Achronix to go public; Beken buys Adveos; Wave to exit bankruptcy.
FPGA and eFPGA company Achronix is going public on Nasdaq via a merger with special-purpose acquisition company ACE Convergence Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: ACEV). Upon closing of the transaction, the combined operating entity retain the name Achronix Semiconductor Corporation and will be listed under the ticker symbol ACHX. According to Achronix, the transaction reflects an implied equity value of the combined company of $2.1 billion, with a $10.00 per share PIPE financing subscription price. Upon closing, the combined company will receive up to $330 million in cash, comprised of $150 million in gross proceeds from a concurrent PIPE financing and up to $230 million in cash held in trust by ACE, less $50 million paid to Achronix’s existing shareholders. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the first half of 2021.
Wireless chipset maker Beken Corporation acquired Adveos Microelectronic Systems, an RF and mixed-signal IP provider. Beken said the acquisition will strengthen the company’s wireless communication capabilities for intelligent transportation and IoT and will enhance growth momentum. Based in Chalandri, Greece, Adveos was founded in 2015. The deal is reportedly worth $7.5 million.
Wave Computing and subsidiary MIPS Technologies reached an agreement with Tallwood Technology Partners to restructure the business and exit bankruptcy. Wave said that the restructuring will allow the company to refocus its business around the continued commercialization of its MIPS architectures.
MegaChips licensed Arteris IP’s FlexNoC interconnect IP and the accompanying Resilience Package for use as the on-chip communications backbone for an automotive Ethernet TSN switch chip. MegaChips is a long-time Arteris IP licensee and said the technology saves development resources and would speed up its entry into the automotive market.
China is falling short of its ‘Made in China 2025’ goals, according to market research firm IC Insights, which noted that “of the $22.7 billion worth of ICs manufactured in China last year, China-headquartered companies produced only $8.3 billion (36.5%), accounting for only 5.9% of the country’s $143.4 billion IC market. TSMC, SK Hynix, Samsung, Intel, UMC, and other foreign companies that have IC wafer fabs located in China produced the rest. IC Insights estimates that of the $8.3 billion in ICs manufactured by China-based companies, about $2.3 billion was from IDMs and $6.0 billion was from pure-play foundries like SMIC.”
AMD’s newly patented chiplet GPU design mimics a monolithic design, reports Techspot. The design uses two chiplets connected by a crosslink, a high-speed inactive interposer.
Arm said it will commit to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. A large part of that will be cutting absolute emissions from business operations by at least 42%, joined by carbon sequestration solutions.
Events
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Coming up in the new year, CES will be held as a virtual event Jan. 11-14. The Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference 2021 will take place Jan. 18-21. Synopsys’ Virtual Prototyping Day will be held Jan. 20.
In February, the 2021 International Solid-State Circuits Virtual Conference will be held Feb. 13-22. The International Symposium on Field-Programmable Gate Arrays will take place Feb. 28-Mar. 2.
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Speaking of carbon footprint, when can i buy a ceramic room heater that is made of processors (whatever type, gpu, cerebras-like is ok too), that runs folding @ home automatically for heat? Also, electronics are piling up in landfills and falling way behind in recycling. Here’s an idea: Use 20 of 45W 32 nm AMD A6-3410MX APU, introduced 2011, cost $4 each according to Passmark, consuming 900 watts. That cost is $80 in processors, add in rest of unit, its basically $100 in parts. OK small ceramic heater, its gonna take some engineering work. But you could add all that to average oil based radiator/heater as well that does Folding@Home, all with touch of a button, and solve some recycling issues at the same time. Alternatively, special chips could be made for this exact purpose, running hot isnt an issue, 32 nm isnt exactly cutting edge, whatever is cheapest out the door. 20 such chips could theoretically give latest AMD Ryzen 5000 series a run for their computing power money, especially for Folding@Home, unlike typical usage patterns. People are gonna need to heat their homes, why not fold proteins?