The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology formed a working group focused on semiconductors, said group co-chairmen John Holdren, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Paul Otellini, a former head of Intel, in a White House blog post Monday. “Semiconductors are essential to many aspects of modern life, from cellphones and automobiles to medical diagnostics to reconnaissance satellites and weapon systems,” they said. “Additional public and private investments in R&D are almost certain to be required if the past remarkable pace of improvements in price and performance of semiconductors and the benefits deriving therefrom are to continue -- R&D that looks to create new technologies that can leapfrog beyond the limits of today’s technology and explore entirely new computer architectures and their integration into systems well beyond the traditional computing sphere, including automotive and other mobile applications.” The group “will identify the core challenges facing the semiconductor industry at home and abroad and identify major opportunities for sustaining U.S. leadership” and “deliver a set of recommendations on initial actions the Federal government, industry, and academia could pursue to maintain U.S. leadership in this crucial domain,” the co-chairs said.

Comments on an Entertainment Software Association petition asking for an extension of the waiver of accessibility requirements for videogame software until January 2018 (see 1610190031) are due Nov. 30, replies Dec. 15, the FCC said in a public notice Monday. ESA's petition said such relief would let the industry continue work on developing accessibility technology. The current waiver of 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act requirements is to expire Jan. 1.

Shure filed a letter at the FCC further explaining its December petition asking the agency to clarify that antenna connector limitations don't apply to unlicensed wireless mics and to make other changes to rules for unlicensed use of the TV bands after the incentive auction (see 1609260061). “We explained in that petition that imposing limits on standard antenna jacks on wireless microphones provides no human safety benefits or meaningful spectral efficiency gains, the rationale behind the Part 15 antenna connector limitation,” Shure said in the filing in docket 14-165. “Shure filed a detailed supplement in support of its position that the Section 15.203 prohibition on standard antenna jacks and connectors would be problematic to implement given the inherent design requirements of wireless microphones, in which standard antenna connectors perform important circuit design and product application functions.”

Silicon Labs bowed a new family of Wireless Gecko modules for mesh networking applications with support for ZigBee and Thread software, said a Wednesday announcement. The MGM111 module combines a 2.4 GHz SoC, high-efficiency chip antenna, crystals, and RF matching and shielding in a "ready-to-use" mesh networking module supporting ZigBee and Thread protocol stacks, said Silicon Labs. The module complies with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard and will be pre-certified for compliance with FCC (North America), IC (Canada), CE (Europe), RCM (AU/NZ) and KC (Korea) regulatory requirements, it said. The module helps developers reduce cost, complexity and time to market for applications including home automation, connected lighting, smart metering and security systems, said the company.

In a pronounced expansion beyond smartphones, Qualcomm introduced a pair of Snapdragon processors Wednesday: one for embedded applications in vertical markets including set-top boxes and IoT applications and the other for use cases including smart homes, digital media players and smart surveillance. The launch is the first time stand-alone Snapdragon processors are available through distributors, making them available to manufacturers "of all sizes for embedded computing and IoT products,” said a Qualcomm announcement. Qualcomm called distributors, led initially by Arrow Electronics, “an important extension” of the product portfolio’s strategy to target “highly fragmented consumer, enterprise and industrial categories.” The Snapdragon 600E and 410E are being made available globally by third-party distributors for a minimum of 10 years from the Snapdragon 600 and Snapdragon 400 product families' first commercial sampling, Qualcomm said. The company is positioning the embedded processors as a way for device manufacturers, solution providers, and system integrators to speed commercialization through off-the-shelf and custom modules and as a means to a cost-optimized “chip on board” design for specific applications. The Snapdragon 600E quad-core processor incorporates Qualcomm’s 1.5 GHz Krait 300 CPU, Adreno 320 graphics processor and Hexagon digital signal processor (DSP) and supports Bluetooth 4.0/LE and 3.x, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac and GPS for connected applications, said the company. The Snapdragon 410E 1.2 GHz quad-core processor offers high performance, low power consumption and multimedia with an Adreno 306 graphics processor and Hexagon DSP, said the company, and it supports Bluetooth 4.1/LE, 802.11 b/g/n and GPS.

Representatives of wireless mic maker Sennheiser explained its pursuit of changes to rules for unlicensed use of the TV spectrum after the incentive auction. Sennheiser representatives met with staff from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, said a filing in 12-268. On rules for antenna connectors, Sennheiser said the agency should “retain the waiver for unlicensed wireless microphones,” echoing Shure's recent filing (see 1609260061). On rules for measuring output power for Part 15 certified wireless mics, Sennheiser said: “A microphone that meets conducted power [requirements] will meet the same limit when measured as EIRP [equivalent isotropically radiated power], but measurements of conducted power are more precise. Sennheiser does not object to measuring by EIRP, so long as manufacturers are given the opportunity to measure using either conducted power or EIRP.” Audio-Technica also reported on a call with FCC staff. “We discussed Audio-Technica’s position regarding requirements relevant to the use of conducted or radiated power measurements as applied to its products,” said a filing by the company. “We also discussed Audio-Technica’s position regarding the application of Part 15 restrictions and requirements for antennas and antenna connectors as applied to its products.”

Toshiba launched N-channel MOSFETs for load switches in smartphones and tablets, said a Monday news release. The devices use Toshiba’s U-MOS IX-H series trench process that’s said to reduce heat dissipation resulting from turn-on loss by 40 percent vs. the company’s previous products. The MOSFETs (metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors) are targeted for use in electric power switching applications of more than 10 watts, including small-size mobile devices that meet the USB Type-C and USB Power Delivery standards, it said.

The FCC's apps-based set-top plan mustn't allow rewriting “any terms or conditions contained in programming contracts between broadcasters and multichannel video programming distributors,” NAB said in a letter posted in docket 16-42 Friday. Ex parte filings by programmers have suggested the set-top proposal being pursued by the FCC could involve the commission in a licensing regime to allow third-party set-top makers access to MVPD content (see 1608240064). “NAB cannot support any order where the Commission creates an ongoing ability to review or modify broadcaster contracts through the licensing process,” it said. “Any such provision undermines the Commission’s stated goals of protecting content, respecting copyright and avoiding third-party casualties in its quest to generate a competitive set-top box marketplace.” The initial FCC plan explicitly said it wouldn't interfere with existing contracts between programmers and MVPDs, and its latest plan should follow the same directive, NAB said. “The tasks of developing the terms and conditions of the license and determining whether an entity is compliant with the license must be at the exclusive discretion of the licensing body itself,” NAB said. “Any other outcome would necessarily involve the Commission in the interpretation of contractual terms and determinations of which terms should or should not be honored by competing applications. This is unacceptable.” Tech groups also lobbied last week on the NPRM (see 1609020031).

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology dismissed “without prejudice” a request by Ricoh for a waiver allowing it to sell an advanced binocular in the U.S. The devices exceed emission limits for the operation of a Class B digital devices, requiring a waiver, OET said. “Ricoh states that the Enhanced Binocular Kit NV-10A (NV-10A), which consists of a binocular and battery charger for its lithium-ion battery, uses image stabilization to enable the user to accurately view distant targets under dangerous conditions such as dense fog, rain, snow, smoke, dust storms and nearly pure darkness,” the order said. “Ricoh has failed to provide sufficient information to demonstrate that requiring strict compliance with the rule is inconsistent with the public interest in this case.”

Samsung began mass production of its Exynos 7 Quad 7570 mobile application processor (AP), it said in a news release. The AP, built on 14-nanometer process technology, is designed for for the budget smartphone market and IoT devices, said Samsung Monday night. The 7570 is the first Exynos processor to integrate a Cat.4 LTE 2CA modem along with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM and global navigation satellite system in one chip, said the company. The Exynos 7570’s four Cortex-A53 cores deliver 70 percent more processing performance and 30 percent better power efficiency than the predecessor chip built on 28 nm technology, Samsung said. Design optimization and feature consolidation reduced the total chipset size by up to 20 percent, it said.