New materials; Cerebras to go public; Amkor-TSMC collaboration; advancements in optical communication

Artificial intelligence is the underlying theme for many of this week’s news updates, ranging from the development of new semiconductor materials to PCB assembly pricing.

U.S. government-funded R&D on new materials: UWBGS, AI-powered experimentation

Raytheon has been awarded a three-year, two-phase contract from DARPA to develop foundational ultra-wide bandgap semiconductors, or UWBGS, based on diamond and aluminum nitride technology. Phase one of the contract will focus on developing diamond and aluminum nitride semiconductor films and integrating them onto electronic devices. Phase two will focus on optimizing and maturing the use of these films onto larger diameter wafers for sensor applications. UWBGS defense applications will include radar and communication systems and high-speed weapon systems such as hypersonics.

The U.S. Department of Commerce has announced an open competition demonstrating how AI can assist in developing new sustainable semiconductor materials and processes that meet industry needs and can be designed and adopted within five years. CHIPS for America anticipates up to $100 million in funding to award recipients that develop university-led, industry-informed, collaborations about artificial intelligence-powered autonomous experimentation (AI/AE) relevant to sustainable semiconductor manufacturing. AI/AE combines automated synthesis and characterization tools with an AI “planner” to determine the next round of an experimental campaign, vastly accelerating the design of new materials and the acquisition of materials data.

Cerebras to go public

Cerebras, the AI company mostly known for its wafer-scale chips, has filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed initial public offering of its Class A common stock. The company intends to list its stock on the Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker symbol “CBRS.” By reading the IPO paperwork, EETimes has found that a single customer, G42, accounted for 83% of Cerebras’ revenue in 2023 and 87% in the first half of 2024. G42 is an AI development holding company based in Abu Dhabi.

Amkor and TSMC to collaborate on advanced packaging in Arizona

Amkor and TSMC have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate and bring advanced packaging and test capabilities to Arizona. Under the agreement, TSMC will contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor in their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona. TSMC will leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix. The companies will jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated Fan-Out (InFO) and Chip on Wafer on Substrate (CoWoS), that will be employed.

Arm Kleidi integration with PyTorch and ExecuTorch

Aiming to reduce the effort for developers using Arm CPUs to run AI and ML workloads, Arm has partnered with PyTorch and Tensorflow to integrate Arm Kleidi Libraries, consisting of essential Arm kernels integrated directly into these frameworks. The company has also announced that KleidiAI will be integrated into ExecuTorch, the new on-device inference runtime from PyTorch.

Accelerating the processing of unstructured data for GenAI

Startup DataPelago has emerged from stealth with $47 million in funding and has unveiled its Universal Data Processing Engine, aimed at accelerating the processing of large amounts of unstructured data as required by GenAI. According to the company, the new solution can process data one to two orders of magnitude faster than today’s query engines. DataPelago solution is a software stack consisting of three layers: DataVM, a virtual machine with a domain-specific Instruction Set Architecture for data operators, spanning CPU, GPU, FPGA, and custom silicon; DataOS, an operating system that maps data operations to heterogeneous accelerated computing elements; and DataApp, a pluggable layer that enables integration with platforms including Spark and Trino.

Design and production management updates: IC Manage, MacroFab

IC Manage has announced major advances to its GDP-XL design and IP management platform, claiming 10x to 100x faster database configurations. Improvements include the possibility to swiftly implement custom features without any downtime via user-defined plugin scripts, full revision control of all database states, bank-grade security.

MacroFab has launched FabIQ, an AI-based suite of tools aimed at delivering instant, precise pricing for circuit board assembly, from prototype to production. According to the company, FabIQ can instantly price over 95% of assemblies with no human interaction by simply analyzing the design. It can also automatically identify process changes and tooling that can save production costs, and form-fit-function alternates for out-of-stock or end-of-life components.

336 Tb/s transmission on an optical fiber with a single light source

Researchers from Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology have demonstrated a coherent optical fiber communication system with a total transmission capacity of 336 Tb/s. The system enables the use of wavelength division multiplexing using a single light source combined with optical comb generation and frequency reference distribution. This eliminates the need for hundreds of built-in light sources within transponder modules, as required by conventional solutions. The researchers expect that this work will accelerate the commercialization of S-, C-, and L-band optical communication systems without the need for commercially available compact S-band light sources, and will help reduce the cost by simplifying the systems.

Acquisitions

Clearlake Capital Group and Francisco Partners have completed their acquisition of the Synopsys Software Integrity Group, establishing the now independent software security company as Black Duck Software. The transaction with Synopsys is valued at up to $2.1 billion. The new Black Duck brand is inspired by the company’s flagship software supply chain solution, Black Duck SCA. Jason Schmitt, who joined Synopsys in 2020 as the general manager of the Software Integrity Group, will continue to lead Black Duck as its Chief Executive Officer.

Jabil has announced the successful acquisition of Mikros Technologies, a company specializing in the engineering and manufacturing of liquid cooling solutions for thermal management. Mikros’ proprietary microchannel cold plate designs enhance energy efficiency by effectively cooling over one kilowatt per square centimeter. Mikros’ technology will complement Jabil’s portfolio of solutions for data center lifecycle, semiconductor test equipment, energy and transportation.

Desktop Metal stockholders have approved the merger agreement pursuant to which Desktop Metal would be acquired by Nano Dimension. Closing of transaction is expected in the fourth quarter, pending final regulatory approvals. Both companies specialize in 3D printing (additive manufacturing).

This entry was posted on Monday, October 7th, 2024 at 10:14 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.