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CPUC Votes: Lobbyists 1, Firefighters, Cops & Engineers 0
What’s at stake:
Technology innovations should be welcomed by all. But every new development requires rigorous engineering based on sufficient data. We now face a future arranged by corporate lobbyists and compliant regulators — captivated by the latest miracle machine — with little regard to safety, to which the machine’s ensabler will pay mere lip service ’til catastrophe strikes.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)’s 3-1 vote last night has given official approval to a plan proposed by Waymo and Cruise to expand their commercial robotaxi business 24 hours a day, to all parts of San Francisco — without restriction or regulation.
This win is huge for the autonomous vehicle companies, and those who own them – Alphabet and General Motors.
Read More »CPUC Votes: Lobbyists 1, Firefighters, Cops & Engineers 0
Europe’s RISC-V JV: The Anti-Monopoly Gang
What’s at stake:
Automotive chip suppliers and carmakers are betting their future on RISC-V to unshackle themselves from Arm’s roadmap. This might work, it might not. At stake is the future of the IP house, which persists in its delusion that the momentum behind RISC-V does not matter.
To me, it seems clear that the recently announced formation of an equally-shared RISC-V joint venture in Germany – among Bosch, Infineon, NXP, Nordic and Qualcomm – will prove a significant force in the way the electronics industry does business, despite some skepticism in the industry.
Doubters call this a “more of the same” European project, especially in automotive, in which Bosch often takes charge. collaborates with others, to deveop certain technologies.
Others wonder how long it will be before the JV’s RISC-V cores can be designed into commercial products and make a difference on the market. One analyst quipped: “If I am a manager at Arm looking after the partnerships, I won’t be losing my sleep over this.”
Read More »Europe’s RISC-V JV: The Anti-Monopoly Gang
‘Together’ Europe: Is Collaboration the Best Chip Sourcing Strategy?
The European Union is encouraging local chipmakers to put aside their rivalry and team up in pursuit of their manufacturing, sourcing and technology innovation goals.
ESMC, RISC-V: Supply Chain has Become the Electronics Industry’s Defining Topic
By Bolaji Ojo
What’s at stake:
The electronics industry has always been consumed by the search for the “next big thing,” that huge design, product or new market that would create massive revenue and profits for the first group of companies to release it. The supply chain that brings these “breakthroughs” to the market is not typically in the limelight. Until now. Look no further than just announced European Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., a Dresden-based new foundry led byTSMC, joined by Bosch, Infineon and NXP. Another example is a brand new RISC-V JV, equally shared among NXP, Infineon, Qualcomm, Bosch and Nordic, unveiled late last week. For the foreseeable future, creating effective supply chains via partnerships will be the industry’s greatest passion. Pay attention.
In the world of electronics, the design engineer is a demi-god.
He (usually a man but, thank goodness, increasingly less so nowadays), designs, throws his creation over the wall and everyone else scrambles to bring it to production and sell to customers. The only engineers who get involved in the post-design processes are typically those who moved into management, sales positions and components engineers.
This is a worn process. The industry goes through it daily, thousands of times, and all over the world. Which makes engineers believe they rule the roost.
Read More »ESMC, RISC-V: Supply Chain has Become the Electronics Industry’s Defining Topic
Automakers’ Chip Agenda: RISC-V, AI, Chiplets
What’s at stake:
Except for Tesla, no automaker has contrived to roll out an automotive processor of its own. This vacuum, however, has not curbed car OEMs’ deep-seated desire to design chips for their vehicles. Can chip vendors still provide automakers what they want but aren’t doing for themselves, and at what cost? Or, are automakers’ wonderland agenda sending semiconductor companies down the rabbit hole?
Carmakers’ appetite to develop proprietary processors waned as OEMs got occupied in dealing with chip shortages. Their dream of automated consumer vehicles before 2027 is a memory.
Now, replacing the autonomous vehicles, the momentum among carmakers is an industry-wide push for software-defined vehicles. Automotive OEMs are now beginning to think that if the vehicle’s real value will be in software under the new era, they shouldn’t be in the business of just layering their software on top of hardware selected by tier ones.
Read More »Automakers’ Chip Agenda: RISC-V, AI, Chiplets
Big Names in Automotive Go All in on RISC-V
What’s at stake:
The world’s biggest automotive chip suppliers – Robert Bosch, Infineon Technologies, Nordic Semiconductor, NXP Semiconductors, and Qualcomm – have banded together to “invest in a company aimed at advancing the adoption of RISC-V globally by enabling next-generation hardware development.” Why now and what does it mean for the future of Arm.
RISC-V scored a major coup with the announcement that some of the electronics industry’s biggest suppliers of automotive semiconductors have teamed up to set up a joint venture focused on the open standard instruction set architecture.
Infineon Technologies AG, Nordic Semiconductor, NXP Semiconductors, Robert Bosch and Qualcomm said the the JV, based in Germany, would be equally shared among them as a “single source to enable compatible RISC-V based products, provide reference architectures, and help establish industry standards,” according to the group’s spokesperson.
The company will focus initially on automotive applications while apparently leaving room for further expansion into other product areas, including mobile and IoT. Nonetheless, the announcement’s seismic impact will likely affect, first and foremost, automakers and tier ones.
Read More »Big Names in Automotive Go All in on RISC-V
Sustainable Chip Production, Affordability, Reliable Supply: Are All Three Doable?
We can reduce the environmental impact of semiconductor manufacturing and avoid the next chip shortage.
AI Hardware Startups Spoil for a Brawl
What’s at stake:
Except for a few recent funding announcements, all’s quiet on the Western front on AI. What must change to alter a market where Nvidia continues to be the sole winner?
The time has come to reflect on the many AI hardware startups that have popped up in the last several years. Advancements in AI sent investors into a fever pitch, elevating AI processor startups into “unicorn” stardom.
As Keven Krewell, principal analyst at Tirias Research, recalls, “Intel really kicked off the explosion of AI startups when it bought Nervana in 2016. And it followed up by buying Habana.” He added, “I would argue that AMD’s acquisition of Xilinx was in large part because of Xilinx’s work in developing AI cores.”
Fast forward to 2023.
More than a handful of notable AI hardware startups are gone. Layoffs abound. During this predictable process of elimination, did industry analysts anticipate so little churn among AI processor companies? Why no consolidations, mergers or acquisitions in recent years?
Read More »AI Hardware Startups Spoil for a Brawl
Automakers & Chipmakers March Towards a New Clash of Interests
By Bolaji Ojo
What’s at stake:
As the automotive semiconductor shortages ease, an old bogeyman is threatening to return to haunt the supply chain. Inventories are rising even as automakers grapple with the shift to Electric Vehicles from Internal Combustion Engines vehicles. As the memories of the painful auto IC shortages fade, will OEMs dump the playbook that enticed chipmakers to increase production and, if they do, will that action trigger another crisis if chipmakers refuse to again shoulder all the risks?
The automotive semiconductor supply chain is sliding into a new testy phase.
OEM orders for semiconductors are still rising albeit at a slower pace. Inventories are increasing but some products remain on allocation although nobody quite knows which.
Meanwhile, inventories are creeping up at chipmakers even as they continue to ramp up production. The specter of double ordering is haunting suppliers but analysts say it is almost impossible to distinguish between actual orders and duplicates.
Inconsistencies like these hark back to a past the semiconductor industry was supposed to have jettisoned.
Read More »Automakers & Chipmakers March Towards a New Clash of Interests