Month: January 2018

OurCrowd Launches $100M Cognitiv Fund

ourcrowd
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The Jerusalem based crowdfunding platform, OurCrowd, announced the launch of Cognitiv, a specialized $100 million global fund focused on early-stage companies that leverage AI, deep-learning, IoT, robotics and digital manufacturing. Cognitiv will give investors access to approximately 20 companies, with initial investments in EquityX, KolGene and FreshKeep.

Cognitiv is a direct result of the success of OurCrowd First, the first fund entry by OurCrowd, raising approximately $12 million, closing in May 2016. Its newest General Partner, Avi Reichental is the former President and Chief Executive Officer of 3D Systems, (NYSE:DDD). He partnered with OurCrowd First’s Eduardo Shoval and Yori Nelken.

“AI is poised to disrupt and automate every sector in business,” said Reichental. “Having built successful businesses ourselves, we understand that what looked impossible just yesterday, is fast becoming tomorrow’s reality.” Jon Medved, OurCrowd Founder & CEO said: “This growth from $12 million under management to a proposed new $100 million fund is reflective of the rapid and dramatic growth of the fund management business within the OurCrowd platform.”

Cognitiv Ventures will invest in early-stage cognitive AI companies with strong teams, disruptive business models and technologies that have a real use case for a big market. Cognitiv is part of OurCrowd, the leading global equity crowdfunding platform for accredited investors, and the third fund offering of OurCrowd First (OCF), one of Israel’s leading seed stage funds. For two years in a row, OCF has been recognized as Israel’s most active seed fund by IVC Research.

OurCrowd provides post-investment support to its portfolio companies, assigns industry experts as mentors, and takes board seats. The OurCrowd community consists of almost 20,000 accredited investors from over 112 countries. OurCrowd has raised over $500M and invested in 130 portfolio companies and funds.

More information: www.ourcrowd.com

Innoviz Launched a Solid-State Automotive LiDAR Solution

InnovizPro
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Innoviz Technologies from Kfar Saba, Israel, announced the commercial launch of InnovizPro, a stand-alone, solid-state, MEMS-based scanning LiDAR solution. InnovizPro provides long detection range of up to 150 meters. It is probably the only LiDAR currently available that delivers on all of the automotive industry’s needs in a compact form factor and mass market pricing. The company said that the availability of InnovizPro opens the door for additional markets, such as industrial automation, security and surveillance, logistics and others.

Founded in early 2016 and backed by US$82 million in funding, Innoviz is one of the first LiDAR providers to deliver a complete product to market. With more than 110 employees worldwide, Innoviz has signed strategic partnerships to manufacture as well as integrate its LiDAR into the autonomous driving systems of market leaders and Tier-1 suppliers including Aptiv (Delphi Automotive) and Magna International.

Next Generation to be available in 2019

“InnovizPro provides immediate accessibility to our advanced LiDAR technology and marks a giant leap forward for the entire autonomous vehicle market,” said Omer Keilaf, CEO & Co-Founder of Innoviz. “We are addressing a major need for high-resolution scanning technology at lower cost, with no minimum order required.” These days the company continue to improve its solution, and fevelops the future InnovizOne, the company’s built-in, automotive grade LiDAR for levels 3 – 5 autonomous driving. Samples of InnovizOne will be available in 2019.

Production Agreement with Jabil

In December 2016, Innoviz publicly announced its first partnership with the leading Tier 1 automotive supplier, Magna International Inc, enabling Magna and Innoviz to jointly collaborate on various OEM programs. In May 2017, Innoviz announced a partnership with manufacturing company Jabil Optics to mass produce InnovizPro. In August 2017, Innoviz signed a commercial partnership agreement with Delphi, a leader in autonomous driving software and sensors, to integrate its LiDAR into Delphi’s systems and create an industry-leading standard for LiDAR integration into autonomous driving systems.

More information: https://innoviz.tech

Nova Launched a Machine Learning Software for Metrology Modelling

NOVA MEASUREMENTS
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Nova (Nasdaq: NVMI), the provider of metrology solutions for process control in the semiconductor manufacturing, today launched its Artificial Intelligent software NOVAFit™. The new engine enhances traditional modelling capabilities with advanced machine learning algorithms. The company said that the new software improves metrology capabilities and accelerates time to solution in complex 3D and High Aspect Ratio devices.

“NOVAFit utilizes fleet-wide information to provide adaptive advanced metrology solutions based on continuous training. The new suite of software will complement all of Nova’s fleet and will work in conjunction with Nova’s advanced modelling engine -NovaMARS.”

The new solution embeds machine learning and big data architecture into optical modelling. The platform was designed to interface with other process control tools. With this new supplement, Nova’s Fleet Management is now connecting all of Nova’s metrology fleet into a unified big data cluster. It applies smart algorithms to improve the measurements’ accuracy and process feedback across multiple fabrication steps. “Our new modelling software engine is significantly enhancing the way customers utilize metrology process control schemes,” said Dr. Udi Cohen, Nova’s Dimensional Metrology Division Head.

“Through the development of this solution, we utilize our process insights knowledge, big data analytics and the most advanced industry grade machine learning capabilities. Combined with NovaMARS modelling software, we can provide our customers with better, faster, more accurate and robust measurements for process monitoring and yield improvement, while reducing overall metrology complexity.”

On December 2017, Nova from Rehovot, Israel, have launched two new optical metrology solutions, the Nova i550 integrated metrology and Nova T600MMSR stand-alone metrology, designed to the production lines of advanced Memory and Logic circuits. The i550 integrated is using newly designed optical metrology head to enable better measurements of complex 3D devices. It has been qualified with major process equipment vendors on 3D and thin film applications at leading Integrated Circuit (IC) manufacturers.

The new T600MMSR (Multi-Measurement Spectral Reflectometry) enhances Nova’s stand-alone metrology performance by adding unique channels of information to its newly designed optical unit. It has been qualified by multiple leading IC manufacturers and is being deployed in their advanced R&D and production lines.

More information: www.novameasuring.com

Mellanox closes Silicon Photonics Design in the US

Mellanox HQ
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One day following a public letter of the activist fund Starboard Value to Mellanx’es board and the CEO Eyal Waldman about the company’s “poor performance”, Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. (NASDAQ: MLNX),  announced that it discontinues its 1550nm silicon photonics development activities in the US, effective immediately. It is not yet clear what is the connection between the two events, but it raises questions.

“We began our review of the silicon photonics business in May of 2017, but as the business did not become accretive as we had hoped, we decided to discontinue our 1550nm Silicon Photonics development activities,” said Eyal Waldman, president and CEO of Mellanox Technologies. The discontinuation will save $26 million to $28 million in operating expense. The action will bring a reduction in force of about 100 people in the US, and an estimated aggregate charge of $21 million to $24 million.

End of a $82 Million Acquisition

The development center have joined Mellanox in June 2013, following the acquisition of Kotura from SUNNYVALE, CA, for approximately $82 million in cash. Kotura developed advanced silicon photonics optical interconnect technology for high-speed networking applications. With over 120 granted or pending patents in CMOS photonics and packaging design, Kotura has made a number of ground breaking innovations in optical interconnects by integrating multiple high speed active and passive optical functions onto a silicon chip. Mellanox said this week that it intends to retain this intellectual property.

Tough Choices: Eyal Waldman, President and CEO of Mellanox Technologies
Tough Choices: Eyal Waldman, President and CEO of Mellanox Technologies

Mellanox Technologies from Yokneam, Israel, supplies of end-to-end connectivity solutions for servers and storage that optimize data center performance, Including InfiniBand Solutions for high performance computer and Gigabit Ethernet cards. Today, the company is facing major challenge, following the November 2017 acquisition of 10.7% of its shares by Starboard Value from New York.

An open Warning Letter

Earlier this week, Peter Feld, Managing Member at Starboard Value LP, sent an open letter to Waldman and the board of directors of Mellanox, complaining that “Mellanox has been one of the worst performing semiconductor companies for an extended period of time. The Company dramatically underperformed the peer group and the broader semiconductor industry over the past 1, 3, and 5 years.”

In the end of the letter, Feld writes: “Starboard has a long and successful history of working with companies in the semiconductor industry to drive significant value creation for the benefit of all shareholders. We believe there is a tremendous opportunity at Mellanox, but it will require substantial change.” This is not a new strategy: many times in the past, Starboard tried the take over the board and re-shuffle companies after it had quietly acquired approximately 10% of their common shares.

History of Power Struggles

During the first half of 2012, for example, Starboard quietly collected common stocks of DSPG and when it had fetched approximately 9% of the stocks, it demanded control over the board in order to redirect the company to new policy: stopping R&D investments in new products, cutting engineering overhead and focus on sales of current products. This is the same strategy Starboard implemented when it took over MIPS (that was sold to Imagination) and Zoran (that was sold to CSR). Did the discontinuation of the Amrican Silicon Photonics business is a quiet answer to Starboard? The answer lay on the next moves of the fund and of Mellanox itself.

Autotalks and STMicroelectronics to Demonstrate Market-Ready V2X Solution

ST V2X
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Autotalks from Israel, and STMicroelectronics, will show their DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communication) -based Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communications technology during CES 2018 in Las Vegas. This is a product of a multi-year collaboration and is the world’s first mass-market-ready 2nd-generation DSRC-based V2X solution. Featuring ST’s Telemaco3 telematics platform and Autotalks’ CRATON2 chipset. The demonstration will show how their technology can be used to avoid collisions, describe road conditions, and indicate distance to important infrastructure, such as EV charging stations. The DSRC-based technology today exceeds all existing US Department of Transportation (USDOT) specifications.

“DSRC is ready for mass deployment with the ultimate goal of maximizing safety and mobility for both human-driven and autonomous vehicles,” said Hagai Zyss, CEO of Autotalks. “Our demonstration with ST is further evidence of the strong V2X ecosystem Autotalks has established.” Fabio Marchió, General Manager, Microcontrollers and Infotainment Division, STMicroelectronics said that the cooperation with Autotalks, “is a strong component in delivering on ST’s Smart Driving mission. We are assuring the seamless integration of the CRATON2-based V2X module with ST’s technologies for connected cars, including automotive secure processors, GNSS receivers, and sensors.“

Founded in 2008, Autotalks is a V2X chipset market pioneer. Its chipsets provide secure V2X communication solution architected for autonomous vehicles. Autotalks’ technology, to be mass-deployed by 2019, complements the information coming from other sensors, specifically in non-line-of-sight scenarios, rough weather or poor lighting conditions. The chipsets exceed all requirements mandated by the USDOT’s V2V notice of specified rulemaking (NPRM).

More information: www.auto-talks.com

Beyond DSPs: CEVA Unveiled a Deep Learning Processor

CEVA AI Processor
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CEVA, Inc. (NASDAQ: CEVA) from Herzliya, Israel, unveiled last week it new NeuPro™, a n Artificial Intelligence (AI) processor family for deep learning inference at the edge. The NeuPro family of processors is designed for smart and connected edge devices.

NeuPro builds on CEVA’s experience in deep neural networks for computer vision applications. The company’s earlier CEVA-XM4 and CEVA-XM6 vision platforms along with the CDNN neural network software framework were deployed in dozen consumer, surveillance and ADAS products.

This new family offers a step-up in performance, ranging from 2 Tera Ops Per Second (TOPS) for the entry-level processor to 12.5 TOPS for the most advanced configuration. The NeuPro processor line extends the use of AI beyond machine vision to new edge-based applications including natural language processing, real-time translation, authentication, workflow management, and many other learning-based applications.

Ilan Yona, vice president and general manager of the Vision Business Unit at CEVA, said: “It is clear that AI applications are trending toward processing at the edge, rather than relying on services from the cloud. The computational power required along with the low power constraints for edge processing, calls for specialized processors rather than using CPUs, GPUs or DSPs. We designed the NeuPro processors to reduce the high barriers-to-entry into the AI space in terms of both architecture and software.”

The NeuPro architecture is composed of a combination of hardware-based and software-based engines coupled for a complete, scalable and expandable AI solution. Optimizations for power, performance, and area (PPA) are achieved using a precise mix of hardware, software and configurable performance options for each application tier.

The NeuPro family comprises four AI processors offering different levels of parallel processing:

  • NP500 is the smallest processor, including 512 MAC units and targeting IoT, wearables and cameras
  • NP1000 includes 1024 MAC units and targets mid-range smartphones, ADAS, industrial applications and AR/VR headsets
  • NP2000 includes 2048 MAC units and targets high-end smartphones, surveillance, robots and drones
  • NP4000 includes 4096 MAC units for high-performance edge processing in enterprise surveillance and autonomous driving

Each processor consists of the NeuPro engine and the NeuPro VPU. The NeuPro engine includes the hardwired implementation of neural network layers among which are convolutional, fully-connected, pooling, and activation. The NeuPro VPU is a cost-efficient programmable vector DSP, which handles the CDNN software and provides software-based support for new advances in AI workloads. NeuPro supports both 8-bit and 16-bit neural networks, with an optimized decision made in real time in order to deliver the best tradeoff between precision and performance. The MAC units achieve better than 90% utilization when running, ensuring highly optimized neural network performance. The overall processor design reduces DDR bandwidth substantially, improving power consumption levels for any AI application.

The NeuPro family, coupled with CDNN, CEVA’s award winning neural network software framework, provides the ultimate deep learning solution for developers to easily and efficiently generate and port their proprietary neural networks to the processor. CDNN supports the full gamut of layer types and network topologies, enabling fastest time-to-market.

In conjunction with the NeuPro processor line, CEVA will also offer the NeuPro hardware engine as a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) accelerator. When combined with the CEVA-XM4 or CEVA-XM6 vision platforms, this provides a flexible option for customers seeking a single unified platform for imaging, computer vision and neural network workloads.

Availability
NeuPro will be available for licensing to select customers in the second quarter of 2018 and for general licensing in the third quarter of 2018.

For more information on the NeuPro family of processors, visit: https://www.ceva-dsp.com/product/ceva-neupro/.

 Moshe Gavrielov to step down as CEO of Xilinx

xilinx Moshe Gavrielov
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The long time chief executive officer and president of Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX), Moshe Gavrielov (photo above), has informed the company’s board of directors that he is retiring from the company and the board, effective January 28, 2018.  Gavrielov’s decision will bring to a close a remarkable career of 40 years in semiconductor and software related companies.  The board has elected Victor Peng, the company’s current COO, to succeed him as CEO.

“Xilinx invented the world’s most successful programmable logic category in 1985 and has maintained its leadership ever since,” said Gavrielov. “I am delighted to have the opportunity to hand over the reins at Xilinx to my long-time colleague, Victor Peng.  I am confident in the future success of Xilinx as he embodies all the qualities of a great leader: integrity, intelligence, and enthusiasm.”

Moshe Gavrielov, 63, joined Xilinx in 2008 to lead the turnaround of the company and to define a new vision for its Programmable Logic Technology. Before Xilinx, he served as Vice president of Cadence Design Systems, following the 2005 acquisition of the Israeli verification startup Verisity. Gavrielov has served as the President and CEO of Verisity, which is still a cornerstone in Cadence’s design center in Israel.

Xilinx incoming CEO Victor Peng
Xilinx incoming CEO Victor Peng

Since joining the company in 2008, Peng has spearheaded industry-leading strategy and technical shifts across the company’s portfolio of products and services, resulting in three consecutive generations of core product. Most recently, he served as Chief Operating Officer and was appointed as a member of the board of directors in October 2017.

Before joining Xilinx, Peng served as corporate vice president of the graphics products group (GPG) silicon engineering at AMD. Peng earned a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a master’s in electrical engineering from Cornell University. “I’m honored to have been chosen to lead Xilinx at such a dynamic time in our industry,” said Peng. “The world of technology is changing rapidly, and I plan to architect Xilinx to take advantage of where I see the greatest opportunities for transformational growth.”