EdgeCortix, the Japan-based fabless semiconductor company focused on energy-efficient AI processing, predicts that 2024 is set to be a watershed moment for Edge AI. Through its predictions for the year, EdgeCortix believes that Edge AI landscape will be transformed during this exciting year for the industry. Next-gen AI chips, hybrid edge-cloud architectures, software supremacy and the rise of new generative-AI applications "at the edge," will revolutionize the world of business as we know it.

1. Next-Gen efficient Edge AI Chips will break barriers:
Prepare for a hardware uprising! EdgeCortix foresees next-gen energy-efficient AI chips that not only break the barriers of processing power but redefine them. These chips are not just powerful; they are customized for multi-modal generative AI and efficient language models, enabling cutting-edge AI capabilities at low power for a whole new spectrum of applications.

Renesas Electronics Corporation, a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, announced today that it has designed and tested a 32-bit CPU core based on the open-standard RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA). Renesas is among the first in the industry to independently develop a CPU core for the 32-bit general-purpose RISC-V market, providing an open and flexible platform for IoT, consumer electronics, healthcare and industrial systems. The new RISC-V CPU core will complement Renesas' existing IP portfolio of 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs), including the proprietary RX Family and the RA Family based on the Arm Cortex -M architecture.

RISC-V is an open ISA which is quickly gaining popularity in the semiconductor industry, due to its flexibility, scalability, power efficiency and open ecosystem. While many MCU providers have recently created joint investment alliances to accelerate their development of RISC-V products, Renesas has already developed a new RISC-V core on its own. This versatile CPU can serve as a main application controller, a complementary secondary core in SoCs, on-chip subsystems, or even in deeply embedded ASSPs. This positions Renesas as a leader in the emerging RISC-V market, following previous introductions of its 32-bit voice-control and motor-control ASSP devices, as well as the RZ/Five 64-bit general purpose microprocessors (MPUs), which were built on CPU cores developed by Andes Technology Corp.

The revolutionary UNO R4, announced on Arduino Day, is now available on the Arduino Store! The fourth version of the iconic, beloved UNO adds a whole new dimension to the world of DIY and making revolutionized by the simple 8-bit microcontroller over a decade ago. Take your maker potential to new heights: UNO R4 has a speedy 32-bit Arm Cortex-M4 and offers a 16-fold increase in memory, as well as more connectors and connectivity options than ever - in two variants: UNO R4 Minima and UNO R4 WiFi.

Both variants allow you to start making or easily upgrade UNO R3-based projects with more computational power, memory, and speed than previous versions - courtesy of the RA4M1 microcontroller by Renesas - while maintaining the same form factor and 5 V operating voltage.

In its recent Second Quarter of the Fiscal Year 2023 conference, Synopsys issued interesting information about the recent moves of chip developers and their usage of artificial intelligence. As the call notes, over 200+ chips have been taped out using Synopsys DSO.ai place-and-route (PnR) tool, making it a successful commercially proven AI chip design tool. The DSO.ai uses AI to optimize the placement and routing of the chip's transistors so that the layout is compact and efficient with regard to the strict timing constraints of the modern chip. According to Aart J. de Geus, CEO of Synopsys, "By the end of 2022, adoption, including 9 of the top 10 semiconductor vendors have moved forward at great speed with 100 AI-driven commercial tape-outs. Today, the tally is well over 200 and continues to increase at a very fast clip as the industry broadly adopts AI for design from Synopsys."

This is an interesting fact that means that customers are seeing the benefits of AI-assisted tools like DSO.ai. However, the company is not stopping there, and a whole suite of tools is getting an AI makeover. "We unveiled the industry's first full-stack AI-driven EDA suite, sydnopsys.ai," noted the CEO, adding that "Specifically, in parallel to second-generation advances in DSO.ai we announced VSO.ai, which stands for verification space optimization; and TSO.ai, test space optimization. In addition, we are extending AI across the design stack to include analog design and manufacturing." Synopsys' partners in this include NVIDIA, TSMC, MediaTek, Renesas, and IBM Research, all of which used AI-assisted tools for chip design efforts. A much wider range of industry players is expected to adopt these tools as chip design costs continue to soar as we scale the nodes down. With future 3 nm GPU costing an estimated $1.5 billion, 40% of that will account for software, and Synopsys plans to take a cut in that percentage.

ASUS IoT, the global AIoT solution provider, today announced the all-new Tinker V—a versatile single-board computer (SBC) powered by a 64-bit RISC-V-based processor, which supports both Linux Debian and Yocto operating systems. Tinker V packs features rich connectivity into a compact Pico-ITX form factor, and pairs assured longevity with reliable support, making it the ideal choice for diverse IoT and gateway applications.

The RISC-V processor in Tinker V employs the open-source Instruction Set Architecture (ISA), based on Reduced Instruction Set (RISC) principles. Compared with traditional x86 and Arm platforms, the defining benefit of RISC-V is that ISA is open source. Both individual developers and enterprises can change, optimize and deploy freely based on the RISC-V architecture—bypassing licensing and copyright fees.

Renesas Electronics Corporation, a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced that it will present the first live demonstrations of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) implementations on an MCU based on the Arm Cortex -M85 processor. The demos will show the performance uplift in AI/ML applications made possible by the new Cortex-M85 core and Arm's Helium technology. They will take place in the Renesas stand - Hall 1, Stand 234 (1-234) at the embedded world 2023 Exhibition and Conference in Nuremburg, Germany from March 14-16.

At embedded world in 2022, Renesas became the first company to demonstrate working silicon based on the Arm Cortex-M85 processor. This year, Renesas is extending its leadership by showcasing the features of the new processor in demanding AI use cases. The first demonstration showcases a people detection application developed in collaboration with Plumerai, a leader in Vision AI, that identifies and tracks persons in the camera frame in varying lighting and environmental conditions. The compact and efficient TinyML models used in this application lead to low-cost and lower power AI solutions for a wide range of IoT implementations. The second demo showcases a motor control predictive maintenance use case with an AI-based unbalanced load detection application using Tensorflow Lite for Microcontrollers with CMSIS-NN.

Renesas Electronics Corporation, a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced that hundreds of its radiation-hardened (rad-hard) integrated circuits (ICs), including over 50 different part numbers, are onboard the Artemis 1 launch that blasted off on November 16. Intersil-brand rad-hard ICs are part of the battery management systems, RS-25 engine control electronics and the launch abort system on the Space Launch System that propelled the mission into space, the most powerful rocket ever built. On the Orion Capsule that will circle the moon, Renesas provided critical components for controller boards, the main flight computer, the docking camera system, the power distribution system and display and panel electronics. The Intersil-brand ICs perform multiple functions, including power management and precision signal processing.

Artemis is the ambitious NASA program that will take humankind back to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. Artemis 1 is sending the test-mannequin populated Orion capsule to orbit the moon and deploy cubesats and other space experiments on a 42-day mission to test all the critical systems. Artemis 2 (2024) will have a crew that will orbit the moon paving the way for Artemis 3 (2025), which will land the first woman and the first person of color on the moon. The plan is for Artemis to continue to build a space station in lunar orbit and a base on the lunar South Pole. This infrastructure will allow for the awe-inspiring goal of a crewed mission to Mars in the 2040s.

According to TrendForce research, due to vigorous stocking of various terminal applications causing a shortage of wafers in 2021, the global IC industry was severely undersupplied. This, coupled with spiking chip prices, boosted 2021 revenue of the global top ten IC design companies to US$127.4 billion, or 48% YoY. TrendForce further indicates three major disparities from the 2020 ranking. First, NVIDIA surpassed Broadcom to take the second position. Second, Taiwanese companies Novatek and Realtek rose to sixth and eighth place, respectively. Originally ranked tenth, Dialog was replaced at this position by Himax after Dialog was acquired by IDM giant Renesas.

Qualcomm continues its reign as number one in the world, primarily due to 51% and 63% growth YoY in sales of mobile phone SoC (System on Chip) and IoT chips, respectively. The addition of diversified development in its RF and automotive chip businesses were key to a 51% increase in revenue. NVIDIA implemented an integration of software and hardware, demonstrating its ambitions in creating a "comprehensive computing platform." Driven by annual growth of gaming graphics card and data center revenue at 64% and 59%, respectively, NVIDIA successfully climbed to second place. Broadcom benefited from the stable sales performance of network chips, broadband communication chips, and storage and bridging chips, with revenue growing 18% YoY. AMD's computer and graphics revenue grew by 45% YoY due to strong sales of the Ryzen CPU and Radeon GPU and rising average selling price. Coupled with accelerating demand from cloud companies, the annual revenue of AMD's enterprise, embedded, and semi-customized divisions increased by 113%, driving annual growth of total revenue to 68%.

Renesas Electronics Corporation, a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today introduced the first clock buffers and multiplexers that meet stringent PCIe Gen6 specifications. Renesas, the industry's undisputed leader in timing solutions, is offering 11 new clock buffers and 4 new multiplexers. The new devices, which also support and provide extra margin for PCIe Gen5 implementations, complement Renesas' low-jitter 9SQ440, 9FGV1002 and 9FGV1006 clock generators to offer customers a complete PCIe Gen6 timing solution for data center/cloud computing, networking and high-speed industrial applications. The PCIe Gen6 standard supports extremely high data rates of 64 GT/s while requiring very low clock jitter performance of less than 100fs RMS. Renesas' new RC190xx clock buffers and RC192xx multiplexers have PCIe Gen6 additive jitter specs of only 4fs RMS, making them virtually noiseless, and thereby future-proofing customer designs for the next generation of industry standards.

"PCIe Gen6 timing will be at the heart of new equipment in data centers, high-speed networking and other applications," said Zaher Baidas, Vice President of the Timing Products Division at Renesas. "As we have done for preceding generations, Renesas is providing customers with the first timing solution to enable these new, higher-performance systems. Our customers know that we have the technical expertise and market knowledge to ensure that their products will be able to meet future requirements as well." "By delivering the first discrete timing solution for PCIe Gen6, Renesas is enabling customers to develop the next-generation of high-performance systems," said Rich Wawrzyniak, Principal Analyst for Semico Research. "It will be interesting to see the innovative implementations that result from this new capability, especially when considering how solutions for the emerging Chiplet market are starting to evolve, with the need for increasing speed and bandwidth as an underlying constant."

TSMC today announced its 16-nanometer FinFET Plus (16FF+) process is now in risk production. This enhanced version of TSMC's 16FF process operates 40% faster than the company's planar 20-nanometer system-on-chip (20SoC) process, or consumes 50% less power at the same speed. It offers customers a new level of performance and power optimization targeted at the next generation of high-end mobile, computing, networking, and consumer applications.

TSMC's 16nm process offers an extended scaling of advanced SoC designs and is verified to reach speeds of 2.3GHz with ARM's "big" Cortex-A57 in high-speed applications while consuming as little as 75mW with the "LITTLE" Cortex-A53 in low-power applications. It is making excellent progress in yield learning, and has achieved the best technology maturity at the same corresponding stage as compared to all TSMC's previous nodes.

Renesas Electronics Corporation, a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced its new Universal Serial Bus (USB) Power Delivery (PD) controller (part number µPD720250) that is based on the USB PD Specification to deliver up to 100W (5 A at 20 V) power over a USB PD cable. Renesas will exhibit its new USB PD controller at Computex Taipei from June 3 to June 7, 2014 at booth # N0608, 4th floor of the Nangang exhibition hall in Taipei, Taiwan.

By combining the new USB PD controller with an optimal power supply circuit, designers will be able to rapidly implement USB-based solutions that provide higher power to notebook PCs and also can reduce the battery charging time for smartphones and tablets. Furthermore, by standardizing the AC adapters provided with notebook PCs and other equipment, both development costs and design challenges can be reduced.

Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723), a premier provider of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced its collaboration with Diodes Incorporated (Nasdaq: DIOD), a leading global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality application specific standard products within the broad discrete, logic and analog semiconductor markets, to deliver optimized charging solutions for USB Power Delivery (PD). Based on a Renesas USB Power Delivery Controller (PDC) and Diodes multi-mode active rectifier (AR), the companies' reference design provides turnkey solutions for AC adapters and PD-capable chargers compliant with the USB PD open standard. The AC adapter solution will be exhibited at the Computex Taipei from June 3 to June 7, 2014 at booth # N0608, 4th floor of the Nangang exhibition hall in Taipei.

Charging mobile phones through USB connections has become the norm and demand for higher power charging has increased exponentially due to the mass adoption of tablets and ultrabook computers. In July 2012, the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) released the USB Power Delivery Specification to enhance power supply capability through USB cables up to 100W, providing a common standard for faster and safer charging of mobile devices. Renesas has been a strong promoter of USB-IF since 1996. The company not only provides many USB silicon devices, but also dedicates its USB expertise to successfully launching "building block" solutions for numerous USB standards. Today, there are billions of USB devices in the world and the USB PD technology is anticipated to be an open industry standard that addresses the future charging needs and additional interface features required for next-generation mobile computing.

Renesas Electronics, a premier provider of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced a new Universal Serial Bus 3.0 (USB 3.0) hub controller (part number ?PD720211) with dual downstream ports, extending more flexibility to implement USB 3.0 connections of digital devices such as PCs, tablets, and digital TVs to other USB 3.0-compatible peripheral devices.

Adding a new two-port hub controller to the lineup alongside Renesas' world's-first certified USB 3.0 four-port hub controller (part number ?PD720210) increases system designers' options for USB 3.0 hub expansion with products such as PCs, tablets, display monitors, docking stations (function expansion units that connect to notebook PCs), and digital TVs. The addition of the two-port hub controller (uPD720211) supports designs with tighter space and cost budgets, while expanding the USB 3.0 connectivity to utilize the increasing number and performance of USB 3.0 peripherals devices available in the market.

Renesas Electronics Corporation, a premier provider of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced that its latest Universal Serial Bus 3.0 (USB 3.0) hub controller (part number uPD720210) has passed USB 3.0 compliance and certification testing by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF). It is one of the world's first USB 3.0 hub controllers to achieve this recognition, following Renesas' world's first USB 3.0 host controller certification in 2009.

The "Certified SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0)" certification from the USB-IF offers manufacturers and consumers the assurance that the device will function in accordance with the specification and will interoperate with the billions of USB-enabled devices that exist in the market today.

Following entry of USB 3.0 SuperSpeed specification, chip-makers such as Renesas, ASMedia, Etron, and VIA made a killing selling third-party USB 3.0 host controllers to motherboard, desktop, and notebook vendors, which ended after Intel launched its 7-series chipset featuring an integrated 4-port USB 3.0 host controller, resulting in drop in demand for third-party chips. These companies each have USB 3.0 hub controllers, and could help drive growth of the specification with USB 3.0 hubs, devices which multiply the number of USB ports available. USB 3.0 hub controllers have been slow in receiving USB-IF certification due to difficulties in conducting compatibility tests, which could ease out by 2013, since Renesas' chip already passed certification. Most peripherals and flash drive manufacturers could have USB 3.0 hubs among their product lineups.

Japanese peripherals retailer AREA announced three USB 3.0 and one SATA 6 Gb/s add-on card models. The PE4U3E-3E1 "Sport Quattro" is a 4-port USB 3.0 card that uses a Etron EJ188 host controller, which connects to the machine over PCI-Express 2.0 x2 (physical PCI-Express 2.0 x4), resulting in higher downstream bandwidth when using multiple ports. The card features three external and one internal USB 3.0 type A ports, it draws auxiliary power from a SATA power connector. It is priced at 2,480¥ (US $30).

Next up is the SD-PEU3R-2E2IL, another 4-port PCI-Express add-on card, driven by Renesas D720201 4-port USB 3.0 host controller. The card features PCI-Express 2.0 x1 bus interface, and unlike the PE4U3E-3E1, features two type A ports on the rear panel, and two ports via standard USB 3.0 front-panel header. It is priced at 2,680¥ (US $33.5). The last of the three USB 3.0 cards is the D-EP34U3R-S3, which ships in ExpressCard-34 form-factor, is driven by Renesas D720202 host controller, and features just one USB 3.0 type A port. It is priced at 1,980¥ (US $24.7). Lastly, the company launched the SD-PESA3ES2L, a 2-port SATA 6 Gb/s add-on card, which lets you choose between using the two ports as internal or eSATA ports, using jumpers. It goes for 2,980¥ (US $37).

Renesas Electronics Corporation, a premier provider of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced the availability of its SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0) hub controller system-on-chip (SoC), the µPD720210, for use in hubs that enable connection of multiple devices supporting the USB 3.0 standard, such as PC peripherals and digital TVs.

The USB interface standard has been widely adopted worldwide. The recent proliferation of video content and large-capacity recording media has increased demand for interfaces capable of handling higher data transfer rates. In response, new products are coming to market with support for USB 3.0, which delivers speeds 10 times faster than the 480 megabits per second of USB 2.0 speeds. Adoption of USB 3.0 in non-PC products, such as digital consumer electronics, is growing due to factors such as the appearance of solid state drives (SSDs), which allow reading and writing of data at faster speeds than conventional hard disk drives (HDDs), and chipsets with a built-in USB 3.0 host controller.

Here are the first pictures of PowerColor's ambitious Radeon HD 7970 X2 Devil 13 dual-GPU graphics card taken apart. The pictures reveal a PCB that's both longer and taller than that of the HD 7970, to create room for two 28 nm "Tahiti" GPUs, a total of 24 GDDR5 memory chips (12 on each side), a PLX PEX8747 PCIe 3.0 bridge chip, and a VRM that consists of 5+2+1 phases per GPU system. The card draws power from three 8-pin PCIe power connectors. The VRM consists of solid-state chokes and Renesas Driver-MOSFETs. Display outputs include two each of DVI and mini-DP, and an HDMI. Each GPU system has a pair of BIOS'es (performance and failsafe).

Western Digital Corp. today announced that it has appointed Kensuke Oka and Masahiro Yamamura to its board of directors, effective May 17, 2012. Mr. Oka is president and CEO of Hitachi America, Ltd., and Mr. Yamamura is corporate officer, general manager of the Semiconductor Business Division of Hitachi, Ltd.

"The additions of Mr. Oka and Mr. Yamamura offer our leadership team vital insight as we operate WD and HGST as independent subsidiaries in the competitive hard drive industry," said Thomas Pardun, WD chairman of the board. "Both have deep executive management experience leading operations in the electronics and industrial systems industries, primarily for Hitachi, providing new perspectives to WD as we continue our focus on sustained profitable growth."

Worldwide semiconductor revenues increased more than 3.7% year over year to $301 billion in 2011, according to the latest version of the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Semiconductor Applications Forecaster (SAF). The industry weathered the macroeconomic uncertainties in the U.S and Europe, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, China's slow down in the second half of the year, and floods in Thailand. Meanwhile, device applications, such as smartphones, media tablets and e-readers, automotive infotainment, notebook PCs, datacenter servers, and wireless and wired communication infrastructure drove robust consumption of semiconductors.

IDC's SAF tracks more than 100 semiconductor companies. Over 40 of these companies experienced year-over-year revenue growth greater than 5%, while about the same number of companies saw their revenue decline by more than 5%.

I-O Data unveiled a new USB 3.0 host card (model: USB3-PEX2S), which is designed to be server-grade, with out of the box support for Windows Server, including USB 3.0 SuperSpeed support for Windows 2003, 2003 R2 64-bit/32-bit; Windows 2008, and 2008 R2 64-bit/32-bit. The low-profile capable card provides two USB 3.0 SuperSpeed ports, and appears to be driven by a Renesas-made chipset. It connects to the system bus over PCI-Express 2.0 x1, and draws auxiliary power from a SATA power connector. Slated for market launch in late-April, the USB3-PEX2S from I-O Data is priced at 3,885 JPY (US $48).

Fueled by strong sales growth in its core chip businesses-and boosted by a major acquisition-leading semiconductor supplier Intel Corp. in 2011 attained its highest annual market share in more than 10 years, according to the IHS iSuppli Competitive Landscape Tool from information and analytics provider IHS (NYSE: IHS). Intel in 2011 increased its overall semiconductor market share to 15.6 percent, up 2.5 percentage points from 13.1 percent in 2010, according to the final IHS semiconductor estimate for the year. This represents the highest market share for Intel going back to at least 2001, when it reached 14.9 percent. Over the last five years, Intel's share of the market ranged from 11.9 percent to 13.9 percent.

"Intel in 2011 captured the headlines with its major surge in growth," said Dale Ford, head of electronics and semiconductor research for IHS. "The company's rise was spurred by soaring demand for its PC-oriented microprocessors, and for its NAND flash memory used in consumer and wireless products. Intel's revenue also was boosted by its acquisition of Infineon's wireless business unit. The company's strong rise helped it to stave off the rising challenge mounted by No. 2 semiconductor supplier Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., which had been whittling away at Intel's lead in recent years." The table below presents the final 2011 semiconductor market share ranking from the IHS.

At CeBIT, ASRock already grabbed a lot of attention with its unveiling of the X79 Extreme11 motherboard. The motherboard was detailed to great lengths then. It appears like the design was still a work-in-progress, and the company has an even newer iteration. Pictured below is this latest iteration. You will notice how ASRock redid the CPU VRM. While the one shown at CeBIT packed a 16-phase VRM, this one steps it up to 24. On the obverse side of the PCB, it squeezed in chokes for all 24-phases, and compact Driver-MOSFET (DrMOS) chips for 12 (probably the other 12 are located on the reverse side of the PCB). The first iteration shown at CeBIT used LFPAK MOSFET design. A DrMOS combines up/down FETs and driver IC into a single, space-efficient package. Companies like Renesas have held interest in innovating with DrMOS chips, even compacting them further. The rest of the board is identical to the one pictured at CeBIT, except that the Creative Sound Core3D chip has the signature plastic cover over it, which can be found on Creative's Sound Core3D discrete sound cards.

Japanese store Kuroutoshikou listed USB3.0R-P4-PCIe, a reference design USB 3.0 host add-on card. Driven by Renesas μPD720201 chipset, the card gives out four USB 3.0 SuperSpeed ports. Three of these ports are wired out on the rear expansion bracket, while the fourth one is an internal port (type-A plug, not header). The card draws auxiliary power from a SATA power connector, it talks to the rest of the system over PCI-Express 2.0 x1. A part of the reason why not all four ports are located on the bracket, is that the card is just about capable of being low-profile, due to its half-height PCB. USB3.0R-P4-PCIe could be re-branded and sold through various major brands. Slated for late-March, it is priced at 3,000 JPY (US $36).

Japanese company RATOC Systems introduced a trio of products that lets users expand their data storage once they run out of drive bays and ports in their case. The first one is the RS-EC32PE-U3R, a bundle consisting of a 2-bay USB 3.0 to SATA 3 Gb/s RAID enclosure and a PCIe USB 3.0 addon card; the RS-EC32EX-U3R, which is a bundle including the same 2-bay RAID enclosure, but including a 2-port USB 3.0 expansion card in the ExpressCard34 form-factor; and REX-PEU3X, which is a standalone 2-port USB 3.0 expansion card in the PCIe form-factor.

The expansion cards in these bundles are based on new Renesas μPD720202 chipset. The RAID enclosure has two 3.5-inch SATA drive bays. Its controller provides a maximum data transfer performance of 372 MB/s. It supports disk organization modes of "single" (just a single disk connected), RAID JBOD, RAID 0, and RAID 1. Expected to launch mid-March, the RATOC RS-EC32PE-U3R and RS-EC32EX-U3R are priced at 11,130 JPY (US $138), the REX-PEU3X goes for 3,360 JPY (US $41.7).