Infineon aims to maintain China growth in 2017

German semiconductor company Infineon Technologies AG said it aims to maintain double-digit growth in China this year, as it benefits in part, from the overseas expansion efforts of China Railway Rolling Stock Corp Ltd, the country's railway vehicle and equipment maker.
Infineon, the producer of key semiconductors that help transform high-voltage electricity into power to drive CRRC's high-speed railways, posted a revenue of 1.6 billion euros ($1.69 billion) in the Chinese mainland in its 2016 fiscal year which ended in October, said Su Hua, president of Infineon in China.
Su said his company's revenue in China managed a year-on-year growth rate of 15 percent last year.
"I believe the growth momentum will continue in 2017," he said.
"CRRC has grabbed several big orders from foreign countries, which will help boost our revenue."
CRRC said in December it aimed to generate 35 percent of its sales from overseas markets by 2025, up from 7 percent in 2015.
According to Su the German company will also benefit from China's burgeoning new-energy vehicles market, energy sector and the Made in China 2025 initiative, which was designed to promote high-end manufacturing.
Infineon is the world's second biggest semiconductor supplier to the car sector, with a market share of 10.4 percent, behind the Netherlands-based NXP Semiconductors which accounts for 14.2 percent, data from Strategy Analytics show.
Globally, Infineon's automotive unit contributed to more than 40 percent of its total sales. Its global revenue hit 1.65 billion euros and operating profit was 246 million euros for the quarter ending December.
Zhang Zhiyong, founder and CEO of Wenfeng Automobile Consultancy, said as vehicles became increasingly smart and digital, they would become just like smartphones with four wheels.
"That trend will spur a huge demand for auto chips. But Infineon will face stronger competition in the high-speed railway sectors," he added.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2017-02/28/content_28370373.htm

Self-Driving Cars Might Need Standards, but Whose?

The PC revolution, the internet boom, the smartphone economy — all were propelled along by a common set of technological standards. So will a standard platform or operating system be necessary to get autonomous cars rolling, too?

“There is certainly no doubt that many carmakers have expressed the idea that a more standardized platform would be attractive,” said John Wall, a senior vice president at QNX, which develops software that is used in millions of vehicles today.

Car companies have come to realize that existing in-car systems, with their tangled layers of software and morass of hundreds of embedded processors, are slow and overly complex by today’s computing standards. If autonomous cars are ever to become a reality, they will require even more powerful, more fully integrated and upgradable computing platforms, designers say.

“The feedback we hear is that the number of chips, the amount of wire — an Audi has over six miles of wire in it — is excessive,” said Danny Shapiro, senior director of automotive at the chip maker Nvidia, which is promoting its own autonomous driving platform.

A more centralized approach could bring huge cost savings by reducing the number of processors used in a car and thus reducing the need for the cabling among those processors. Less wiring would also lower a car’s weight to improve fuel economy, Mr. Shapiro said.

Nvidia is currently working with several automakers, including Audi, which plans to have its first self-driving vehicles on the road in 2020.

A common automotive platform could also make it easier to develop new software and safety systems for self-driving cars. “The goal is to reduce the cost of bringing innovation to the mass market,” said Eric Montague, a senior director at the speech recognition company Nuance.

Graphic

When Cars Drive Themselves

There are increasing signs that autonomous cars have arrived — and may be driving our city streets sooner than we think.

OPEN Graphic

Mr. Montague said the challenge today is that every car has a unique constellation of electronic control units, sensors and microphones. The software must be specially tailored to each model.

There is no shortage of companies vying to become the equivalent for self-driving cars of the Windows/Intel standard for PCs. Chip makers like Nvidia — as well as Intel — hope to establish their hardware as the new brains behind autonomous vehicles. Delphi, QNX and Waymo (the former Google self-driving project) are looking to put their software front and center as the operating system of choice. Each wants to sell its own car platform to automakers.

Some auto companies are embracing new partnerships. BMW is working with Intel, Mobileye and Here to bring self-driving cars to the road and plans to start testing such vehicles this year. Ford is working closely with QNX, a BlackBerry subsidiary, on the software needed for the vehicles it is testing. Fiat Chrysler has built a new experimental fleet of minivans for Waymo.

The traditional automotive culture, however, has emphasized independence. And some industry experts point to economic factors that argue against settling on a standard platform. Being dependent on a single vendor can mean higher prices.

“Automakers don’t want to rely on Apple or Google,” said Glen DeVos, vice president for software and services at Delphi. “But they also don’t want to reinvent the wheel all the time.”

Emblematic of that carmaker culture is Hyundai, which is mostly going it alone in working on its self-driving entry. The company recently demonstrated how far it has come, ferrying journalists in Las Vegas around in a self-driving version of its Ioniq electric compact car. Hyundai, which likes to emphasize that it even makes its own steel, has developed its own platform, striving for affordability.

“You don’t have to use a common system,” said Cason Grover, senior group manager for vehicle technology planning innovation at Hyundai. “And we don’t want to go down one path that hinders us in the future from introducing new innovations.”

Bosch, which supplies safety and technology systems to automakers, including its own self-parking technology, acknowledges that a single, one-size-fits-all system would be easier to work with. “But it would be a killer for innovation,” said Detlef Zerfowski, vice president for automotive system integration at Bosch.

Douglas L. Davis of Intel, recently charged with spearheading that company’s new self-driving car platform, Go, said, “Given the amount of computing power necessary for autonomous driving, we think it can benefit from greater commonality and predictable interfaces.”

“Mobileye already has the computer vision, for example,” he said. “So if the technology is good, why re-engineer it and take two to three years to get it into a product?”

Which design philosophy one chooses can have significant repercussions when it comes to the security of robotic cars, evoking visions of hackers causing mayhem by crashing cars and trucks into each other at highway speeds. It’s a problem engineers are keenly aware of.

“Having a common platform could have a downside,” Mr. Wall at QNX acknowledged. “If there’s a vulnerability in one car, it could mean there’s a vulnerability in every car.”

Conversely, Mr. Wall pointed out that de facto software standards mean that more programmers are focused on making those systems as secure as possible, versus having only a few coders working on a single, narrowly used program.

But by developing as much of the technology as possible themselves, some automakers believe they can solve problems more quickly.

“A side benefit of controlling the entire thing,” said Mr. Grover at Hyundai, “is that we know everything that’s going on.”

A lack of standards and a diversity of self-driving systems does present one other obvious challenge: Variety is not a virtue when cars must interact predictably with human drivers — and other robotic vehicles — to guarantee safety.

Riding in Hyundai’s self-driving Ioniq, for example, is like taking a Sunday drive with your grandmother. The car is extremely adept at staying squarely in its lane without ping-ponging back and forth, but it is also cautious in the extreme, stopping nine feet short of crosswalks and stubbornly refusing to go forward if a pedestrian looks poised to step off the sidewalk. It is behavior that can ignite road rage in nearby human drivers.

By comparison, Delphi’s test car, which uses an Intel computing platform installed in an Audi Q5, is more aggressive. It can easily merge into highway traffic and negotiate complex intersections. However, it treats pedestrians with less deference, taking right-hand corners more quickly — even though pedestrians may be contemplating entering the crosswalk.

“There’s a big difference in the algorithms and even sensor choices being used,” Mr. Grover said, which can affect how collision-prevention and lane-keeping systems work. When autonomous cars do hit the road, he said, you could have a fair amount of variation in how they behave.

“There are quite a few different approaches to creating autonomous systems,” said Ralf Herrtwich of Here, which is making high-resolution maps for the next generation of vehicles. Mr. Herrtwich said the necessary standards might come not from the car platform itself, though, but from the communications side.

In order to avoid accidents down the road and conditions like black ice that a car’s sensors cannot detect, self-driving vehicles will have to share information with each other, through so-called V2V or vehicle-to-vehicle communication. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has proposed that V2V equipment be installed in all cars in the future.

Indeed, there are already cars like the 2017 BMW 5 Series that can broadcast information about road hazards over a cellular connection, but only other BMWs can make use of the warnings.

Technology suppliers, platform vendors and automakers acknowledge that self-driving cars are still in their infancy and that as the vehicles mature, standards will be forthcoming.

Most car manufacturers are still struggling just to establish standards across their own models and brands, Mr. DeVos of Delphi said.

“Once that happens,” he said, “then we can talk about how to work across different companies.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/23/automobiles/wheels/self-driving-cars-standards.html?WT.mc_id=SmartBriefs-Newsletter&WT.mc_ev=click&ad-keywords=smartbriefsnl&_r=0

SK Hynix CEO says will consider fresh bid for Toshiba chip unit stake

SK Hynix Inc will consider making a fresh bid for Toshiba Corp's flash memory chip business should the Japanese conglomerate offer more of it for sale, the chief executive of the South Korean chipmaker said on Thursday.
Toshiba initially put up almost 20 percent of the business for sale, to help it work through financial problems. It has since said it is considering selling most or all of the business. People familiar with the matter told Reuters that Toshiba aims to raise at least 1 trillion yen ($8.8 billion).
SK Hynix said earlier that it had submitted a non-binding bid for a stake in the business on Feb. 3, without specifying the size of the stake. It will consider a fresh bid should Toshiba make another offer, CEO Park Sung-wook told reporters on the sidelines of an industry event in Seoul.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-toshiba-accounting-sk-hynix-idUSKBN16208A

Commodity COTS military technology and its potential treat to military capability and innovation

THE MIL & AERO COMMENTARY – There's a lot of benefit to the military's continuing use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) electronic components and subsystems; commodity technology can lead to low costs, predictable interoperability, and for the most part acceptable performance. Yet it also might stifle innovation.
Military leaders need to remember some of the potential drawbacks of COTS -- particularly when program managers adhere to dogged COTS specifications imposed to ensure the use of commodity technologies.
The point to remember is this: the military doesn't need COTS, per se; the military needs capability -- and now more than it has in more than the seventy years since the close of World War II.

The next war the U.S. will fight most likely will be against an adversary whose technological capabilities, tactics, and strategies are at least on a par with the U.S. -- perhaps even better. The consensus among senior military leaders is the next enemy in a shooting war will not be an Iraq, a Vietnam, or a Korea, but instead one with technological parity, like a Russia, a China, an India, or a nuclear-capable Iran.

That means no more free rides in military operations against a technologically inferior foe. Every inch of ground, every bit of airspace, every wave of the ocean in the battle theater will be contested against a foe with modern jet fighter aircraft, stealthy radar systems, potent electronic warfare (EW) capabilities, and surprisingly formidable cyber warfare abilities.

The era of an undisputably powerful U.S. military rapidly is drawing to a close, as years of cost cutting take their toll by eroding the fighting ability of the U.S. military.
Yet despite these threats, military leaders still place primary weight on using COTS technology in military systems at the expense of developing superior capabilities.
Yes, using COTS commodity technologies can reduce costs. Using incremental system block upgrades can reduce the risk of expensive system redesigns. Deferring maintenance and upgrades can save money -- today at least.
Yet with the prospect of facing potential foes who are on technological parity with the U.S., is focusing on costs and on commodity technology really the way to go? Relying on COTS technology today simply means using technologies available to everyone else throughout the world. When it comes to boosting military capability, can using COTS commodity technologies still move the needle? To be honest, probably not; it's like marching in place.
The days of simply maintaining the status-quo by using the latest generations of commodity technologies is short-sighted and wrong-headed. In an industry competition that involves only commodity technologies widely available anywhere on Earth, the only differentiator is price; rarely does capability even enter the discussion.

Worse, however, is that competing on only cost with clearly specified commodity technologies may be stifling innovation. With no incentive for genuine increases in capability, commodity-based competition simply is a race to the bottom on price.
How well does that bode in a world as dangerous as ours, and one that is becoming more threatening and scary with each passing day?
I think it's time for military capability to take priority over reducing costs. These are desperate days, and maintaining the status-quo with commodity technology just isn't going to cut it anymore. Wait too long, and it just might be too late.
Let's hope the new administration can see clearly the need for big improvements in military capability, rather than getting distracted by a fixation on reducing costs.

http://www.militaryaerospace.com/articles/2017/02/cots-commodity-technology-innovation.html?cmpid=enl_mae_weekly_2017-02-22&email_address=mnorthrup@iec-electronics.com&eid=293587495&bid=1672281

Tokyo Institute of Technology taps Nvidia for Japan’s fastest AI supercomputer

Nvidia’s business is increasingly the business of artificial intelligence, and its latest partnership fits with that new role. The graphics processing maker is supplying the Tokyo Institute of Technology for the GPUs that will power its new AI supercomputer, which will be the fastest of its kind in Japan once completed.
Nvidia Tesla P100 GPUs, which use Pascal processing architecture, will be used in the creation of the cluster, which will be known as TSUBAME3.0, and which will replace TSUBAME2.5 with twice the performance capabilities. Don’t feel too badly for TSUBAME2.5, however — it’s still going to be in active use, adding its power to TSUBAME3.0’s projected 47 petaflops for a combined total of 64.3 petaflops in total — you’d need a heck of a lot of iPhones to match that (like very, very insanely many).
The goal is for TSUBAME3.0 to be up and processing by this summer, where its prowess will be put to use in service for education and high-tech research at the Tokyo academic institution. It’ll also be available for private sector contracting, and the school says it can’t wait to start teaching the new virtual brain.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/17/tokyo-institute-of-technology-taps-nvidia-for-japans-fastest-ai-supercomputer/

Korean Chip Makers to Increase 3D NAND Flash Facility Investment by 27%

South Korean semiconductor businesses are seeking to take the initiative in the 3D NAND flash market by increasing investment in facilities this year by approximately 30 percent compared to last year. This is to secure technological advantage over other competitors with large preemptive investments.
According to the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) on Feb. 16, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are planning to inject US$14 billion (15.97 trillion won) into semiconductor facilities this year. The figure is increased by 27.3 percent from US$11 billion (12.55 trilion won) of the two companies’ investment in semiconductor facilities last year. In particular, Samsung Electronics is expected to make a US$10 billion (11.41 trillion won) investment in facilities, up 25 percent from a year ago. SK Hynix has announced its plans to make an investment of 7 trillion won (US$6.13 billion) this year and will spend about US$4 billion (4.6 trillion won) on semiconductor facilities alone.
The size of investment by South Korean semiconductor companies is the largest in the world. Intel Corp., a leading system semiconductor producer based in the U.S., is also planning to invest US$5 billion (5.71 trillion won), up 67 percent from a year earlier, in semiconductor facilities this year, but most chipmakers are expected to reduce their investments in facilities. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest foundry, U.S. semiconductor manufacturer Micron Technology and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), China's largest contract chip maker, cut back on their investments by hundreds of millions of dollars.
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix plan to gradually increase a portion of sales of 3D NAND flash chips, rather than DRAM, with such aggressive investments. The ratio of DRAM to NAND flash chips in Samsung Electronics’ memory business is six to four, while that of SK Hynix is seven to three. It shows that the two companies still have a business structure weighted towards DRAMs. However, they are planning to increase the ratio of high value-added 3D NAND flash chips by nearly half for higher profitability to differentiate themselves from other companies. With such strategy, the global investment in NAND flash will grow more than 14 percent from US$14 billion (15.97 trillion won) last year to US$16 billion (18.26 trillion won) this year.
Samsung Electronics has been already mass producing a 64-layer 3D NAND chip from last year and it is also planning to release a 512Gb 64-layer 3D NAND chip in the first half of this year. SK Hynix will also consistently expand 48-layer 3D NAND chip production and start mass producing a 72-layer 3D NAND chip from the second half of the year at the same time. Accordingly, the SEMI expected that South Korea’s semiconductor industry’s share in the DRAM and NAND flash market will reach more than 70 percent and 45 percent, respectively.

http://www.businesskorea.co.kr/english/news/ict/17320-keeping-leadership-korean-chip-makers-increase-3d-nand-flash-facility-investment-27

Severe Electronics Components Shortages Possible in 2017

Is the electronics supply chain diving headlong into one of its infamous component undersupply situations and the associated procurement woes? Some industry veterans are concerned this may be the case as they watch average selling prices inch higher and demand strengthen in an environment marked by low inventories and limited manufacturing capacity. With companies keeping a wary eye on uncertainties in the global economic and political environment – and hesitant to raise capex – the stage may be set for a scary demand-supply imbalance by the third quarter of the year, sources said.
It may be too early to categorically state that the electronics industry will be by mid-year enmeshed in another round of its vicious shortage cycles. The industry is notorious for projecting inaccurate sales forecasts, numbers which companies nevertheless use to determine capex and other major infrastructure expenses. The repeated failures to hit projected sales figures have in the past hurt suppliers and OEMs alike, forcing many of them to be more cautious in production capacity planning.
What could be different this time is that the wariness has spread so thoroughly into the supply chain that limited capacity exists today to absorb any unanticipated surge in demand. Current forecasts, for example, calls for semiconductor sales to rise anywhere from the low single digit to as high as 15 percent in 2017. The numbers vary widely. The World Semiconductor Trade Statistics said IC sales will rise about 3 percent this year, after a no-growth situation in 2016, and climb 2 percent in 2018. Meanwhile, Gartner Inc. in November revised upward its earlier forecast and now expects semiconductor sales in 2017 to jump 7.2 percent from a mere increase of 1.5 percent in 2016.
“The worst is now over with a positive outlook emerging for 2017 driven by inventory replenishment and increasing average selling prices (ASPs) in select markets, particularly commodity memory and application-specific standard products,” said Ganesh Ramamoorthy, research vice president at Gartner, in a release. “The turnaround that started at the end of the second quarter of 2016 will continue to gain momentum and we expect the improved conditions to carry through 2017.”
At Future Horizons, a U.K.-based market consulting firm, principal analyst Malcolm Penn would seem to agree with Gartner that semiconductor makers should anticipate a robust year. His numbers, though, are a bit more optimistic. The scenarios described by Penn during Future Horizons’ annual forecast conference last month call for IC sales to soar as high as 16 percent, if currently favorable conditions persist throughout the year. His most likely scenario, however, is for sales to increase 11 percent to approximately $375.6 billion.
“The economy and capacity are the industry’s biggest wildcards,” Penn said. “An economic roadblock will derail the market; capacity constraints will trigger panic.”
It may not matter whose forecasts bend closer to the actual market performance if the industry records even the slightest growth: A shortage would ensue and already rising prices will surge higher, putting pressure on buyers and pasting a smile on the faces of components manufacturers. This is because “capital expenditure and capacity are today finely tuned to current low level of demand,” as Penn points out. With inventories at low levels, any upturn in demand will trigger shortages of critical components, according to observers.
Good News, Bad News
Despite the possibility of supply shortages, a sales turnaround in the electronics industry would be a positive development. In the different segments of the supply chain, companies are resorting to a low-level form of cannibalism for growth. Semiconductor suppliers are in a frenzy of mergers and acquisitions while the distribution channel has been turned into a scramble for engineers, who many distributors believe can help them secure desired design sockets. (See: Distribution: More M&A on the Way).
A market upturn will also exact a negative toll on the supply chain; many companies have been so focused on keeping costs low that they have inadvertently placed extreme constraints on the entire infrastructure. Analysts say capex reductions over the years have sharply reduced the number of manufacturing facilities companies can tap to meet unanticipated surge in demand. Add to this the growing dependence on foundries for semiconductors and the advent of fabless chipmakers and what you have is an explosive mix of supply constraints at a time of firming demand.
How did we get here? One word: prudence, which, though advisable, has since morphed into incapacitating caution. Inventories are at historically low levels throughout the electronics industry. Suppliers, distributors and OEMs have turned raw materials, components, work-in-progress and finished inventories into the traditional hot potato; nobody wants to keep more than they can juggle at any one point. As a result, semiconductor suppliers, for example, have tamped down hard on inventories and gone as far as keeping chips in die form rather than finished products ready for sale.
Another troubling factor today is the growing shortage of silicon wafers from the leading suppliers, many of which have put customers on notice about their inability to meet current demand.
“Companies are no longer making the once typical 10- to 15-year bet and investments in capital infrastructure because they just don’t have any reliable demand visibility,” said Penn at Future Horizons. “The amount of leading-edge manufacturing capacity available today is quite low, IC companies no longer invest in fabs and even those that still have plants have hardly any spare or redundant capacity.”
The electronics industry hasn’t had a manufacturing capacity squeeze in years. That’s not because component suppliers don’t want one, after all shortages can lead to firmer prices, higher capacity utilization rates and stronger profit margins. It was just that nobody wants a repeat of the horrific scarcities that followed the industry’s great cyclical expansion in 2000. What is still widely acknowledged as the industry’s worst downturn followed; Component pricing fell off a cliff, sales slumped and inventories ballooned at suppliers, OEMs and at contract manufacturers. Many companies went out of business and billions of dollars in unwanted inventories were written off or scrapped.
Many of today’s buyers at OEMs/EMS providers may not recall the extraordinary twin-dance of shortages and overages that marked the beginning of the century. Those who do have wild stories to tell, even if these might seem implausible to many now. This is why some in the industry are worried. The incidents of 2000 appear so hazy now that few believe the industry would ever experience anything remotely similar again. The lack of visibility into OEM/EMS provider and end-market demand beyond a few weeks, in many cases, is making companies hesitant to accept anecdotal evidence indicating a potential surge in demand, analysts said.
“Companies should be putting in new equipment to absorb higher demand but nobody wants to do it because they don’t have visibility into the next month not to talk of one or more quarters ahead,” Penn said. “Yet, the supply chain is tight and we are still bleeding current capacity for more. This could be dangerous in an environment where everything is outsourced.”

https://epsnews.com/2017/02/09/severe-electronics-components-shortages-possible-in-2017/

Chip maker SMIC on target for 20pc growth this year

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), mainland China's largest contract chip maker, reaffirmed its 20 per cent annual revenue growth target this year after posting record high sales of nearly US$3 billion last year.

Chief executive Chiu Tzu-yin said in a conference call with analysts on Wednesday that the company was hopeful of a continued environment for growth in the semiconductor industry, despite speculation about some disruption in global trade.

Chiu pointed out that North America, where Qualcomm is a major customer, could deliver revenue growth above SMIC’s other geographic markets for this year, as the company ramps up production capacity on the mainland and at subsidiary LFoundry’s operation in Italy.

We’re targeting an 11 per cent increase in installed capacity to close out this year at 450,000 wafers per month, compared with 406,000 per month in 2016

Chiu Tzu-yin, chief executive, SMIC

According to Daiwa Capital Markets analysts Rick Hsu and Martin Lee, that shortfall in the first quarter “would have to do with one of its customers in fingerprint applications cutting orders”.

“The impact should be seasonal rather than structural, as we believe SMIC will find other applications to fill the slack,” said the analysts, who have an “outperform” rating on the company.

Listed in both Hong Kong and New York, SMIC reported a 30 per cent increase in revenue to a record US$2.9 billion last year, up from US$2.2 billion in 2015, on the back of a high overall utilisation rate of 97.5 per cent at its fabrication plants.

Net profit last year rose about 49 per cent to a record US$377 million from US$253 million in 2015.

Chiu said SMIC achieved its eighth consecutive quarter of record quarterly revenue in the three months ended December 31, as sales climbed 33.5 per cent to US$814.8 million from US$610.1 million a year earlier.

Net profit for the December quarter jumped 169.4 per cent to US$104 million from 38.6 million in the same period in 2015.

Both SMIC’s revenue and net profit in the fourth-quarter are below market analysts’ consensus estimates of US$823 million and 119.4 million, respectively, as the firm’s depreciation charges increased that quarter.

“We see 2017 as a transition year for SMIC, as the company shifts its focus from improving profitability to accelerating 28-nanometre [fabrication process] development, resulting in lower gross margin and higher operating expenditure,” said Huatai Research analyst Ken Hui, who has a "hold" rating on the chip maker.

http://www.scmp.com/tech/china-tech/article/2070999/chip-maker-smic-target-20pc-growth-year

Intel researches tech to prepare for a future beyond today's PCs

Intel realizes there will be a post-Moore's Law era and is investing in technologies to drive computing beyond today's PCs and servers.
The chipmaker is "investing heavily" in quantum and neuromorphic computing, said Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel, during a question-and-answer session at the company's investor day on Thursday.
"We are investing in those edge type things that are way out there," Krzanich said.
To give an idea of how far out these technologies are, Krzanich said his daughter would perhaps be running the company by then.

Researching in these technologies, which are still in their infancy, is something Intel has to do to survive for many more decades. Shrinking silicon chips and cramming more features into them is becoming difficult, and Intel is already having trouble in manufacturing smaller chips.
Smartphones, PCs, and other devices are getting smaller, faster and more power efficient thanks to Moore's Law, a 1965 observation loosely stating that the number of transistors in a die area would double every two years, causing performance to double while driving down the cost of making chips.
Intel has been using Moore's Law as a guiding star to make faster and smaller chips and reducing the price of devices. However, it is widely agreed that Moore's Law is slowly dying, and Intel's manufacturing struggles are growing.
For decades, Intel's business has been heavily reliant on its ability to make and deliver chips. But the process is slowing down. Intel used to advance manufacturing processes every two years, and that has now changed to three to four years.

One way to resolve that crisis -- which all chipmakers face -- is to completely change the current computing model in PCs, smartphones, and servers. The current model -- known as the Von Neumann approach -- involves data being pushed to a processor, calculated, and sent back to memory. But storage and memory are becoming bottlenecks.
The answer is to adopt new models of computing, which is where quantum computers and neuromorphic chips fit in. Quantum computers have the potential to be powerful computers harnessing the unique quality of a large number of qubits to perform multiple calculations in parallel. Neuromorphic chips are modeled after the human brain, which could help computers make decisions based on patterns and associations.
Intel has made some advances in quantum computing and neuromorphic chips. But Krzanich's comments lend more credibility to the company's push to look at a future beyond today's computing models.
Some short-term answers can resolve the bottlenecks based on Von Neumann model, including Optane, Intel's new form of super-fast memory and storage. It could unite SSDs and DRAM in systems, cutting one bottleneck. Intel is also embracing silicon photonics, which could resolve throughput issues in data centers. Both technologies have been researched for more than a decade and are now practical.
The chipmaker has lived off the PC industry for decades but is now looking to grow in markets like data centers, the internet of things, automotive and high-performance computing. The new focus is bringing a gradual change to the way Intel makes chips. It's similar to the 1970s, when different types of chips like vector processors and floating point arrays were crammed together for complex calculations.
For example, Intel is slapping together two separate functional blocks for applications like machine learning and autonomous cars. Intel envisions FPGAs combining with CPUs in autonomous cars. Later this year, the company will release a chip called Lake Crest, which combines a Xeon server CPU with deep-learning chip technology it picked up through its Nervana Systems acquisition. Intel is also merging an FPGA inside an Intel Xeon chip to carry out machine learning tasks.
Intel is expecting a lot of data to be generated by sources like autonomous cars, which will need edge processing for tasks like image recognition, analysis, and map updates. Intel is pushing its wide roster of co-processors to the edge, and that is where the quantum and neuromorphic chips may fit.
Quantum computer research is also being done by other companies. D-Wave recently released a 2,000-qubit quantum computer based on quantum annealing, while IBM has a 5-bit quantum computer accessible via the cloud. IBM is also playing with brain-like chips and has benchmarked its TrueNorth chip, which has a million neurons and 256 million synapses.
Academic institutions like the University of Heidelberg in Germany, Stanford University, and the University of Manchester in the U.K. are also working on neuromorphic chips. HPE has shown a computer that emulates the human brain, and it intends to adapt ideas from that for servers.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3168768/computer-processors/intel-researches-tech-to-prepare-for-a-future-beyond-todays-pcs.html

Toshiba starts construction of Fab 6 and Memory R&D Centre

Construction has started of Toshiba’s semiconductor fabrication facility, Fab 6, and the Memory R&D Centre, at Yokkaichi Operations in Mie prefecture, which is the company’s main memory production base.

Fab 6 will be dedicated to the production of BiCS FLASH – a structure that stacks Flash memory cells on a silicon substrate. It is said to realise significant density improvements over planar NAND Flash memory, where cells are formed on the substrate.
Like Fab 5, construction will take place in two phases, allowing the pace of investment to be optimised against market trends, with completion of Phase 1 scheduled for summer 2018.
The company will also construct a Memory R&D Centre adjacent to the new fab, with completion targeting December 2017. The facility will advance development of BiCS FLASH and new memories.

http://www.newelectronics.co.uk/electronics-news/toshiba-starts-construction-of-fab-6-and-memory-rd-centre/151432/

Intel uses White House Oval Office for splash on Arizona factory

ntel Corp (INTC.O) chose the White House Oval Office as its backdrop to announce a $7 billion investment in a previously shelved Arizona factory, which it said would create 3,000 jobs when it is up and running.
Intel Chief Executive Officer Brian Krzanich told reporters about the investment while standing behind President Donald Trump. Trump told reporters Krzanich called him a few weeks ago to say he wanted to meet to make a big announcement.
Krzanich said he made the announcement at the White House as a sign of support for the "tax and regulatory policies that we see the administration pushing forward."
Trump, a Republican who took office on Jan. 20, promised during his campaign to push companies to keep or create jobs in the United States rather than sending them abroad.


Intel was one of more than 100 companies that joined together to file a legal brief opposing Trump's temporary travel ban on people from seven Muslim-majority nations.
The issue did not come up during the Oval Office meeting, said Reed Cordish, a White House official in charge of technology initiatives.
The company said in a statement that the plant would be completed in three or four years.
The chip factory was started in 2011 as a $5 billion project that was targeted to open in late 2013. Intel shelved its plans in 2014 when smartphones and tablets cut into demand for chips for personal computers.


Krzanich said in an email to Intel employees that was posted on the company's website that the factory would build chips for data centers and smart devices.
Intel announced less than a year ago that it would cut up to 12,000 jobs globally, or 11 percent of its workforce, as it refocused its business towards microchips that power data centers and Internet connected devices and away from the declining personal computer industry it helped found.
(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Writing by David Alexander Editing by Frances Kerry, Toni Reinhold)

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-intel-whitehouse-idUSKBN15N29X

Solitons form a new field of electronics

Self-reinforcing solitary wave packets called solitons could achieve a more stable transmission of information, according to scientists at the Centre for Artificial Low Dimensional Electronic Systems (CALDES), within Korea's Institute for Basic Science (IBS). Their experiments and models are said to pave the way to a new field of electronics: solitonics.

A similar concept to topology could be used in IT to protect the flow of information from external interferences and impurities and guarantee its stability over longer distances and time. Until now however, the transmitted information was too stable to be modified and used.
One of the key components of the physics of topological system is the soliton, a stable solitary wave packet of energy, which travels though some 1D materials without losing its shape and energy.
The scientists explored the properties of solitons on a double chain of indium atoms placed on the top of a silicon surface and claim to have found that solitons could exist in three forms.
"In a topological sense, it is like having a donut with a lot of holes, where each hole can be of three different shapes corresponding to the three types of solitons," explained researcher Yeom Han Woong.
In this study, the team observed that solitons can be transformed and yet remain immune to the defects of the medium.
"So far solitons could only be created or destroyed in pairs, no other manipulations were possible, but we showed that these solitons can be switched from one to another, and even used for logical operations,” continued Woong.
These three types of solitons can also be represented by digits which can then be used for mathematical computations.
IBS scientists envisage new generation IT devices that combine silicon and solitons. "We are using solitons travelling in indium atoms on a silicon surface, and we imagine that this structure that could be implemented in current silicon devices, creating hybrid systems," concluded researcher Kim Tae-Hwan.

http://www.newelectronics.co.uk/electronics-news/solitons-form-a-new-field-of-electronics/151254/

SK hynix bids for 20 pct stake in Toshiba's memory chip business

SEOUL, Feb. 7 (Yonhap) -- SK hynix Inc., the world's second-largest maker of computer memory chips, has submitted a bid to acquire a 20 percent stake in Toshiba Corp.'s memory chip business, an industry source said Tuesday.
The bid is aimed at strengthening SK hynix's NAND flash memory business as global demand for flash memory chips is roaring.
SK hynix submitted the bid last Friday, with a deal expected to cost between 2 trillion won (US$1.8 billion) and 3 trillion won, according to the source.

In January, Toshiba said it would sell about a 20 percent stake in its memory business as it struggles with multibillion dollar write-downs from its nuclear power business in the United States.
Toshiba is the world's second-largest maker of NAND flash memory chips, mainly used in smartphones and other mobile devices.
SK hynix has moved to bolster its NAND flash memory business.
Last month, an affiliate of SK Group, which has SK hynix under its wing, said it agreed to buy a controlling stake in silicon wafer producer LG Siltron Inc.
The latest deal came a month after SK hynix said it would build a new NAND chip plant in South Korea for 2.2 trillion won.

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2017/02/07/0502000000AEN20170207003000320.html

South Korea's Samsung Mulls Building US Appliance Factory

South Korea's Samsung Electronics said Friday it's considering building a factory to make household appliances in the United States as various industries brace for potential protectionist trade policies under the administration of President Donald Trump.
A spokeswoman for Samsung said the plans were "purely in the evaluation stage" and no decisions have been made. She didn't want to be named, citing office rules.
Samsung also said in an emailed statement on Friday that it continues to assess "new investment needs in the United States. The news drew the attention of Trump, who tweeted "Thank you, @Samsung! We would love to have you!"

Most Samsung televisions, refrigerators and other household appliances sold in the United States are made in Mexico.
The spokeswoman refused to say whether Samsung was worried about the possibility of the United States moving to impose tariffs on products imported from Mexico.
A spokesman from LG Electronics, another South Korean technology company, said it is also considering building a manufacturing plant in the United States and will decide on the matter within the first half of the year. He also didn't want to be named, saying that the matter was sensitive.

http://www.manufacturing.net/news/2017/02/south-koreas-samsung-mulls-building-us-appliance-factory?et_cid=5813940&et_rid=490548696&location=top&et_cid=5813940&et_rid=490548696&linkid=http%3a%2f%2fwww.manufacturing.net%2fnews%2f2017%2f02%2fsouth-koreas-samsung-mulls-building-us-appliance-factory%3fet_cid%3d5813940%26et_rid%3d%%subscriberid%%%26location%3dtop

Autos to fuel Infineon profit growth in 2017

Demand for chips for cars, especially in China, will lift Infineon's profit in 2017, the German chipmaker said, sticking to its forecast for revenue growth and profit margin.
Chips made by Infineon are used by carmakers including Tesla and Hyundai as well as auto parts suppliers Continental and Bosch to activate airbags, enable cruise control, manage power supplies and cut emissions.
Infineon is the world's second largest semiconductor supplier to the car sector, with a market share of 10.4 percent according to Strategy Analytics, behind NXP with 14.2 percent.
The automotive unit accounts for more than 40 percent of revenues at Infineon, which on Thursday posted a 12 percent rise in operating profit, excluding special items, to 246 million euros ($265 million) for the quarter ended in December.
That was above the highest estimate in a Reuters poll with an average forecast of 232 million euros, while revenues of 1.65 billion euros were also better then expected.
"In the first quarter, revenue and earnings were better than expected, driven in particular by strong demand for our components for automotive electronics and MOSFET power transistors," Chief Executive Reinhard Ploss said.
First-quarter sales of the autos unit, whose chips are used in one in 15 cars worldwide, booked a 15-percent revenue rise, while its operating profit rose 58 percent.
AUTOMOTIVE WAVE
Like its peers NXP, STMicroelectronics, Renesas and Texas Instruments, Infineon is riding the automotive wave as carmakers are rushing to develop electric and self-driving cars, pushed by tougher anti-pollution rules and the emergence of new competitors from the technology sector such Alphabet's Google.
The world's largest automotive chipmaker NXP Semiconductor, which is being bought by rival Qualcomm, reported earlier on Thursday a 17 percent rise in fourth-quarter automotive revenues.
STMicroelectronics, the world's fourth largest automotive chip maker, last week posted in-line 2016 results, while number five, Texas Instruments Inc reported higher-than-expected quarterly revenue, helped by strong demand for its analog and embedded chip products from its automotive and industrial markets.
Infineon said it still expected revenues for the fiscal year, ending Sept. 30, to rise by some 6 percent to 6.86 billion euros, with an operating margin of about 16 percent, which was in line with analysts' expectations.
"The maintained outlook looks cautious," said DZ Bank analyst Harald Schnitzer, keeping his "Buy" recommendation for the stock.


But financial chief Dominic Asam told analysts there were still too many uncertainties, such as an upcoming round of negotiations about its chip prices with customers, to be more confident about the year.
"Still, currently the order intake is good," Chief Executive Ploss added.
Shares in Infineon were 2.3 percent higher, one of the top gainers in the STOXX Europe 600 Technology index, which was up 1.3 percent.
Infineon shares have gained 6 percent so far this year and are up more than 70 percent from their year-low. The shares are at an almost 15-year high and have outperformed the STOXX Europe 600 Technology index which has gained 3 percent in 2017.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-infineon-technol-results-idUSKBN15H137

Toshiba did not infringe on flash memory patents - federal jury

A federal jury in Delaware ruled on Monday that Toshiba Corp did not violate flash memory patents held by Intellectual Ventures, the patent holding company cofounded by former Microsoft Corp chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold.
The jury, which returned the verdict the same day the trial ended in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, found that Toshiba did not infringe on two patents that cover methods of improving the performance of NAND flash memory chips.
To read the full story on WestlawNext Practitioner Insights, click here: bit.ly/2koxBFE

http://www.reuters.com/article/toshiba-patents-idUSL1N1FL271