Lifeboat Foundation

MediaTek and Qualcomm may be the dominant players in the 5G smartphone SoC sector, but Chinese phone vendors Oppo and Xiaomi are mounting a challenge by developing their own chips. Shortages plaguing the semidoncutor industry are sending firms scrambling for supply. NOR flash chipmakers say that more of their clients are now willing to strike long-term supply contracts. For backend firms, demand from MCU clients remains robust.

Unisoc, Oppo, Xiaomi gearing up for new 5G mobile chips roll-outs: Oppo and Xiaomi will introduce their in-house-developed sub-6GHz 5G chip solutions between late 2021 and early 2022, joining fabless chipmaker Unisoc in competing against chip vendors such as Qualcomm and MediaTek, according to industry sources in Taiwan.

NOR flash chipmakers see more customers eager for long-term deals: Taiwan-based NOR flash chipmakers have seen more of their clients eager to strike long-term supply agreements, according to industry sources.

Total semiconductor shipments including shipments of ICs as well as optoelectronics, sensor/actuator and discrete (O-S-D) devices are forecast to rise 13% to a record high of 1.135 trillion units in 2021, according to IC Insights. It would mark the third time that semiconductor units have surpassed one trillion units in a calendar year — the first time being in 2018.

The 13% increase follows a 3% increase in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic was wreaking havoc across many segments of the economy, IC Insights indicated. From 1978, when 32.6 billion units were shipped, through 2021, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for semiconductor units is forecast to be 8.6%. The strong CAGR also demonstrates that new market drivers continue to emerge that fuel demand for more semiconductors.

Between 2004 and 2007, semiconductor shipments broke through the 400-, 500-, and 600-billion unit levels before the global financial meltdown led to a steep decline in semiconductor shipments in 2008 and 2009. Unit growth rebounded sharply in 2010 with a 25% increase and surpassed 700 billion devices that year. Another strong increase in 2017 (12% growth) lifted semiconductor unit shipments beyond the 900-billion level before the one-trillion mark was surpassed in 2018, IC Insights said.

https://youtu.be/AZeWPlVoLko

Permanent magnetic motors circa 2014.

The AZ-PM thruster is the latest in a range of Rolls-Royce propulsion products using its permanent magnet technology. This technology is based on electric drive where the motor is in the form of a ring round the propeller. The moving part of the ring is a rim around the propeller blades which carries a series of strong permanent magnets. The rotor, fitted within a series of magnets, turns within an outer ring which form the stator.

Continue reading “Rolls-Royce | Permanent Magnet Technology” »

Could be used for next generation electric cars.

The British appliance manufacturer Dyson claims to have developed the world’s fastest, most efficient motor for domestic appliances. The Dyson Digital Motor (DDM) v2 is a single-phase brushless DC motor, which operates at speeds up to 104000 rpm with a claimed efficiency of 84%.

Dyson’s first digital motor, announced in 2003, used switched reluctance technology.

Continue reading “104,000 Rpm Appliance Motor is ‘World’s Fastest’” »

NASA ’s Lucy spacecraft has successfully completed thermal vacuum testing of both solar panels, the final step in checking out these critical spacecraft components in preparation for launch this fall. Once the Lucy spacecraft’s solar panels are attached and fully extended, they could cover a five-story building.

Lucy, the 13th mission in NASA’s Discovery Program, requires these large solar panels as it will operate farther from the Sun than any previous solar-powered space mission. During its 12-year tour of the Trojan asteroids, the Lucy spacecraft will operate a record-breaking 530 million miles (853 million km) from the Sun, beyond the orbit of Jupiter.

Circa 2017

Tomato peels and eggshells are used in a sustainable rubber that could be used to make car tires.

Shorthand, the Australian startup behind a no-code platform that allows publishers and brands to create multimedia stories, has raised $10 million Australian (just under $8 million U.S.) from Fortitude Investment Partners.

CEO Ricky Robinson told me via email that this is Shorthand’s first institutional round of funding, and that the company has been profitable for the past two years.

“We’ve been lucky enough to grow to where we are today through an entirely inbound, organic model that leverages the beautiful content that our customers create in Shorthand to generate leads,” Robinson wrote. “But we’ve been testing other channels with some success and the time is right to ramp up those other marketing initiatives. That’s where we’ll be spending this funding, while also investing heavily in our product to keep Shorthand at the cutting edge of storytelling innovation for the web.”

Aging is maleable and can be intervened to slow down and even reverse it.
Several experiments in animal models have shown that certain gene therapies as well as interventions via partial cellular reprograming can significantly extend healthspan and lifespan in mice and other model organisms.

An article published on December 30, 2020 in Fortune magazine, reaches the following conclusions:
* Without treatments to slow or reverse aspects of biological aging, an aging population means we are in for a health care cost tsunami.
* The most exciting opportunity for such an improvement in health productivity is to understand and address the biology of aging.
* There is promising scientific research on reversing aspects of aging, some of which is not far from clinical application.
* While all this research represents thrilling progress, we invest far too little in research that could help us go further in understanding and treating aging.

Continue reading “Aging isn’t nice — Let’s bring world leaders to the quest of solving it” »

Neuralink, co-founded by Elon Musk in 2016, has revealed a macaque with chips embedded on each side of its brain, playing a mind-controlled version of the 1972 video game, Pong.

Although established in 2016, Neuralink remained secretive about its work until July 2019, when Musk presented his concept for a new brain–machine interface (BMI). Not only would this help physically diseased or injured people, Musk believed it could also treat mental illness – and even be used by healthy individuals who might wish to enhance themselves.

A prototype in August 2020 demonstrated the Neuralink technology in a pig. This coin-sized chip, featuring a read/write link, contained 1024 channels with a wireless megabit data rate and all-day battery life. Brain signals conveying the pig’s sense of smell could be seen in real time. The FDA had by then approved it as a breakthrough device, allowing use in limited human trials under the US federal guidelines for testing medical devices.