The U.S. needs to increase funding to support “collaborative, pre-competitive R&D” in the semiconductor industry and offer “incentives” for boosting domestic production, said the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Thursday. It should invite participation of semiconductor enterprises “headquartered in like-minded nations,” said ITIF. The increasing cost, complexity and scale required to innovate and manufacture semiconductors “means that no single nation or enterprise can go it alone,” it said. “In the face of challenges from China, allied cooperation in semiconductors is critical.” China views the semiconductor sector as the linchpin of its digital development and "broadest-scale economic growth plans,” said ITIF. It has shown it’s willing to use “every tool at its disposal in its efforts to develop a world-class semiconductor industry,” it said.
Comments are due Sept. 24 at the International Trade Commission on the public interest ramifications of an import ban DivX seeks on LG, Samsung and TCL smart TVs, said Wednesday’s Federal Register. DivX’s Sept. 10 complaint (login required) in docket 337-3489 seeks a Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into allegations the video processors in the TVs infringe four DivX patents on adaptive bitrate streaming. Component suppliers MediaTek, MStar and Realtek are also named as potential respondents. DivX was “one of the first companies to enable successful delivery of high-quality digital video over the internet,” said the complaint: No harm would come to the public if the TVs were excluded because other manufacturers could easily fill the void. Respondents didn't comment.
ViacomCBS' CBS All Access streaming service will rebrand as Paramount+ early next year as the company expands its content offerings and debuts the service in Australia, Latin America and the Nordic nations, it said Tuesday. It said it will enlarge content offerings with more than 30,000 TV episodes and movies and continue developing original content.
Nvidia agreed to buy Arm from SoftBank for $40 billion in cash and stock. SoftBank would retain ties to Arm through a less-than-10% stake in Nvidia. Nvidia is positioning the acquisition as an artificial intelligence play: “AI is the most powerful technology force of our time and has launched a new wave of computing,” said CEO Jensen Huang Sunday. Combining Nvidia’s AI computing capabilities with the “vast ecosystem” of Arm processors can advance computing across the cloud, smartphones, PCs, self-driving cars, robotics and edge IoT devices, he said. U.K.-based Arm will remain headquartered in Cambridge, said Nvidia, which plans to expand the site with an AI research facility supporting developments in healthcare, life sciences, robotics and self-driving cars. Arm and Nvidia see “ubiquitous, energy-efficient computing” addressing world issues such as climate change, healthcare, agriculture and education, requiring new approaches to hardware and software, said Arm CEO Simon Segars, who will join Nvidia. The deal needs approvals by the U.K., China, EU and U.S. Nvidia expects the transaction to close in about 18 months. Nvidia shares closed 5.8% higher Monday at $514.89.
July smartphone imports of 18.2 million to the U.S. was their highest monthly volume of 2020 but remain on pace to finish the year with 20% fewer shipments than 2019, according to Census Bureau data we accessed Sunday through the International Trade Commission’s DataWeb. Unit imports were up 15% sequentially and 6.2% from July 2019. That's improvement from Q2 (see 2008160001). The average July smartphone import was priced at $244.68, up 6.3% from June and 6.9% year on year. China generated 75% of July smartphone imports. PC monitors, a connectivity tool throughout much of telework and remote-learning mandates, cooled off from their torrid Q2 performance.
Amazon, Edge Cable and China Mobile hope to operate their private fiber cable network connecting central California and the Philippines by Q4 2022, they said in an FCC international Bureau application Thursday. They would use the 7,460-mile CAP-1 line capacity for services offered by their affiliates or would provide bulk capacity to wholesale and enterprise customers. They asked to operate on a non-common carrier basis, citing "robust competition" on the U.S./Philippines route. They asked for approval by Nov. 1, 2021, to meet their construction schedule.
Emerging markets will have surprising parity long term with the rest of the world in 5G adoption, despite their limited 4G penetration, reported ABI Research Thursday. It’s forecasting developing countries will have a faster than expected 5G subscriber adoption with a 26% compound annual growth rate in subscriptions through 2030, versus 28% global CAGR. “Broader use cases” will speed adoption in emerging markets, as will wide availability of open radio access network technologies, said ABI. “As the COVID-19 pandemic impacts the social fabric and economic activities of our countries, emerging markets are constantly reminded of the importance of a connected world. 5G will address the issue of supply chain resiliency and provide new business models in enterprises.”
IFA 2020's top point man declared the hybrid physical/virtual tech trade show under his watch a "huge success," conceding at a closing news conference Saturday that “compared to any other year, the numbers were small.” IFA 2021 will return Sept. 3-7 as a physical show at “full scale,” complemented with a repeat of this year’s virtual component, said Executive Director Jens Heithecker from Berlin. Visitors at IFA 2020 numbered “in the hundreds” at any single time, not the usual thousands, said Heithecker. “We kept the numbers down, well below the limits set by public health authorities” (see 2004220038). IFA representatives didn’t respond to questions Tuesday about the rationale for making IFA 2021 five days. Heithecker was “pleased to see our health and safety concept in action,” he said. Germany “successfully contained the virus, but we must not be complacent,” he said. “The pandemic knows no borders.” IFA 2020 “sent an important signal to the world that tech is back,” he said. Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center ranks Germany 20th in cases, 18th in deaths. About 6,100 people visited during the three-day event “in real life,” said Heithecker. The virtual component had more than 260,000 “online views,” he said. We found the show's virtual offering easy to navigate, and the audio and video quality was good throughout. One glitch was the apparent server crash Friday afternoon EDT that prevented us from accessing on-demand content. Organizers didn’t comment on the problem.
Walter Ji, president of Huawei Europe’s consumer business group, spent the bulk of his 45-minute prerecorded IFA 2020 news conference speech Thursday trumpeting his company’s stature as a good corporate citizen. Independent studies show Huawei supports 223,000 jobs on the continent, said Ji. Huawei will expand its retail presence in Europe, “creating more jobs and economic growth at a critical time,” he said. It will open eight “flagship stores” by year-end across Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K. The flagship stores were “designed by Europeans for Europeans,” he said. The expanded “retail footprint will employ hundreds more people,” he said. “We are proud of what we are doing in Europe, and we are committed to doing more.” Ji made no mention in his talk of the U.K.’s July decision banning Huawei from its 5G network (see 2007140023).
Though SpaceX asked to move much of its proposed mega constellation to lower orbit, it hasn't acknowledged potential solutions to the increased collision risks that would create with Amazon's Kuiper mega constellation, Amazon officials told aides to all FCC commissioners, per an ex parte post Wednesday. Even if space safety problems are addressed, potential interference issues necessitate putting SpaceX's entire modified constellation in the non-geostationary orbit fixed satellite service processing round that launched in March, it said. Amazon petitioned to deny SpaceX's lower orbit ask (see 2007140001). SpaceX didn't comment Thursday.