Microelectronics world news

Intel, long known for its acquisition misadventures, has finally reached a reality check. Its new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, has announced spinning off the company’s non-core businesses to focus on core operations: CPU design and contract chip manufacturing. “These parts of Intel are no longer central to its future,” he said during his keynote at the Intel Vision conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.

It’s important to note that Intel has already been on this path since the final days of former CEO Pat Gelsinger. The Santa Clara, California-based semiconductor firm has already spun off FPGA maker Altera. Even before Gelsinger took charge of the top job at Intel in February 2021, the company had sold its NAND memory business to SK hynix for $8.85 billion in 2020.

Tan didn’t indicate whether Intel will divest or sell its non-core businesses. Source: Intel

The company also turned Intel Capital into a standalone investment fund early this year before Tan took the CEO job. While Intel will remain an anchor investor, the fund will help the company to reduce costs and streamline operations.

So, what does this mean when Tan vows to shed the company’s non-core businesses? Apparently, Intel will pursue this endeavor more aggressively now to focus its CPUs on artificial intelligence (AI) and data center applications, along with what Tan calls a Software 2.0 strategy. But will Intel’s rush to shed non-core assets lower their market value? Or will Intel divest these units instead of seeking buyouts? Time will tell.

Intel’s non-core businesses

Now let’s discuss Intel’s non-core businesses. Start with Mobileye, a developer of automotive driver-assist systems, which was listed on Nasdaq in 2022. Though Intel has denied the plan to divest a majority stake in Mobileye in the past, it will now be one of the easiest targets for Intel to handle.

Intel’s networking division could also be up for grabs. However, many industry watchers consider Intel’s Network and Edge (NEX) group a core business of Intel. It focuses on edge computing, networking, and AI solutions while developing modified versions of consumer and data center CPUs for telecom companies and similar entities.

It’s worth noting that Altera and Mobileye are worth approximately $17 billion to 20 billion. Intel can generate a huge amount of cash from those two entities, which, in turn, will bring financial stability to this once-mighty semiconductor outfit now attempting to reclaim its past glory.

Still, the elephant in the room is not the non-core assets but whether Intel will remain whole or split up its CPU and contract manufacturing businesses. At the same time, however, Intel’s decision to shed non-core assets will bring much-needed stability during the turnaround that Tan envisions for this chip industry pioneer.

Related Content

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• We Really Need to Talk about Mobileye
• Intel More Likely to Divest Units Than Seek Buyout
• Intel’s Embarrassment of Riches: Advanced Packaging
• How will Intel’s purchase of Altera affect embedded space?

The post Will Intel’s rush to shed non-core assets benefit potential buyers? appeared first on EDN.

High-power semiconductor laser designer Casela Technologies of Santa Clara, CA, USA has launched the ELSA-16, a pluggable 16-channel External Laser Source (ELS) platform designed to unlock new levels of performance, flexibility and scalability in co-packaged optics (CPO) and silicon photonics-based systems powering AI workloads...

Rohde & Schwarz continues to develop its R&S ELEKTRA EMC test software by adding new measurement methods, adapting it to new standards and ensuring that users can carry out measurement tasks even more efficiently. R&S ELEKTRA now supports all current EMC standards in the commercial, automotive, wireless, military and aerospace sectors. The software provides interactive, partially and fully automated solutions for EMC measurements during development and for fully automated standard-compliant certification measurements.

R&S ELEKTRA from Rohde & Schwarz, the market leader in EMC test and measurement, is a comprehensive EMC test software family that is ideally suited to the powerful Rohde & Schwarz line of EMC test instruments and signal and spectrum analyzers. The solution supports all current standard-compliant emission, radiated and conducted EMS measurements, including EMS tests in reverberation chambers (RVC), the use of AWGN interference signals and the simultaneous use of multiple interference signals. Development departments and EMC test labs can use this software to ensure their test instruments achieve peak performance and to make their test processes more efficient through automation. This saves resources, time and therefore money.

Efficient user interface and hardware usage save time and costs
R&S ELEKTRA test software automates EMC tests and controls the entire EMC system. The user interface provides access to all the important functions for the test setup at a single level. An extensive library of preset measurements and standard-compliant test setups and test sequences can also be accessed directly using a keyword search function, making test configuration much simpler. The first measurement takes only a few minutes to set up. R&S ELEKTRA makes optimum use of the computer’s capacities and the instrument interfaces, saving an unprecedented amount of measurement time.

Monitoring for correct, reproducible EMC measurements
The software also monitors the plausibility of measurement parameters and stores all information relevant to the measurement along with the measurement results. This allows R&S ELEKTRA to ensure the reproducibility and comparability of measurements, preventing erroneous measurements.

Immediately after measurements are complete, laboratory staff can obtain comprehensive test reports with the reliably repeatable measurement results. R&S ELEKTRA has its own SQL database in which test reports and dedicated measurement data can be collected and stored. Measurement data can be forwarded through a standard interface of this database to ERP or CRM systems, for example, and analyzed there.

The R&S ELEKTRA EMC test software with new and improved functions is available now. R&S ELEKTRA is compatible with all Rohde & Schwarz EMC test equipment and provides interfaces to integrate almost all existing equipment in the lab. Rohde & Schwarz offers comprehensive training and support for the introductory and changeover phases.

 

The post Rohde & Schwarz presents comprehensive R&S ELEKTRA portfolio for reproducible, standard-compliant EMC measurements appeared first on ELE Times.

Phlux Technology —which was spun off from the University of Sheffield in 2020 and designs and manufactures 1550nm avalanche photodiode (APD) infrared sensors — has announced a £9m (US$11.7m) Series A funding round, led by BGF (said to be the UK and Ireland’s most active growth capital investor) joined by existing backers including Octopus Ventures, Northern Gritstone, and Foresight...

The Centre for Integrated Semiconductor Materials (CISM) at Swansea University in South Wales has used a newly commissioned AIXTRON close-coupled showerhead (CCS) deposition system to establish the first capability in the UK for growing gallium oxide (Ga2O3) thin films on 4-inch substrates, which have been tested and shown to be very uniform and of extremely high quality, it is claimed...

For coverage of all the key business and technology developments in compound semiconductors and advanced silicon materials and devices over the last month...

My Ibanez WD7 wah half-died (see: i damaged it). The "special" IC that created the effect (NJM2777) got damaged due to overvoltage. After trying a couple of circuits, this one is the one that won! V2164 (Quad-VCA) used with single supply, and TL072 for virtual ground and control voltage inversion. PCB milled at work's CNC (yes, i'm privileged😁) Quick 3d print to hold it in the casing (using existing screw ofc) and back in action! So happy i could rescue my 15year old beloved beast with ~€7 in parts (and saved ~150 for a new wah!) submitted by /u/the_lou_kou_ [link] [comments]

Today’s typical home is wired for at least 100-amp service, and many are wired for twice that number. This makes sense given the multiplicity of modern appliances and electronics in a home. The demand is obviously higher if you have an electric stove/range, or an electric vehicle using a basic in-house Level 1 charger.

The need for power—and more of it—became clear when a neighbor who was having a modest addition put on the house asked me for some advice. The situation was this: the contractor told him that for various reasons, their 100+ A service would be cut to 50 A for a month or two during the construction. The reasons for this cutback were not clear, but it had something to do with cable capacity.

The question I was asked was simple enough: could they—a couple plus two children approaching teen years—manage on just 50 A and, if not, what steps could the take to minimize disruption? (Actually, the word my neighbor used was “survive” rather than “manage” but I feel that’s overly dramatic.)

The semi-quantitative assessment

My answer was also simple, as I gave the prudent engineering response “it depends” followed by “I’ll think about it and get back to you.” Then I set out to develop a firmer answer by doing some semi-quantitative assessment.

My first impulse was to check the web and, sure enough, there were plenty of apps for assessing house power needs. However, these required a detailed inventory of the loads which was more than I was ready to do. Then I thought I would create an Excel spreadsheet but soon realized that sort of analysis could easily become more precise than the problem merited. After all, my neighbor wanted a simple answer:

1. It’s no problem,
2. it’s definitely a problem, or
3. it’s a manageable “maybe” problem.

Instead, I took out my “back of the envelope” pad and decided to do some rough assessments, Figure 1.

Figure 1 This “back of the envelope” pad serves as a visible reminder that rough and imprecise input numbers should get appropriate analysis and not impute undeserved precision to the results. Source: Bill Schweber

I didn’t actually use this custom-made pad, but instead I kept it in front of me as a constant reminder that I should stick to estimates that were rough enough that they could be added up “in my head” on that pad. The reason for this simplicity is there are a lot of fuzzy numbers in the assessment.

For example, without knowing the make and model of various higher-current appliances such as the electric stove/range, any number I did use would likely have a ±10 to ±20% error band. Further, while the individual errors might cancel each other out to some extent they could also accumulate, resulting in a fairly large error band. In other words, random errors can aggregate either way.

The danger when using a spreadsheet is that soon you fall into a mental false-accuracy trap, since its available precision of more digits soon leads to the sense that there is corresponding accuracy as well, which is clearly not the case here (yes, I could restrict the cells to a few digits, but that’s another thing to do). It’s been my experience that it is very easy make the leap from rough estimate to a firm “you can bet on it” number, even if there is no basis for doing so; I’ve seen that happen in preliminary design review meetings many times when the project manager asks for some numbers.

Complicating the assessment, some of the larger loads such as the stove/range or microwave oven are under the direct control of the house occupants, while others such as heating system, refrigerator, and separate freezer control their own on/off cycles.

Numbers guide but don’t prove

I asked some questions about what was in the house, made a list, and went online to get a sense of how much current each uses. These rough estimates are for current consumption from a 120 VAC line; for those with 230 VAC lines, the current numbers should be cut in half, so that 50-A maximum would be 25 A:

1) Big loads you can’t control (these intermittent, asynchronous loads cycle on and off with unknown duty cycle; they may add up all at once, or hardly at all)

• Refrigerator/freezer: 6 A (will be higher for a few seconds, as the compressor kicks in)
• Separate outside freezer: 3 to 5 A, depending on outside temperature (same note as above)
• Oil-fired heating system: 5 A, temperature-dependent (same note as above)
• Electric water heater: 5 to 8 A

Total: around 20 A

2) Small loads (some you can control, some not; not an issue unless you are close to maximum limit

• Large TV: 1 to 2 A
• smaller screens: 0.5 A
• Various chargers: 0.5 A or less
• House lights: 0.5 A each
• House network boxes: 1 A

Total: 5 to 10 A

3) Bigger loads that you can control

• Clothes washer: 4 to 6 A
• Clothes dryer: 15 to 20 A
• Air conditioning: 8 to 10 A (but not a factor as this is a winter situation)
• Kitchen range top: 5 to 10 A, depending on model and temperature setting
• Kitchen oven: 8 to 12 A, depending on model and temperature setting
• Toaster Oven: 8 A
• Dishwasher: 9 to 12 A
• Microwave oven: 8 A
• Hair dryer: 10 to 12 A

Total: it depends on what you are using and when, but it adds up very quickly!

Conclusion: The loads you can’t control add up to around 25 A (all of these won’t be on 100% of the time) plus small loads of 5 to 10 A bring the total to 30 to 35 A, so the family will have about 15 to 20 amps of headroom on the loads that can be controlled. That’s doable but also cutting it close; you could have a case when just one additional modest load causes a droop and a brown-out of the supply voltage. That, in turn, brings on other operational problems in both motorized and all-electronic products.

Electrical service to older homes

As a curiosity, I checked out some older houses (1930 vintage) in the area, many of which are still occupied by descendants of the original families. Some of the present occupants said when the houses were built, they were outfitted with 30-A service and used knob-and-tube wiring rather than metal conduit or Romex (NM, or non-metallic sheathed) cable, Figure 2. While they have upgraded to 100+ A overs the years, some still have the knob-and-tube in the attic (not even close to code-approved now).

Figure 2 Early wiring used knob and tube insulation (a) which was replaced by (b) metal conduit (still in wide use) and (c) PVC-coated non-metallic sheathed cable, usually referred to as Romex. Sources: Arc Angel Electric Co., Meteor Electrical, D&F Liquidators

What’s your sense of the home-AC service situation? Have you ever been on a temporary or permanent limited-power budget at home? Have you ever had the corresponding “average load” versus “peak load” power-supply rating dilemma, either for line AC or with the DC supply in a product?

Bill Schweber is an EE who has written three textbooks, hundreds of technical articles, opinion columns, and product features.

Related Content

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• Ground-fault interruption protection—without a ground?
• When extreme-precision numbers are legitimate
• Even a well-known numerical “constant” may need a major revision
• Why I’m fine with my calculator’s tiny decimal point

Reference

• Arc Angel Electric, “Understanding Knob and Tube Wiring: A Comprehensive Guide”

The post Can a household manage on just 50 amps? appeared first on EDN.

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After quantum computing, quantum communication is now stealing the headlines. Numana, a Montreal, Québec-based non-profit technology accelerator, has engaged Nokia and Honeywell Aerospace Technologies in its Kirq Quantum Communication Testbed to advance quantum-safe communication networks. While Nokia will contribute its advanced cryptographic network technologies, Honeywell is to share quantum encryption techniques.

Read the full story at EDN’s sister publication, EE Times.

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The post Canadian tech accelerator engages Nokia in quantum telecom testbed appeared first on EDN.

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After a while i really wanted to make a pcb (or let a manufacturer produce it for me, like jlcpcb) and going from 1 idea to the next, i settled on making this somewhat universal usable pqfp-100 adapter board. The Z80 cpu was something i already had laying arround for a project, but dint want to spend too much design time if it where a dud. Well, after designing the board, waiting a week or so. Soldering my first ever pqfp(or tqfp alike) it works ☺️ some wires to a generic z80 testboard and its walking the memory space for new instructions (all nop). Now i need to programm a eeprom and get that pio and sio working. The pcb should also work for a RTL8019AS-LF network ic i got for a retro pc build. submitted by /u/codeasm [link] [comments]

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Hello, I decided to make my first remote controlled car design on KiCad, please do provide feedback. I'm using components such as an NRF24 modules, an L289N motor driver, and a stand alone AT328P. The one thing that worries me greatly is I didn't add a connection to the reset pin on the AT328P, I left it floating, and upon further research, it is recommended to have a 10k resistor connected to 5V to the reset pin, otherwise it might reset randomly or not work. Is this true? I already ordered it so I'm afraid I can't do anything anymore if that's the case. Thanks! submitted by /u/Good-Marzipan4251 [link] [comments]

Here's a Microchip ATSAMD21G18A in a WeMos Arduino M0 clone, and here's the 48.007MHz clock brought out on a GPIO for inspection. That's the 32768Hz xtal oscillator multiplied by 1465 in the on-chip PLL. submitted by /u/DiscountDog [link] [comments]