Author: Techtime

Socionext Deploys CEVA’s Imaging DSP for Milbeaut Image Processors

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Socionext was established in March 2015, when Panasonic and Fujitsu span off their LSI business unit, to create a new, 2,600 employees giant in the fields semiconductor chips for Optical Communication and Image/Video Processing

SOCIONEXT-CEVA

The Japanese Semiconductor newly formed vendor, Socionext Inc., has licensed and deployed the CEVA imaging and vision DSP  to power its latest-generation Milbeaut image processing LSI chips for surveillance, digital SLR, drones, action and other camera-enabled devices. The first Milbeaut image processor integrating the CEVA DSP is the MB86S27 which was announced today and will shortly be in volume production.

“The inclusion of the CEVA imaging and vision DSP in our Milbeaut series of image processors allows our customers to take advantage of its powerful vector processing engine,” said Mitsugu Naito, Corporate Vice President Head of Business Group Ⅲ at Socionext. “The DSP is ideal choice for our imaging processing products.”

CEVA’s imaging and vision DSPs offload performance-intensive tasks from the CPUs and GPUs, and reduce the power consumption of the overall system. The platform includes a vector processor developed specifically to deal with the complexities of such applications and an extensive Application Development Kit (ADK) to enable easy development environment. The CEVA ADK includes an Android Multimedia Framework (AMF) that streamlines software development and integration effort, a set of advanced software development tools and a range of software products and libraries optimized for the DSP.

Socionext is a new enterprise that designs, develops and delivers System-on-Chip products to customers worldwide. The company was established in March 2015, when Panasonic and Fujitsu span off their LSI business unit, to create a new, 2,600 employees giant in the fields semiconductor chips for optical communication systems and image/video processing.

CEVA’s DSP IP portfolio includes comprehensive platforms for multimode 2G/3G/LTE/LTE-A baseband processing in terminals and infrastructure, computer vision and computational photography for any camera-enabled device, audio/voice/speech and ultra-low power always-on/sensing applications for multiple IoT markets. For connectivity, it offers IP for Bluetooth (Smart and Smart Ready), Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n/ac up to 4×4) and serial storage (SATA and SAS). The company sais that one in every three phones sold worldwide is powered by CEVA by customers such as  Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, Lenovo, HTC, LG, Coolpad, ZTE, Micromax and Meizu.

Israeli high-tech hit a record: $3.2B capital raising in 9 months

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“We expect the fourth quarter trend to go up again, and believe 2015 may end with approximately $4.4 billion capital raising by high-tech companies”

Venture Capital raised by Israeli High tech compnies
Venture Capital raised by Israeli High tech compnies

During the third quarter of 2015, about 165 Israeli high tech companies have raised $1.1 billion from venture capitalist funds and investors. The amount is extremely high at 55% above the $703 million attracted by 170 companies in the third quarter of 2014.

In the first three quarters of 2015, a total of 506 Israeli high-tech companies raised a phenomenal $3.2 billion, reaching nearly 95% of the entire 2014’s record capital raising, according to a new research from IVC-KPMG.  Koby Simana, CEO of IVC Research Center’ said that the third quarter of the is traditionally weak. “So we expected to see a slight drop from the previous quarter’s records, yet capital raising is still going exceptionally strong.

“We expect the fourth quarter trend to go up again, and believe 2015 may end with as much as $4.4 billion in total capital raising by high-tech companies.” The average VC-backed deal in the third quarter was $9.1 million, much higher than $4.9 million average VC-backed deals in Q3/2014.

Software’s Mystery

One of the continuing trends the IVC-KPMG Survey points to is the ever-increasing prominence of large deals of $20 million or more, with 20 deals reaching a staggering total of $703 million, making up 64 percent of the total capital raised in the third quarter. Koby Simana: “We are far from Silicon Valley’s $0.5 billion financing rounds, but in general large deals in Israel reflect real, rather than speculative, valuations.”

Life science companies raised a total of $327 million (30% of total capital). Internet companies followed with 26% of total investments, while the software sector fell back to the average 24%, from an exceptionally high 44% in Q2/2015. Ofer Sela, partner at KPMG Somekh Chaikin’s Technology Group, commented: “While 2015 is in the process of becoming a record year, the proportion of investments made in software companies out of the overall VC investments is a reason for concern.

“The unavailability of sufficient private equity for this segment in Israel is one of the main causes for the shortage of Israeli software companies gearing up to get listed on NASDAQ, resulting in a local ‘glass ceiling’ in terms of the size of companies established locally.”

NICE announced a Digital Policing Solution

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The new platform, called NICE Investigate, collects all the digital data from various sources, and organize it in a method that helps law enforcement organizations to complete their investigation

NICE

Police departments everywhere are encountering the need to analyze huge amount of digital information. The exponential growth in digital data from an increasing number of sources, like body camera video and private and public CCTV footage, now presents the challenge of how to effectively process all of this information.

A new digital policing solution from NICE Systems, called NICE Investigate, breaks down information silos and replaces lengthy, manual processes with automated workflows to expedite the entire digital investigation process. NICE Investigate streamlines the collection, organization, and sharing of potential evidence so investigators can make sense of disparate data.
“Investigators today face some tough challenges: collecting and securely sharing potential evidence is surprisingly manual and time-consuming, while analyzing the disparate pieces to recreate the ‘who, what, where, when and why’ of an incident is more complicated than ever,” noted Ed Davis, former Boston Police Commissioner. “A software solution that addresses these issues would be invaluable to any police department.”
“Investigators today spend too much time identifying, collecting, and copying digital evidence from various sources: video from citizens, private and public CCTVs, audio recordings, photos and more, but lack tools to organize and make sense of all these pieces,” said Chris Wooten, Executive Vice President, NICE. “Inefficient processes threaten to delay investigations and prosecution. NICE has leveraged its experience working with thousands of police departments to develop a solution that addresses these issues.”
NICE Investigate gives the investigators four core capabilities:
  • Compatibility with multiple evidence sources: NICE Investigate integrates data from most existing applications and sources, including CAD and RMS systems, body camera video, physical evidence like photos and documents, public and private CCTV video, in-car video, interview recordings, citizen tips, 911 audio recordings, gunshot detection systems, automated license plate readers (ALPRs), social media and more. This enables police departments to collapse information silos, choose best-in-class systems from leading providers, and protect investment in existing systems.​
  • Automated workflow: The solution expedites case building by organizing evidence into a digital case folder, using a powerful correlation engine to suggest potential evidence, and enabling investigators to electronically initiate requests for evidence and evidence processing.
  • Content analytics and visualization: Content analytics examines digital content from connected sources, and visual tools display the information, making important patterns and relationships easier to understand. By uncovering more relevant information and visualizing it in useful ways, crimes that would otherwise go unsolved can be successfully prosecuted.
  • Secure collaboration and sharing: Investigators can easily and securely share evidence electronically, enabling multiple investigators within an agency or across agencies to collaborate on a case while maintaining chain of custody and integrity of the evidence. Investigators no longer waste valuable time copying and transporting digital evidence for prosecutors.

3D Printing to improve medical surgeries

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“Having a 3D printed model comprising the patient’s kidney tumor, main arteries and vessels, provides an accurate picture of what we will see during operations”

A 3D model of kidney before operation
A 3D model of kidney before operation

An interesting cooperation between Stratasys and the University Hospital (CHU) de Bordeaux in France, has demonstrated surprising use of 3D printed models to improve medical operations. Physicians in the hospital use the models during pre-surgery planning of complicated kidney tumor removal, helping to perform precise and successful kidney-sparing surgery and improving patient outcomes.

Obket500 3D printer
Obket500 3D printer

The process utilizes transparent and color 3D printed models produced on Stratasys’ color, multi-material 3D Printer, Objet500 Connex3 , in the Department of Urology and Kidney Transplantation at the University Hospital. According to CHU surgeon Dr Jean-Christophe Bernhard, this is currently the only hospital in France – and one of the first in the world – to deploy Stratasys’ technology for kidney tumor removal cases.

“Having a 3D printed model comprising the patient’s kidney tumor, main arteries and vessels – each in a different color – provides an accurate picture of what we will see during operations,” says Dr Bernhard. “The ability to visualize the specific location of a tumor in relation to these other elements, all in three dimensions, greatly facilitates our task and is not something that is easily achievable from a 2D scan.”

Opportunity for kidney-sparing surgery

According to Dr Bernhard, the clearer view offered by the 3D printed model may increase the ability to perform precise kidney-sparing surgery. The pre-surgery planning aids in identifying and avoiding damage to the delicate nearby arteries and vessels. Sparing the patient’s kidney is important because it reduces the chance of subsequently chronic kidney disease.

“A scan gives us good information, but it’s in 2D. This relies on the surgeon to mentally reconstruct the tumor volume in 3D and estimate its location inside the kidney. The same process has to be done to clearly understand the relations between the tumor, the vessels (arteries and veins) and the collecting system. As you can imagine, this is difficult and time-consuming for the surgeon.

“Having a 3D printed kidney model in your hands that corresponds specifically to that of the patient you’re going to operate offers me a view from a new perspective. The only thing more accurate than that is the patient himself,” he adds.

The CHU de Bordeaux uses three Stratasys PolyJet materials: transparent VeroClear to show the volume mass of the kidney itself, red for the arteries and yellow for the excretory tract. The red and yellow is then mixed on-the-fly – unique to Stratasys multi-material capabilities – to produce the all-important orange color of the tumor.

“The Stratasys transparent material enables us to see the arteries and the cavities that collect urine, so we can see if any of the arteries are touching the tumor. We need to remove the tumor, but not at the expense of the other vital elements that together enable the kidney to do its job. Finding that balance is much easier to achieve thanks to 3D printing.”

Major deal for PV Nano Cell’s conductive ink in PCB Mass Production

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PV Nano Cell will provide its inks to leader in the PCB manufacturing at no charge for the first three months of production under the MOU.  Thereafter, the manufacturer will pay for the inks

The conductive ink of PV Nano Cell. Each particle is 60nm-120nm wide
The conductive ink of PV Nano Cell. Each particle is 60nm-120nm wide

The innovative nano materials startup fro Migdal Ha’emeq (Israel), PV Nano Cell, made an important step towards industrial scale application. Today the company announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with a leading manufacturer of printed circuit boards (PCBs) pursuant to which PV Nano Cell will provide, and the manufacturer will exclusively use, PV Nano Cell’s Sicrys™ portfolio of conductive inks for the mass production of PCBs.

The parties expect that this arrangement will constitute the first commercial mass production of PCBs using a digital conductive inkjet printing process. The MOU anticipates that the printer will be provided by PV Nano Cell at its cost. PV Nano Cell revealed that it discuss with several manufacturers options to purchase such a printer. PV Nano Cell will provide its inks at no charge for the first three months of production under the MOU.  Thereafter, the manufacturer will pay for the ink based upon an agreed upon pricing structure.

“Partnering with an impressive and established leader in PCB manufacturing with a proven track record provides us the foundation we need to continue to expand into this market,” said Dr. Fernando de la Vega, founder and CEO of PV Nano Cell. “Our Sicrys family of conductive inks deliver a unique combination of low cost, high conductivity, long shelf-life and robust printing.”

From PV to PCB

Established in end of 2009, PV Nano Cell has developed a family of customized single crystal nano-metric conductive inks. At the beginning it was designed to use in the solar energy industry, where crystalline silicon cells represent over 80% of the PV (photovoltaics) market. But the cell metallization is a major efficiency and cost limit in solar cell processing.

Metallization is essential for extraction of current from silicon cells, but it detracts from cell active area, has non-zero contact resistance to the cell, and cell breakage during metallization can reach 5%. Industry strives to increase the cell efficiencies to lower the electricity costs and to reduce thickness of silicon wafers to reduce the amount of expensive silicon required to produce cells, but mechanical forces applied to cells by screen-print metallization prevent reduction of wafer thickness.

Todat the company targets new market such as printed circuit boards, antennas, RFID tags, sensors, smart cards, touchscreens and advanced packaging. The PE market, for example, is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 33.8 percent from 2014 to 2020, reaching $40.2 billion by 2020, with more and more innovative applications moving toward commercialization, according to an industry report. Conductive inks are critical to the growth of the PE industry because they enable the use of inkjet printing technologies.

Strategic Collaboration Agreement between Ormat and Toshiba

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Isaac Angel, Chief Executive Officer of Ormat, said the collaboration is a key step to diversify Ormat’s technological base

Ormat's Geothermal plant in Iceleand
Ormat’s Geothermal plant in Iceleand

Ormat Technologies and Toshiba Corporation announced today that the two companies have signed a strategic collaboration agreement (SCA) to develop opportunities in geothermal power generation systems and related equipment.

The parties will explore and develop a more competitive solutions for comprehensive supplies and services to geothermal power plant operations. The first project expected to be implemented under this collaboration is the Menengai geothermal project in Kenya to be constructed and operated by the Ormat – Symbion Power – Civicon Consortium, majority owned by Ormat. The parties have already initiated negotiations on the supply agreement and the plant design is at an advanced stage.

Geothermal power plants generally utilize either a binary system that directly use geothermal steam to turn turbines, or a conventional flash system, that pull high-pressure hot water from the ground into lower-pressure tanks – and use the resulting flashed steam to drive the turbines. In some situations, a combined cycle using both systems can be employed, with the specific technology for each project chosen based on the unique characteristics of the geothermal resource.

The newly formed collaboration will leverage Toshiba’s expertise in flash systems and Ormat’s proven leadership in binary systems, to offer a solution that combines the two technologies.

Yoshihiro Aburatani, President and CEO of Toshiba’s Power Systems Company said, “I am pleased that we have signed the SCA and taken the first step forward in our long-term strategy.” Isaac Angel, Chief Executive Officer of Ormat, said the collaboration is a key step to diversify Ormat’s technological base. “I believe that this collaboration of two market leaders will enhance the value proposition to our clients and accelerate the growth for both Ormat and Toshiba.”

Ormat Technologies has five decades of experience in the geothermal and recovered energy generation (REG). Ormat has 470 employees in the United States and over 600 overseas. It currently owns or has installed to utilities and developers worldwide, totaling approximately 2,000 MW of gross capacity.

The new Server Alliance: Qualcomm, Mellanox and Xilinx

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ARM-based server processor from Qualcomm, Ethernet and InfiniBand interconnect solutions from Mellanox and Xilinx’s offload technology will challenge Intel’s dominance in the storage and servers market

SERVER-ARM

On Thursday, Qualcomm Technologies announced early specs for a new ARM-based data center system on a chip (SoC), expanding beyond mobile chips into server processors for the first time. It’s one of the most advanced server processors, and the company hopes it will be a low power alternative to Intel x86 architecture.

During the last 2 years Qualcomm have secretly developed a server processor based on the ARMv8-A instruction set. This new 24 cores 64 bits processor is planned to be a major rival for Intel processors in ultra large data centers, like those of Facebook, Google and Amazon. During the announcement, Qualcomm also introduced  2 surprising partner in its new initiative: Mellanox Technologies from Israel and Xilinx from the US.

Qualcomm and Mellanox announced a multi-phase technology collaboration that brings Qualcomm’s server technology closer to commercialization. As part of the collaboration, Mellanox will offer Ethernet and InfiniBand interconnect solutions that, in conjunction with Qualcomm’s CPUs, will be optimized for scalable server and storage infrastructures.

Mellanox enjoys a leading position in the 10, 25, 40, 50, and 100 Gigabit per-second Ethernet and InfiniBand interconnect technology/ It provides solutions for the most efficient hyperscale deployments including Web 2.0, cloud, big data, database and storage applications. “We are pleased to work with Qualcomm, as they extend their proven execution and technology leadership in the embedded space, to the server market,” said Eyal Waldman, president and chief executive officer, Mellanox Technologies.

“Qualcomm Technologies’ advanced server technology combined with our industry leading interconnect solutions, creates a world-class platform for next-generation server and storage systems.” Anand Chandrasekher, senior vice president, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Working with Mellanox to combine its extremely high performance interconnect solutions with our leading-edge CPU ensures that we, and our customers, are able to address the most demanding datacenter needs.”

Xilinx role in the new alliance will be to provide its programmable technology (FPGA devices) to offload certain tasks from the main CPU, and help it to boost its overall performance.