Renesas expands access of IP solutions including 7nm process TCAM, advanced standard Ethernet TSN IPs

Renesas Electronics announced expanded access to its highly sought portfolio of intellectual property (IP) licenses that allow designers to meet a broad range of customer requirements in a rapidly changing industry. Starting today, customers will have access to IPs such as advanced 7nm (nanometer) SRAM and TCAM, and standard Ethernet time-sensitive networking (TSN) IP. 

Furthermore, Renesas is working on providing a system IP which includes PIM (processing in memory), which attracted attention as an AI accelerator, presented in a conference paper in June 2019. With these IPs, customers can jump start their advanced semiconductor device development projects, such as the development of next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips or ASICs for 5G networks.

The Renesas accelerator is based on the processing-in-memory (PIM) architecture, an increasingly popular approach for AI technology, in which multiply-and-accumulate operations are performed in the memory circuit as data is read out from that memory.

Customers developing custom chips or using FPGA devices for early development can leverage Renesas IP in their subsystem design or speed up software development, respectively, allowing them to focus resources on their speciality areas, speed up the development process, and bring highly competitive products to market. 

Customers who prefer to use existing software assets can take advantage of Renesas IP assets to achieve more efficient system development by reducing the resources required to develop, verify, and evaluate software and boards.

To support customers’ semiconductor development efforts, Renesas has also established a network of partner companies ready to support users' unique needs. This network includes design houses that perform contract semiconductor design and technology partners who will provide an array of software and middleware tools. 

This network will accelerate users' technology innovations and product development efforts by lowering the barriers to entry for semiconductor device and FPGA development. Renesas can also introduce experienced users to model-based design development environments that fully utilize leading-edge IP.

In September 2018, Renesas opened its extensive IP license portfolio, offering access to more than 40 licenses, including CPU cores, timer IP for motor applications, USB cores, and SRAM. In 2019, Renesas received over 100 enquiries and have started supplying IPs to many users. Renesas aims to exceed IP sales annual market growth rate of 10 percent, and will expand the provision of IP and support system while creating new, and expanding old, IP markets.

New Sante Fe whitepaper analyses digital future of immigration

Latest Sante Fe whitepaper explores its vision of the future for immigration and global mobility—a new way of digital immigration control, as designed by Peter Graham, a thought leader on immigration.

It leverages the new digital schemes that governments around the world are introducing. It’s an approach that blends effectiveness with security, and it explores how making digital innovations in immigration can make global travel simpler and easier.

Samsung Electronics delivers 12GB LPDDR4X-based uMCP chips aimed at smartphone users

Samsung Electronics announced Thursday  that it has begun mass producing the industry's first 12-gigabyte (GB) low-power double data rate 4X (LPDDR4X) UFS-based multichip package (uMCP). The announcement was made as part of the company’s annual Samsung Tech Day at its Device Solutions’ America headquarters in San Jose, California.

Samsung is introducing its 12GB uMCP solution just seven months after its launch of a 12GB LPDDRX package based on 16Gb DRAM. By combining four of the 24Gb LPDDR4X chips (featuring the latest 1y-nanometer process technology) and ultra-fast eUFS 3.0 NAND storage into a single package, the new mobile memory is able to break through the current 8GB package limit and provide 10+ GB memory to the broader smartphone market.

As the trend toward larger, higher-resolution smartphone displays continues to grow, more users will benefit from Samsung's uMCP solution when running data-intensive tasks or multitasking. With 1.5 times capacity of the previous 8GB package and a data transfer rate of 4,266 megabits per second (Mbps), the 12GB uMCP can support smooth 4K video recording as well as accommodate AI and machine learning features even for mid-end smartphones.

Samsung plans to rapidly expand the availability of 10+ GB LPDDR DRAM to address the increasing needs of global smartphone makers for higher-capacity memory solutions, while reinforcing its competitive edge in the memory marketplace.

Western Digital updates its data storage offerings for NAS environments

Western Digital introduced Thursday an array of purpose-built storage solutions for small businesses and home offices leveraging NAS environments. The solutions include the initial WD Red SSDs, which enhance performance and caching abilities in a hybrid NAS environment, as well as a 14TB capacity for the WD Red and WD Red Pro HDDs.

With the increase in virtualization, 10GbE (10 Gigabit Ethernet) and higher connectivity speeds are becoming an essential feature set in modern NAS systems. To help minimize a performance bottleneck, SSD speeds are crucial.

To fully support the requirements of these environments, storage device durability, speed and capacity remain heavily in demand. Building on the proven reliability of Western Digital’s WD Red product portfolio, the solutions are built to transform pain points to profits for the end user. When utilized as a caching solution in a NAS system, the WD Red SA500 SSD helps to boost performance while the new higher capacity WD Red and WD Red Pro HDDs offer more storage space in the same NAS device.

Neptune Systems identifies why SAP On-Premise Systems is a better choice in long-run

Medium-sized companies often use different software for different tasks, with isolated solutions at times having their disadvantages. Integrated standard software such as SAP is a better choice in the long run, but companies do not necessarily have to go all-in on the cloud right-away. Established SAP On-Premise Systems, hastily condemned as ‘Legacy Systems’ in the course of ‘S/4HANA in the Cloud’, celebrate their second spring or a second coming if users will.

SAP has become successful due to is globally reaching standard software. However, the challenge for many companies arises when they deviate greatly from this standard over the years, as their on-premise systems are deeply embedded in value-adding business processes and ensures stability and transparency at the expense of complexity. 

In this whitepaper, Neptune Software covers the three reasons why SAP On-Premise systems still have a lot of power left to give -- business processes, ABAP, and Fiori UX. 

Acronis Cyber Cloud 8.0 to support enterprise-level deployments, protect complex infrastructures, sophisticated workloads

Acronis announced on Wednesday rollout of 8.0, a new version of Acronis Cyber Cloud, its cyber protection platform for service providers.

Acronis Cyber Cloud (formerly Acronis Data Cloud) is a platform that enables service providers to deliver cyber protection in an easy, efficient and secure way. 

With one SaaS solution, customers gain access to hybrid cloud backup, disaster recovery, AI-based ransomware protection, file sync and share, and blockchain-based file notarization and e-signature services, managed from a single console.

A few of the newer capabilities include efficient group-management operations, which boost service delivery significantly and further lower administrative overhead; several new disaster recovery service features, which enrich sales capabilities with support for a seamless, simplified customer onboarding and proof of concept (PoC) stage; and enhanced licensing and feature management, for an even easier upsell of new advanced and disaster recovery features.

Airship provides OpenStack and Kubernetes at scale, secures confirmation as top-level OSF project

The OpenStack Foundation Board of Directors announced Wednesday that former pilot project Airship has been confirmed as a top-level Open Infrastructure Project of the OpenStack Foundation (OSF). 

Starting from bare metal, Airship manages the full lifecycle of infrastructure to deliver a production-grade Kubernetes cluster with Helm-deployed artifacts, including OpenStack-Helm. Airship allows operators to manage their infrastructure deployments and lifecycle through the declarative YAML documents that describe an Airship environment. One workflow handles both initial deployments as well as future site updates.

Confirmation by the OSF conveys recognition of a project’s success in meeting the goals of the pilot process and a commitment from the OSF to continue supporting the project. 

When evaluating a pilot project for confirmation, the OSF Board of Directors considers, among other factors, whether the project can demonstrate a strategic focus aligned with that of the OSF and its open infrastructure mission; well-defined governance procedures; a commitment to technical best practices and open collaboration, especially as conveyed by the principles of the Four Opens; or an actively engaged ecosystem of developers and users that demonstrates a growing, healthy and diverse community. 

PayGo secures high availability of SQL server in the AWS cloud with SIOS DataKeeper

SIOS Technology announced Wednesday that PayGo is using SIOS DataKeeper on Amazon Web Services (AWS) utilizing Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) virtual servers with solid-state drive (SSD)-only storage for rapid, automatic failover needed to ensure high availability (HA) for the company’s mission-critical SQL Server applications.

PayGo is an integrated utility payment solution provider that manages the largest energy company prepay programs in the United States. 

PayGo is currently running four production environments in AWS, with another coming online soon, with SQL Server 2017 Standard Edition running on Windows Server 2012 R2, and plans to migrate to Windows Server 2019 after testing is completed.

Granite partners with Nextivity for managed in-building cellular coverage for medium to large enterprises and mobile operators

Granite Telecommunications announced a partnership with Nextivity Inc., makers of the Cel-Fi line of solutions for improving in-building cellular coverage. 

Under the terms of the agreement, Granite’s Network Integration Group will deploy, monitor and manage Cel-Fi solutions for both its own large and medium enterprise clients and on behalf of the leading U.S. mobile operators that have authorized Nextivity’s in-building solutions for use on their networks. 

Granite leverages its nationwide technical field force to deploy solutions across the Cel-Fi product line, such as Cel-Fi QUATRA, a hybrid active distributed antenna system (DAS) that solves in-building cellular coverage issues for the middleprise (i.e., spaces under 500,000 sq. ft.). Granite’s technicians will perform site surveys and installation.

Once Cel-Fi systems have been deployed, engineers in Granite’s 24/7 Network Operations Center (NOC) will use the Cel-Fi WAVE software platform to monitor and manage Cel-Fi systems for reliability and quality of service (QoS). If required, Granite technicians also will perform hardware repairs, upgrades, or replacements.

Bill McDermott takes over as ServiceNow CEO from John Donahoe, who is stepping down to become Nike CEO

ServiceNow announced Tuesday that Bill McDermott will join ServiceNow by year-end 2019 as president and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors. McDermott will succeed John Donahoe, who is stepping down from ServiceNow to become president and CEO of Nike in January 2020. 

To ensure a smooth transition, Donahoe will remain ServiceNow’s CEO through the transition period and will retain his seat on the company’s Board of Directors for the remainder of his current term, ending in June 2020.

McDermott brings to ServiceNow extensive global leadership experience in enterprise software and a proven track record of driving transformative growth and strong shareholder value. McDermott served as CEO of SAP from 2014 until this month and was co-CEO from 2010 to 2014. 

McDermott recently announced his decision to not renew his contract and to step down as CEO, following a 17-year career with the company. He is joining ServiceNow following his transition from that role.

During McDermott’s tenure as co-CEO and CEO, SAP tripled its market value to approximately $140 billion, growing into a global software company with more than 437,000 customers in over 180 countries. 

McDermott led SAP’s successful transition to the cloud and generated substantial increases in total revenue, profit, employee engagement and environmental sustainability. 

Prior to SAP, McDermott held senior executive positions at Siebel Systems, Gartner and Xerox, where he started his career in sales and held a series of increasingly senior leadership roles throughout a 17-year career with that company.

In connection with the announcement, ServiceNow also provided preliminary third quarter 2019 financial results, as well as updated guidance for its full year 2019 financial outlook. As a reminder, the guidance ServiceNow provided on its second quarter earnings call on July 24, 2019, was based on foreign currency exchange (FX) rates as of June 30, 2019. These rates subsequently experienced declines.

The company’s full-year guidance issued Tuesday is based on FX rates as of Sept. 30, 2019. For the third quarter 2019, subscription revenues were $835 million, representing 35 percent year-over-year growth, adjusted for FX. Subscription revenues for the third quarter exceeded the mid-point of ServiceNow’s guidance by $9 million, excluding the impact of foreign exchange.

Subscription billings for the third quarter were $864 million, representing 29 percent year-over-year growth, adjusted for FX and duration. Subscription billings for the third quarter exceeded the mid-point of ServiceNow’s guidance by $10 million, excluding the impacts of FX and duration.

CloudMinds XR-1 5G humanoid robots combines artificial intelligence and human augmentation

CloudMinds Technology will have its XR-1 robot interact with guests at the Sprint exhibit (South Hall #1702) at Mobile World Congress Los Angeles, Oct. 22 to 24. XR-1 is one of the first-ever humanoid robots powered by cloud artificial intelligence, commercial Sprint True Mobile 5G and proprietary vision-controlled grasping technology for service robots that also leverages human operator input for constant learning.

To operate smart robots for people, currently CloudMinds builds and operates an open end-to-end cloud robot system, and offer it as a service to the world. Its architecture connects robots and smart devices over a secure Virtual Backbone Networks (VBNs) to Cloud AI. 

XR-1 service robots can perform tasks as a concierge, receptionist, business guide, elderly care assistant, sales promoter or, staff for VIP services under different scenarios; with task-driven conversations and vision controlled robotic manipulation.

The Human Augmented Robotics Intelligence with Extreme Reality (HARIX) platform is an evolving “cloud brain” capable of operating millions of cloud AI robots performing different tasks simultaneously. Complemented by smart joint technology (SCA), CloudmInds’ cloud AI capabilities include Natural Language Processing (NLP), Computer Vision (CV), navigation, and vision-controlled manipulation that’s bringing a vibrant cloud ecosystem of next generation robotics and smart devices to many industry value chains.

XR-1 is capable of vision-controlled robotic manipulations such as grabbing objects, opening doors, and threading a needle making it perfect as a concierge, receptionist, business guide, or VIP service staff under different scenarios.

Connected by a secure network and powered by a constantly evolving cloud brain (HARIX), XR-1 seamlessly combines artificial intelligence and human augmentation. Supported by multi-modal AI capabilities such as smart vision, smart voice and smart motion, XR-1 can acquire a number of skills, including recognizing a VIP visitor, grabbing a requested object, and opening doors.

Sunwave and Mavenir partner to expand ecosystem for enterprise OpenRAN environments

Mavenir and Sunwave announced Tuesday integration of Mavenir’s virtual RAN architecture with an Open digital interface into Sunwave’s CrossFire product portfolio and that first customer trials are now underway.

The companies will jointly or independently support OpenRAN deployments in the enterprise private LTE market and take end to end responsibility.

Existing Distributed Antenna System (DAS) deployments using the CrossFire platform can now be upgraded to support OpenRAN architectures and have an immediate path to 5G. The combination of Mavenir’s OpenRAN and enterprise communication portfolio together with Sunwave’s enterprise portfolio, provide the industry with a true OpenRAN production-proven platform supporting 4G/5G for enterprise and private LTE.

The evolved RAN architecture, designed with cloud-native virtualization techniques, enables the RAN to flex and adapt based on usage and coverage. This flexibility provides expanded and more convenient network location choices for the baseband processing. 

Therefore, this architecture naturally fits in existing networks’ backhaul infrastructure and is future-proof for evolution towards a fully virtualized and cloud RAN architecture. In addition, it offers a strategic differentiation by enabling the Remote Radio Units (RRUs) to interwork with the Virtualized Baseband Unit (vBBU) over a non-ideal fronthaul (i.e. ethernet), overcoming the traditional constraints of CPRI over fiber.

Conventional RAN platforms have been based on proprietary hardware and rely on long life-cycles in development, deployment, and operation. With each generation of radio interface change, these radios are typically replaced with the newer versions at a significant investment and inconvenience to the CSPs. 

Furthermore, radio infrastructures based on this approach are designed based on the peak capacity without granular power and interference management capabilities. This creates the vendor lock-in and the inability to keep pace with technology and demographic transitions.

New Virtium StorFly industrial SSDs come with I-Temp support, shock/vibration tolerance, integrated data protection

Virtium announced on Tuesday that it has doubled the capacity of its StorFly 2.5-inch line of SATA industrial SSDs. Now with a top-capacity of four terabytes (4TB), the drives are ideal for large file-write applications such as security/surveillance and data logging, as well as demanding file-content uses such as 3D mapping and databases in growing demand in the transportation, IIoT, edge computing, and military/aerospace markets.

The new, double-capacity Virtium StorFly industrial SSDs are among the first 4TB 2.5-inch SATA SSDs on the market. The drives are also among the few of that capacity that also feature industrial temperature (I-Temp) support, high shock/vibration tolerance and integrated data protection. Moreover, the 2.5-inch SSDs are designed around triple-level-cell (TLC) 3D NAND flash that yields higher densities at a lower cost per bit. They use the SATA interface for maximum compatibility, and feature a low operating power of 3.4W.

The new, higher-capacity drives’ 2.5-inch form factor enables them to be deployed in standard storage enclosures/racks and to quickly replace older SSDs with lower capacities and/or that are less tolerant of extreme temperature, shock and vibration. 

As with all StorFly industrial SSDs, these new 4TB drives are supported by a suite of tools providing additional data protection and solid-state storage monitoring. These software modules provide users the ability to optimize, protect, manage and qualify SSDs. Additionally, the new StorFly drives feature an integrated AES-256 encryption engine with on-the-fly encryption to protect data at rest, as well as secure-erase capabilities.

Virtium StorFly SSDs use one of the market’s only NAND manufacturer-endorsed industrial-temperature 3D flash storage. This is in contrast to other, previously introduced industrial-temperature 3D NAND that lack manufacturers’ endorsement, posing the risk of longer-term reliability issues. 

With I-Temp support, the drives are designed to operate reliably in extreme temperatures that are typical across the embedded-systems landscape.