Moore's Lobby: Where engineers talk all about circuits
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While Moore’s Law scaling has driven incredible advancements in computing, AI, and smartphones, many applications don’t need or benefit from the most advanced semiconductor nodes. From its inception, Pragmatic Semiconductor’s goal has been to take a…well, pragmatic…approach to develop an ultra low-cost, fast cycle time alternative to traditional silicon processing. Oh, and did we mention that the resulting chips and wafers are also flexible? You will definitely want to check out this Moore’s Lobby conversation between White and our host, Daniel Bogdanoff, as they dive into: -The technology and manufacturing of thin-film silicon -Europe’s largest-ever VC funding for a semiconductor company -The potential advantages of flexible silicon for building a more robust supply chain -White’s top priorities for improving the flexible silicon ecosystem
The chip shortage made us all think about the precarious semiconductor supply chain. In response, the US government has moved to bolster the domestic industry. The CHIPS and Science Act was signed into law in August 2022, but we are still waiting to see its impact on US semiconductor manufacturing. In this podcast, we are joined by three industry insiders: Rich Simoncic, EVP of Microchip Technology. Russ Garcia, CEO of Menlo Micro. Michael Knight, President & CEO at Endries International. They will give us their perspective on the CHIPS Act and what should be done to improve the supply chain. In this engaging discussion, the group is hosted by our Moore’s Lobby host, Daniel Bogdanoff. Their discussion includes: -The confusing relationship between the CHIPS Act and the current state of the supply chain. -The challenges of getting advanced R&D across the “valley of death.” -Is it enough? -The technologies and nodes that might be overlooked. -What should a CHIPS Act 2 invest in?
During his fascinating career, Jack Kang has had the opportunity to work on iconic, massively successful products like the Microsoft Xbox Kinect and Nintendo Switch. Today, as one of the founding members of SiFive, Kang works alongside several of the creators of the RISC-V ISA to bring new products to market. SiFive is developing products based on the open RISC-V standard to deliver high-performance, low-power density processors for applications from wearables to data centers, edge computing, and aerospace. The highlights of this conversation between Kang and our Moore’s Lobby host, Daniel Bogdanoff, include: -His big career break -The transition from huge companies to a startup -Open-source versus open-standard -The security system that SiFive donated to the RISC-V community
A decade after demonstrating the first entanglement of semiconducting spin quantum bits, or qubits, Oliver Dial and IBM Quantum are developing the ICs, cryogenic systems, error mitigation techniques, and software tools that will identify solutions to problems beyond the scope of classical computers. Recently, the IBM Quantum team announced the Heron 133-qubit and Condor 1,121-qubit quantum processors, and Dial joins us to talk about a subject that he loves. The highlights of this conversation between Dial and our Moore’s Lobby host, Daniel Bogdanoff, include: __ __
Optimizing energy generation and consumption requires accurately measuring currents and voltages. In addition, to maximize overall efficiency, that data must be shared in real-time or near real-time. The highlights of this conversation between Henrik Mannesson of Texas Instruments https://www.ti.com/ and host Daniel Bogdanoff include discussing: -The differences between power management in the home or small factory and power management at the grid. -The evolution from smart metering to energy management. -The importance of accuracy in power measurement and how to achieve it. -The benefits of staying with a single company for many years.
About three decades after the term “metaverse” was coined, Facebook rebranded as Meta as they increased their focus on building virtual and augmented reality platforms. Today, Agustya Mehta helps lead Meta’s development of the next generation of XR products in his role as their Director of System Platforms for Reality Labs Hardware. In this episode of the Moore’s Lobby podcast, Agustya and host Daniel Bogdanoff discuss building tomorrow’s AR/VR systems using today’s technology. Agustya also shared lessons learned along the way from working at several of the world’s leading tech companies including Apple and Microsoft.
Silicon transistors naturally get most of the attention. However, delicate silicon microelectromechanical (MEMs) systems with movements that are often measured in angstroms are making some noise of their own (metaphorically, because you won’t be able to hear those tiny vibrations!). By focusing in parallel on the MEMs device and the silicon processing required to build them, SiTime has been able to improve MEMs resonator performance “close to 100,000” times, says Fari Assaderaghi, EVP of Technology and Engineering at SiTime. Assaderaghi went on to state: * > “Timing is like an unsung hero that is behind the scenes, but its performance actually limits or enables certain performance characteristics that you see at the end systems.” Over his career, Fari learned many important lessons that he shares during this thoughtful interview. One of these is to “always go back to first principles.” He expounds on this by stating, “If you don't understand something, don't paper over it. Keep on digging.” He concludes with the warning, “There is no shortcut, and if the fundamental doesn't support it, eventually it's going to come and get you.” Assaderaghi also learned to focus on your ultimate goal rather than what you think is possible. “If you start with what you want to achieve...you would be surprised that eventually what you thought was not possible, actually it is possible.” Our Moore’s Lobby host, Daniel Bogndanoff, also discusses with Assaderaghi his fascinating personal journey. Over his career, Assaderaghi has had the pleasure of working alongside luminaries like Chenming Hu, the father of Finfets; Robert Dennard, the inventor of single-transistor DRAM; and Lisa Su, CEO of AMD. Other highlights from this interview include: -The unique SiTime culture that Fari credits to the CEO, Rajesh Vashist. -The importance of failure -The tuning of silicon’s mechanical properties, not just electrical That’s a wrap on Season 6 of Moore’s Lobby. We hope you have enjoyed hearing from these amazing guests as much as we have. Please tell us what you think in the comments or share your suggestions and requests for guests and topics for Season 7.
It all began with a love of mathematics. Adil Kidwai loved mathematics. That initially led him to a career focused on analog and RF design. After many years working on RF technology leading efforts in cellular communication, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, Adil had a chance to move into the AI field. When he started digging into AI, Kidwai had an epiphany. “I realized that AI borrowed a lot of concepts from information theory which were developed 50 years ago.” The mathematics of RF communication and artificial intelligence were basically identical: convolutions, matrix multiplication, nonlinear operations, and more. It was during this time that Kidwai met EdgeQ CEO and founder Vinay Ravuri for lunch, and it “just clicked”. Kidwai recalls that they were thinking exactly the same things about the relationships between AI and 5G. So, Kidwai joined EdgeQ, where they have developed an integrated circuit that leverages the customization capabilities of RISC-V to enable and optimize both AI and 5G. They believe that their “software-defined base station-on-a-chip” allows AI to complement 5G in some applications and 5G to complement AI in others. As Kidwai notes, “these two technologies support each other in the world that we are living in.” And, they already have their eye on 6G. In this Moore’s Lobby interview with our host Daniel Bogdanoff, Kidwai shares how different it was when moving from a behemoth like Intel to a startup. “You have to move like 100 mph on day one!…because it’s a question of existence all of a sudden.” Here are a few other highlights from this interview with Kidwai: -Think your master’s thesis was difficult? Wait until you hear what Kidwai had to accomplish at UCLA. -His reflections on spending several years in Munich working on Intel’s acquisition of Infineon’s wireless group. He even has some recommendations for people considering moving abroad. -The surprising changes in the wireless world Kidwai has seen in his decades working in the industry. There is much more, so go listen for yourself! Please tell us what you think in the comments. We would also love to hear your recommendations for the companies and people you would like to hear from in future episodes of Moore’s Lobby.
Imagine 1500 laptops strapped to a 120 foot (36 m) wide sprayer being pulled behind a tractor. That gives you a rough understanding of the compute power inside the John Deere See & SprayTM that targets herbicide to the weeds, not the crops. These might be “the smartest agricultural machines in the world,” says Chris Padwick, Director of Computer Vision and Machine Learning at Blue River Technology, a wholly owned subsidiary of John Deere. Padwick was not looking to return to his agricultural roots, but in a “shields down” moment” he was approached by a startup, Blue River Technology. He recalls being “completely blown away” by what they were doing in computer vision. After initially developing a product for lettuce thinning, Blue River pivoted to the problem of row crop weeding. In the US alone, the agricultural industry uses over 20 million gallons of herbicide annually, almost all of it through broadcast spreading across the entire field. Blue River set to work on changing the paradigm to only spray the weeds. According to Padwick, this “dot matrix printer for weeds” has the potential to “save 15 million gallons of herbicide” and “about a billion dollars.” In this episode of the Moore’s Lobby podcast, Padwick takes us behind the scenes to discuss the challenges of data collection in the fields, image classification, the compute technology that drives these real-time systems, and much more. On this business side, he reflects on the 2017 acquisition by John Deere and how important that was in their development of products at scale that can operate in rugged environments for two decades. * > “I feel like we're going to look back on farming in five or ten years and we're just going to be amazed…Precision spot spraying is going to be the way that people treat their crops going forward because it's going to allow them to save so much more chemical. And the sustainability in the environment is kind of unparalleled. So I really feel we're kind of at that inflection point for agriculture.” So, listen in on this fun interview as Padwick describes: - His graduate research into Big Bang cosmology and background radiation - Why he left engineering as an undergrad—seriously, universities we have to fix this outdated solution to engineering education! - Blue River’s global operations to collect crop and weed images to drive continuous improvement
In this unique episode of the Moore’s Lobby podcast, we get to hear from not only the technologists and executives behind the company but the investor who is helping them make their dreams a reality. As an electrical engineer, Chrissy Meyer had spent years working in product design on large projects at Apple, including the Apple iPod Nano and Touch. She is all too familiar with the outdated methods of hardware collaboration and design reviews—printed schematics, highlighters, and engineers huddled around a conference room table. According to Kyle Dumont, a first-time entrepreneur as Allspice CTO, their goal is centered “around making it easy to build a workflow and collaboration process for electronics designs.” In his earlier career working in hardware at both large and small companies, he also “became pretty frustrated with how difficult it was to collaborate on our electronics designs.” Valentina Ratner, CEO of Allspice, goes on to explain that the industry is “trying to build colonies in Mars, and I don't think we're going to get there with Google Sheets and PDFs and screenshots.” In her current role as a partner at Root Ventures investing in early-seed tech startups, the engineer inside Meyer had a “visceral” reaction when Ratner and Dumont explained their vision to bring Git-style collaboration software to the hardware world. Meyer explains that “there was never a doubt in my mind that this problem that they were describing was very real. Because the truth is I had lived it for 15 years.” Meyer said, “I had to take off my engineering hat for a quick second and say, okay, reign in the excitement. Yes, this is a fantastic product for an engineer. Is this a great investment?...the truth is, there are far fewer electrical engineers than there are software developers.” With the backing of Root Ventures, Ratner and Dumont founded Allspice and quickly got to work. As a first-time entrepreneur and CEO, Ratner admits that she had to learn a lot quickly because “there are just so many unknowns.” Reflecting on some early lessons, Ratner shares some interesting advice for fellow tech entrepreneurs: “It's less about convincing anyone and more about finding the people that already believe in the version of the world that you're trying to build.” Other highlights of this round-table discussion include: -Meyers’ belief that “'there's this common misconception that in order to approach VCs, you need to have a fully polished pitch deck, and you need a financial model and forecasts and projections.” -Insights on one of the favorite features of Allspice: the ability to run digital, asynchronous hardware design reviews -Where Meyer thinks hardware and software companies are going to win in the future
Engineering careers, even very successful ones, don’t always progress in a nice orderly manner. In this episode of Moore’s Lobby, Peter Wawer, Division President of Green Industrial Power at Infineon Technologies, retraces a fascinating technical and business career that is still going strong. As a second-generation electrical engineer, the industry still excites him. Wawer says that electrical engineering is “a fascinating topic” that allows you to “innovate and develop things to the greater good.” In his encouragement to the next generation of engineers, he states that “it's very rewarding tackling the issues and the challenges that we face” in society today. Over the last decade, he has worked in power electronics at Infineon as they have invested and developed wide bandgap technology to serve important industries that are shaping our world: renewable energy, electrification, data centers, and more. In addition to his extensive work on multiple leading-edge technologies, Wawer has been inside just about every corporate transition you can imagine. These have ranged from spinoffs and billion-dollar acquisitions to bankruptcy and government-rejected purchases. When discussing major spinoffs like the creation of Infineon from Siemens, Wawer describes the “mixed” feelings within the company. Some view the larger company “as an advantage” by providing “more critical mass and more diversity.” While others see the benefits of a smaller company “being more focused.” Wawer got started in the nascent silicon PV industry during his graduate studies and early career at Siemens. Then, after a number of years working on embedded Flash, he moved back into the solar industry; a time that he describes as “big fun” with the industry really beginning to take off. In this Moore’s Lobby conversation with host Daniel Bogdanoff, Peter Wawer also discusses: -The history and differences between thin-film and thick-film solar -Why different semiconductor memory technologies—DRAM and Flash—are not fabricated in the same fabs -Unique characteristics of trench and planar silicon carbide MOSFETs -The performance and reliability challenges that impact power electronics beyond just the semiconductors
Matthias Wagner learned early in his career that not everything is like an engineering “marketing video…all so streamlined and perfect.” Sometimes you have to dive into a project with no documentation and no roadmap and “figure it out now.” That fearless, can-do attitude has led him on a circuitous and amazing route into, out of, and now back into the electronics world where he is leading Flux as they try to remake the PCB design flow. While others have previously tried and failed, Wagner recognized that many of these were “too small of dreams to make any meaningful change…you just need to start from scratch.” * > And yeah, that's scary. And it's a lot of work, don't get me wrong, it's very hard. But then what else were you going to do with your time that was worthwhile? One of Wagner’s career pivots was out of the electronics industry and into the music industry. In this fascinating interview, Wagner reflects on that decision and states, “that was a really dumb idea at the time, but I made it work.” And, boy, did he ever! During his foray into the music industry, Wagner’s work sold over 1 billion units across the globe and was honored with platinum and gold records. His song, Axel F by Crazy Frog, has nearly 3.8 billion (yes, billion with a b) views on YouTube. And we haven’t even mentioned his experiences developing energy systems for Burning Man https://github.com/hotelcaliforniabm/arc that then lead to working at Facebook on products with billions of users. You will just have to listen to hear about those. And, after listening to this episode, you might be inspired to “give yourself permission to dream big dreams.” Other highlights from this Moore’s Lobby interview with Matthias Wagner include: -Why hardware engineers are jealous of software developers -The competition between hard core gamers and general users when developing Oculus -What the PCB and electronics industry can learn from developments in the music industry -Learning how to run a business by NOT running a business
I’ll bet that you didn’t know that the original concept for what became the Apple Thunderbolt interface involved optical communication. Well, in this fascinating podcast with Dr. Mader, you will learn that intriguing backstory and much more. Mader also provides a helpful introduction to silicon photonics technology and applications. Importantly, OpenLight’s business model is designed to allow them to become an Arm-like IP provider for silicon photonics. “We’re the first open siliconics platform that has the lasers and amplifiers integrated on the chip,” explains Mader. With the OpenLight Process Design Kit (PDK), customers can integrate InP lasers and amplifiers directly into their silicon IC designs at Tower Semiconductor. While the silicon can be employed to guide, modulate, and detect light, you need the InP to amplify. OpenLight literally brings the silicon and the InP together with molecular bonding. While silicon photonic is already making inroads in a number of important applications, Mader is “excited about the long tail of applications” enabled by OpenLight and their customers. In addition, Mader recounts his rich technology background that includes developing a patent while interning at Apple, being involved in an early Amazon commercial product, directing engineering at a startup that was inquired by Intel, and his family connections to the legendary Fairchild Semiconductor and our podcast’s name inspiration, Gordon Moore. So, listen in for other interesting tidbits from this discussion with Mader, including these technical insights: -A clear description of a silicon photonics system -What makes a quality integrated laser? -How amplitude modulation (AM) and phase modulation (PM) are employed is laser systems
“It’s a magical world.” After several decades in the chip design industry, Stelios Diamantidis might be just as fascinated by the work he gets to do today as when he saw his first computer as a child growing up in Greece. Inspired by the success of computers and AI systems in defeating humans in strategy games like chess and Go, Diamantidis wondered, “what if we were to one day be able to treat chip design as a game, a very complex game?” Armed with that question, Diamantidis and his Synopsys colleagues got to work. Eventually, that led to their DSO.ai (design space optimization using AI) product. As Diamantidis explains in the interview, they started on smaller challenges in the IC design flow and have expanded over the past few years. “I'm extremely excited that this…technology has provided a framework for all of them, no exceptions so far, to actually come up with great solutions.” When discussing IC design optimization, Dimantidis states, “everybody has their own definition of the problem.” CPU designers want to optimize speed, GPU designers are focused on reducing energy consumption, and flash memory designers “are very paranoid about size because they're going to manufacture tens or hundreds of millions of units.” In this Moore’s Lobby interview with host Daniel Bogdanoff, Diamantidis shares his experiences at an early pioneering tech company working with “some of the most remarkable folks I’ve ever met” while solving problems that were “the stuff of science fiction.” He also shares insights from founding two different EDA technology companies of his own. Here are a few other interesting stories and anecdotes from this fascinating interview with Diamantidis: -How some life decisions come down to snow versus palm trees -About how budding computer programmers in Greece used to share their code through a print magazine—our younger audience might find that hard to believe -What Jurassic Park, US President Bill Clinton, and Stelios’ early dreams have in common -It’s not really what you miss, but what you don't know you miss There is much more, so go listen for yourself!
Fern Yoon always enjoyed learning how things work. However, like many, or even most, electrical engineers, she grew up with a very limited understanding of the profession. Even through college, she still had a narrow understanding of what engineers actually do on the job. . After beginning her career with Texas Instruments as a thin film process engineering intern, Fern had the opportunity to go on a job rotation where she could see there were “a lot of different roles that existed that I honestly didn't realize.” This experience opened her eyes to a new world of possibilities and find her true satisfaction in working with customers and being able to take in the big picture. Fern’s excitement comes across as she discusses working as a fab engineer, helping build a ruggedized laptop, and in her current position working on vehicle electrification. * > When I started working in automotive ten-plus years ago, cars had a big emphasis on sustainability, emissions, and of course, reliability. Fast forward ten years, the cars are starting to look like a supercomputer on wheels. In her 15 years at TI, Fern has steadily worked her way up the ranks and learned a lot of valuable lessons about working in teams, collaborating with customers, and charting your career path. In this second episode of All About Circuits’ coverage of women in engineering month, Fern provides interesting insights and anecdotes that you will not want to miss, including: -How vehicle electrification is probably impacting more in our cars than you imagine -Why electrical engineering was “the lesser of four evils” -Her best advice to engineers -Why you shouldn’t be afraid to learn that you don’t like something
Beginning with her humble roots in Delhi, India, Deepali Trehan recounts her story of overcoming the odds to become a leader at one of the most respected technology companies in the world. Encouraged, supported, and even challenged by her family and influential teachers along the way, Trehan’s remarkable journey is an inspiration for everyone from students thinking about engineering to teachers, leaders, and mentors looking to invest their time and energy into others. * > How can I build the mindset of embracing and learning from failures and setbacks and build that resilience? It's never a story of how you became successful. It's always a story of how many times you failed, and what did you learn from those failures to get to where you are today? On the technology side, Trehan provides insights on several of the latest hardware advancements in Intel’s Agilex FPGAs, structured ASICs, AI, and chiplets. She discusses how the latest technologies are increasing performance per watt by 2X over competing technologies as power consumption is becoming as important as execution speed. We are thrilled that this episode is part of All About Circuits’ coverage of women in engineering month. Yet, the advice and encouragement Trehan provides is valuable to everyone. Listen in as she provides insights on: -Pushing the boundaries of your role when needed. -Never allowing anybody to write a job description that could limit you. Go write your own! -“Confidence is not, ‘I know it all.’ Confidence is”...well, you will just have to listen to the episode to find out! Other highlights from this amazing interview with Deepali Treehan include: -Why you're never going to be 100% ready to take on the next role. -How to expect and embrace surprises, even knowing that some will be fun and great, while others will not. -The three sets of questions that help keep her and her team focused on the right things.
Season 6 of Moore's Lobby brings you new conversations with some of the most fascinating leaders in the electronics industry. Join host Daniel Bogdanoff as he dives deep with engineers, inventors, executives, and more about the hottest trends and most interesting technologies that are shaping our future.
Duncan Haldane has always approached problems a little differently. In high school, he scavenged auto parts to build robots. In college, Haldane was mimicking biology to create two Guinness world-record robots: the speedy, slightly disturbing X2-VelociRoACH (video) and the crazy, jumping Salto (video). Now he is leading JITX as it builds a new design flow process to automate circuit board design. * > I think the motivation is, how do you take the best of how we as a species know how to design hardware and apply it to every single design? How do you make the world's most expert knowledge reusable, repeatable, scalable, in the way that software is? They generate designs with code rather than schematics and use AI to help automate the flow and improve rule checking. According to Haldane, JITX software is targeted at senior engineers to make them more productive. The goal is to automate routine tasks like pin assignments, design checks, and even help users’ identify suitable parts that are in stock at distributors. Haldane recounts how they began designing for customers using early versions of their tool and kept improving by “noticing what didn't work and what was really bad.” He added that they are “making a tool for experts,” so it must “meaningfully help them very quickly, or it's not worth anything at all.” Other highlights from this Moore’s Lobby interview of Duncan Haldane include: -Why “robots suck pretty bad as compared to animals” - How simple errors in mass distribution calculations can result in robots that “spin like a maniac” - Discussion of the data challenges that circuit and PCB designers still face - Advice for tech entrepreneurs who are pursuing venture funding
Like most engineers, Michael Armstrong was first inspired by his high school English class…Wait, that can’t be right? Indeed it is! Since then, Armstrong’s career has taken numerous unexpected twists and turns that include pistachios, designing a PhD program on a napkin, and becoming an unintentional Disney Imagineer. Armstrong got involved in electric aviation long before it was made cool by Uber (yes, Uber). During his distinguished career, he has worked with many company names that we would associate with aviation, including NASA and Rolls-Royce. Armstrong has long been asking the questions: “What does the next aircraft of the future really look like? And, how do technologies like electrification change the way you think about what a good aircraft looks like?” And now, he is leading efforts to create high voltage, high power, high-reliability battery systems for electric aircraft propulsion. This includes a current program to complete the first flight certification of a battery that will propel the all-electric Diamond Aircraft eDA40. The technology is amazing, but Armstrong’s stated goal is for “the battery to be the most boring system on the plane.” And that drives his focus on safety and reliability. Drawing from his career working on electric aviation from full systems down to batteries, Armstrong provides interesting insights on battery technology, electric aviation, and even deciding upon an engineering career path. You will not want to miss this fascinating Moore’s Lobby episode as he discusses: -How electric propulsion will allow designers to complete reimagine aircraft -The massively different challenges presented by electric aviation when compared to electric vehicles -Working on multiple NASA X-plane programs, including the flying harmonica -Why after delivering a battery, “in some ways your job has just begun.”
In this Industry Tech Days 2022 keynote panel discussion, we get to hear from three industry leaders: - Michael Knight, President of the Exponential Technology Group and Senior VP of Corporate Business Development at TTI. - Jeff Newell, Senior VP of Products at electronics distributor Mouser Electronics. - Misha Govshteyn, CEO of MacroFab, a contract manufacturing company serving the electronics industry. You don’t thrive in the turmoil of the electronics industry without seeing challenges as opportunities. This is evident throughout this discussion. Misha Govshteyn demonstrated this attitude as he reflected on the last couple of years: * > It's messy, but I got to be honest with you. I love It. We're in wartime mode, and I think we're trying to build a very different model for how to build product and how to do manufacturing. Believe it or not, it's actually very difficult to do without a crisis. Jeff Newell also has a lot of positive things to say about the unique opportunities of our current situation, including: * > If you give the engineers time to really think and create versus having to go to meetings and some of the overhead things associated with working in an office environment, I think we're going to see a lot of cool things come out of that environment…I think the number of new products is going to accelerate as we get through the next few years. If I were an engineer in today's world, I'd be very excited about that. This is a spirited discussion, and everyone from executives to engineers and students can learn something from it. Our Moore’s Lobby host, Daniel Bogdanoff, leads a discussion that includes: - Gray and black market products and their relation to e-waste - Component engineers? What are they and why your company might need them - Why EE hardware engineers might be undervalued in the market - Advice for early career and student engineers
Wei has always been at the cutting edge of hardware and software as Intel transformed from a PC-based hardware company to a world leader in data centers, cloud, mobile, and now AI solutions. He spearheaded compiler development that set world records for performance on parallel servers and supercomputers. How impressive are his accomplishments at Intel? Wei and his teams have received not one, not two, but FIVE of the prestigious Intel Achievement Awards. Perhaps more importantly, Wei always seems to be having fun, even if he might be “stuck in the Matrix.” In this Moore’s Lobby episode, Wei provides his insights on hardware and software co-design, AI reference kits, and advances in CPUs and GPUs. You will enjoy this interview with host Daniel Bogdanoff as they discuss not only AI, but also: - Hardware is an accelerator for software. “It's not the other way around. It's not!” - Why Wei and Intel are encouraging and investing in the AI open-source movement - Wei’s three key pieces of advice for early-stage engineers or students
Starting his engineering education by taking classes at Caltech under Carver Mead, one of “one of the luminaries of computer VLSI design,” Sam Naffziger “really got excited about the VLSI design field” early in his career. That excitement hasn’t waned a bit as he continues to tackle important challenges in low-power circuit and system design. Low-power design techniques like boost and adaptive clocking were brand new in the early 2000s, and not much interest to teams focused almost solely on performance. So, Sam had to sneak some of those low-power features into early designs: * > There was another engineer who had a little tiny little microcontroller for other functions to manage the I/O interfaces, and so I managed to get a backdoor path into that microcontroller and some code space so we could actually sneak in, so that the design leads didn't actually know we had this back door. And the rest, as the saying goes, is history: * > So we got this stuff in there, and it proves so valuable…that suddenly it became an essential element for all future processors. So valuable that it is now used in everything from smartphones to desktop PCs and the latest supercomputers. Naffziger has had such a fascinating career in the integrated circuit world that you will not want to miss a minute of this Moore’s Lobby interview with our host Daniel Bogdanoff. Some of the other great topics in this episode are: -Early developments of in-order and out-of-order computer architectures -Why AMD pays attention to the overclocking community -Is performance per watt more important than raw performance? -Sam’s key role in one of the most famous Caltech pranks of all time!
Zoox is designing cars with autonomy as a primary requirement from the outset. That means no drivers, no steering wheel, and no gas or brake pedals. As their motto highlights, Zoox builds cars for riders, not drivers. In this interesting keynote interview from Industry Tech Days 2022, Ryan McMichael of Zoox and our Moore’s Lobby host, Daniel Bogdanoff, discuss sensor systems for high-altitude balloons and next-generation autonomous vehicles. While Ryan is having a fascinating career in engineering, his original dream was to pursue something entirely..and I mean, entirely…different in college. And even after transitioning to engineering, it was a “happy accident” that led him to specialize in optics. There are many other interesting tidbits in this interview that definitely make it worth a listen, including: -How ADAS sensors now include much more than cameras and lidar these days -Why Zoox is focusing on mobility-as-a-service -The favorite pop culture autonomous vehicle at Zoox
In this keynote interview from Industry Tech Days 2022, we hear from two leaders at electronics industry heavyweight companies—Digi-Key and Molex. Dave Doherty is the President and COO of distributor Digi-Key Electronics while Joe Nelligan is the CEO of Molex, a leading supplier of connectors and interconnect components. Both of these gentlemen started their careers as engineers and still have an enthusiasm for and understanding of the challenges that design engineers face today.
As we think about advancements in the semiconductor world, it is typically focused on nanometer feature sizes and new transistor technologies like FinFETs and RibbonFETs. But, Steven Kosier, CTO of SkyWater points out that: * > At any particular technology node, there are all sorts of other things that silicon can do to improve the world…power management efficiencies…superconducting chips…silicon photonics chips…and microfluidic chips. There are all sorts of things that you can do with the same equipment set and a little ingenuity. In this Moore’s Lobby interview, host Daniel Bogdanoff and Steven Kosier discuss the unique challenges and opportunities available at a pure-play semiconductor fab that focuses on technology co-creation with customers that need to develop and manufacture new technologies. In one of the most interesting sections, Steven explains how chip designers can get access to FREE EDA tools, download FREE IP libraries, and manufacture FREE 130nm silicon ICs in collaboration with Google and eFabless. Did I mention FREE? Here I will echo Steven’s comment: * > There's nothing stopping you from designing a chip and changing the world with it…You can go do it right now. And it's just awesome!” Other highlights from this engaging discussion about semiconductor technology and foundry business include: __ __
Season 5 of Moore's Lobby brings you new conversations with some of the most fascinating leaders in the electronics industry. Join host Daniel Bogdanoff as he geeks out with CTOs, inventors, engineers, and more about the hottest trends and most interesting technologies that are shaping our future.
While he is currently the VP of Engineering at what is probably the largest computing company in the world, Bill Vass was not always convinced a career in computing was a good option: * > My primary major was in geology, actually, because I never thought people would actually pay you just to do computers. I always thought it would be using computers for other things. So, I studied marine biology, geology, and computer science. In this episode of Moore’s Lobby, we get to hear from one of the tech gurus at Amazon Web Services (AWS) on topics that include artificial intelligence; machine learning; portable, ruggedized, high-density storage; quantum computing; and explosions. Yes, explosions! Other fun topics include a discussion of Bill’s view of the Metaverse. I won’t give it all away, but it is definitely more than AR/VR goggles and involves everyone’s favorite spy, 007. After you listen to Bill explain how he graphs out his time on his calendar, you will get some insight into how he has forged such an amazing career. It might even get you to start graphing your own calendar and time usage! And, be sure to listen to the end for a truly fascinating story about how Star Trek influenced the technology we use every day. Other highlights from this fast-paced episode include: __ __
Dipti Vachani fell in love with technology during her high school years when the idea of being able to write code and magically make something do what she wanted amazed her. Her programming skills, typing speed, and…...running ability?...helped her win computer science contests around the nation. This was just the beginning of a remarkable career that is still going strong. After graduating from Texas A&M with a BS in Computer Engineering where she was the only woman in her graduating class, Dipti spent 17 years at Texas Instruments. During her time at TI, she worked on numerous projects including automotive audio systems and low-power digital signal processors. As she worked her way up to a Vice President role, Dipti also led the creation of TI’s Sitara brand of Arm microprocessors. In this podcast, Dipti reflects fondly on that early work: * > “It was fun and no day was the same. You came in and you took technology to solve problems for your customers…and when you figured it out and they were happy, it felt like joy, like you accomplished something.” Now, in her current role at Arm https://www.arm.com/, Dipti is helping bring the automotive and IoT worlds together as they both begin “to look like a network of networks.” With IoT, Arm is looking to transform every industry including industrial, retail, home, cars, and agriculture. While Dipti is active in mentoring younger women in engineering, in this interview she provides important guidance for all engineers about setting boundaries in your career and knowing when it might be time to move on to another position. Other highlights from this lively episode include: -How corporate “frenemies” must come together to grow markets -The important distinction between mentorship and advocacy, particularly as it relates to women in engineering -Why Arm is the place for Vachani as she looks to leave a legacy -The “Junk in the trunk” of automotive compute applications
When your junior high school balsa wood bridge is the envy of MIT professors, it is probably a good bet you will have a distinguished engineering career. Argo AI’s VP of Firmware and Hardware Zach Little knew from a pretty early age that he wanted to work in technology. But not even he could have imagined the diverse set of companies he would work for. Zach already had a fascinating career arc prior to joining Argo AI. And now he is working on advanced hardware and firmware to make fully autonomous driving a reality. In this entertaining interview with Moore’s Lobby’s Daniel Bogdanoff, Zach retraces his career path and talks about the current challenges and opportunities when building AVs in collaboration with Volkswagen and Ford. There are a lot of good tech discussions that you will not want to miss including single-photon lidar detection and the challenges of detecting black cars at long range. Other highlights include: __ __
“I think you're going to see a world where people work side by side with robots,” says Povlsen. Collaborative robots, like those made by Universal Robots, will take care of the “3D” tasks - dull, dirty, or dangerous. This will allow people to “take on more fulfilling tasks” and use their creativity. In this episode, Povlsen discusses the early years of Universal Robots and the ambitious goal to create collaborative robots that would be easy to install and fun to program. * > “They wanted to change that entire paradigm of how to program robots into something that pretty much anyone can do with just minimum training.” Before joining Universal Robots, Povlsen spent some of his early years at Schneider Electric working on embedded IoT devices “where I think we could all see the great potential of connecting devices in general,” but “back then it was a pain in the neck to connect anything.” Povlsen’s father was an electrical engineer whose workshop was filled with interesting equipment and project. This early exposure created his passion for technology; even though his first project as a young boy was less than a success. * > “I thought I could build this new fancy program and I totally failed..But, I thought it was great.” In this lively Moore’s Lobby interview, the charismatic Povlsen also expounds on: __ __
