ByteDance – The crown jewels.

ByteDance is not selling the crown jewels.   While it would appear that ByteDance is making its crown jewels available to all and sundry, a look through the offering reveals that in all likelihood, the critical stuff is being kept in-house. This is exactly the same as Google making the nuts and bolts of its AI available but keeping the...

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USA vs. China – The authoritarian moment.

China shoots itself in the foot.   China is moving to punish Chinese companies that are listed overseas or have large foreign shareholders in a damaging move that will ultimately damage the development of technology in China handing an advantage to the USA. China is expanding its probe of Didi both in terms of severity and in terms of the...

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Autonomous Autos – The heavy hand.

NHTSA takes aim at Tesla. The NHTSA (US vehicle safety authority) has ordered that all crashes that involve vehicles that are equipped with Level 2 and above autonomous driving systems must be reported in what can only be a warning shot across Tesla’s bows. A level 2 autonomous driving system is basically adaptive cruise control with lane-centering capability which is...

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Microsoft – Break with history?

Microsoft tries to break with its relentless history. Microsoft is attempting to break with a new version of Windows that delivers a new look and feel as well Android apps on the desktop but in an unwitting nod to history, the launch was not without problems. For 25 years, Microsoft has followed a good OS with a bad one and...

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Facebook – Saved by the model

The government needs to do better. The dismissal of the two anti-trust cases against Facebook is not the end of the story as the US government lost for no other reason than that it did a very poor job of making its case. In December 2020, the FTC and 46 US states both filed complaints alleging antitrust behaviour to the...

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MWC 2021 Days 0-4 – Missing in action.

All eyes turn to CES 2022. Mobile World Congress (MWC) is in full swing but a dearth of news flow and footfall at the event reveals that MWC is a very pale shadow of its former self meaning that CES 2022 needs to be a big success to breathe life back into the technology conference circuit. The first day of...

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Arm & NVIDIA – The unthinkable pt. VII.

NVIDIA wins major support. NVIDIA got a big boost for its acquisition of Arm with MediaTek, Broadcom & Marvell all publicly supporting the deal which I think greatly reduces the biggest roadblock to the transaction. The biggest problem for anyone contemplating the acquisition of Arm has always been the issue of Arm’s independence. Billions of chips using Arm’s IP in...

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USA vs. China – The unproductive edges.

The first battle is lost but the war has just begun. China is having a very hard time in its struggle to become technologically independent but in the long run, it is in a far stronger position than many give it credit for. Deep down I am pretty sure that China knows that in CMOS semiconductor manufacturing the battle is...

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Tencent & Fintech – Hot collar.

Tencent is the acid test of CCP intent. While Alibaba, Ant Group, Meituan, and so on have all felt the wrath of the regulator (i.e. the CCP), Tencent has so far been left alone and its fate will be a good indicator for what the real motivation of the government is towards big tech and fintech in particular. Pony Ma...

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Arm vs. RISC-V – Heel nipping

RISC-V wins blue-chip backing. In announcing some higher-end RISC-V-based processors and winning support from Intel, SiFive has improved the credibility of RISC-V when it comes to challenging Arm in more than just low-end microprocessors. That being said, RISC-V and its proponents have an odyssey to undertake before it has a hope of challenging the scale and breadth of the semiconductor...

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