, LXI, PXI, and VXI have two things in common: They each manage standards for the test and measurement industry, and each of those standards is ruled by a private consortium. Why is this? Right or wrong, it comes down to speed of execution.
These days, a hardware emulator is a stylish, sleek box with fewer cables to manage. The “Big Three” EDA vendors offer hardware emulators in their product portfolios, each with a distinct architecture to give development teams more options. For some offerings emulation has become a datacenter resource through a transaction-based emulation mode or acceleration mode.
LED lighting is expected to become more intelligent, more beautiful, more affordable in 2016. Everyone agrees that the market for LED lighting will continue to enjoy dramatic year-on-year growth for at least the next few years. LED Lighting Market to Reach US$30.5 Billion in 2016 and Professional Lighting Markets to See Explosive Growth. Some companies will win on this growth, but there are also losers. Due currency fluctuations and price slide in 2015, end market demands in different countries have been much lower than expected, so smaller LED companies are facing financial loss pressures. The history of the solar industry to get a good sense of some of the challenges the LED industry will face. Next bankruptcy wave in the LED industry is possible. The LED incandescent replacement bulb market represents only a portion of a much larger market but, in many ways, it is the cutting edge of the industry, currently dealing with many of the challenges other market segments will have to face a few years from now. IoT features are coming to LED lighting, but it seem that one can only hope for interoperability
Other electronics trends articles to look:
Hot technologies: Looking ahead to 2016 (EDN)
CES Unveiled NY: What consumer electronics will 2016 bring?
Analysts Predict CES 2016 Trends
LEDinside: Top 10 LED Market Trends in 2016
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Mike Rogoway / Oregonian:
Sources: Intel planning job cuts significantly larger than last year’s 1,100, could come after Q1 financial results on Tuesday — Intel planning for thousands of job cuts, internal sources say — Intel is preparing a significant round of job cuts across business units this spring …
Intel planning for thousands of job cuts, internal sources say
http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2016/04/intel_planning_for_thousands_o_1.html
Intel is preparing a significant round of job cuts across business units this spring, according to multiple sources inside the company familiar with its plans.
The cutbacks will reduce employment in some parts of the business by double-digit percentages, according to Intel insiders, amounting to thousands of job cuts across the company by the end of the year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel planning for thousands of job cuts, internal sources say
http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2016/04/intel_planning_for_thousands_o_1.html
Intel is preparing a significant round of job cuts across business units this spring, according to multiple sources inside the company familiar with its plans.
Intel had 107,000 employees worldwide at the end of December. Its Oregon headcount is at a record high, 19,500, up 5 percent since last summer as the company ramps up work inside a new, multibillion-dollar Hillsboro research factory called D1X.
Sources indicate this year’s cutbacks will be considerably larger than layoffs last year, when Intel eliminated more than 1,100 U.S. jobs after anticipated sales growth failed to materialize.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tablet gesture controls came to oscilloscopes
Teledyne LeCroy’s WaveRunner 8000 -oskilloskooppeihin new has been added to the familiar tablet computer touch screen gesture. The new operating mode allows the device to use functions more effectively.
Waverunner 800 extend gesture controls LeCroy tradition in the development of new user interface techniques. OneTouch optimized according to the manufacturer comfort and efficiency by enabling all common functions with a single touch on the screen.
Gesture, for example, drag and drop voikopioida and create new channels, mathematical functions and measurement parameters without lifting a finger. Common gestures such as drag, drop, pinch and flick facilitate instinctive interaction with the oscilloscope.
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/04/18/tablettien-eleohjaus-tuli-oskilloskooppeihin/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel XPoint emperor has no clothes, only soiled diapers
Micron’s deafening XPoint silence
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/15/intel_xpoint_emperor_has_no_clothes/
Intel’s XPoint marketing is such frenetic, hype-filled BS that it is setting up the world to be utterly underwhelmed by the XPoint reality.
We have had a mini deluge of XPoint news recently, with Frank T. Hady, Intel Fellow and Chief 3D XPoint Storage Architect giving a pitch at the 7th Annual Non-Volatile Memories Workshop 2016 at UC San Diego, and with Intel demo’ing an Optane SSD at its IDF 2016 in Shenzhen, China.
Yet from Micron, listen as hard as we can, all we hear is a deadening silence. Why is this?
It’s the way the Intel-Micron joint venture is structured. According to people not a million miles away from Intel and Micron XPoint activities, their XPoint JV is 51 per cent owned by Micron, and 49 per cent by Intel. Micron has the right to buy out Intel’s share, but Intel doesn’t have a reciprocal right. This asymmetry affects the marketing/PR side of the XPoint JV as well, with Intel allowed to do as it’s doing and Micron effectively hobbled for some period of time.
Now, this “1,000 x” market positioning, as in XPoint being 1,000 times faster than flash and having 1,000 times more endurance. There will be venerable flash drives that are slow enough and short-lived enough to justify these ratios, but not enterprise-class stuff that’s available today, and the latest XPoint performance stats revealed by Intel show this.
Latest XPoint stats
An examination of the reported Hady presentation and the IDF Shenzhen demo revealed these XPoint Optane gen 1 numbers:
20nm process
SLC (1 bit/cell)
7 microsec latency, or 7,000 nanoseconds
78,500 (70:30 random) read/write IOPS
NVMe interface
Well, at last, real numbers. So XPoint is 1,000 times faster than SSDs, with an Intel PC3700 PCIe flash card having a latency of 85 microseconds; yeah, right, prepare to be under-freaking-whelmed by XPoint’s latency.
It is only 12 times faster than a modern Intel PCIe flash card, 16 times faster than a Micron NVMe 7100 or 9100 flash drive’s read latency, and a mere six times faster than said drives’ write latency.
So here is a bomb detonated under the XPoint-is-1,000-times-faster claim, which is shown to overstate the speed difference tenfold.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Magnetically Actuated Lighting Solutions
http://www.allegromicro.com/en/Products/Magnetic-Digital-Position-Sensor-ICs/Magnetically-Actuated-Lighting.aspx
Allegro MicroSystems, LLC offers a wide variety of lighting solutions. By combining industry-leading Hall-effect sensor technology with proven LED driver technology, Allegro offers LED lighting solutions for automotive, industrial, commercial, and consumer applications.
These product complement Allegro’s portfolio of general-purpose LED drivers and includes fully integrated lighting solutions as well as a collection of magnetic digital position sensor ICs that enable system integrators and designers to create custom lighting solutions to meet virtually any requirement.
Tomi Engdahl says:
PC has for several decades been the main driver of the semiconductor industry and the sales of components in the engine. Now Intel announces its withdrawal of up to 12 thousand its work force and changing the PC processor company cloud, mobile and manufacturer of processors IoT devices.
These growth areas were able last year to Intel for USD 2.2 billion in growth, and the majority of the company’s operating profit. At the same time new areas largely patched their PC processors into the sales decline.
Intel’s decision to turn its back on the traditional PC processor, however, is dramatic
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4284:intel-sanoo-hyvastit-pc-lle&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Growth comes from cellphone circuits
Research IC Insights predicts that microchips sold two per cent this year more than last year.
Topping the list were the smartphone application processors.
Phone application processor sales grew by eight per cent last year. This year, growth will pick up 10 per cent. The same amount will increase conversion of the signal that is AD and DA converters sales.
32-bit micro-controllers Trade to grow eight percent this year. growth of six percent over the least näytönajureissa, logic circuits, NAND flasheissa, as well as the number of analog communications chips.
Which groups are then reduced? Almost everything related to the PC.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4283:kasvu-tulee-kannykkapiireista&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
The quake struck Japan’s chip production
On Thursday, Japan’s southern island hit Kuyshuun earthquake caused big problems for the semiconductor production. For example, Renesas has, Sony and Mitsubishi Electric has factories in the district on the island
EE Times Japan, the Kumamoto situated in the territory of the factories stopped manufacturing districts on Thursday. The decision to continue production and the schedule can be taken only after the damage to production equipment and clean rooms have been mapped
The epicenter was measured volume to a maximum of 7.3 on the Richter scale.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4279:jaristys-iski-japanin-sirutuotantoon&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
An OEM’s Guide to the New Level VI Power Supply Marking Specification
http://www.cui.com/news/in-the-news/an-oem-s-guide-to-the-new-level-vi-power-supply-marking-specification?utm_source=eeweb.com&utm_medium=Paid%20Advertising&utm_content=120×80%2C%20OEM%20Guide%20Article&utm_campaign=EEWeb%20Email%204%2F18
With the coming Level VI standards just around the corner, CUI’s VP of Global Marketing, Jeff Schnabel, provides a guide for OEM’s trying to navigate the more stringent regulations in an article posted on Power Electronic Tips an EE World resource.
The article begins, “Market enthusiasm for new high-tech devices is undiminished. The Consumer Electronics Association, in its July 2015 U.S. Consumer Electronics Sales and Forecasts report, predicted total industry revenue will rise 2.4% to $285 billion. Major contributors include continued growth in smartphone and notebook/netbook sales, and successful new categories giving buyers more reasons to spend. These include 4K Ultra High-Definition televisions, connected-home technologies, and wearable devices.”
Jeff Schnabel notes that with the increased demand for electronics, governments are trying to limit demand for electrical energy. The eco-design initiatives implemented to limit energy consumption are forcing the issue on OEMs to implement power supplies with higher average efficiency and no-load power consumption into their designs.
An OEM’s Guide to the New Level VI Power Supply Marking Specification
http://www.powerelectronictips.com/an-oems-guide-to-the-new-level-vi-power-supply-marking-specification-2/
Today, the International Energy Efficiency Marking Protocol for External Power Supplies is the globally accepted framework setting out limits on standby consumption and average efficiency for such adapters. Within this framework, the toughest specification in use today is Level V, which is currently only enforced in the E.U. Things are about to change, however, as the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) has announced it will raise the bar to Level VI in February 10, 2016. Any external power supply manufactured after this date and shipped into the U.S. must meet the new efficiency targets. The DOE says this will save 47 million tons of CO2 emissions annually.
Changes Under the Skin
CUI began introducing Level VI compliant adapters in late 2014 to address the coming regulation. Some important design changes have been needed to satisfy the new, stricter targets, based on CUI’s established topologies. For units under 120 W, this is a flyback topology, while adapters over 120 W use an LLC resonant topology.
To meet the tougher standards, low-voltage/high-current models now feature synchronous rectification in the secondary side. Replacing conventional rectifier diodes with low-RDS(ON) MOSFETs has eliminated diode losses resulting in a net saving when the power to run the associated MOSFET controller IC is taken into account.
The PWM control strategy is significantly different compared to the previous generation. In CUI’s Level V adapters, the main control IC typically operates at a fixed frequency of 65 kHz, but the latest controllers for Level VI units improve efficiency as load decreases by reducing the switching frequency to 22 kHz. Improving light-load efficiency is important because the IEC-approved test method for assessing average efficiency (AS/NZS 4665) calls for power to be measured at 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of rated load. The arithmetic average of the data from all four points is then calculated to determine overall average efficiency. Because the efficiency at 25% load is the lowest of the four points, improving performance at light load results in better average efficiency.
Less than Six Months to Comply
The new Level VI efficiency standards for external power supplies are to be mandatory initially only in the U.S., but in practice will require OEMs worldwide to adjust their purchasing and supply-chain arrangements. In any case, historical patterns suggest that other territories such as the E.U. are likely to adopt the Level VI specification themselves.
Focusing on Efficiency
http://www.cui.com/efficiency-standards
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smart Power is Paving the Way for Smart Everything
http://www.techonline.com/electrical-engineers/education-training/tech-papers/4441777/Smart-Power-is-Paving-the-Way-for-Smart-Everything=NL_TOL_Edit_Subs_20160420_TechnicalPaper
Today, semiconductors are increasingly contributing to a more efficient energy ecosystem through energy generation, conversion, distribution, storage and usage. By 2030, it’s expected that 80 percent of energy flow in the U.S. will go through semiconductor devices. The “smart” prefix has long and frequently been used in energy and power management with diverse connotations such as smart grid, smart inverter, etc. The growing “smart” trend is also seen through the omnipresence of semiconductor content in alternative energy. This brief provides an overview of how smart power is paving the way for smart applications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Realizing the Potential of Software-Defined Power
http://www.cui.com/news/in-the-news/realizing-the-potential-of-software-defined-power?utm_source=eeweb.com&utm_medium=Paid%20Advertising&utm_content=120×80%2C%20Realizing%20Power%20Article&utm_campaign=EEWeb%20Email%204%2F18
In this article published by EDN, Mark Adams, CUI’s Senior VP, discusses the continued pressure that our data-centric lifestyles have put on our power infrastructure. The article further outlines the demand for power, the move to software-defined power and how the rapidly adopted technology is put into practice.
The article begins, “Modern lifestyles and work patterns are increasingly dependent on storing, accessing, processing, and sharing data. With our smart digital devices, we can create content at will, and publish instantaneously via the Internet. Modern businesses, of course, are huge users of online data, as are government agencies responsible for maintaining security and improving delivery of public services.”
Therefore, Adams notes the move to software-defined power to improve flexibility, efficiency and reliability as the demand for power continues to rise. He outlines the benefits of this growing technology and how it can be put into practice now and in the future.
Realizing the potential of software defined power
http://www.edn.com/design/power-management/4440624/Realizing-the-potential-of-software-defined-power
Our dependence on data is set to increase further, as the Internet of Things becomes the Internet of Everything, and further aspects of life – including our mobility – become increasingly electronically managed. Autonomous cars will bring unprecedented demand for collecting, analyzing, sharing, and storing data, especially as numerous vehicles and highway sensors will monitor the same events from different perspectives. We can contemplate a future containing trillions of sensors, collecting and passing data continuously. Moreover, impatient consumers and real-time services such as smart driving will demand immediate responses, ratcheting up the pressure on the infrastructure even further.
It is also worth mentioning that not all of the vast numbers of sensors anticipated by forecasters will be used to enhance already comfortable lifestyles: industry-backed events such as the TSensors Summit have envisioned many trillions of networked sensors being used to help combat shortages of food, energy, water, healthcare, and education in the world’s most deprived areas.
Data center architects have successfully used virtualization to increase server utilization, thereby helping reduce both capital costs and cost of powering idle servers. With virtualization, the computing architecture has become software defined. At the same time, power supply design has moved forward.
A software-defined power architecture can realize further significant efficiency gains and also help to improve other performance metrics such as reliability and uptime, for example by reducing the stress on power supplies during times of low demand and enabling predictive maintenance. Moreover, the software-defined power architecture can adapt on the fly to meet demand by activating or deactivating power supplies, and can adjust system voltages for optimum efficiency.
Today’s processors use adaptive voltage scaling (AVS) to adjust their power demand autonomously according to the processing load applied. At times of low load, both the supply voltage and operating frequency can be reduced to the minimum needed to perform the required tasks. Support for adaptive voltage scaling bus (AVSBus) is built into the latest PMBus standard version 1.3, the open-standard protocol for communication between power devices. Support for AVSBus allows processors to adjust the appropriate POL output voltages autonomously, thereby affording another ‘arrow in the quiver’ in addition to the previously available PMBus commands.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel literally decimates workforce: 12,000 will be axed, CFO shifts to sales
While banking a $2bn profit in first three months of the year
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/19/intel_q1_fy2016_job_cuts/
Intel will axe 12,000 employees globally – more than one in ten of its workforce – as it moves further away from being a PC chip company.
The layoffs are among the biggest into the company’s history, and come as PC industry continues to tank harder than Intel expected.
The Santa Clara-based biz sees a lot of growth in the worlds of data centers, memory, and the internet of things – anything that doesn’t look like a traditional desktop computer, the sales of which are dwindling. As a result, fewer processors for normal PCs, laptops and tablets are needed, and so Intel is rejigging itself to focus more on these growth areas – which will mean losing some workers.
“We’re seen as a PC company. It’s time to make a transition to push the company all the way over to our new strategy,” Intel CEO Brian Krzanich told analysts on a conference call on Tuesday.
The processor giant said about 11 per cent of its 107,000 staffers will be shed through “site consolidations worldwide, a combination of voluntary and involuntary departures, and a re-evaluation of programs.”
Intel said the decimation will save it $750m this year and deliver “annual run rate savings of $1.4 billion by mid-2017.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fluorescence Imaging: Optical filtering basics for life sciences
http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/print/volume-51/issue-12/biooptics-world/biooptics-features/fluorescence-imaging-optical-filtering-basics-for-life-sciences.html?cmpid=LFWOpticalFilters04192016&eid=289644432&bid=1378106
Optical filters can have a dramatic effect on outcomes in life sciences. These principles demonstrate how next-generation thin film enhances excitation and emission in fluorescence bioimaging systems.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Understanding frequency variation in the DCS-Control topology
http://www.techonline.com/electrical-engineers/education-training/tech-papers/4441079/Understanding-frequency-variation-in-the-DCS-Control–topology?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160420&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160420&elqTrackId=0f538fb48bde4f03ba4049feb6f50c14&elq=1e3f2dd7a13345c4bf00fe5180b7e7de&elqaid=31925&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=27841
A common requirement in the automotive market is to avoid interfering with the AM radio band or other sensitive electronics, such as sensors. One example for power supplies is setting their switching frequency above ~1.8 MHz in order to keep all noise at a higher frequency than the highest AM radio signals. DCS-Control topology is an example of an on-time based topology which efficiently provides the low-noise and fast-transient response needed in many automotive applications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Graphene spintronics crowned latest Moore’s Law extender contender
It’s not just politicians and PRs who are powered by spin
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/16/graphene_spintronics_to_extend_moores_law/
Wonder material graphene could provide the basis for the future of circuitry, by using a technique known as spintronics, boffins have mused.
Spintronics uses the spin of individual electrons as the encoding method for data. This is significantly smaller than using charge, which requires thousands of electrons. Unfortunately, impurities in metal limit the size of components.
By substituting graphene for metal, Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden believes it can overcome the limitations and extend the area of a spintronics device from nanometres to millimetres. Data can be transferred from electron to electron by the magnetic effect of the spin.
Spintronics is already used in some hard drives and memory, and the University of Cambridge has investigated 3D processor design using the tech and aims to create spintronics devices by improving the purity of metals through advanced chemistry.
The short-term aim is to construct a logical component that, not unlike a transistor, is made up of graphene and magnetic materials. In the longer term things are more ambitious. Professor Dash told El Reg:
Electrons, with their spin magnetic moments aligned in one direction, can be used to store information and can be communicated over long distances as our results show. Spin magnetic moments act like memory and we can integrate memory and processor in a single device in future. ITRS is projecting spin logic and memory technology. This is called All Spin Logic.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lattice Semiconductor can not compete with the major FPGA manufacturers, the largest and fastest programmable circuit for the title. Instead, the company is developing virtapihejä solutions for applications where programmability will be an important feature. Now the company has expanded its popular MachXO3 Series performance.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4291:lisaa-suorituskykya-virtapihiin-logiikkaan&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Penn Engineers Develop First Transistors Made Entirely of Nanocrystal ‘Inks’
https://news.upenn.edu/news/penn-engineers-develop-first-transistors-made-entirely-nanocrystal-inks
The transistor is the most fundamental building block of electronics, used to build circuits capable of amplifying electrical signals or switching them between the 0s and 1s at the heart of digital computation. Transistor fabrication is a highly complex process, however, requiring high-temperature, high-vacuum equipment.
Now, University of Pennsylvania engineers have shown a new approach for making these devices: sequentially depositing their components in the form of liquid nanocrystal “inks.”
Their new study, published in Science, opens the door for electrical components to be built into flexible or wearable applications, as the lower-temperature process is compatible with a wide array of materials and can be applied to larger areas.
The researchers’ nanocrystal-based field effect transistors were patterned onto flexible plastic backings using spin coating but could eventually be constructed by additive manufacturing systems, like 3-D printers.
Kagan’s group developed a library of four of these inks: a conductor (silver), an insulator (aluminum oxide), a semiconductor (cadmium selenide) and a conductor combined with a dopant (a mixture of silver and indium). “Doping” the semiconductor layer of the transistor with impurities controls whether the device transmits a positive or negative charge.
“These materials are colloids just like the ink in your inkjet printer,” Kagan said, “but you can get all the characteristics that you want and expect from the analogous bulk materials, such as whether they’re conductors, semiconductors or insulators.
“Our question was whether you could lay them down on a surface in such a way that they work together to form functional transistors.”
“The trick with working with solution-based materials is making sure that, when you add the second layer, it doesn’t wash off the first, and so on,”
“Making transistors over larger areas and at lower temperatures have been goals for an emerging class of technologies, when people think of the Internet of things, large area flexible electronics and wearable devices,
Tomi Engdahl says:
Goodbye: XPoint is Intel’s best exit from NAND production hell
How a $35m revenue hit turns into a $167m profit change
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/21/xpoint_is_intels_exit_from_nand_production_hell/
3D XPoint memory represents a door way to non-volatile profits for Intel and a passage away from NAND production, which is bedevilled by over-supply from costly fabrication plants with high costs.
This idea starts from a simple question: how is Intel’s flash business doing? Not well, according to a financial analyst.
In its first quarter results Intel separated out its Non-Volatile Memory Solutions business for the first time, which means NAND flash and 3D XPoint.
Analyst haus Stifel Nicolaus’ MD, Aaron Rakers, notes:
Pricing difficulties
Potential cost difficulties as Intel MLC (2bits/cell) Planar NAND products competed with TLC (3bits/cell) NAND products from competitors
Cost of 3D XPoint investment
Cost of 3D NAND fab in Dalian, China
He estimates WD/HGST’s purchase of NAND flash from Intel as being 20-25 per cent of Intel’s current total NAND flash revenue.
WD’s HGST unit sells SSDS jointly developed with Intel. Consequent on WD buying SanDisk, with its own NAND chip production facilities
The only way Intel is going to make money from non-volatile memories is, in NAND, with 3D chip volume and costs being low enough to withstand pricing pressure, and, in XPoint, with controlled supply keeping prices high.
In NAND Intel and fab partner Micron are competing with WD/SanDisk-Toshiba (shared fabs), Samsung (industry leader) and SK hynix. The NAND market generally is over-supplied considering the costs of production. Suppliers are engaged in an ongoing race to make their flash bits cheaper than anyone else while giving them sufficient performance and endurance.
XPoint is much more promising. No other supplier appears to have a working Resistive RAM/Phase-Change Memory technology that is sampling and matches XPoint’s performance and endurance capabilities. Micron and Intel should be able to match XPoint chip volume production to demand; meaning no over-supply.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The world’s fastest flexible transistor
Organic and bend semiconductors are many companies and research aim. printing circuits on the plastic base would make their manufacture quick and inexpensive. American scientists show that the technology is developing rapidly.
University of Wisconsin researchers have succeeded in manufacturing the world’s fastest bendable transistors on the printing technique familiar from a roll-to-roll method. Professor Department of Electronics Zhenqiang (Jack) Man under the direction of team conducted transistors with a switching speed reached 38 gigahertz.
Professor Man, the simulations indicate that the transistors operating speed can increase up to 110 gigahertz. This means that the speed is enough logic – such as processors – for example, in addition to the implementation of wireless circuits.
The researchers prepared the transistor press PET plastic monocrystalline silicon the desired patterns.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4297:maailman-nopein-taipuva-transistori&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Russian memory could replace Flash some day
Russian scientists working in physics and technology MIPT Institute have developed a memory technology that promises to replace the existing flash memory chips. This so-called. a universal memory of Russian scientists have developed together with the University of Nebraska and the University of Lausanne researchers.
Scientists have for years been looking for the right structure and materials universaalimuistille, which would replace the existing DRAM, SRAM and flash circuits and mechanical spinning hard drives. The reason for this is, above all, the fact that flash technology in a smaller scale is more and more difficult.
MIPT’s researchers have now developed a highly promising candidate universal memory. They managed to increase their silicon Polykit a ferroelectric film with a thickness of only 2.5 nanometers.
Such a ferroelectric film based cell data are written by directing a voltage to electrodes adjacent the membrane. Data is read by measuring the current connection.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4293:venalainen-muisti-saattaa-korvata-flashin&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers Accidentally Make Batteries Last 400 Times Longer
Gels and nanowires
http://www.popsci.com/researchers-accidentally-make-batteries-last-400-times-longer
Smartphones, tablets, and most other electronics rely on rechargeable batteries, but after a few thousand uses the batteries start to lose their ability to hold a charge. The batteries of today are mainly lithium, and over time that lithium corrodes inside the battery.
Instead of lithium, researchers at UC Irvine have used gold nanowires to store electricity, and have found that their system is able to far outlast traditional lithium battery construction. The Irvine team’s system cycled through 200,000 recharges without significant corrosion or decline.
However, they don’t exactly know why. The original idea of the experiment was to make a solid-state battery: one that uses an electrolyte gel, rather than liquid, to help hold charge. Liquid batteries, like the common lithium variety, are extremely combustible and sensitive to temperature. The Irvine team was experimenting by substituting a much thicker gel.
The Irvine battery technology uses a gold nanowire, no thicker than a bacterium, coated in manganese oxide and then protected by a layer of electrolyte gel. The gel interacts with the metal oxide coating to prevent corrosion. The longer the wire, the more surface area, and the more charge it can hold. Other researchers have been experimenting with nanowires for years, but the introduction of the protective gel separates UC Irvine’s work from other research.
While the technology promises consumer electronics that last 400 times longer, this initial test platform isn’t a true battery.
Even though minuscule amounts of gold are being used in this experiment, that would still make these batteries be expensive to manufacture. Penner suggests that a more common metal, like nickel, could replace the gold if the technology catches on.
Tomi Engdahl says:
China’s Chip Patent Growth May Be Short Lived
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1329493&
A big spurt in semiconductor patent grants in China may not be sustainable, according to an analysis of the data by a intellectual property expert.
The rapid growth of the Chinese semiconductor industry has received considerable attention in publications such as The Economist and The New York Times recently. Some are suggesting that China has sights on dominating the chip market.
The IFI study focused on semiconductor-related patenting activity inside China rather than the acquisition of IP by Chinese companies.
The fact that patent application growth is slowing and patent grants have jumped suggests that the Chinese Patent Office is catching up with the surge in applications that occurred between 2011 and 2014. Going forward, IFI predicts that semiconductor grants will grow at an annual rate of 15-18 percent – considerably lower than the 88 percent jump seen between 2014-15.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ams Breaks Ground on N.Y. Fab
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1329506&
Ams AG broke ground on a wafer fab in upstate New York today (April 20), joining the ranks of advanced manufacturers in the region. The Austrian company aims to start volume ramp of high-performance analog wafers by the second half of 2018.
Production capacity at the Utica fab will supplement ams’ existing 180nm and 350nm CMOS and SiGe fab at its headquarters near Graz, Austria. The fab will initially offer capacity of at least 150,000 200mm wafer equivalents per year, then expand to a capacity of more than 450,000 200mm wafer equivalents per year.
“By operating our own in-house wafer manufacturing facilities, ams is able to push the limits of sensor manufacturing, assuring customers a dedicated supply of sensors with the highest quality standards,” ams’ CEO Alexander Everke told EE Times.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lead Partner Pulls Out of India Fab Plan
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1329516&
After years of inactivity the Indian government’s long-running project to build two wafer fabs in the sub-continent appears to be in jeopardy, at least on one front.
“JP Associates has withdrawn its proposal of semiconductor plant. They have said that it is not commercially viable to set up this plant at present,” Aruna Sharma, secretary of the DeitY (Department of Electronics and IT) of the ministry of communications & information technology, government of India told reporters on the sidelines of a Qualcomm event in New Delhi.
According to the local reports the JP wafer fab was expected to cost about $4 billion in total and be capable of running 300mm-diameter wafers and run 40,000 wafer starts per month in an advanced CMOS. The plan was to have Tower run the wafer fab as a whole and for IBM to provide CMOS manufacturing processes. The fab would start on 90, 65 and 45nm CMOS nodes before moving on to 28nm CMOS and a 22nm node, still behind today’s leading edge in chip manufacturing, but potentially useful for applications in the Internet of Things
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cutting Antenna Design Time
Novel Algorithm Streamlines 4G/5G
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1329511&
The antennas for smartphones capable of operating anywhere in the world at 4G and in the future at 5G, are becoming progressively more difficult to design with all the different frequencies they must transmit and receive. The answer, already being used in advanced design is multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas (also called multi-port antennas) that can dissect the frequency band cheaply and efficiently.
Unfortunately, today’s experienced antenna designers use “black magic” (their experience and savvy) to guess at what the optimal antenna configuration should be, then run full-bore simulations of all the factors involved that sometimes take a week of computer time to run. And if the results are poor, then they have to do it all over again until they get a good-enough design–never knowing how close their design is to the optimal configuration.
Now North Carolina State University (NCSU) researchers think they have a better idea. Instead or running super detailed simulations conjured by their most experiencer “black magic” radio frequency (RF) expert, they simplify the problem to its bare basics, by eliminating all but the most important parameters, and solve for the most optimal antenna configuration. These algorithms can be run in minutes instead of weeks, allowing the RF expert to tweak the configuration repeatedly until a optimal seems to have been reached. Then the old-school detailed simulator can be brought in to validate the design in greater detail before manufacturing begins.
“Our motivation was to be able to study multi-port antennas and understand how they work at a fundamental level,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mie Fujitsu, CSEM to Combine DDC, Low Voltage for IoT Chips
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1329518&
Japanese chip manufacturer Mie Fujitsu Semiconductor Ltd. and Swiss research institute CSEM SA have agreed to collaborate on Deeply Depleted Channel (DDC) technology and near/sub-threshold voltage technology for integrated circuits aimed at the Internet of Things and wearables markets.
The goal of the partnership is to develop a best-in-class extreme-low power (ELP) platform for IC fabrication with the associated ecosystem to enable chip designs for energy-critical wearable and IOT devices. The platform is due to be ready for limited release in Q4 2016.
The agreement encompasses the development of ultra-low voltage standard cell libraries, power management cells and memories as well as the development of a demonstrator circuit to show the technology. The agreement also includes cross-licensing of related IP.
Applying DDC to 40/55nm CMOS along with mixed-signal/RF and embedded non-volatile memory allows highly integrated analog and RF SoCs for IoT and wearable platforms.
Tomi Engdahl says:
When 3D Printing Meets PCBs
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1329449&
The convergence of electronics and 3D printing will bring the PCB prototyping in-house.
Open any magazine and it’s clear that applications for 3D printing are exploding. Yet one area that remains largely unexplored is the use of additive manufacturing for electronics. The convergence of electronics and 3D printing will have staggering implications for the electronics industry—particularly around printed circuit boards and rapid prototyping.
Not surprisingly, the 3D printed electronics space is in its infancy, more or less at the same level of adoption as regular 3D prototyping was in 2009. But its slow adoption is not from a lack of interest or need; rather, it’s because creating 3D printers for PCBs is exceedingly complex and existing inks and printers just weren’t up to the challenge. These printers must be able to print conductive traces, which is the domain of printed electronics and produce components that meet the demanding performance requirements of aerospace, defense, consumer electronics, Internet of Things and even wearables.
3D printers and materials for PCBs
Developing systems for true 3D-printed electronics involves creating exceedingly precise hardware with three axes: X, Y and Z. It also requires using specialty inks that are engineered at the nanoparticle level. The final element needed is advanced software that ties it all together, including the ability to effortlessly convert standard PCB Gerber design files—which are designed for 2D manufacturing environments—into 3D printable files. This allows for the 3D printer to print the substrate to the required thickness, leave and fill holes where vias are required, and more. Software for the design and validation of freeform circuit geometries isn’t yet readily available in the marketplace but will open up further electronics design abilities.
Still, despite the complexities of building such 3D printers, the benefits of using them are obvious for electronics and other industries. PCB designers and electronics engineers are eager for the first 3D printers for professional printed electronics to emerge.
Practical uses and benefits for prototyping
Interest in these highly specific 3D printers is very high. The possibility of using additive manufacturing to create professional PCBs offers manufacturers the flexibility of printing their own circuit board prototypes in-house for rapid prototyping, R&D, or even for custom manufacturing projects. While it is unlikely that 3D printers for electronics will replace all of the traditional processes for in-house development of high-performance electronic device applications, they will be particularly useful for prototyping, reducing time to build from weeks to just hours.
With traditional PCB prototyping, turnaround times of weeks or even months for multiple iterations while perfecting a design can wreak havoc on time-to-market. Given that, many designers opt for more conservative designs. Printing the PCB prototypes in-house means designers can risk being more creative without slowing the development process.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Harvest Electricity from Magnetism
Batteries, solar, mobile to be boosted
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1329498&
With microwaves on the rise worldwide, generated by cell phone towers, mobile devices, WiFi, Bluetooth, 5G and on and on, its natural that scientists would investigate ways to harness these waves to generate energy. Scientists at the University of Utah have discovered a novel way of converting microwave energy into electricity in organic semiconductors.
In the lab, they have demonstrated a novel effect—called the inverse spin Hall effect—which can convert magnetic spin current into electrical current using microwaves as their source of magnetic spin. It sounds like taking the long way around, since cell-phone antennas already convert microwaves into electricity, however the point of their demonstration is not to preview an application, but to prove that the inverse spin Hall effect can indeed be harnesses and controlled as a tool for the 21st century. They predict applications in batteries, solar cells, mobile devices.
“The energy that we take out of the device is energy that is put into the device through microwave radiation—in that sense, the power conversion does exactly what an antenna does as well, namely convert electromagnetic radiation into an electrical current,” University of Utah professor Christoph Boheme told EE Times in an exclusive interview.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ian King / Bloomberg:
AMD climbed 52% Friday after announcing $293M deal to license processor and system-on-chip technology to China-backed joint venture THATIC — AMD Soars on Agreement to License Chip Technology for China — Struggling chipmaker looking for ways to monetize technology
AMD Climbs Most in 35 Years on China Chip License Agreement
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-21/amd-to-license-server-chip-technology-for-use-in-china-market
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. had its biggest increase in more than 35 years Friday after it said it’s licensing technology to a Chinese, state-backed joint venture that will produce server processors for that country’s market.
The company also predicted strong growth in the current quarter. Second-quarter revenue will increase 15 percent, plus or minus 3 percent, from the preceding three months, AMD said in a statement Thursday. That indicates sales of $931.8 million to $981.8 million and compares with an average analyst estimate of $890.8 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Programmable Logic Control (PLC) Solutions Guide
http://www.ti.com/lit/sl/slyy041c/slyy041c.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung Details Foundry Roadmap
Low-cost 14nm, 10nm on the horizon
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1329524&
Officials from Samsung Semiconductor Inc. (SSI) detailed the company’s foundry roadmap, which includes expanding FD-SOI production and offering low-cost alternatives to existing FinFET technologies.
Perhaps the most relevant announcement is the development of a low-cost 14nm FinFET process, 14nm LPC. The company has already shipped more than half a million 14nm wafers and expanded the process to included networking/server and automotive applications, but Samsung’s Kelvin Low said he expects next-generation applications to move to the lower-cost option.
“There are always concerns about trading off cost versus performance,” Low, Samsung’s senior director of foundry marketing, told EE Times. “LPC has the same PDK of [14nm] LPP. The number of steps has been reduced…That allows us to achieve a lower cost point on manufacturing and we decide to share that with our customers.”
Samsung will also offer an RF add-on to 14LPC this year.
Low added that Samsung will release a 10nm LPP process technology that offers a 10% performance boost from the first-generation 10nm LPE (Low-Power Early) process. Although the foundry has begun work on a 7LPP node with “competitive PPA scaling,” Low said there is confusion about 10nm and 7nm.
Tomi Engdahl says:
AMD Licenses X86 to China JV
Deal may provide Zen technology for $293M
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1329517&
Advanced Micro Devices will license technology to make x86 server SoCs to a China partner. A China investment firm will pay AMD $293 million for technology and design services that will enable a joint venture to build next-generation server SoCs for the China market.
The deal gives AMD a needed infusion of cash and a partner in the world’s second largest and fastest growing server market. However details about the deal are scarce and could draw fire from Intel with whom AMD signed in 2009 a detailed patent cross license.
The deal is expected to be based on AMD’s next-generation x86 architecture called Zen. Even AMD is not expected to ship Zen-based server chips in volume until next year. The joint venture is likely to take even longer to assemble a team, design and ship its SoCs.
AMD has reported losses and declining revenues for several quarters. It laid off 5% of employees last fall and sold a majority stake of a packaging plant to a China firm.
Tomi Engdahl says:
40% of Silicon Valley’s Profits (But Not Sales) Came from Apple
https://apple.slashdot.org/story/16/04/24/0011248/40-of-silicon-valleys-profits-but-not-sales-came-from-apple
The San Jose Mercury News reports that last year 40% of Silicon Valley’s profits came from one company — Apple. “The iPhone maker accounted for 28 percent of the Bay Area tech industry’s $833 billion in 2015 sales,” while “Its profits were a jaw-dropping 40 percent of the region’s $133 billion total.”
Meanwhile, Google’s parent company Alphabet racked up $75 billion in sales, representing nearly 57% of the total for all Silicon Valley internet companies, followed by eBay and PayPal.
But while sales grew, internet-company profits fell by 29% as more companies focused on growth.
Quinn: After a year of slowing sales, Silicon Valley’s future takes shape
http://www.siliconvalley.com/michelle-quinn/ci_29803200/quinn-after-year-slowing-sales-silicon-valleys-future
It’s a social media world
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, dominates all things Internet with $75 billion in sales in 2015, more than half of the $132 billion in revenue the sector generated.
But peek behind Alphabet, and there are a bunch of social media companies clamoring up the sales ladder fast compared with firms in other sectors.
Facebook, ranked ninth this year, jumped up one slot. It reported nearly $18 billion in sales, up 44 percent from the prior year. (Synnex, an IT supply chain services firm, dropped to the 10th position from the ninth.)
Netflix, once dismissed as a glorified video rental outfit, is now ranked 14th in sales, up five slots from 19th.
And Twitter, despite its struggles to grow its user base, jumped 10 companies to now rank 40th in terms of sales.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Report: Intel will lay off 12% of workforce, re-focus on IoT, data centers over PCs
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2016/04/report-intel-will-lay-off-12-of-workforce-re-focus-on-iot-data-centers-over-pcs.html?cmpid=Enl_CIM_CablingNews_April252016&eid=289644432&bid=1384637
“The cuts will hit 12,000 employees around the world and take until mid-2017 to complete. Intel Corp. will record a $1.2 billion charge in the second quarter because of the actions. The company expects the layoffs to deliver $750 million in savings this year and annual savings of $1.4 billion by mid-2017.
The chipmaker is trying to move from being a PC-based business to one that caters more to cloud computing, data centers and the Internet of Things (IoT). Intel says in a statement that the data center and IoT markets are its “primary growth engines” now, with memory and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) “accelerating these opportunities.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Efficient data inspection techniques for colossal memory designs
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/day-in-the-life-of-a-chip-designer/4441860/Efficient-data-inspection-techniques-for-colossal-memory-designs?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160425&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160425&elqTrackId=757ca8f0082042fc8e275ff18672abdc&elq=a6c0b851ea9b40bf83ec6db4866847bb&elqaid=31982&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=27899
The demand for large data storage and high speed access has risen exponentially in the semiconductor industry with the simultaneous need to reduce data footprint for effectively managing more infrastructure resources. In two decades alone, we have witnessed the evolution of electronic devices from desktop computers to laptops to servers, tablets, smartphones, and high performance processors/graphics-accelerators/network devices. Accordingly, memory requirements have evolved from 32MB PC-66 SDRAM memory clocking @66Mhz (does anyone even remember those days?) to 1 TB DDR4-3000 memory clocking @3000Mhz and beyond.
To meet the goals of less power consumption in smartphones and tablets, a new system called LPDDR (Low Power DDR) is gaining currency. For high end smartphones, wide I/O is designed which contains up to 1024 bits wide bus for high performance and uses vertical stack and interconnects to minimize electrical interference and die footprint. To meet next generation high-performance and gaming/graphics accelerators, and network devices, HMC (Hybrid Memory Cube) and HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) have been designed which have multiple lanes/channels/ports to support 256 Gbps bandwidth and multiple dies to store 8Gb and beyond.
In older SDRAM DDR designs, we still traditionally use parallel, single-ended interfaces whereas for next-generation high performance requirements, multi-channel interfaces are designed in HBM DDR
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ganssle’s presentation “Mars Ate My Spacecraft” recounted a number of embedded disasters, some with a common theme: “Tired engineers make mistakes.”
Jacob Beningo’s session “Real-time software using Micro Python” explored the recent history of programming languages and how to get started with Micro Python.
Source: http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/now-hear-this/4441893/2/ESC-Boston-2016-in-photos
Tomi Engdahl says:
Do your LEDs have this defect?
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/led-zone/4441868/Do-your-LEDs-have-this-defect-?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160425&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160425&elqTrackId=3a4c26e105cf4490aae607e61073c716&elq=a6c0b851ea9b40bf83ec6db4866847bb&elqaid=31982&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=27899
According to a research project, it seems that there is a type of defect that exists in the atomic structure of an LED that hamstrings performance. Removing the point defects would provide more efficient and longer-lasting LEDs.
The research team, led by UCSB professor Chris Van de Walle, published their findings as a featured article in the April 4 issue of Applied Physics Letters. The team found that it is possible to assess whether the defects are present in the LED material, and that knowledge can be used to improve the quality of the material. In LEDs performance relies heavily on semiconductor material quality at the atomic level.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sensor solution defines light
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/led-zone/4441869/Sensor-solution-defines-light?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20160425&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20160425&elqTrackId=2065a1cfd0114de4be37b0135ef1b7ff&elq=99fea2237ea64b8e9b3b926f9ffabf46&elqaid=31995&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=27907
MAZeT will display an innovative sensor solution for controlling LEDs at LightFair International in San Diego, CA and again at SENSOR+TEST in Nuremburg, Germany in May. The company’s MTCS-CDCAF color sensor is a fully integrated sensor chip in MAZeT’s JENCOLOR line, the first to include a true-color filter function, integrated signal amplification based on charge-to-digital conversion, and an on-chip temperature sensor.
The MAZeT sensor chip works by measuring the color coordinates of light as XYZ signals in the CIE 1931 color space fast, directly, and precisely no matter the interference present. It uses interference filters that enable it to be reliable even over 100°C while maintaining sensitivity spanning its lifecycle. The sensor also measures color brightness, frequency, and flicker.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fab Tool Book-to-Bill Rises
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1329529&
Boosted by investments in 3D NAND and advanced logic capacity, North American vendors of semiconductor manufacturing equipment posted a higher book-to-bill ratio on a three month average basis in March, according to preliminary figures from the SEMI trade group.
North American fab tool vendors reported billings of $1.38 billion in March, an increase of 9.4% compared to February and a decrease of about 1% compared with March 2015, SEMI (San Jose, Calif.) said.
The three month rolling average for billings totaled $1.2 billion for March, down slightly from February and down 5.3% from March 2015, SEMI said.
The book-to-bill ratio for North American semiconductor equipment vendors rose to 1.15 in March, up from 1.05 in February and up from 1.10 in March 2015, according to SEMI. A book-to-bill of 1.15 means that $115 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mark Hachman / PCWorld:
Intel CEO outlines new strategy: focus on connected things like PC and IoT, cloud, new memory business like 3D XPoint, 5G, manufacturing and fab innovation
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3061210/components/intel-declares-independence-from-the-pc-as-it-lays-out-a-broader-5-point-strategy.html
Intel declares independence from the PC as it lays out a broader 5-point strategy
The PC’s just another ‘connected thing’ in this new world order.
In what only can be called a manifesto of Intel’s new values, Krzanich described how Intel is transforming itself “from a PC company to a company that powers the cloud and billions of smart, connected computing devices.” To drive the point home, Krzanich noted that the PC is just one among many connected devices.
What might be called the “new” Intel will be built upon five pillars, Krzanich said:
The cloud—including servers, data centers, and virtualization
Connected “things,” such as sensors, autonomous vehicles, or PCs
An evolving memory business, from 3D XPoint memory to advances in server and data center infrastructure
Connectivity, specifically 5G networking
Manufacturing and the underlying fab technology.
About 40 percent of Intel’s revenue and 60 percent of its profit margin already come from outside the PC, Krzanich said last week, when the company began publicly signalling its new focus.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Brian Krzanich: Our Strategy and The Future of Intel
https://newsroom.intel.com/editorials/brian-krzanich-our-strategy-and-the-future-of-intel/
There are five core beliefs that I hold to be undeniably true for the future.
The cloud is the most important trend shaping the future of the smart, connected world – and thus Intel’s future.
The many “things” that make up the PC Client business and the Internet of Things are made much more valuable by their connection to the cloud.
Memory and programmable solutions such as FPGAs will deliver entirely new classes of products for the data center and the Internet of Things.
5G will become the key technology for access to the cloud and as we move toward an always-connected world.
Moore’s Law will continue to progress and Intel will continue to lead in delivering its true economic impact.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Moortec discusses on-chip PVT monitoring
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/ic-designer-s-corner/4441861/Moortec-discusses-on-chip-PVT-monitoring?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160427&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160427&elqTrackId=3a67649b60364dd181d8118228e96e66&elq=cb3415bcd15a47ef985235d5761add9e&elqaid=32016&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=27928
As Moortec’s CTO, Oliver King has been leading the development of compelling on-chip monitoring solutions to address problems associated with ever-shrinking SoC geometries.
King is now heading up the expansion of Moortec’s IP portfolio into new products on advanced nodes. In this short Q&A, he shares his views on the need for accurate Process, Voltage, and Temperature (PVT) on-chip monitoring.
Since the beginning of the semiconductor industry, we have relied on a doubling of transistor count per unit area every 18 months as a way to increase performance and functionality of devices. Since 28nm, this has broken. As such, designers now need to find new ways to continue increasing performance.
One technique being deployed to provide the improvement is device optimisation. By being aware of a devices thermal and voltage environment and understanding where a given device is within the ever increasing sphere of device variation, allows the system architects and circuit designers to get more from a given piece of silicon. With the increase as well in the cost of advanced nodes, this is becoming even more important to ensure every last drop of performance is extracted from a die.
Is this just an issue for the advanced nodes?
In short, no. With the growth in the IoT market, we are going to see an explosion in the number of wireless devices. A majority of these will be on older process nodes, however, the same performance gains can be found on these nodes. These devices will typically be battery powered and sensitive to power consumption
Then we also have to consider automotive, which is a big growth area for the semiconductor industry as a whole. With the growth of the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Infotainment areas we will see more advanced nodes being used, certainly down to 28nm in the near future. Ideally some of these products would be on more advanced nodes but those are not qualified for automotive.
As a result, the available technologies will have to be squeezed by designers to get the extra level of performance. In addition, the environment in automotive is harsh. So when you look at all of these together it is clear there is definitely room for die optimisation, as well as the requirement for basic monitoring purely for safety and reliability reasons.
How important is accurate monitoring?
Accurate PVT monitors are key to implementing die optimisation. We all know the relationship between power consumption and supply voltage of CMOS logic. Being able to reduce the supply by even a few percent based on that particular die’s process point, also combined with the environmental conditions that allow, will result in power savings worth having. The same is true with performance, if a given clock speed can be met with a lower supply. But none of this is possible if the monitors are not accurate.
PVT monitors are not anything new. They have been used in the industry for a long time, however, not generally in what I call mission critical roles.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home> Power-management Design Center > How To Article
Energy efficiency is key to cloud services for the Internet of Everything
http://www.edn.com/design/power-management/4441898/Energy-efficiency-is-key-to-cloud-services-for-the-Internet-of-Everything?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160427&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160427&elqTrackId=f7e8a97397eb4648a19649f108473ad8&elq=cb3415bcd15a47ef985235d5761add9e&elqaid=32016&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=27928
Embracing traditional data services and the burgeoning requirements of the Internet of Things (IoT), the Internet of Everything (IoE), as it is now being referred to, is adding considerably to the pressure being applied to data communication networks and the storage capabilities of data centers. With the inevitable growth in this infrastructure that this rising demand is driving, the energy efficiency of these various Cloud services is inevitably and deservedly coming under increased scrutiny. Any measure that realizes valuable energy savings, including efficiency improvements in the supply of power to the many, many servers in these data centers, will not only help operators keep costs down but will also benefit the environment. Collaboration between leading companies in the power space, with each bringing to bear their own unique experiences, is one initiative that is providing a way forward.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NXP Bullish on Future With Freescale in Fold
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1329546&
NXP Semiconductors NV said Tuesday (April 26) that its $12 billion acquisition of Freescale Semiconductor Inc. is already paying dividends, as the company forecast revenue for the second quarter that generally beat analysts’ expectations.
NXP (Eindhoven, the Netherlands) said it expects sales for the second quarter to be between $2.3 billion and $2.4 billion, the mid-point of which exceeds the consensus of analysts’ expectations of $2.34 billion. The company said it expects its performance to be paced by strong sales of automotive products.
Citing a recent research firm from market watcher Semicast Research, Clemmer said NXP is now the No. 1 supplier of automotive semiconductors globally following the Freescale acquisition. The company has a 14.5% market share in automotive semiconductors, according to Semicast, more than 4 percentage points better than the next closest competitor, Infineon Technologies AG.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SiP package styles for magnetic position sensors have benefits for automotive applications
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4441909/Product-How-to–SiP-package-styles-for-magnetic-position-sensors-have-benefits-for-automotive-applications-?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160428&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160428&elqTrackId=45181ba10fe042afb3c94efc8bbfb123&elq=5cccf11fb1e047fdaa769bdef6160685&elqaid=32043&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=27959
In automotive applications that require very accurate and precise measurement of angular (rotational) or linear motion, the magnetic position sensor (MPOS) has emerged as the preferred choice of component type. The MPOS helps automotive suppliers to meet car manufacturers’ demands for safety and efficiency, enabling OEMs to conform to the specifications of industry standards such as ISO 26262 (for functional safety), as well as government-mandated fuel efficiency standards.
Conventionally, the complete measurement solution consists of an MPOS IC and a small number of external components mounted on a PCB. The PCB is normally fixed perpendicularly to a two-pole magnet mounted on the end of the shaft or rotor which needs to be measured.
An MPOS requires a small number of external components in order to function safely and reliably in an electronic circuit. A typical example of an application circuit – this for the AS5162 automotive rotary position sensor from ams
Tomi Engdahl says:
Xilinx Shares Decline After Light Forecast
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1329558&
Shares of programmable logic vendor Xilinx Inc. traded lower in after hours trading Wednesday (April 27) after the company reported quarterly results that beat consensus analysts’ expectations but forecast roughly flat sales for the current quarter.
Xilinx (San Jose, Calif.) said it expects sales for the current quarter, which closes in June, to be roughly flat with those it reported for the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2016, $571 million. The target fell short of Wall Street’s expectations, which called for Xilinx to post fiscal first quarter sales of about $579 million.
Xilinx said it derived 49% of its revenue in the fiscal fourth quarter from sales of new products, including the company’s 20nm UltraScale+,Ultrascale, 7-series and 45nm Spartan-6 products. Revenue from new products was up 3% sequentially and 21% year-over-year, Xilinx said.
“Our execution on the 28, 20 and 16nm nodes has been exceptional,” Gavrielov said. He added that Xilinx expects to ship “well over $30 million” worth of 20nm products in the current quarter.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Trade Secret Bill Boosts Protection
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1329561&
The Defend Trade Secrets Act is poised to bring a wealth of new protections for electronics companies that are more vulnerable than ever to trade secret theft.
There is a buzz in Washington DC and across the country about (hang on to your hats)…trade secrets law. Well at least in my circles. For the first time in our Nation’s history, we are on the brink of having a federal trade secrets law that allows private citizens to enforce their trade secrets and sue for damages.
Until now companies with trade secrets have had to rely on a patchwork of state trade secret misappropriation laws to pursue trade secret thieves. On April 27, 2016, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA). Earlier this month, on April 4, 2016, the full Senate approved the DTSA in a unanimous 87-0 vote.
The bill now goes to the White House for the President’s signature and the administration has expressed “strong support” for the legislation. It appears that by the end of this spring we will have the new federal law on the books.
This should come as welcome news to the software and electronics industries, which have an ever increasing need for trade secret protection. A trade secret is a form of intellectual property that protects secret information that has economic or competitive value, including customer lists, formulas, algorithms, software, unique designs, industrial techniques and manufacturing processes.
Companies are more vulnerable than ever to trade secret theft. As storage devices have gotten smaller, faster and more powerful, the risk of an internal breach has become more prevalent. The risks of external breaches and network hacking are creating greater threats to software and electronics innovators. While companies take technical steps to counter these threats and protect their crown jewels, the US Congress is setting up a scheme to allow companies to use the federal courts to protect their trade secrets in situations where those countermeasures fail.
Additionally, as patents continue to take a beating in the courts and in the Patent Office’s post-grant reviews, companies need to consider whether their innovations are suited for trade secret protection.
The new law will allow companies to protect their trade secrets through a uniform system across the country – one federal law for the land.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The death of Intel’s Atom casts a dark shadow over the rumored Surface Phone
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3063672/windows/the-death-of-intels-atom-casts-a-dark-shadow-over-the-rumored-surface-phone.html
Microsoft still reportedly remains committed to Windows 10 Mobile running on ARM chips. And what about the HoloLens?
Intel’s plans to discontinue its Atom chips for phones and some tablets may not have killed the dream of a Microsoft Surface phone—just the piece of it that made it so enticing.
In the wake of a restructuring that relegated the PC to just another connected device, Intel confirmed Friday that it has cancelled its upcoming SoFIA and Broxton chips. That leaves Intel with just one Atom chip, Apollo Lake, which it had slated for convertible tablets.
Microsoft has never formally commented on its future phone plans, save for a leaked email that suggests that Microsoft is committed to the Windows 10 Mobile platform and phones running ARM processors. But fans of the platform have long hoped for a phone that could run native Win32 legacy apps as well as the new UWP platform that Microsoft has made a central platform of Windows 10. The assumption was that this would require a phone running on an Intel Atom processor. Intel’s decision eliminates that option.
Intel gives up on the smartphone
Intel’s decision was first reported by analyst Patrick Moorhead, and confirmed by IDG News Service and PCWorld. Intel told PCWorld that it plans to kill the “Broxton” Atom platform as well as all the flavors of its SoFIA chips, which combined Atom cores with 3G and LTE modems for smartphones. The company said it will continue to support tablets with a 3G derivative of the SoFIA chip, the older Bay Trail and Cherry Trail, as well as some upcoming Core chips.
Microsoft uses a Cherry Trail chip inside of the HoloLens, but it’s unclear whether or not that will be affected.
Intel cuts Atom chips, basically giving up on the smartphone and tablet markets
Intel is refocusing on ‘products that deliver higher returns.’
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3063508/components/intel-is-on-the-verge-of-exiting-the-smartphone-and-tablet-markets-after-cutting-atom-chips.html
Intel could be on the verge of exiting the market for smartphones and standalone tablets, wasting billions of dollars it spent trying to expand in those markets.
The company is immediately canceling Atom chips, code-named Sofia and Broxton, for mobile devices, an Intel spokeswoman confirmed.
These are the first products on the chopping block as part of Intel’s plan to reshape operations after announcing plans this month to cut 12,000 jobs.
The news of the chip cuts was first reported by analyst Patrick Moorhead in an article on Forbes’ website.
Tomi Engdahl says:
AnandTech:
Intel’s Changing Future: Smartphone SoCs Broxton & SoFIA Officially Cancelled — The past two weeks have been a busy – if not tumultuous – period for Intel. Driven by continued challenges in various semiconductor markets, culminating in weaker-than-desired earnings in the most recent quarter …
Intel’s Changing Future: Smartphone SoCs Broxton & SoFIA Officially Cancelled
by Ian Cutress & Ryan Smith on April 29, 2016 8:15 PM EST
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10288/intel-broxton-sofia-smartphone-socs-cancelled
The past two weeks have been a busy – if not tumultuous – period for Intel. Driven by continued challenges in various semiconductor markets, culminating in weaker-than-desired earnings in the most recent quarter, Intel has set out to change their direction and refocus the company towards what they see as more lucrative, higher growth opportunity markets such as data center/server markets and cellular (5G) connectivity. To get there, the company is making changes to both their product lines and their head count, with the goal in the case of the latter to cut 11% of their workforce by the middle of next year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Barb Darrow / Fortune:
Cypress Semiconductor buys Broadcom’s IoT business for $550M as Cypress CEO steps down
Cypress Semiconductor Losing Its CEO While Gaining a New Business From Broadcom
http://fortune.com/2016/04/28/cypress-semiconductor-ceo-broadcom/
Cypress snaps up Broadcom’s Internet of things biz for $550 million in cash
Cypress Semiconductor announced on Thursday that its chief executive officer, T.J. Rodgers, is stepping down. The chip maker is also buying Broadcom’s BRCM 0.00% Internet of things division for $550 million in cash.
In the Broadcom transaction, Cypress CY -0.11% will get that company’s Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Zigbee products along with associated intellectual property. It will also acquire the Broadcom WICED brand and set of developer partners. Zigbee is a wireless technology that aims to assure that devices from different manufacturers can talk to each other.
In a separate statement about the Broadcom deal, Rodgers said Cypress is already a significant player in the so-called Internet of things market by virtue of its ultra-low-power, programmable system-on-chip (PSoC) technology. The drawback was that it could only pair those chips with generic radio communications devices.
“Now we have the highly regarded Broadcom IoT business—state-of-the-art Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Zigbee RF technologies—that will transform us into a force in IoT and provide us with new market opportunities as well,” Rodgers wrote.