Internet of Things - Technology focus

Nearly a dozen people, including five Russian nationals and two oil brokers from Venezuela, were arrested and charged in a scheme to send American military technology to Russia, some of which was allegedly found on battlefields in Ukraine, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Federal prosecutors, with help from the department’s Task Force KleptoCapture, revealed two separate indictments Oct. 19. The task force was created earlier this year to enforce sanctions against the Russian elite. “As I have said, our investigators and prosecutors will be relentless in their efforts to identify, locate, and bring to justice those whose illegal acts undermine the rule of law and enable the Russian regime to continue its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a release. The charges come as the U.S. looks to crack down on Russia and its allies while the war in Ukraine continues into its 8th month. The defendants are charged with an array of counts, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. If convicted, they could face more than 30 years in prison.  In the first case, filed in the Eastern District of New York, Russian nationals Yury Orekhov and Svetlana Kuzurgasheva are charged with creating shell companies to illegally send military tech and oil to U.S.-sanctioned Russian buyers. Some of the electronic components obtained in the scheme were found in Russian weapons platforms seized in Ukraine.  Additionally, Orekhov and Artem Uss, who is the son of a Russian governor, allegedly used the fake business — with help from oil brokers Juan Fernando Serrano Ponce and Juan Carlos Soto — to smuggle hundreds of millions of barrels of oil to Russia and China from Venezuela.

Imagine if there were a robotic fish that filtered microplastic particles out of the water as it swam. Well, now there is one, and it's the physical version of the winning concept in the first-ever Natural Robotics Contest. The University of Surrey's Natural Robots Contest invited members of the public to submit their ideas for animal- or plant-inspired robots capable of performing activities that would help the world.  The winning entry turned out to be the plastic-collecting Robo-fish, designed by chemistry undergrad Eleanor Mackintosh – who is coincidentally a University of Surrey student.  The robot swims by flapping its tail, holding its mouth wide open to collect water (and microplastics) in an internal cavity as it does so. Once that cavity is full, the bot closes its mouth, opens its louvre-like gill flaps, and pushes the water out through those flaps by raising the floor of the cavity. A fine mesh attached to the gill flaps allows the water to pass through, but captures the plastic particles. In its current physical form, the 50-cm (19.7-in)-long Robo-fish collects particles as small as 2 millimeters. It also sports onboard sensors to monitor turbidity and underwater light levels, plus it utilizes an IMU (inertial measurement unit) to track its movements within the water. Oh yes, and it glows in the dark.

Intel Corp and Alphabet Inc's Google Cloud on Tuesday said they have launched a co-designed chip that can make data centers more secure and efficient. The E2000 chip, code named Mount Evans, takes over the work of packaging data for networking from the expensive central processing units (CPU) that does the main computing, offering better security between different customers that may be sharing CPUs in the cloud, explained Google's vice president of engineering, Amin Vahdat.  Chips are made up of basic processors called cores. There can be 100s of cores on a chip and sometimes information can bleed between them. The E2000 creates secure routes to each core to prevent such a scenario. Companies are running increasingly complex algorithms, using progressively bigger data sets, at a time when the performance improvement of chips like CPUs is slowing down. Cloud companies are therefore looking for ways to make the data center itself more productive. Nick McKeown, who leads Intel's Network and Edge group, said Intel can sell the E2000 to other customers. "We do consider ourselves to be the open cloud, and to the extent that others take advantage of the capabilities here, we're thrilled," said Vahdat.  Google Cloud is starting to offer the E2000 in a new product called C3 VM which will be powered by Intel's 4th-gen Xeon processors. Xeon chips are Intel's most powerful CPUs and Google Cloud is the 1st cloud service to deploy the latest gen of those chips, Intel said.

Quickly identifying and treating serious wounds is an age-old problem that’s killed countless soldiers, but it could see a solution in new technology that uses embedded sensors to detect, alert and one day treat injuries.  The Smart Shirt for Wound Detection has been tested by soldiers, airmen and spec ops forces recently and could be ready for fielding in 2023, Legionarius COO and co-founder Dr. Alexander Gruentzig told US Army Times.  The lattice-like web of sensors on the Smart Shirt are woven into the interior of the garment, whether that’s a standard-issue blouse or jacket. The sensors detect when their “web” has been penetrated and relay that information to the “puck,” a business-card sized, one-inch-thick device that currently mounts on the user’s back, near the base of the neck.  The puck then transmits to the Army’s Tactical Awareness Kit — smartphone-based software — and alerts commanders and others on the network that the soldier has been injured, Gruentzig said. Commanders can see across their formations who is hurt, where and when they were injured, the type of injury and their current and recent vital signs. Shared imagery on the network will show where on the torso the soldier has been wounded using a digital diagram as a guide. The system generates a custom QR code that a medic can scan and use to transfer vital data concerning the soldier’s medical condition.  And, Gruentzig said, they’ve developed the system to avoid “false positives.” The hole in the shirt must be 2 mm or larger and the sensors are not triggered by regular wear and tear or body movements. Sensors are also hardwired to the shirt to make them resistant to electronic jamming, he added. The company is also putting a series of “bladders” into the shirts that could provide instant compression for wound care in the future. The compression devices would stop blood loss and reduce massive bleeding, one of the deadliest injuries a soldier can receive in combat. The sensing portion of the shirt is now ready for ruggedized tests and evaluation by soldiers and could be fielded as soon as 2023. The wound treatment portion is still under development.

Amid rising geopolitical tensions with the West, Beijing has fastened on semiconductors – the technology that plays an essential role in everything from cars to computers and missiles – as a strategic sector that requires long-term investment in education and skills.  However areas such as Artificial Intelligence and big data are still more popular with students than courses on semiconductors currently. In 2016, a joint guideline from the Ministry of Education and 6 other authorities suggested that colleges and enterprises work together on online IC courses and provide more internship opportunities. In 2019, the education ministry and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology vowed to build ICs into a 1st-class degree course. In 2021, IC was elevated to become a “first-level discipline” in which graduates can pursue doctorate studies. Last year, at least 12 Chinese universities set up a dedicated “IC school”, including the top two – Tsinghua University and Peking University (PKU) in Beijing.  “Most of those in the IC sector (currently) are non-chip-design workers”, said Li Pei, an analyst from semiconductor industry information provider JW Insights. “As chip design has attracted a lot of funds in recent years, pay has become more competitive. Read on for more

Across Europe, people are struggling to pay the bills as inflation soars to levels not seen in decades. Prices had already been rising before the war in Ukraine as consumers began spending again after the lifting of pandemic restrictions. But Russia`s invasion of the country and the resulting pressure on gas supplies has pushed an uncomfortable situation into a full-blown crisis. On this DW Business Special, we speak to reporter Emily Gordine who has been covering the cost-of-living crisis in the UK, as well as to Michael Heise, Chief Economist at HQ Trust. We ask how the continent's most vulnerable people have been coping and what needs to be done now to prevent extreme hardship this winter.

An endemic shortage of chips costing anywhere from 50 cents to $10 is slowing down swathes of the $600 billion semiconductor industry, TSMC’s CEO warned Tuesday. The persistent deficit of such low-end chips is holding up production in key segments of the supply chain, C. C. Wei told attendees at a tech symposium. ASML Holding NV of the Netherlands is struggling to obtain $10 chips for its extreme ultraviolet lithography systems, or EUVs, he said. TSMC has dozens of the machines, which are critical for packing more power onto smaller slivers of silicon. Elsewhere, a 50-cent radio chip has been holding up the production of $50,000 cars, Wei said, without elaborating. Shortages are showing up as a result of automakers adding more features to cars and increasing the silicon used by 15% every year, while smartphones now require 2 - 3 X the number of power management chips they did 5 years ago, Wei said. “The age of an efficient, globalized supply system has passed,” he said, noting that production costs are also increasing due to more countries racing to build fabs at home. “Costs are swiftly rising, including inflation.”

While demand is generally dwindling, logistics snarls and chronic component shortages continue to plague some industry players. Applied Materials Inc. said this month its order backlog is increasing as it struggles to get enough supply of semiconductors to make its equipment, while Nvidia Corp. said it encountered trouble getting support chips including power converters and transceivers to make as many data center products as it wanted to. It is possible that by the end of the year or early next year, “we are more in control of those supply constraints,” ASML CEO Peter Wennink told analysts after reporting results in July. “Having said that, there are no guarantees there.”

Robust sub-7nm chip demand buoyed IC design service company Alchip Technologies' profit performance in the first half of 2022, when the company saw sales for HPC processor orders account for as high as 80% of revenue.  Alchip does physical design, Design for Test insertion, package design, product qualification, IP licensing, and manufacturing services for digital CMOS ASICs. Alchip already has products in 180 nm, 130 nm, 90 nm, 65 nm, 40 nm, 32 nm, 28 nm, and 16 nm process technologies. Customer ASICs are in a wide range of applications including medical image processing, supercomputing, crypto-mining and networking. Alchip uses the open foundry model and outsources semiconductor manufacturing to TSMC, UMC, SMIC, and Samsung. It also works with captive fab such as SONY and Toshiba. As of 2014, over 85% of Alchip projects are outsourced to TSMC. Alchip also outsources packaging, assembly, and testing.

The Switchblade is hard to defend against because it has a smaller radar cross-section and hard for air defenses to track. The US-made Switchblade loitering drone – sometimes called a swarming “kamikaze” drone or craft– has Ukraine hankering for more. Kyiv has already received the smaller “300” model, but what is more effective is the “600” variant that carries a big enough wallop to take out Russian tanks and armored vehicles. The Switchblade 300 has a range of 6 miles, but only has 15 minutes of endurance, with a speed of 63 mph with a top speed of 100 mph when “dashing” to its target. This is a “rucksack” loitering munition that is only 5.5 pounds. The system is easy and quick to set up and launch. The next level up with improved capabilities is the Switchblade 600 model, it carries the anti-armor payload that the Ukrainians desperately need. The defenders have been using commercial off-the-shelf quadcopters that drop grenades on tanks, but this requires a completely accurate targeting system. The 600 is much better at acquiring targets and penetrating armor. The 600 is heavier but it is still man-portable, but the system does weigh 120 pounds with all components, so it likely takes at least two people to carry it. AeroVironment considers this a “loitering missile.” Operators can set up the tube-launched system to fire in ten minutes. The 600 has an electro-optical infrared high-resolution sensor. It excels at long-range attacks since it has a maximum linked range of 56 miles. The loitering missile also has a 60-minute endurance time.

Goldman Sachs has been hit by a wave of defections, and the atmosphere at the financial giant is at “an all-time toxic high right now,” The Post has learned.  6 overworked 1st-year bankers quit and walked out en masse from the bank’s 200 West Street headquarters Wednesday after getting news of their bonuses. Their departures have been followed by others in the same division — as everyone from CEO David Solomon on down — constantly stresses the need to “perform, perform, perform,”.  “People are on a whole new level of edge … given the economic climate,” While bonuses on Wall Street hit record highs in 2021 but then Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan grappled with a dire lack of bankers amid a surge in dealmaking, so compensation has trailed off this year. The stingy payouts come as Wall Street faces a sharp drop off in the flow of big corporate deals including IPOs and leveraged financing, sparking renewed fears that layoffs are looming in the months ahead. Sources said the environment at the company as employees to “perform, perform, perform.” These Insiders predict the mass exodus is expected to continue as Goldmanites reach a breaking point.perform or be cut.” Under David Solomon, Goldman Sachs has reached a whole new level of toxic. The six first-year bankers and one second-year banker were members of the healthcare desk and left after being run-into the ground and “treated terribly” by higher-ups, sources told The Post. According to a recent survey 3/4's of Wall Street’s junior bankers want to quit their jobs:  1st years learned that the bonuses of the class above them — who had disclosed to Goldman they would leave after completing their 2nd year — were substantially lower than expected.

Veteran actor Mark Hamill said in an interview that he has sent at least 500 drones to Ukraine through the country’s fundraising platform, as Ukraine’s ongoing conflict with Russia enters its ninth month. During an appearance on Bloomberg Radio’s “Sound On”, Hamill, widely known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the acclaimed “Star Wars” film franchise, said   “Very simply: Ukraine needs drones. They define war outcomes, they protect their land, their people, they monitor the border, they’re eyes in the sky,” Hamill said in a radio interview Thursday.  In a statement, Hamill expressed his gratitude for joining the initiative, saying this is the best time for everyone to come together and help Ukrainians defeat Russia in the ongoing conflict. “In this long and unequal fight, Ukraine needs continuous additional support. That’s why I was honored President Zelenskyy asked me to become an ambassador for the Army of Drones,” Hamill said in his statement. ” I know for certain that Ukrainians need drones to protect their land, their freedom and the values of the entire democratic world. Right now is the best time for everyone to come together and help Ukraine stand up in this war with the evil empire.". “I was really shocked because they give me these updates at least 2 or 3 times a week about what’s going on and they said they’ve received over 500 drones since I started this,” Hamill concluded. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced last month that the 71-year-old actor had been named an ambassador for the country’s fundraising platform UNITED24’s “Army of Drones“ project.  ” United24 is an initiative that provides for the regular procurement of drones, their repair and prompt replacement, as well as pilot training for military forces. Actor and musician Barbra Streisand also joined the initiative as an ambassador, another of many celebrities who have used their platforms to lend support to Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. 

During the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, a so-called arms race emerged between the two countries to increase the size and quality of military resources. The goal was to gain military and political superiority over one another and use those resources to expand influence in the world. While it certainly wasn’t the first arms race in history, it was likely the largest and most expensive.

The U.S. and some of its allies are exploring a new arms race but with technology, specifically semiconductors that are now used in everything from smartphones to automobiles to military equipment.

While America looks to curb the advancement of Chinese technology gains on one hand, on the other hand it is looking to capture semiconductor manufacturing capacity to stabilize the supply chain in case a future geopolitical event or future pandemic impacts its supply of chips. This semiconductor arms race is likely to continue as Taiwan and South Korea are ramping their own semiconductor manufacturing goals and China is in the process of building its own equipment for future semiconductor manufacturing.

Russia has turned to China as a source of semiconductors due to sanctions cutting off supplies from elsewhere, but a large percentage of the chips being imported simply don't work. Up to 40% of the semiconductors being sold to Russia simply don't work, as The Register reports, the chip failure rate is as high as 40% according to Russian national daily newspaper Kommersant. These chips are being purchased on the gray market by Russian electronics manufacturers from Chinese sellers. And it seems those sellers are taking advantage of the situation to dump broken parts in Russia while making a profit.  The Chinese government has attempted to remain neutral with regards to Russia's invasion and subsequent war with Ukraine. However, that hasn't stopped some Chinese businesses and reseller spotting a money-making opportunity with ~ 0 risk because Russian customers simply have nowhere else to go for their components. Few will feel sorry for Russia being taken advantage of like this, especially when you consider the government has already turned to scavenging dishwasher chips in a desperate bid to fix its tanks. These faulty Chinese chips may have ended up inside military gear had they worked.

Shipments of traditional PCs continued their downward trajectory in Q3. According to International Data Corporation's (IDC) latest report, global shipments totaled 74.3 million units during the three-month period ending September 30, down 15% from the 87.3 million PCs that shipped from a year earlier.  Lenovo led the pack with 16.9 million PC shipments, a contraction of 16.1% year-over-year (Y/Y). HP finished in 2nd place with 12.7 million units shipped followed by Dell with 12 million PCs shipped. Each of the top five manufacturers saw shipments drop compared to the year-ago quarter except for Apple who moved 10.1 million Macs during Q3, a 40% increase over the 7.2 million units shipped in 2021.  IDC blamed the Y/Y drop on a combination of cooling demand and uneven supply. IDC noted that shipment volumes remain well above pre-pandemic levels when sales were largely driven by enterprises refreshing their fleets. Gaming monitors are expected to experience the 1st Y/Y decline ever in 2022 and smartphone shipments continue to fall. Hard drive shipments dropped 33 % Y/Y in Q2 to approximately 45 million units. ASPs were up five quarters in a row to $910 in Q1 - the highest level since 2004 - but with demand cooling and promotions in full swing, the ASP climb has reversed.

Global PC shipments including desktops, laptops and workstations declined another 15% in the Q3 of 2022 compared to a year earlier, although total volume remained well above pre-pandemic levels, IDC said.  Shipments were down 15% in the prior Q2 as well, which dropped after a decline in Q1, meaning three consecutive quarters of declines. Prior to Q1, there had been 2 years of growth. The declines have been widely noted, including by AMD, which last week said chips sold for PC client computers resulted in less revenue than hoped as a result of weaker PC demand and significant inventory corrections across the PC supply chain. AMD now expects Q3 revenue to be down 16% from a prior prediction, sending its stock down by more than 13% on Friday.  IDC concurred that PC demand has “remained muted” and marked 74.3 million PC shipments in Q3. Lenovo led the pack, ahead of HP, then Dell, Apple and Asus. Of the Top 5 Players, only Apple showed growth in Q3, up by 40% over a year earlier. Apple made up for lost orders in Q2 stemming from lockdowns in China in that period, affecting PC assembly done there.  IDC also noted that average selling prices for PCs increased for five quarters in a row to $910 in Q1, then declined in Q2 and Q3.

With its natural gas exports to Europe now nearing zero, Moscow may start targeting the continent's maritime oil and gas industry via cyberattacks and physical strikes.  Russia could further undermine Europe's energy security long after it cuts off gas supplies, if Moscow begins to more aggressively target the continent's maritime oil and gas industry. On Sept. 26, the Norwegian Petroleum Safety Administration warned of potential ''deliberate attacks'' after energy companies reported multiple cases of unidentified drones flying near offshore oil and gas installations. Just a few hours later, officials in Denmark warned they had found a gas leak along a section of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline off the coast of the Danish island of Bornholm. The following day, the Swedish Maritime Administration announced it also detected two gas leaks on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline in a nearby area. Russia is widely believed to be behind the recent attacks on the Nord Stream pipeline systems, which are both operated by the Russian gas giant Gazprom.  Reading on will require a subscription.

A Chinese court sentenced a former top security official to life in prison, completing a crackdown on the “political clique” he led just weeks before a crucial Communist Party reshuffle.  Former Vice Public Security Minister Sun Lijun, 53, was given a suspended death sentence with no possibility of parole by a court in Changchun city, Jilin province, state broadcaster China Central Television reported. He was found guilty of taking 646 million yuan ($91 million) of bribes, as well as stock manipulation and illegal gun possession, the report said.  Subscription required to read more. 

Steve Hanke, a professor of Applied Economics at Johns Hopkins University, points to one economic reading that the Fed is missing compared to his forecast for the U.S. economy. In an interview with CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Monday, he argued that a major economic downturn had been made inevitable due to U.S. money supply soaring and stagnating. “We will have a recession because we’ve had 5 months of zero M2 growth, money supply growth, and the Fed isn’t even looking at it,”. “We’re going to have one whopper of a recession in 2023.” M2 is a measure of U.S. money supply, which includes cash, checking and savings deposits, and shares in retail money market mutual funds. In January 2022 the M2 reading has plateaued, but the US supply of money surged throughout the pandemic. Throughout world history, there has never been sustained inflation—inflation above 4% for +2 years—that had not been caused by excessive growth in the supply of money. “We had [that M2 growth] starting with COVID in February of 2020,” . “We had an unprecedented growth in the money supply in the US, and that is why we are having inflation now—and that’s why, by the way, we will continue to have inflation through 2023 going into probably 2024.” In 2021, Hanke’s research predicted that U.S. inflation would be somewhere between 6% and 9% in 2022. In actuality U.S. inflation remained elevated with the CPI increasing 8.5% from a year earlier. Hanke said “Now the model is running at between 6% and 8% for the end of this year on a year-over-year basis, and 5% at the end of 2023 going into 2024.”

There was much relief for investors in U.S.-listed Chinese firms after Beijing and Washington struck a long-pending audit deal, but legal experts and China watchers warn the two sides could still clash over how the accord is interpreted and implemented.  U.S. regulators have for more than a decade demanded access to audit papers of U.S.-listed Chinese companies, but Beijing has been reluctant to let U.S. regulators inspect its accounting firms, citing national security concerns. On Friday, China and the US reached a landmark deal which appeared to give the US everything it wanted: full access to China audit papers with no redactions for any reason; the right to take testimony from audit company staff in China and Hong Kong; and sole discretion to select which companies the US inspects. 

All companies and audit firms selected must comply fully for the PCAOB to conclude China as a jurisdiction is in compliance. "The PCAOB will not cut any corners when implementing this agreement," said Paul Leder, the former director of the SEC's office of international affairs. "It knows that both the SEC and Congress will want assurances that the PCAOB has the same access to information when inspecting a Chinese audit firm as it does for one in the U.S," said Leder, who is now a counsel at law firm Miller & Chevalier.

Even if the deal succeeds, China is likely to steer some companies away from U.S. listings in future, given the ongoing underlying conflict over providing access to sensitive data, said Morrison & Foerster's Ellis.  "We expect that Chinese headquartered companies with sensitive data that have not yet listed will favour listings in Hong Kong even if the PCAOB issue is resolved,"

North American companies snapped up a record number of robots in the 1st 1/2 of 2022 as they struggled to keep factories and warehouses humming in the face of an extremely tight labor market and soaring compensation costs. Companies ordered a record 12,305 machines in Q2 2022 valued at $585 million, +25% units than during the same period in 2021. Combined with a strong Q1, the North American robotics market notched its best 1st 1/2 ever. 

The incentives for companies to pursue a robot-enhanced workforce are obvious in the current tight labor market. With nearly 2 open jobs for every unemployed worker, employers are bidding up wages: Total U.S. labor costs - covering wages and benefits - surged 5.1% Y/Y in Q2 2022, the most since the Labor Department began tracking it in 2001. Yet if robots are designed to make workers more productive, that is not evident so far: Those thick order books come as U.S. productivity fell in the second quarter at its steepest pace on an annualized basis since the government began reporting it in 1948.

The rush to add robots is part of a larger upswing in investment as companies seek to keep up with strong demand, which remains elevated even as the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates to rein in inflation.

As part of a newly announced National Cinema Day, more than 3,000 theaters across the US, including chains like AMC, will offer discounted $3 tickets. On September 3rd, US cinemas will make it more affordable to enjoy that experience again. +3,000 theaters across the US, including chains like AMC, will offer discounted $3 tickets, with all major film studios and +30,000 screens involved, there’s a good chance a theater near you is participating. “After this summer’s record-breaking return to cinemas, we wanted to do something to celebrate moviegoing,” said Cinema Foundation president Jackie Brenneman. “We’re doing it by offering a ‘thank you’ to the moviegoers that made this summer happen, and by offering an extra enticement for those who haven’t made it back yet.”