It could be corn cobs rather than carrots that have the best prospects – thanks to the abundance of lignin and cellulose found in the crop – to improve night vision. Researchers in China have used the materials to produce near-infrared (NIR) transparent optical filters for advanced imaging applications that highlight nature’s growing appeal to device makers.

“Lignocellulose-based bio-sourced materials are abundant, renewable, nontoxic, and mechanically strong candidates for optical materials,” explains the team in a paper published recently in Research – a Science Partner Journal.

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Could biomining turn electronics green?

NIR filters are crucial to the success of night vision cameras, as we shall soon discuss, and designs are typically made using two approaches. One option requires expensive glass materials that – while effective – can involve complicated fabrication steps. Alternatively, developers can use ultraviolet-visible absorbing dyes, which are easier to work with.

However, neither option has the environmental or economic appeal of using waste corn cobs. Plus, the performance – based on prototypes tested by the group – could be superior to conventional night vision components.

Why night vision cameras use NIR filters

To be effective, night vision cameras need to maximize the available light, which – once the sun has gone down, or is blocked indoors – is to be found in the NIR portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. NIR filters isolate this usable illumination band, while preventing interference from other wavelengths.

Without an NIR filter, night vision cameras would be easy to blind using a torch or a smartphone flash. Imaging systems would be similarly affected by other artificial light sources such as vehicle headlamps.

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Fungal machines: building computers and sensors from nature

Regular digital cameras have an NIR blocking filter that stops photos and video from appearing washed out and makes sure that images match the optical response of the human eye.

As an aside, removing the NIR blocking filter from a digital camera can allow users to peer inside electronic devices that otherwise appear to be opaque – for example, if the case material is transparent to NIR light. Vein viewer technology uses near-infrared light to visualize major blood vessels beneath the skin, which also exploits the sensitivity of commercial imaging sensors outside the visible spectrum.

Eye-tracking in the near-infrared

Night vision style cameras are particularly well-suited to eye-tracking, as the NIR images provide strong contrast for algorithms to respond to. And there are a number of applications that exploit this opportunity. For example, several chip designers such as Qualcomm and Analog Devices have offerings that focus on driver and occupant monitoring for automotive applications.

Eye-tracking solutions, which operate at NIR wavelengths, can determine where the driver is looking at any moment in time to ensure that attention is being paid to the road ahead. Systems can also spot if the driver appears sleepy or is using a cell phone while the vehicle is in motion, and issue a safety warning.

Also, eye-tracking persists even if occupants are wearing sunglasses, as regular lenses are designed to block harmful ultraviolet rays and are transparent to NIR light. However, it’s possible to purchase privacy-focused spectacles, such as products sold by Reflectacles, which are fitted with an IR blocker.

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Ambient light sensor exposes screen privacy issue

In this case, the wearer’s eyes will remain obscured to 3D infrared facial mapping software and 2D facial recognition systems that use infrared light as their illumination source.

Returning to the researchers’ corn cob-derived NIR filter, the combination of cellulose and lignin appears to produce a high-performance and practical film.

“The captured lignin was fused to fill the gaps in a cellulose network, which then held the fibers tightly and created a homogeneous dense structure,” comments the group. “Both the lignin and the dense structure provided the biofilter with unique optical properties, including strong UV-vis light blocking (~100% at 400 nm and 57.58% to 98.59% at 550 nm), low haze (close to 0%), and high NIR transmittance (~90%).”

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“E-waste is going to be the richest ore of the future,” proclaims Jason Gaber, owner of Mount Baker Mining and Metals. Gaber has a YouTube channel where he shows viewers how hammer mills and shaker tables can be used to process component-laden circuit boards and separate plastics from a mix of metals, including gold.

The business of extracting gold and other valuable materials from electronic junk is growing and is even becoming a popular side hustle. One tonne of electronic circuit boards can yield in the region of 0.150 kg of gold, and over double that in silver. Plus, there’s likely to be anywhere from 250 – 300 kg of copper up for grabs per tonne of e-waste.

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E-waste on the rise as manufacturers limit repairability

For years, device users have been throwing away – collectively – billions of dollars in precious metals as they dispose of unwanted electronics.

In the beginning, e-waste was sent overseas to become somebody else problem. But processing e-waste has the potential to be many times more lucrative (and much less polluting) than trying to extract gold and other precious metals from ore mined from the ground.

The ability for environmental clean-up operations to turn a profit is seeing a wave of new e-waste recycling solutions enter the market. And for those can run their operations at scale, there’s money to be made in turning e-waste into gold.

One of the most ingenious approaches – which is still at an early stage, but generating commercially promising results – uses spongey nanofibrils created from a by-product of cheese-making to soak up gold ions in solution and turn them into flakes.

New sustainable method turns waste into gold! ETH Zurich researchers use protein sponge derived from food industry byproduct to recover precious metal from electronic waste. https://t.co/LkpuiFUMk1 #ProteinSponge #ElectronicWaste #SustainableGold @MezzengaRaf

— ETH Zurich (@ETH_en) March 1, 2024

Demonstrating the potential of their approach, researchers at ETH Zurich in Switzerland used their cheese waste creation to obtain a 450 mg gold nugget from 20 junk motherboards. According to the team, the material was 90.8 percent pure (21-22 carats), which values the reclaimed gold at around USD 28 – based on today’s scrap gold price.

What’s more, the group claims that the cost of the source materials and energy costs for the process represents just 1/50^th of the value of the gold extracted from the e-waste.

Googling ‘how to turn e-waste into gold’ produces plenty of search hits, but many of the recipes feature toxic chemicals. However, by employing a bio-derived ionic sponge, the ETH Zurich researchers believe that they’ve found a gentler path to converting unwanted electronics into valuable materials. And they are not the only ones pursuing more environmentally friendly e-waste processing.

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Green Friday? Circular economy trends for 2024

Mint Innovation, whose vision is to become the world’s leading provider of circular green metals, opened a commercial-scale facility in Sydney, Australia, in 2022. According to reports, the operation can salvage USD 85,000 in gold per day from recycled electronics – as well as being able to recover copper and other valuable metals.

Cleverly, Mint’s process –which was developed in New Zealand – makes use of bacteria and fungi that have evolved in regions rich in mine works and abandoned machinery. The organic soup is capable of absorbing metals and Mint exploits those properties to process e-waste in a more environmentally friendly way, compared with conventional methods.

According to Mint, everything leaving its plant is benign, which means that there are no chemical waste streams to be dealt with. And there’s more good news as the process is applicable to other waste stream such as used batteries and catalysts.

The post Electronics recycling – cheese waste has a taste for gold appeared first on TechHQ.

One of the biggest misconceptions about 3D printing – the notion that it doesn’t suit the production of goods in high volume – has been put to bed by brands such as Adidas, which has turned heads in the footwear industry with its striking midsole designs. Virtual reality (VR) is similarly misunderstood and sometimes dismissed as a gimmick. But put VR and 3D printing together, and you have a rapid prototyping dream team that’ll be the envy of your competitors.

And don’t think that you need to spend north of US $3000 on an Apple Vision Pro to reap the rewards. The benefits of combining VR and 3D printing can be realized with an affordable headset such as the Quest 3 – released in 2023 – or even a Quest 2, which is now available at a lower price point and with a software speed up.

Iterate faster

A big fan of having designers use VR to iterate designs in 3D is Jared Goldman – VP of Design at New Balance (another footwear company at the bleeding edge of manufacturing). And there are some compelling reasons to back up his thinking.

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3D printed shoes – footwear signals future manufacturing trend

By Goldman’s estimation, physical samples have a turnaround time of around 45 days – once you’ve added up sending the tech package, production of the prototypes in Asia, and shipping of the shoes back to the US. However, it’s possible to produce photoreal samples of the same designs in seven days, or maybe less, in a virtual environment.

Decision makers can see the shoes from all angles in a virtual environment and have confidence in their feedback that compares with handling physical samples. Plus, headset-wearing team members can collaborate easily and in real-time, no matter where they are across the globe – provided that they have an internet connection.

“The better you can express your idea, so that somebody who is a non-designer can understand it, the more successful you’re going to be,” Goldman comments in a case study shared by Gravity Sketch – a developer of VR design software that is increasingly becoming part of 3D printing product workflows.

Example of a VR and 3D printing toolchain

• Gravity Sketch – for virtual product creation
• Blender – to add materials appearance for final design validation
• Ultimaker Cura – for slicing and 3D printing production preview
• 3D printers – to produce the finished goods

Today, there are numerous online tutorials showing how to combine VR and 3D printing to go from first idea to finished product. Beginning with a rough sketch created using handheld VR controllers, the next step is to add virtual form to the digital design, with lighting effects making the output appear all the more realistic.

Slicing software will prepare the model for 3D printing, where it’s possible to adjust support material and preview the build to double-check that all’s well before committing fabrication time and materials to the job.

And it’s not just about keeping sneakerheads happy with a stream of new and exclusive trainers, VR and 3D printing can be combined to deliver progress in areas such as medical visualization too.

Materialise – a pioneer in the field of 3D printing – points out that the number of hospital-based 3D printing facilities has increased exponentially to help with tasks such as patient-specific surgical planning.

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Fungi, coffee, and pineapples – rethinking device materials

On TechHQ, we’ve written about how beneficial VR can be to medical training and upskilling hospital staff. And 3D-printed anatomical models take that tactile experience to the next level.

Construction is another area that’s taking a keen interest in additive manufacturing – this time using giant 3D printers to build homes layer by layer. Here, VR can be used by designers and home buyers to experience what it’s like to move around a digital render of the building prior before nozzles start squirting out cement.

“We see this tool as an exciting way the get clients, designers, and contractors up to speed on the inner workings of how a 3D construction printing project actually works,” commented Marchant Van Den Heever, CTO of HTL.tech – a distributor of 3D construction printing technology in the UK and Ireland.

The post Rapid prototyping dream team – VR and 3D printing appeared first on TechHQ.

• The US wants to regain its leadership within the chip industry, and Commerce Sec. Raimondo targets 20% domestic production of leading-edge chips by 2030.
• The US currently produces none; hence, the ambitious goal is set for the end of this decade.
• Biden admin aims to bring memory chip production to the US “at scale.”

As the global demand for semiconductors surges, the US has embarked on a bold mission to revitalize its chip manufacturing industry. Last February, the Commerce Department launched the CHIPS for America program, echoing the ambitious spirit of the space race era. While US companies lead in AI development, the absence of domestic chip production poses a critical challenge. However, with a strategic focus on talent development, R&D, and manufacturing, the US aims to fill this gap and produce 20% of the world’s leading-edge chips by 2030. 

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Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo remains optimistic about the program’s potential to transform America’s industrial landscape. The US aims to fortify its supply chains and reduce reliance on geopolitical rivals by investing in leading-edge logic chip manufacturing and onshoring memory production. “Our investments in leading-edge logic chip manufacturing will put this country on track to produce roughly 20% of the world’s leading-edge logic chips by the end of the decade,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on February 26, 2024.

“That’s a big deal,” Raimondo added. “Why is that a big deal? Because folks, today we’re at zero.” Her speech came a year after the initiation of funding applications under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act by the US Department of Commerce. With a staggering US$39 billion earmarked for manufacturing incentives, the stage has been set for a transformative journey in the semiconductor landscape. 

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo speaks during the UK Artificial Intelligence (AI) Safety Summit at Bletchley Park. (Photo by TOBY MELVILLE/POOL/AFP).

Raimondo’s ambitious vision, unveiled concurrently, delineates the path ahead. By 2030, the US aims to spearhead the design and manufacture of cutting-edge chips, establishing dedicated fabrication plant clusters to realize this audacious objective. She claims that, besides everything else, there has been a significant shift in the need for advanced semiconductor chips due to AI. 

“When we started this, generative AI wasn’t even part of our vocabulary. Now, it’s everywhere. Training a single large language model takes tens of thousands of leading-edge semiconductor chips. The truth is that AI will be the defining technology of our generation. You can’t lead in AI if you don’t lead in making leading-edge chips. And so our work in implementing the CHIPS Act became much more important,” Raimondo emphasized.

If the US achieves its goals, it will result in “hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs,” Raimondo said Monday. “The truth of it is the US does lead, right? We do lead. We lead in the design of chips and the development of large AI language models. But we don’t manufacture or package any leading-edge chips that we need to fuel AI and our innovation ecosystem, including chips necessary for national defense. We don’t make it in America, and the brutal fact is the US cannot lead the world as a technology and innovation leader on such a shaky foundation,” she iterated.

Why is there a gap between US and chip manufacturing?

The US grappled with a significant gap in chip manufacturing for several reasons. Firstly, many semiconductor companies outsourced their manufacturing operations overseas to cut costs, leading to a decline in domestic chip production capacity. Secondly, as semiconductor technology advanced, the complexity and cost of building cutting-edge fabrication facilities increased, discouraging investment in new fabs. 

Meanwhile, global competitors like Taiwan, South Korea, and China expanded their semiconductor industries rapidly, intensifying competition. While other countries provided substantial government support to their semiconductor industries, the US fell behind. Then, there were regulatory hurdles, and environmental regulations make building and operating semiconductor fabs in the US challenging and costly. 

A combination of outsourcing, technological challenges, global competition, lack of government support, and regulatory issues contributed to the US’s gap in chip manufacturing, with none of the world’s leading-edge chips being produced domestically.

And then the world woke up one morning in dire need of leading-edge chips to underscore the technology behind the next industrial revolution, and America realized its mistake.

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“We need to make these chips in America. We need more talent development in America. We need more research and development in America and just a lot more manufacturing at scale,” Raimondo said in her speech at CSIS.

2030 vision: prioritizing future-ready projects

US President Joe Biden greets attendees at a TSMC chip manufacturing facility. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI/AFP).

In Raimondo’s speech, she declared that the US will first prioritize projects that will be operational by the end of this decade. “I want to be clear: there are many worthy proposals that we’ve received with plans to come online after 2030, and we’re saying no, for now, to those projects because we want to maximize our impact in this decade,” she clarified.

In short, the US will give way to “excellent projects that could come online this year” instead of granting incentives to projects that will come online in 10 or 12 years from now. She also referred back to the goal mentioned last year – when the US is all said and done with this CHIPS initiative – is to have at least two new large-scale clusters of leading-edge logic fabs, each of those clusters employing thousands of workers. 

“I’m pleased to tell you today we expect to exceed that target,” she claimed. So far, the Commerce Department has awarded grants to three companies in the chip industry as part of the CHIPS Act: BAE Systems, Microchip Technology, and, most recently, a significant US$1.5 billion grant to GlobalFoundries. Additional funding is anticipated for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung Electronics as they establish new facilities within the US.

Raimondo also highlighted her nation’s commitment to supporting the production of older-generation chips, referred to as mature-node or legacy chips. “We’re not losing sight of the importance of current generation and mature node chips, which you all know are essential for cars, medical devices, defense systems, and critical infrastructure.”

Yet, the lion’s share of investments, totaling US$28 billion out of US$39 billion, is earmarked for leading-edge chips. Raimondo emphasized that this program aims for targeted investments rather than scattering funds wisely. She disclosed that the department has received over US$70 billion in requests from leading-edge companies alone.

For now, anticipation is high for the Commerce Department’s new round of grant announcements, scheduled to coincide with President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on March 7. Among the expected recipients is TSMC, which is establishing new Arizona facilities.

The post US aims for chip supremacy: From zero to 20% by 2030 appeared first on TechHQ.

• The latest folding screen laptop from Lenovo.
• $4000+ asking price. We ask: Why?
• Performant, pretty, and pretty pointless.

It can’t have escaped anyone’s notice that folding LCD screens are de rigeur right now. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Motorala Razr Plus mobile phones are on heavy advertising rotation, and there are a few laptops, tablets and games consoles that also sport folding screens.

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Perhaps calling such hardware laptops and tablets in their purest definitions is something of a misnomer. Ask anyone to describe a laptop, and they’ll describe a flat keyboard hinged with a display. There are variations on the theme, of course, such as displays that detach and transform into tablets like the Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 8 and Microsoft’s Surface Pro 9, or standalone presentation screens.

The addition of a folding screen to the laptop form factor is the latest iteration on the laptop-cum-tablet theme, the Lenovo TPad X1 Fold (2nd generation), coming equipped with 16GB DDR5 RAM, a 512GB NVMe PCIE 4.0 internal drive, optional stylus and detachable keyboard.

The hardware runs on a 12th Generation Intel i7-1250U processor running at 3.5-4.7GHz, and the OLED display offers a maximum resolution of 2560×2024, rated at a bright 600 nits. Full specs of the model under review are here.

Giant tablet with folding screen.

2nd generation of this folding screen laptop

The first generation of the X1 Fold sported a 13” screen, slower processors, only 8GB RAM and weighed 0.99 kg. That latter stat is an important one: the second generation model reviewed here weighs in at 1.9kg including keyboard and stylus. This is not an ultrabook by any means, nor is it designed to be one. It’s worth noting that when folded, the measurements are 6.9 x 10.87” (176.4mm x 276.2mm) – so, a relatively small footprint, but one that’s offset by its thickness – 0.68” (17.4mm) plus a few millimeters for the keyboard, and the aforementioned 4lbs of heft.

Lenovo pictures the X1 Fold’s users working and playing on the device in the possible configurations: part-folded when in landscape configuration like a paper magazine, as large, flat standalone tablet, or using the screen in full landscape or portrait as a display with keyboard. There’s also a clamshell mode: more on this later.

In clamshell mode, dividing the screen in half.

The machine comes with a kickstand that holds the screen at an angle suitable for tabletop use in either orientation, and the hardware keyboard latches on to the bottom of the stand just below the screen with a satisfying magnetic snap. The X1 Fold can also be used with a stylus, which can be attached, again via magnets, to the sides or top of the tablet display.

Note that the kickstand turns the machine into a tabletop, not a laptop: you can’t balance this beast on your lap, and trying to do so makes the keyboard detach with infallibly comic timing.

In laptop mode, landscape aorientation.

The device’s motion sensors do a good job of detecting the user’s wishes, rotating and adapting according to configuration, snapping window tiles according to aspect. When no external keyboard is detected, the X1 defaults to tablet mode with an on-screen pop-up keyboard rolling in from the bottom of the display.

By default, Windows 11 is configured to run in dark mode – Lenovo states that this maximizes battery life, which is stated as being 4-6 hours of normal use, but naturally, your mileage may vary.

Lenovo, as is the case with many hardware manufacturers, ships the device with some bloatware from itself and Intel which can be largely ignored or uninstalled if required, in addition to the bloatware that’s unavoidable with Windows 11: Xbox, the mixed reality portal and the Spotify client that embeds comfortably into its autostarting niche after first run.

Screen in portrait with attached keyboard.

As a piece of hardware, the X1 Fold Gen 2 is a quick performer. There has clearly been a good deal of optimization of the interface’s responsiveness to the various sensors and peripherals like the stylus and keyboard. Connections are made quickly and there’s little of the rotate-(re-)rotate dance to have the device sense its orientation. The camera in the bezel responds to orientation in apps like Teams or Zoom. Speaker quality is better than you might expect, and the microphones gave clear and responsive results.

The keyboard that our device shipped with is exactly as you might expect, or indeed, dread. Let’s just say it’s not designed for protracted typing. Serious users will want to use the X1 Fold with something that’s less plastic-y, and for desk use, most will also opt for a secondary mouse: reaching back and forth from keyboard to screen to move the cursor/mouse pointer quickly loses its charm. The optional keyboard has the red ‘nipple’ mouse pointer, but that has few fans for obvious and understandable reasons.

The folding screen laptop’s big question

But it’s the laptop/tablet dichotomy that’s simply not solved by a folding screen. It begs the question: Why?

As a tablet, the X1 Fold is too big and certainly too heavy. The images on Lenovo’s website of models holding the device like a half-folded book are laughable. Sure, it’ll take the same shape as a large book or small-ish magazine, but has none of the advantages of either (lightness, portability, durability, disposability, lendability, longevity, finger-feel and so on). And good luck finding media that will render on the two-page layout without much touch/click-dragging around of windows.

As a laptop it’s not particularly portable, especially given that users will want a keyboard that doesn’t flex and feel like a $5 Walmart smart TV controller.

That’s a 4lb, one-arm curl. Source: Lenovo.

Some may find the screen’s aspect ratio useful when unfolded, especially those who like the idea of a portrait mode, page-friendly layout for working on documents. For work in cramped environments, like Economy Class on airplanes, for example, you can fold the screen across its width into clamshell mode and either use the onscreen keyboard or sit the hardware keyboard on the lower portion of the screen. You lose half the screen’s area in both cases, obviously.

But the price premium for the TPad X1 Fold that buyers pay for the ‘feature’ of a folding screen is, in our opinion, not worth it. In the cellphone form factor, a folding screen may have arguments in its favor for reasons of portability plus decent screen real estate when unfurled. But in the tablet/laptop space, there a few advantages and plenty of downsides.

By trying to hit multiple targets, the Lenovo X1 Fold 16” feels like a fully-functioning concept prototype that should have been quietly ditched at the user-testing phase of production. Its price tag (more than $4000 as reviewed) ensures that any novelty will wear off long before the arrival of the first credit card bill after purchase.

In use mode as effective as it looks.

For the kind of money that only committed early-adopters might spend, you could buy an ultrabook for travel, a powerful desktop PC and a tablet for media consumption, and have a better experience all round. While this folding screen laptop is a powerful piece of hardware, it’s the solution to a problem no-one has.

On a final note, it’s worth remembering that Microsoft stripped out of Windows 11 the touchscreen capabilities of Windows 10, themselves a hangover from the mis-step of Windows 8. By default, the impressive screen’s native resolution is halved (200% zoom), presumably to try and make the desktop environment viable in the tablet-esque use model that Lenovo imagines its users will love. The Windows desktop is a horrible enough environment at the best of times; adding a hardware gimmick on top made for a no less miserable experience.

And now a word from our very much non-sponsors…

The post The existential crisis of the Lenovo X1 Fold appeared first on TechHQ.

With season 6 of Netflix’s hugely successful Drive to Survive hitting screens on Friday, motorsport fans will be tuning in to reminisce about the highs and lows of the 2023 F1 World Championship. But what viewers may not realize is just how much can be learned more broadly from watching racers driving around a track. Motorsport, it turns out, has lessons for businesses of various types in understanding how employees will interact as company fortunes rise and fall.

“Sports – particularly motorsports – can be a good proxy for several other industries as they are extremely competitive: if you don’t perform and progress you may be out,” comments Hans Frankort – a strategy expert at Bayes Business School – City, University of London. “Workers in sectors such as consultancy and financial services face similar pressures.”

[10/12] This is the first study published in #management that uses @MotoGP data and analyzes hundreds-of-thousand overtakes between 2004 and 2020 as riders’ competitive actions. We have also used qualitative insights from top teams such as @ducaticorse . pic.twitter.com/dEtoBPy9cK

— Paolo Aversa (@aversapaolo) January 18, 2024

Frankort, together with the other authors of the study – dubbed ‘Revving up or backing down? Cross-level effects of firm-level tournaments on employees’ competitive actions’, used overtake data from riders competing in MotoGP from 2004 to 2020 to generate motorsport lessons for business leaders.

“Our findings reveal how riders adjust their internal and external overtakes based on their team’s competitive threats and opportunities, and on the relative resource endowments of the teams supplying such threats or opportunities,” writes the team in its paper.

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Translating this behaviour from the racetrack to the office, the experts note how ambitious workers will change their approach depending on whether their employer is doing well – in other words, leading the competition – or finding business conditions more challenging.

Considering the MotoGP data, teammates were less likely to overtake each other when the team as a whole was struggling. “If a firm is facing threats, such as losing market share to smaller rivals, workers may feel that infighting is poor form,” said Frankort. “Instead, they would focus on competing against rival firms.”

More motorsport lessons for business

There are other observations too – for example, replacement riders (whom the researchers liken to agency workers) are keen to challenge their teammates when the team is doing well, and all competitors when their employer is struggling. The explanation given is that those without a permanent contract will try much harder to impress than riders and drivers embedded within a team.

So how do all of these insights help CEOs and other senior management become better leaders? One of the strong takeaways is the link between how a company’s performance is pitched to employees and the competitive actions of that firm’s staff.

If employees believe that things are going well they may be more tempted to poach a colleague’s clients and position themselves as being the engine of success, according to the study’s authors.

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Sports industry explores winning ways with tech

Motorsport series such as F1 and MotoGP are often described as pathfinders for new technologies that will one day end up in road cars or motorcycles, but they have also provided numerous case studies for business leaders. For example, Paolo Aversa – one of the authors of the MotoGP study – has made a career of using sports data to advance management theory.

Over the years, Aversa has chaired multiple ‘Competing in turbulent environments: Lessons from Formula One’ events, which are soon sold out. The seminars, some of which are still available to watch on YouTube, bring together race car designers, motorsport CEOs, and lecturers in management and business strategy.

Tech firms such as Netflix have also done well from F1 and one of the motorsport lessons learned is that drama on and off track makes for great entertainment. On paper, the idea of having a thousand people produce two cars that drive in circles sounds like it’d be a hard sell to viewers, but the popularity of Drive to Survive tells a different story.

And motorsport fans will need no reminding that F1 pre-season testing gets underway today in Bahrain, where teams and fans will get a first impression of the pecking order for the 2024 season.

The post Motorsport lessons: what can tech CEOs learn from MotoGP & F1? appeared first on TechHQ.

• The inaugural deal for 2nm chips marks a significant milestone for Samsung, signaling a challenge to TSMC and its dominance.
• The deal could significantly change the power balance in the industry.
• Samsung has a strategy to offer lower prices for its 2nm process, reflecting its aggressive approach to attracting customers, particularly eyeing Qualcomm’s flagship chip orders.

In the race for technological supremacy and market dominance, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and Samsung Electronics lead the charge in semiconductor manufacturing. As demand for advanced chips surges in the 5G, AI, and IoT era, competition intensifies, driving innovation. Both companies vie to achieve smaller nanometer nodes, which are pivotal for technological advancement. 

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Intel ups its ante in chip packaging technology to challenge TSMC

When it comes to semiconductor innovation, TSMC spearheads the charge, with ambitious plans for 3nm and 2nm chips, promising a leap in performance and efficiency. Meanwhile, Samsung, renowned for its memory chip prowess, is mounting a determined challenge to TSMC’s supremacy. Recent reports suggest that Samsung is on the brink of unveiling its 2nm chip technology, marking a significant milestone in its bid to rival TSMC.

In a notable turn of events disclosed during Samsung’s Q4 2023 financial report, the tech world buzzed with news of Samsung’s foundry division securing a prized contract for 2nm AI chips. Amid speculation, Samsung maintained secrecy about the identity of this crucial partner.

But earlier this week, a revelation from Business Korea unveiled that the patron happens to be Japanese AI startup Preferred Networks Inc. (PFN). Since its launch in 2014, PFN has emerged as a powerhouse in AI deep learning, drawing substantial investments from industry giants like Toyota, NTT, and FANUC, a leading Japanese robotics firm.

Samsung vs TSMC

Samsung, headquartered in Suwon, South Korea, is set to unleash its cutting-edge 2nm chip processing technology to craft AI accelerators and other advanced AI chips for PFN, as confirmed by industry insiders on February 16, 2024. 

Should news of this landmark deal be legitimate, it would prove mutually advantageous. It would empower PFN with access to state-of-the-art chip innovations for a competitive edge while propelling Samsung forward in its fierce foundry market rivalry with TSMC, according to insider reports.

READ NEXT

TSMC: US is ‘doomed to fail’ in rebuilding its chip manufacturing sector

Ironically, PFN has had a longstanding partnership with TSMC dating back to 2016, but is opting to shift gears from here on out, going with Samsung’s 2nm node for its upcoming AI chip lineup, according to a knowledgeable insider. PFN also chose Samsung over TSMC due to Samsung’s full-service chip manufacturing capabilities, covering everything from chip design to production and advanced packaging, sources revealed.

Experts also speculate that although TSMC boasts a more extensive clientele for 2nm chips, PFN’s strategic move to Samsung hints at a potential shift in the Korean giant’s favor. This pivotal decision may pave the way for other significant clients to align with Samsung, altering the competitive landscape in the chipmaking realm.

No doubt, in the cutthroat world of contract chipmaking, TSMC reigns supreme, clinching major deals with industry giants like Apple Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. But, as the demand for top-tier chips escalates, the race for technological superiority heats up, with TSMC and Samsung at the forefront of the battle. While TSMC currently leads the pack, boasting 2nm chips for clients like Apple and Nvidia, Samsung is hot on its heels. 

“Apple is set to become TSMC’s inaugural customer for the 2nm process, positioning TSMC at the forefront of competition in the advanced process technology,” TrendForce said in its report. Meanwhile, according to Samsung’s previous roadmap, its 2nm SF2 process is set to debut in 2025. 

Samsung’s Foundry Forum (SFF) plan.

“As stated in Samsung’s Foundry Forum (SFF) plan, Samsung will begin mass production of the 2nm process (SF2) in 2025 for mobile applications, expand to high-performance computing (HPC) applications in 2026, and further extend to the automotive sector and the expected 1.4nm process by 2027,” TrendForce noted.

Compared to the second-generation 3GAP process at 3nm, it offers a 25% improvement in power efficiency at the same frequency and complexity and a 12% performance boost at the same power consumption and complexity while reducing chip area by 5%. In short, with TSMC eyeing mass production of 2nm chips by 2025, the competition between these tech titans is set to reach new heights.

Yet, in a strategic maneuver reported by the Financial Times, Samsung is gearing up to entice customers with discounted rates for its 2nm process, a move poised to shake up the semiconductor landscape. With its sights set on Qualcomm’s flagship chip production, Samsung aims to lure clients away from TSMC by offering competitive pricing. 

This bold initiative signals Samsung’s determination to carve out a larger market share and challenge TSMC’s dominance in the semiconductor industry.

The post Samsung seizes 2nm AI chip deal, challenging TSMC’s reign appeared first on TechHQ.

• Dynatrace can now deploy causal AI to deliver certainty of results.
• This fits a particular niche of need for enterprises that GenAI can’t deliver.
• It’s also delivering a carbon calculator that goes beyond standard, vague models.

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Dynatrace Perform: here’s what you missed

From causal AI to harsh deletion; after a run of exciting announcements at Perform 2024, we spoke to Dynatrace’s CTO and co-founder, Bernd Greifeneder, to get some insight on the technology behind the observability platform.

As the “tech guy,” how do you approach the marketing side of things? How do you get across the importance of Dynatrace to those who don’t “get” the tech?

Right now we are on that journey – actually, this Perform is the first one explicitly messaging to executives. It’s worked out great, I’m getting fantastic feedback. We also ran breakout sessions with Q&A’s on this three by three matrix to drive innovation by topics like business analytics, cloud modernization and user experience.

Then, we have the cost optimization because every executive needs to fund something. I can explain ten ways to reduce tool sprawl alone with Dynatrace. Cloud cost coupled with carbon is obviously a big topic, and the third layer is risk mitigation.

No one can afford an outage, no one can afford a security breach – we help with both.

Bernd Greifeneder presented Dynatrace’s new products on the mainstage at Perform 2024.

Executives have always asked me how to get to the next level of use cases. I think that’s another opportunity; in the past we were mostly focused on middle management. If we first give executives the value proposition, they can go down to the next level of scale, implementing the use cases they wanted.

The other aspect is extending to the left. It’s more than bridging development with middle management, because you can’t leave it just to developers. You still need DevOps and platform engineering to maintain consistency and think about the bigger picture. Otherwise it’s a disaster!

How has changing governance around data sovereignty affected Dynatrace clients – if at all?

[At Perform 2024, Bernd announced Dynatrace OpenPipeline, a single pipeline for petabyte-scale ingestion of data into the Dynatrace platform, fuelling secure and cost-effective analytics, AI, and automation – THQ.]

Well, we have lots of engagements on the data side – governance and privacy. For instance, with OpenPipeline it’s all about privacy because when customers just collect data it’s hard to avoid it being transported.

It’s best not to capture or store it, but in a production environment you have to. We can qualify out the data at our agent level and maintain interest in it throughout the pipeline. We have detection of what is sensitive data to ensure it isn’t stored – when it is, say if analytics require it to be, you have custom account names on the platform.

That means you can inform specific customers when an issue was found and fixed, but still have proper access control.

We also allow harsh deletion; the competition offers soft deletion only. The difference is that although soft deletion marks something as deleted, it’s still actually there.

Dynatrace’s hard deletion enables the highest standard of compliance in data privacy. Obviously, in the bigger scheme of Grail in the platform, we have lots of certifications from HIPAA and others on data governance and data privacy.

[Dynatrace has used AI on its platform for years; this year it’s adding a genAI assistant to the stack and introducing an AI observability platform for their customers – THQ.]

What makes your use of AI different from what’s already out there? How are you working to dispel mistrust?

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What happened when Dynatrace CEO chose to disrupt rather than be disrupted

Would you want to get into an autonomous car run by ChatGPT? Of course not, we don’t trust it. You never know what’s coming – and that’s exactly the issue. That’s why Dynatrace’s Davis hypermodal AI is a combination of predictive, causal and generative AI.

Generative AI is the latest addition to Davis, intended as an assistant for humans, not to drive automation. The issue is the indeterminism of GenAI: you never know what you’ll get, and you can’t repeat the same thing with it over and over. That’s why you can’t automate with it, or at least automate in the sense of driving a car.

What does it mean then for running operations? For a company, isn’t this like driving a car? It can’t go down, it can’t be insecure, it can’t be too risky. This is where causal AI is the exact opposite of nondeterministic, meaning Dynatrace’s Davis causal AI produces the same results over and over, if given the same prompts.

It’s based on actual facts. It’s about causation not correlation, really inferring. In realtime, a graph is created so you can clearly see dependencies.

For example, you can identify the database that had a leak and caused a password to be compromised and know for certain that a problem arose from this – that’s the precision only causal AI provides.

Generative AI might be able to identify a high probability that the database leak caused the issue, but it would also think maybe it came from that other source.

This is also why all the automation that Dynatrace does is based on such high-quality data. The key differentiator is the contextual analytics. We feed this high-quality, contextual data into Davis and causal AI helps drive standard automation so customers can run their production environments in a way that lets them sleep well.

Observability is another way of building that trust – your AI observability platform lets customers see where it’s implemented and where it isn’t working.

Yeah, customers are starting to implement in the hope that generative AI will solve problems for them. With a lot of it, no one really knows how helpful it is. We know from ChatGPT that there is some value there, but you need to observe it because you never know what it’s doing.

Because of its nondeterministic nature, you never know what it’s doing performance wise and cost wise, output wise.

What about the partnership with Lloyds? Where do you see that going?

Especially for Dynatrace, the topic of sustainability and FinOps go hand in hand and continue to rapidly grow. We’ve also implemented sophisticated algorithms to precisely calculate carbon, which is really challenging.

Here’s a story that demonstrates how challenging it is: enterprise companies need to fulfil stewardship requirements. To do so, they might hire another company that’s known in the market to help with carbon calculation.

But the way they do it is to apply a factor to the amount the enterprise spends with AWS or Google Cloud, say, and provide a lump sum of carbon emissions – how can you optimize that?

The result is totally inaccurate, too, because some companies negotiate better deals with hyperscalers; the money spent doesn’t exactly correlate to usage. You need deep observability to know where the key carbon consumption is, whether those areas truly need to be run the way they are.

We apply that to this detailed, very granular information of millions of monitored entities. With Lloyds, for example, optimization allowed a cut of 75 grams of carbon per user transaction, which ultimately adds up to more and more.

Our full coverage of Dynatrace Perform is here, and in the next part of this article, you can read a conversation with Dynatrace VP of marketing Stefan Greifender.

The post A conversation with Dynatrace’s CTO appeared first on TechHQ.

• SMIC sets up new production lines in Shanghai for mass-producing Huawei-designed 5nm chips.
• SMIC’s 5nm process won’t use EUV lithography due to tool unavailability from ASML. Stockpiled DUV lithography will be used instead.
• Experts anticipate Huawei’s smartphone performance boost with this new production node this year.

In the dynamic landscape of the global semiconductor industry, China has emerged as a critical player, striving for self-sufficiency in chip production. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), China’s largest state-backed chipmaker, stands at the forefront of this endeavor, spearheading efforts to bolster the country’s semiconductor industry and reduce reliance on imports. Despite facing sanctions and technological hurdles, the company had most recently made significant strides in advancing chip fabrication processes by establishing new semiconductor production lines in Shanghai aimed at mass-producing chips using cutting-edge 5nm fabrication technology.

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US lowers sights on China’s biggest chipmaker, SMIC

This move underscores SMIC’s commitment to staying abreast of technological advancements and positioning China as a global leader in semiconductor manufacturing. A recent report by the Financial Times claims SMIC will be collaborating with Huawei Technologies to produce next-generation smartphone processors this year. “The country’s biggest chipmaker, SMIC, has put together new semiconductor production lines in Shanghai, according to two people familiar with the move, to mass produce the chips designed by technology giant Huawei.” 

SMIC’s collaboration with tech giant Huawei is poised to play a pivotal role in China’s semiconductor push. Through this partnership, SMIC aims to produce high-performance chips designed by Huawei, using its state-of-the-art fabrication capabilities. 

In short, this strategic alliance enhances SMIC’s technological prowess and underscores the synergy between state-backed enterprises and leading technology firms in driving China’s semiconductor revolution.

Ultimately, the goal is to reduce dependence on foreign chip imports. 

The move came when Beijing combined strategic partnerships and international collaborations to accelerate its semiconductor advancements. The country has forged partnerships with leading semiconductor companies and research institutions worldwide, facilitating technology transfer and knowledge exchange to bolster its semiconductor ecosystem.

But China’s semiconductor ambitions have not been without challenges and controversies. China’s semiconductor industry still lags behind its global counterparts in some critical regions, such as advanced process technology and design capabilities. Achieving true technological sovereignty remains an uphill battle, requiring sustained investments, talent cultivation, and policy support. 

To top it off, the country has faced accusations of intellectual property theft, industrial espionage, and unfair trade practices, prompting scrutiny and backlash from the international community. 

What does SMIC have planned for its 5nm collaboration with Huawei?

The decision to advance chip production despite sanctions reflects China’s strategic imperative to reduce reliance on foreign technology and assert its technological prowess on the world stage. China has invested heavily in semiconductor research and development in recent years, aiming to close the technological gap with leading chip-producing nations such as the US and Taiwan.

So SMIC’s efforts to set up new semiconductor production lines in Shanghai signify a pivotal moment in China’s quest, especially by harnessing Huawei’s expertise in chip design and SMIC’s manufacturing capabilities. What’s more, the collaboration between SMIC and Huawei highlights the synergy between state-backed enterprises and leading technology companies in China. 

Can the SMIC 5nm process build on the success of the Huawei Mate Pro 60?

Two sources familiar with the plans revealed to the FT that SMIC intends to utilize its current US and Dutch equipment inventory to manufacture more minor 5nm chips. This production line will manufacture Kirin chips developed by Huawei’s HiSilicon unit, slated for upcoming iterations of its flagship smartphones.

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Huawei: A teardown of the latest laptop shows a chip made in Taiwan, not China

Despite trailing behind the cutting-edge 3nm chips, the adoption of 5nm technology signifies China’s semiconductor sector’s steady advancement despite US export restrictions. “With the new 5nm node, Huawei is well on track to upgrade its new flagship handset and data center chips,” one person familiar with the plans told the FT.

How will this advancement help Huawei?

For context, SMIC’s 7nm and 5nm chip production lines utilize US machines accumulated before facing restrictions. Additionally, its fab includes ASML lithography machines acquired last year. However, the Dutch government’s recent revocation of export licenses for advanced machines has hindered ASML from selling to China.

“SMIC is facing a more significant roadblock for production expansion after the US and its alliance tightened export restrictions on advanced chipmaking gear,” one person close to the company told the FT. “Still, the fate of China’s chip industry and its technological development in the coming years will depend on these production lines by SMIC.”

Huawei has recently made waves with its Mate 60 Pro, boasting a 7nm processor that spurred a 50% surge in Chinese shipments in 2023. If successful for smartphones, SMIC’s 5nm product could extend to Huawei’s Ascend 920, narrowing the gap with Nvidia’s GPUs. Of course, the push for more advanced chips has resulted in added expenses. 

Sources close to Chinese chip firms revealed that SMIC charges 40 to 50% higher prices for products from its 5nm and 7nm nodes than TSMC. Additionally, SMIC’s yield, or the number of usable chips, is less than one-third of TSMC’s.

The post 5nm milestone: SMIC and Huawei defy US Sanctions in semiconductor push appeared first on TechHQ.

Rare earth elements might not be top of the agenda for businesses, but many IT devices that companies rely on would either be useless or substantially inferior without them. And while more abundant than their name suggests, mineable concentrations of rare earth elements are limited. Your cellphone features a gram or so of rare earths – a collection of 17 metallic elements – which provide special properties to the electronics inside. Their magnetic behavior has helped to develop more efficient motors for EVs and improve the generating efficiency of wind turbines. These are just a few of many applications that make the energy-intensive mining process worthwhile for the tech industry, but there’s a big environmental cost to be paid. And that’s one of the reasons why efforts to use biomining to turn electronics green are attracting interest.

There’s seemingly no limit to the power of plants. On TechHQ, we’ve already reported on how coffee, mushrooms and pineapples could give rise to a new class of biodegradable device materials. And there are digital communication lessons to be learned from the internet of tomatoes. Adding to that list, is the prospect of using biomining to refine rare earth elements without the need for harsh chemicals – the topic of today’s discussion.

Starting with bacteria that already show a preference for selectively binding themselves to rare earth elements, researchers in the US have engineered strains capable of biosorbing up to 210% more than wild versions. “Despite the work that remains to be done, we believe that this work is an encouraging sign that with further throughput, bacteria can be engineered to have sufficient capacity and selectivity to replace solvent extraction as the method of choice for producing purified rare earth elements,” writes the Cornell University team in the journal Synthetic Biology.

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Turning sim cards into gold

Solvent extraction, while effective, has the disadvantage of often requiring high-temperatures and harsh chemicals, both of which carry an environmental penalty. Biomining, on the other hand, can make use of nature’s talent for separating materials, which includes not just those in mined ore. Materials inside unwanted electronic components are becoming valuable too – for example, by putting already refined rare earth elements back in circulation.

Mint Innovation, based in New Zealand, describes itself as ‘the world’s first company to use natural biomass and smart chemistry to extract green metals from waste commercially, accelerating circular supply’. And the firm is one of a growing number of organizations tapping into the wealth of precious metals that can – with the right process know-how – be harvested from waste electronics.

The politics of rare earth elements

There’s a political angle to pursuing biomining prospects. China has emerged as the global leader in traditionally refined rare earth elements, which hold strategic importance. Many components featuring rare earth elements – for example, devices used in healthcare, transportation, and power generation – are of high importance to national economies. “Because of this critical role, interest and research into the recovery of rare earth elements from end-of-life products and secondary sources such as coal and coal by-products has recently increased,” comments the US Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management.

Canada, home to 15.1 million tonnes of Rare Earth Elements (REE) in 2022, holds the key to the future of electronics, clean energy, aerospace, automotive, and defense technologies.

Permanent magnets, crucial for wind turbines and electric vehicles, are driving global REE demand.… pic.twitter.com/UgdJ8W3Agz

— Troy Minerals (@troy_minerals) January 25, 2024

The US has reserves of rare earth elements estimated to be in the region of 2.3 million tons. However, China reportedly has more than 20 times this figure, and sits on a wealth of resources. Biomining technologies could help to not just reduce the burden that the refining of rare earth elements places on the environment; they may also ease global tensions.

Being able to access materials present in waste electronics reduces the dependence on imports, which may be limited and subject to tariffs. Ideally, stakeholders would put the planet first. But if national security pulls the lever on helping to turn electronics and other critical components green, then sobeit.

The post Could biomining turn electronics green? appeared first on TechHQ.