Flames flick on the horizon and spread uncontrollably into the valley below. The blaze razes a cluster of outbuildings, then rips into a group of family homes, leaving in its wake smoldering houses, charred possessions, and ruined lives. This has been an all-too-common scene in the Western United States during the summer of 2021. The […]
Autonomous vehicle development continues to attract large investments in transportation and other industrial sectors. Those bets are needed as a host of tough technical problems remain far from being solved. As I see it, here are three key questions: Why is the AV problem so hard to solve? How do different AV use cases affect […]
A report last week by marketing company Zeta predicted this year’s Olympics will be the one of the lowest-watched Summer Olympic Games in this century (not that this century is that old). I understand there might be some confusion, holding the 2020 Olympics in 2021, and not changing the name. For those not paying a […]
For six decades, the reputation of one of America’s most distinguished astronauts has been stained by the myth that he panicked at the end of his first spaceflight. Virgil I. Gus” Grissom’s textbook suborbital flight aboard a Mercury spacecraft christened Liberty Bell 7 was marred by a botched recovery when a new and unqualified hatch […]
Blaize, formerly ThinCI, has closed a Series D round of funding at $71 million. New investor Franklin Templeton and existing investor Temasek led the round, along with participation from Denso and other new and existing investors. This round brings Blaize’s total funding to around $155 million total. Blaize is one of the most mature startups […]
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has had enough. 10 nanometers will continue to be 10 nanometers — Intel is stuck with that. But as of today, the next version of 10 nm, aka SuperFin, will instead be Intel 7, and 7 nm will henceforth be Intel 4 (no “nanometers”). There will then be an Intel 3, […]
Autonomous vehicle (AV) startups have raised billions of dollars to develop and test their self-driving technology. They will need far more to continue developing, testing and eventually deploying various AV use-cases. There is more venture capital available, but at some point most of the AV startups will need to become public companies. There are now […]
A paper published this week in Nature by Arm Research and Cambridge UK-based PragmatIC revealed details of PlasticArm, a flexible Arm Cortex-M0 based system-on-chip (SoC) fabricated using thin-film transistors (TFT) on a flexible substrate. While this is not yet a commercial solution, it has significant potential for embedding microprocessors, and hence intelligence, into many more […]
This week’s acquisition of Veoneer by automotive specialist Magna International is further evidence of the trend to use technology to make humans safer drivers. Let’s look at the possible rationales behind the deal. This was a significant week for automotive-related technology news, starting with the announcement of a partnership between Ford, Argo AI and Lyft […]
Olivia and Orsino. Gatsby and Daisy. Peppermint Pattie and Charlie Brown. Another tale of love unrequited (at least so far) is playing out in the test & measurement segment, where Viavi has spent the last six months pursuing Exfo, only to be frustrated again and again. Earlier this week, Viavi nearly doubled its original bid […]