Pushing Batteries Too Far?


Reports of battery fires in consumer devices are not abating. The culprit in almost all cases is the lithium-ion battery. In some cases, this is a manufacturing issue, where predictable intervals of failure can point to a breach in the membrane separating the anode and cathode or a metal particle contaminant that causes a short circuit. Those kinds of flaws are well understood, based upon ho... » read more

The Week In Review: IoT


Consortia Optimal+ said this week that it has joined the Industrial Internet Consortium. “The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) will have a tremendous impact on industries worldwide. The application of smart manufacturing, combined with the collection and analysis of in-use/field stage data, will deliver powerful insights to brand owners and enable them to achieve dramatic improvements in... » read more

The Week In Review: IoT


Market Research There will be 8.4 billion connected things in use this year, a 31% gain from 2016, and leading up to 20.4 billion connected devices in 2020, according to Gartner. The market research firm estimates worldwide spending on endpoints and services will hit nearly $2 trillion in 2017. Greater China, North America, and Western Europe account for two-thirds of the IoT installed base th... » read more

5G & IoT


“Designing to Evolving 4G and Pre-5G Requirements” was the title of a Tuesday morning tutorial at DesignCon 2017 in Santa Clara, Calif. Talk of 5G naturally segued into Internet of Things discussion during the session. Parviz Yegani, a consultant with GHB Intellect, laid out the IoT use cases that could be enhanced by 5G technology: Shopping, population-dense urban areas, remote computin... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Chipmakers In 2016, growth in the pure-play foundry business will be driven by leading-edge processes, according to IC Insights. In fact, the increase in pure-play foundry sales this year is forecast to be almost entirely due to processes at » read more

The Week In Review: IoT


Analysis Cisco Systems and General Electric will be the main contenders in the industrial Internet of Things market, this analysis contends. Meanwhile, The New York Times analyzes GE’s big bet on the IoT and related software development to stay ahead of competing technology giants. Qualcomm holds the most Internet of Things patents, leading Intel, ZTE, Nokia, and LG Electronics, this anal... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Samsung Semiconductor unveiled its North American R&D Headquarters for its Device Solutions group in San Jose, Calif. The new campus is a 1.1 million-square-foot R&D, sales and marketing center. Is 5G the next big thing in wireless? Verizon–the first company to introduce 4G LTE–is once again poised to usher in a new era with an aggressive roadmap for fifth-generation, or 5G, wireless t... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


In case you missed it, Apple rolled out its latest iPhones and other products. The latest iPhone 6 is using chips based on finFETs. So, who won Apple’s application processor foundry business for the iPhone 7? “In our foundry checks, it appears Apple is likely splitting the 14/16nm business for the recent product launches between TSMC and Samsung. We suspect Samsung’s 14nm is used for the ... » read more

USB Connectors Get Smarter


By now, there’s quite a buzz about the new USB Type-C spec given that it provides for a reversible plug connector for USB devices and cabling, aiming to end the endless cable flipping to make sure the orientation is correction. To avoid confusion, while developed at about the same time as the USB 3.1 specification, it is distinct from that one. When it comes to software support for Type-C,... » read more

Consolidation And Innovation


Consolidation is happening across the semiconductor industry, in ways that are very apparent and others that aren't so obvious. On the chipmaker side, NXP's acquisition of Freescale, Avago's acquisition of Broadcom and LSI, and Intel's acquisition of Altera are so big that they require approval by multiple governments. Less obvious are moves such as Apple's build out of its processor team, a... » read more

← Older posts Newer posts →