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What's the story with 2nm?

What’s the Story with 2nm?

By Ron Wilson

What’s at stake:
With 3nm processes barely in production, the industry is already talking about 2nm — and sliding the schedules. With a whole new kind of transistor and massive technical challenges, 2nm will be a heavy lift not only for the foundries, but for the EDA companies that have to support it and the customers who have to design for it.

Almost drowned out by the shouting about chiplets, the so-called 2nm process node — the next full step after 3nm — is moving toward production. It promised developers of CPUs, GPUs, AI chips and, eventually, smartphone application processors, a whole lot more transistors, a little less power consumption — if designers are very careful — and a lot more hard work.

But what is the reality? When is 2nm coming? How is it different from 3nm? And what has to happen to make 2nm a useable process for actual chip designers?

Read More »What’s the Story with 2nm?
Turmoil at OpenAI and Cruise focus AI’s dilemma

Turmoil at OpenAI and Cruise Focus AI’s Dilemma

By Junko Yoshida

With OpenAI CEO Sam Altman getting ousted by its board on Nov. 17, followed by the appointments of two short-lived interim CEOs and Altman getting reinstated on Nov. 21st, it’s been a tumultuous week for Open AI employees and investors. Reporters on the technology beat have been working overtime. OpenAI’s upheaval has overshadowed other advancements in AI technology that continue to develop at breakneck speed.

While OpenAI staged its melodrama, the resignation of Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt on Nov. 19 largely escaped the media spotlight. Yet to come are media scrutiny on Cruise’s corporate governance and the company’s autonomous vehicle technology. Unfortunately, like most new wrinkles in AI, Cruise has kept its alleged advancements locked in a black box.

For those of us who are outside looking in, the CEOs at two different Silicon Valley companies seem irreconcilably disparate. But at a closer look, they are remarkably similar.

Read More »Turmoil at OpenAI and Cruise Focus AI’s Dilemma
Does Nvidia Want to Remake the Foundry Business?

Does Nvidia Want to Remake the Foundry Business?

By Bolaji Ojo

What’s at stake?

Nvidia Corp. is growing at a rate that its current foundry partners may not be able to support. How will they respond and who else stands to benefit? In addition, Nvidia is tearing up the definition of foundry services, dubbing itself an “AI foundry.” What exactly does this mean and is this the beginning of a redefinition of terminologies in the industry?

Nvidia Corp. is not only setting sales records for the semiconductor industry, the AI and GPU chip supplier is creating what may be an almost impossible act to follow.

Read More »Does Nvidia Want to Remake the Foundry Business?
AI's 'Functional' Imperative

AI’s ‘Functional’ Imperative

By David Benjamin

“I remember telling myself: This isn’t going to last. I thought there was too much money floating around. These people may be earnest researchers, but whether they know it or not, they are still in a race to put out products, generate revenue and be first.”

— David Brooks, New York Times

Coincident with the turmoil that ended with Sam Altman’s reinstatement at the top of OpenAI and the drastic restructuring of the artificial intelligence laboratory’s board of directors, I happened to watch Frank Capra’s classic film, Meet John Doe.

Although released in 1941, the movie reflected the trauma of the Great Depression.

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What's a Chiplet, Why Now?

What’s a Chiplet? Why Now?

Is the idea of creating mix-and-match “Lego block” chiplets
just a mirage or a practical aspiration for the semiconductor industry?
The Ojo-Yoshida Report launches a must-watch Dig Deeper Video
Podcast Series on Chiplets on Nov. 29 .

Microchip Puts Pedal to the Auto Design Metal

Microchip Puts Pedal to the Auto Design Metal

By Bolaji Ojo

What’s at stake?
The automotive semiconductor market needs chipmakers, enterprises that not only excel at technology innovations, but which also anticipate and meet the evolving design and supply chain needs of their tier-one and OEM customers at an accelerated speed. Microchip is betting that offering extensive labs services for customers in all major auto manufacturing regions of the world will strengthen its relationship with OEMs and tier-ones.

Microchip Inc. is not a newbie in Detroit. The company has had a presence in America’s auto heartland for more than 20 years, but with a recent move and investment decision, the chipmaker tells customers and competitors it sees opportunities for greater engagements with leading automakers despite ongoing supply chain disruptions and design architectures evolution.

Read More »Microchip Puts Pedal to the Auto Design Metal
Who Wants Rapidus in Silicon Valley?

Tenstorrent-Rapidus Handshake, and What It Means

What’s at stake?
Can one plus one – a startup partnering with another startup – take the world’s AI market by storm? That’s the “public image” two semiconductor startups seek to generate in Japan. At stake is a lot of Japanese government money.

Rapidus, a new Japanese startup foundry with big ambitions to design and manufacture “the world’s most advanced logic semiconductors,” Thursday announced an agreement with Tenstorrent Inc., a Canadian AI startup based in Toronto.

Read More »Tenstorrent-Rapidus Handshake, and What It Means