EETimes On Air

AMS decided to purchase Osram. The former specializes in sensors, the latter in photonics; together they’ll chart an intriguing technological roadmap. We’ll find out what the combination will mean for the market. The Hot Chips conference was held this week. We’ve got a rundown of one of the hottest, an unconventional wafer-scale AI processor from secretive startup Cerebras. Also today: smart water bottles. These are computerized water bottles complete with display screens and WiFI connectivity. The bottles run apps designed to entice your children to drink more water. You might be asking yourself: How smart is a smart water bottle? Well, at the moment, they are being bamboozled by six-year-olds.

This is your Briefing for the week ending August 16th. Photonics – it’s not just for fiber optics anymore. In this episode, we’ve got a discussion about photonics, quantum sensors, and the potential for an all-optical computer. Broadcom bought Symantec last week. We ask editor Rick Merritt, Why on Earth a chip company would want to get into the market for business software? Over the years, the EDA industry has developed some marvelously sophisticated tools for testing and verifying the designs of highly complex integrated circuits. This week we have an interview with the CEO of a startup – a company that has its roots in EDA – about the tools it has developed to improve the testing process for autonomous vehicles. The tools will help AV companies determine if they’re testing what they think they’re testing.

Are you one of the hundreds of millions of people who can't wait to get a 5G cell phone? Your wait is almost over. Almost. Do you remember ultra-wideband? It was proposed a few years ago. Didn't catch on. But now it's back. The new ultra-wideband is based on a different technology, has new capabilities and is aimed at completely different applications. You'd think they'd come up with a new name, yeah? Also this week, Dylan McGrath got a rare one-on-one interview with Bob Swan, the CEO of Intel. In an industry that has seen its share of massive egos over the years, Bob Swan stands out by not standing out. When Intel's previous CEO left the company, Swan-- then the company's chief financial officer-- agreed to lead the company... but only on an interim basis until Intel's board could find the right person to give the job to.

This is your Briefing for the week ending August 2nd. We want the Internet of things to be smart, but being smart requires processing power – which will be lacking in millions of IoT devices. It’s what we call in the business “a conundrum.” But – there may be an answer! You’ll hear what that is. As we reported last week, the biggest companies in the world are beginning to compete with their own chip suppliers. The latest example is Alibaba, which just released a high-performance processor of its own design. Alibaba’s move is significant for technological, financial, and political reasons. We’ll look into that. Also, you’d think that the people building autonomous vehicles are using sound design principles.

This week we’re mixing it up a bit. In this episode, we’re going to focus on a single topic. It’s how the world’s biggest companies are doing business in ways no company has before – and what that might mean for everybody – not just the technology industry.

This week… Artificial intelligence is a vastly complex market. There’s a fierce competition among hardware vendors to be the best platform for AI applications. But first, you have to know what it means to be “the best.” This week, analyst Karl Freund from Moor Insights talks to us about the latest AI benchmarks. Researchers are re-imagining what – fundamentally – a vehicle is. One company just put everything other than the chassis – literally everything – entirely inside the wheels. We’ll explore that and other proposals. And it’s the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 space mission – the first time people set foot on the moon. This week we look back – and also look forward to going back to the moon.

Our stories this week: You might recall pilot Chesley Sullenberger. He became a hero a few years back for crash landing a disabled passenger airliner into New York's Hudson River with no loss of life. He recently appeared in front of Congress to testify about the crashes of the Boeing 737. We discuss his testimony and what it means for Boeing and for other engineering companies. We've got an on-site report from Semicon West, including a revised estimate of growth in the chip market in 2019. And guest commentators John Petty and Kathleen Ma have just concluded a major report on the workstation market, which has seen some profound changes over the years.

This week… Facial recognition is being deployed more frequently, but is the technology ready? And, are we ready for it? President Trump said he is lifting official restrictions on doing business with Huawei, an important supplier to communications companies around the world. What does that mean for the global electronics industry moving forward? And we talk with Silicon Valley entrepreneur Alex Lidow about Moore’s Law, gallium nitride, and easing at least one of the indignities of aging.

This week… The French research institute LETI held a conference on artificial intelligence at the edge. What does putting AI on the edge of the network mean, and what’s the advantage? EE Times editors were in Grenoble, and filed a report. A few weeks ago, PCI introduced a new ultra-fast networking specification that will make data centers perform even better, and that will make the internet faster and more capable. A few days ago, PCI unexpectedly doubled the speed again. EE Times editors were at the annual Sensors Expo, which has become an important conference for the Internet of things. Also, the prevailing wisdom is that self-driving vehicles will be safer than human drivers. But what if there’s a third option – one that’s just as safe as self-driving cars are supposed to be?

Our lineup this week includes: A guided tour through London’s Tech Week, an annual extravaganza of new technologies. Unsurprisingly, this year there was an emphasis on artificial intelligence. We’ll have a report on the race to build the fastest supercomputers. And, you know those GPS apps you use for driving? Self-driving vehicles use maps too, but they need maps that are far more accurate. First up, EETimes editor Sally Ward-Foxton attended several events during London’s Tech Week. The UK is bidding to become a major hub for AI technology, but the same idea has occurred to other countries as well. And a quick translation of English to English for you. Glastonbury is a music festival not dissimilar to the New Orleans Jazz Festival, where savvy festival veterans know to show up in knee-high rubber boots because enormous mud puddles are not uncommon.

This week: RISC-V has profound implications for the smartphone market; we checked to see if it’s ready. Moore’s Law will end –  unless maybe chiplets? Engineers are getting drawn into the gig economy, and it’s not the ones you’d think. And after 40 years, TI’s Speak & Spell speaks again.

In this week's briefing we discuss Infineon's bombshell announcement: the $10 billion dollar acquisition that seemed to come out of nowhere – Infineon bought Cypress Semiconductor, and the Design Automation Conference – DAC. If you know what’s happening with design tools, that gives you a good handle on what’s happening with the semiconductor industry.

This week we’ve got a dispatch from Monte Carlo about the recent Grand Prix ELECTRIC vehicle race. Also, a separate report on what’s going on with chips for Autonomous Vehicles. And we’ve been talking about the trade war with China from the US point of view – this week, our correspondent in China discusses how China’s high-tech industry thinks about the conflict.

Today is Friday, May 24th, and this is your EE Times Weekly Briefing. The biggest story in electronics this week affects almost everyone in the high-tech industry – from Huawei to Google to Infineon – to chip companies, circuit board suppliers – essentially the entire supply chain. The Trump Administration this week took steps that will certainly isolate Huawei and possibly cripple it. What was once delicately framed as a “trade tension” between the two nations has officially turned into an all-out-trade war, affecting not just the electronics industry, but nearly every other commercial segment around the world – from farming to aeronautics. This past week EE Times launched a Special Project that zeroed in on damage done during the trade conflict already. We have been reporting on all aspects of the fast-evolving situation – seen, reported and analyzed through the lenses of our reporters scattered all over the world. Accordingly, we are dedicating this week’s entire show to dissecting the outbreak of U.S.-Chi

This is your EE Times Weekly Briefing. Today is Friday, May 17th, and among the top stories this week: A sobering roadmap of semiconductor process technology-- potentially coming to a halt at 2 nanometers We were at the Electronic Distribution Show in Vegas last week. On the last day, the news broke that the United States had escalated a trade war with China. How will that affect the supply chain? New advanced imaging tools that could help restore Notre Dame in Paris, but a big question remains: Can anyone else afford them? Later in the show, we’re joined by two graphics technology experts, Jon Peddie and Kathleen Maher. We asked them to imagine the restoration of Notre Dame.

This is your EE Times Weekly Briefing. Today is Friday, May 10th, and among the top stories this week: Google I/O, Google's developers’ conference. CEO Sundar Pichai touted Google’s awakening to privacy for its users’ data. This week, EE Times launched a new Special Project package on Artificial Intelligence, with a particular focus on AI fairness. We ask and answer the question: “Will Machines Ever Learn to Be Fair?” Later on, we’re joined by Junko Yoshida, EE Times’ chief international correspondent, and EE Times executive editor Dylan McGrath. The two editors moderated panels at VerveCon in sunny Santa Clara. They share their observations at this unusual tech conference, where the main auditorium was filled not by male but female engineers.

This is your EETimes Weekly Briefing. Today is Friday, May 3rd, and among our top stories this week: A one-on-one interview with Hassane El-Khoury, CEO of Cypress Semiconductors.We’ll review the intelligence we picked up at the recent 5G Brooklyn Summit on the question: “If 5G is enough, do we need 6G?" And we’ll explain why Taiwanese companies who moved manufacturing in China decades ago are now coming back to Taiwan. Junko Yoshida, EE Times chief international correspondent, tells us the reason might not be what you’re thinking. This exodus is less about Trump but more about Xi Jinping. Later on, we’re joined by Judith Chen, Chief Editor responsible for EE Times & EDN in Taiwan and Asia. Judith outlines how and why a startup movement appears to be blossoming in Taiwan.

This is your EE Times Weekly Briefing. Today is Friday, April 26th, and among the top stories this week: ON Semi buys Globalfoundries’ ex IBM fab; TSMC’s CMOS process node shrinks, and Tesla’s Kitchen Sink Approach to autonomous vehicles. Later in the show, Echo Zhao will be here to discuss the 2019 China fabless survey results. And, at the bottom of the show, Bolaji Ojo, will join us to discuss what prompted him to start at EETimes a revealing new column, “My 35 years of journalism.”

This is your EETimes Weekly Briefing. Today is Friday, April 19th, and among the top stories this week: Samsung is moving toward a 5-nanometer foundry process; Underwriters Lab is collaborating with Edge Case Research to draft a standard for autonomous systems. And we take a peek into Finland’s "Radio Valley" to learn about “Life after Nokia.”

Today is Friday, April 12th, and among the top stories this week - Qualcomm’s new data-center AI inference accelerator chip, the latest deep learning developments unveiled at a Stanford University gathering, and a new development that throws a monkey wrench into the debate about V2X – vehicle to everything -- in Europe.