EE Times Current

This week’s podcast: Nvidia is as dominant in its area of expertise — GPUs, as Arm is in its area of expertise — processor core designs. Each already has an enormous amount of market power. Is letting them combine a good idea? A critical look at the proposed combination of Nvidia and Arm with analyst Mike Feibus, who’s got a new report examining the potential merger.

This week’s podcast: Ten years ago, Arm introduced its v8 architecture of its processor cores, which turned out to be a pretty big deal. The company just revealed v9. The announcement was light on details, but details were available if you just looked for them. Tirias analyst Kevin Krewell looked for them. We talk with him about what he found.

This week’s podcast: Every year, the automotive industry is offering vehicles with increasingly autonomous capabilities. There is a problem in how it describes its progress that is already undermining vehicle safety. This week: the trouble with Level 3. Also, workers at an Amazon facility are voting on whether or not to unionize. A look at the nature of work in the high tech industry.

This week’s podcast: People were wondering if Intel would finally get out of the IC manufacturing business. Instead, it’s going to broaden its manufacturing operations in a standalone foundry business. We talk with analysts Jim McGregor and Kevin Krewell, who explain the move. Also, we’ve got a new, up-to-the-minute reference guide on gallium GaN power electronics; we preview what’s in it.

This week’s podcast: Electronics manufacturer love to call their products reliable, but are they really? One way to find out is to take them places where failure is not an option. Our guest this week is engineer and mountaineer Matt DuPuy. We talk about relying on gadgets in places that are hostile to humans and electronics alike. Also — science & art are more akin than we realize. An interview with engineer and musician Jack Weast from Intel.

This week’s podcast:

Colin Barnden, an analyst and a regular contributor to EE Times, recently came to an intriguing supposition: car makers are likely to give up their factories, just like most semiconductor manufacturers gave up their fabs. This week Junko and I talk with Colin about his rather startling prediction.

This week’s podcast:

The biggest technology companies in the world have been reshaping business, society, and culture – and they’re facing mounting opposition to what they’re doing. A conversation with Robin Gaster, author of the book “Behemoth: Amazon Rising.” Also: the way we’ve been listening to music lately, there’s been little emphasis on audio quality. Qualcomm is seeking to change that with high-def audio technology and what it hopes will be an extensive ecosystem of partners.

This week’s podcast: Nvidia’s proposal to buy Arm is one of the most consequential acquisitions in technology history. Opposition is said to be mounting, but will those opposed put up enough resistance to scuttle the deal? This week, a discussion with industry analyst Mike Feibus about the perils of the merger, and the perils of opposing it.

This week’s podcast: There is only one inherently electronic instrument in common use. In this episode, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the theremin, we talk about the history of the instrument, how it works, and how to play it, with Cyril Lance, CTO of Moog Music, which makes theremins, and with musician Jonathan Segel from the band Camper Van Beethoven.

This week’s podcast: Automakers are beginning to introduce more safety features that can temporarily take over for drivers, and gradually more and more vehicles will be able to drive themselves. However, there’s little clarity for drivers what each feature actually does, when, and under what circumstances. When it isn’t clear who’s responsible – the driver or the car – that’s called “mode confusion.” It’s well known to military aviators, but to hardly anyone else. We talk with former Navy fighter pilot, engineer, and autonomous systems expert Missy Cummings about the risks to motorists if automakers fail to plan for mode confusion.