Around the web
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Samsung Electronics is seeking to increase high-performance DRAM chips for AI processors and servers by more than 30-fold and supply the chips first to key clients Intel and Nvidia, multiple industry sources told ET News on May 30.
The Investor
Micron will install 13-nanometer production equipment at the Hiroshima Prefecture facility.
Nikkei Electronics Asia
Esin Terzioglu, who oversaw the engineering organization of Qualcomm's core communications chip business, announced the move on his LinkedIn page, where it was highlighted by analyst Neil Shah of Counterpoint Research.
Fortune
One day, soon, your Apple iPhone will be able to figure out when you're going to get sick, will book itself in for servicing when faults develop, will let you know if it picks up a virus, and will be able to figure out if the person you are sharing data with is authorized to see that information. CIOs should begin to think about how this level of machine intelligence may impact their business.
Computerworld
Apple is working on a processor devoted specifically to AI-related tasks, according to a person familiar with the matter. The chip, known internally as the Apple Neural Engine, would improve the way the company's devices handle tasks that would otherwise require human intelligence -- such as facial recognition and speech recognition, said the person, who requested anonymity discussing a product that hasn't been made public.
Bloomberg
Samsung Electronics is increasing its effort in semiconductor outsourcing, separating the company's foundry business into a new unit as part of a challenge to market leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.
Bloomberg
SK Hynix will decide on whether to spin off its foundry business on May 24 at the earliest or by the end of this week at the latest, according to industry sources. All eyes are on the company's next move as it can improve its status as integrated device manufacturer (IDM) by strengthening the non-memory chip business and seek various ways to reorganize the business by using its subsidiaries.
BusinessKorea
AMD's Ryzen Threadripper could very well be the most powerful consumer CPU ever introduced. With 16 cores and 32 threads, it gives the high-performance Intel products currently dominating the same space something to worry about.
PC World
Google wrapped up the first day of its annual developer conference, Google I/O, yesterday with a number of new features and solutions for Android developers. In addition to announcing the Android O Developer Preview 2, Android Go, Kotlin on Android and Android Studio 3.0, the company announced it is open-sourcing its Firebase SDKs, opening up access to Android Instant Apps, and providing new developer features in its Google Play console.
SD Times
Four suitors have come forward for Toshiba's cash-cow memory chip unit. But with aggrieved business partner Western Digital raising objections, the company likely will face many twists and turns before completing the deal that is so crucial to its survival.
Nikkei Electronics Asia
Samsung Electronics' plan to spin off foundry operations from the system LSI division is expected to increase Samsung's share of global contract chipmaking at the expense of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and smaller rivals.
EE Times
Sondrel, an IC design services firm based in the UK, has agreed to buy Imagination Technologies' IMGworks division for an undisclosed sum.
EE Times
The biggest question that had traders in chip stocks buzzing this week is finally resolved, with Intel flatly denying the rumor it licensed AMD's graphics technology.
CNBC
Samsung is expected to invest KRW24.5 trillion (US$21.95 billion), up more than KRW10 trillion (US$8.96 billion) from the previous year.
BusinessKorea
Chip design giant ARM has teamed up with US researchers on a project to develop chips that can be implanted in the human brain.
BBC News
Qualcomm has demonstrated dynamic electric vehicle charging (DEVC), which allows vehicles to charge while driving. Based on the Qualcomm Halo wireless electric vehicle charging technology (WEVC), Qualcomm designed and built a wireless DEVC system capable of charging an electric vehicle (EV) dynamically at up to 20 kilowatts at highway speeds.
Company release
The return of the Nokia name to the smartphone world stopped being a romantic dream earlier this year when HMD Global announced the Nokia 6 during CES. The excitement built as the Nokia 6 was joined by the Nokia 5 and Nokia 3 handsets at Mobile World Congress. All of them were focused on delivering excellent value and power to the mid-range market.
Forbes
It has been found that Samsung Electronics is planning to set up a foundry business unit in its Device Solutions (DS) Division in charge of semiconductor business and so on. This has to do with today's rapid growth of the global foundry market.
BusinessKorea
A cyber-attack that has hit 150 countries since Friday should be treated by governments around the world as a "wake-up call", Microsoft says. It blames governments for storing data on software vulnerabilities which could then be accessed by hackers.
BBC News
Motley Fool
Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) has become widely known in investment and technology circles following the launch of its popular Vega and Ryzen chips. But the chipmaker also runs a lesser known ARM-based server chip project, that has been nothing but a drag on its financial resources since its inception in 2013.
Seeking Alpha
Nvidia revealed Wednesday at its GPU Technology Conference that Toyota will use Nvidia's Drive PX AI automotive platform to power advanced autonomous driving systems planned for market introduction.
EE Times
LG Innotek, the parts unit of LG Group, will supply facial recognition camera modules for the upcoming iPhone, tentatively called the iPhone 8, Korea Economic Daily reported on May 11.
The Investor
Toshiba is well within its rights to sell its memory operations, the Japanese conglomerate has told business partner Western Digital in response to efforts by the hard-drive supplier to block the auction, it was learned Tuesday.
Nikkei Electronics Asia
US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross sees the US semiconductor industry as still dominant globally but said he is worried that it will be threatened by China's planned investment binge to build up its own chipmaking industry.
Reuters
Toshiba's business partners are preparing for a scenario in which the company seeks to reorganize under Japanese bankruptcy laws, with consequences for the global nuclear-power and electronics industries.
Marketwatch.com (Dow Jones)
Qualcomm has introduced two new mobile platforms, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 and 630, both designed to support a leap in performance enabling advanced photography and enhanced gaming, in addition to long battery life and fast LTE speeds.
Company release
Robert Bosch has won orders from Apple to supply the next iPhone with some of its motion sensors, according to a person familiar with the deal, a potential blow to InvenSense, currently the main supplier of those smartphone components.
Bloomberg
Researchers at the Department of Energy's (DoE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have claimed a world record, saying they have patterned devices with feature sizes as small as 1nm. The research team hopes to use the same technique to create and impart to silicon new properties never before observed.
EE Times
In 2016, NXP in the Netherlands overtook Renesas Electronics in Japan as the world's largest microcontroller supplier with MCU revenues climbing 116% following its US$11.6 billion purchase of US-based Freescale Semiconductor in December 2015.
IC Insights
Apple has stopped paying its iPhone manufacturers for royalties owed to Qualcomm for the first quarter, Qualcomm said on Friday. Apple sued Qualcomm in January, saying that the royalties were excessive, and will now be withholding payments until the legal battle is resolved.
Fortune
Samsung Electronics is planning to invest in a new DRAM lab, according to Korean media reports. The move raises concerns of a capital spending race which could ruin profitability for makers of DRAM, a memory chip commonly used in smartphones.
Barron's
Twitter is working with media firm Bloomberg to create a 24-hour rolling news channel for the messaging service. The live video stream will be made up of original programming as well as feeds from Bloomberg bureaus.
BBC News
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