For those written in the last week, our most read stories on the site cover Renesas abandoning plans to enter the SiC market, Dyson launching Pencilback Fluffycones, Nvidia’s 800Vdc data centres, a security-enhanced microcontroller based on CHERI, and Foxconn bidding for UTAC…
Let’s take them in reverse order, as always, according to Google Analytics…
5. Renesas abandons SiC plan
Renesas has abandoned plans to enter the SiC market. It was due to begin production this year. The move may have been precipitated by the expected bankruptcy of Wolfspeed which was to have been Renesas’ supplier of SiC wafers. In 2023, Renesas paid Wolfspeed an upfront sum of $2 billion to secure ten years’ supply of SiC wafers and it is possible that Renesas will not be able to get it back.
4. Dyson launches Pencilback Fluffycones
Sir James Dyson has added a number of new products to his company’s portfolio including an exceptionally slender and powerful vacuum cleaner called Pencilback Fluffycones. On Monday, Sir James unveiled the industry’s slimmest cordless vacuum cleaner, which has a body handle diameter of 38mm and weighs 1.8kg. “The new head can rotate 360 degrees, so even long hair can be cleaned without tangling,” said Dyson, “there is no longer a need to cut or remove hair tangled in the brush by hand.”
3. Nvidia recruits TI for 800Vdc data centre
Texas Instruments has joined the companies working with Nvidia on 800Vdc data centres. 800Vdc power-distribution architecture will provide the power density and conversion efficiency that future AI processors require, while minimizing the growth of the power supply’s size, weight and complexity,” said TI. Nvidia’s proposal is to convert 13.8kVac grid power directly to 800Vdc at the data centre perimeter. Compared with conveying power to racks using 415Vac, 800Vdc will enable 85% more power to be carried through the same size distribution conductors.
2. £2.5m towards UK’s CHERI-secured MCU
UK start-up SCI Semiconductor has raised £2.5m towards developing its security-enhanced microcontroller based on CHERI, a memory securing framework developed by the University of Cambridge and supported by the UK and US governments. The investment was from NPIF II – Mercia Equity Finance, which is managed by Mercia as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II (NPIF II), and also angel investors from the UK and Silicon Valley. With the funding, the company “now plans to set up a base in Sheffield and recruit a further 20 engineers”, it said.
1. Foxconn said to be bidding for Singapore’s UTAC to expand OSAT capability
Foxconn is reported by Reuters to be submitting a bid for the Chinese-owned, Singapore-based semiconductor test and assembly company UTAC. UTAC is owned by Wise Road Capital, a Beijing private equity company. It is reported that UTAC could fetch up to $3 billion. As well as in Singapore, UTAC has test and assembly plants in China, Indonesia and Thailand. Its EBITDA annual earnings are estimated at $300 million.
