Author: Techtime

Frisimos’ Robotic Assembly of Cables

Posted on by Techtime

Frisimos Technologies won the prestigious Innovation Award at Productronica 2023, held in Munich last month, for itss ground-breaking modular, robotic assembly line of communication cables and connectors. At this moment, Frisimos’ fully automatred line consists of 20 distinct modules. When combined together, they form an aparatus seccessfuly assembling the cables and connectors, and test the quaity of each assembled unit. Tal Pechter, CEO and co-founder of Frisimos told Techtime that the automatic assembly line is more efficient and cost-effective than conventional manual assembly.

Pechter stated that a skilled employee can produce 8-9 products per hour, with one of them being faulty. On the other hand, their robotic machines assemble 180 cables per hour, with a 99.5% productivity rate, which means that only one out of every 200 cables is faulty. In addition, within 4-5 years of operation, the automated line is more cost-effective than hiring the cheapest Indian employee, for example.

Human-like agility and sensibility

Frisimos was founded in 2013 by the CEO Tal Pechter, the CTO Hanan Ben Ron, and the late Alex Kornhauser, former GM of Intel Fab in Israel. It currently employs 30 employees. Since its foundation it has raised $10 million. The company has developed a variety of miniature robotic technologies that provide the ability for the assembly lines to function with human-like agility and sensibility. Among these technologies are laser cutting technology, which allows for the removal of the thin shield that protects the wires of M12, M8, USB-C, and Ethernet cables; isolation stripping robot; a miniature robot that removes remains of a partially stripped jacket and performs shielding- braid brushing.

Pechter: “Currently, the assembly of the connectors is done manually, which results in chaos. If you examine a USB-C cable, for instance, you can’t tell which version you bought and how many wires are inside. Except for selected processes, there is no automation in this field, and even automated machines, such as cutting machines, require a human operator. One reason that the global cable industry didn’t develop automated manufacturing processes is that it is an HMLV (High-Mix Low-Volume) market, making it less feasible to invest in automation.”

Frisimos CEO Tal Pechter (left), recieves the Innovation Award at Productronica 2023 in Munich, Germany
Frisimos CEO Tal Pechter (left), recieves the Innovation Award at Productronica 2023 in Munich, Germany

Transforming the Business Model

“We solved the issue by creating a modular solution: separate robots for different tasks. This approach provide us with the flexibility needed to design and build different production lines as per the requirement, modify the line as per the changing needs, incorporate third-party modules, and rapidly adjust the line as per the product’s requirements. This means that the production line can be instantly customized according to the client’s needs. We also provide a quality control test station that meticulously checks every cable against a set of rigorous standards. This process can’t be done manually.”

What is your operation method in production and sales?

“We are doing the development in-house with a skilled staff consisting of machine engineers, software engineers, algorithm and robotics experts and in our owned advanced production workshop. The production and assembly of our modules is currently carried out by Israeli subcontractors. Our initial major sales started in 2021, primarily to large customers such as Phoenix Contact, a company that produces millions of cables annually. Next, we expanded to Italy and Israel and started selling the modules to cable manufacturers. Today, we develop two additional MaaS (Manufacturing as a Service) models: equipment leasing and Pay Per Use.

“It is expected that these models will be available in the market by 2024. They suit manufacturers that are still small and prefer growing together with sales growth. We are currently continuing the development of new modules alongside our ongoing tasks. An average production line consists of 6-14 modules. Six of these are core modules, while the others depend on the cable type and specific requirements. This modular structure provides us with the ability to adjust each module to the client’s needs, standard modifications, or entering new fields, such as optical cabling.”

Could you provide more details about the Productronica award?

“We won in the Cables, Coils & Hybrids category, and it was an exciting event. We were delighted to receive an overwhelmingly positive response about our employees who are currently on active reserve service during our participation in Productronica. The participants expressed their satisfaction with the winning of an Israeli company especially these days. Following Productronica 2023 and winning the award, many doors have been opened, and we are now communicating with dozens of potential customers. I would say that every major global company is currently evaluating or purchasing our technology.”

Translated by P. Ofer

Ceragon Completed the Acquisition of Siklu

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Photo above: Siklu’s mmWaves transciever in London, UK

Ceragon Networks announced that it has completed the previously announced acquisition of Siklu, a provider of multi-Gigabit “wireless fiber” connectivity in urban, for an enterprise value of $13-15 million.  Siklu provides broadband wireless connectivity solutions operating in the millimeter wave bands, that are used by service providers and system integrators to provide 5G Gigabit Wireless Access services.

Ceragon provides high-capacity wireless transport solutions for 5G and 4G networks. Its solutions are deployed by more than 600 service providers, as well as more than 1,600 private network owners, in more than 130 countries. Siklu provides millimeter wave (mmWave) short range transport products operating in the 60, 70/80GHz frequency bands, that features inherent very narrow-beams with over 24Ghz of available spectrum.

Doron Arazi, Ceragon CEO, said that the acquisition is aimed to accelerate Ceragon’s growth strategy, “by expanding our presence with the fastest-growing segments of the market and enhancing our end-to-end solutions to better address the evolving needs of private networks.” Ceragon expects the acquisition will increase its 2024 revenue by approximately $25-$29 million. It will probabely include the Siklu acquisition in its 2024 guidance, to be provided in early 2024.

During the Third Quarter 2023 Ceragon’s Revenueswere $87.3 million, up 10.9% from $78.6 million in Q3 2022. Total sales for 2023 are expected to reach approximately $340 million, compared with $295 million in 2022. The strategic goal of the company is to reach $500 million sales by 2027. Ceragon is traded in NASDAQ at a company value of approximately $160 million.

Si89xx Isolated Amplifier and Delta-Sigma Modulators

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Skyworks Solutions announced the availability of its next-generation Si89xx isolated analog amplifiers, voltage sensors and delta-sigma modulator (DSM) devices to improve charging times for electric vehicles (EVs). Skyworks’ new family, which includes Si8921, Si893x and Si894x, will help to shorten recharge time for EVs. and offers broader industry applications and improvements for solar inverters and wireless charging.

Thsse devices provide accurate isolated current and voltage measurement with very low drift across temperature. Based on robust isolation technology, the new Si89xx family provides flexible voltage, current, output and package options to help developers reduce BOM cost and shrink board space for a wide range of industrial and green-energy applications including electric vehicle (EV) battery management and charging systems, dc-dc converters, and motor, solar and wind turbine inverters.  Early customer interest has been exceptional with hundreds of customers sampled and design wins across top automotive EV and industrial customers.

Si89xx products provide accurate, precise measurement readings of the current and voltage involved in the operation of power control systems, including 75 kV/µs immunity to fast transients and accuracy over temperature. This minimizes loss of power and makes the system more efficient, allowing for charging devices to more swiftly transfer power. This enables charging improvements for the EVs and industrial applications such as wireless infrastructure, data centers and wired communications.

Skyworks’ Si89xx consists of the Si8921 isolated analog amplifiers, the Si893x isolated voltage sensors and the Si8941/6/7 isolated DSM devices. These devices are optimized for voltage or shunt-current sensing and provide typical offset error as low as ±40 µV and ±0.1% gain error. Additionally, offering a typical offset drift as low as ±0.5 µV/˚C and typical gain drift as low as –4 ppm/˚C, allows for exceptional accuracy across temperature. As a result, Si89xx devices can offer one of the industry’s highest signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) – up to 90 dB.

The Si89xx family offers the following options:

  • Current or voltage-optimized devices with single-ended, differential or DSM output
  • ±62.5 mV, ±250 mV or 2.5 V input ranges
  • A stretched wide-body SOIC-8 package to support 5 kVrms isolation and 8 mm creepage/clearance and a compact narrow-body SOIC-8 to support 2.5 kVrms isolation.

             

 

Skyworks is represented and supported in Israel by Elina Electronic Engineering Group.

For more information contact:

silviu@elina.co.il ,  +972-54-7559692

mulu@elina.co.il,  +972-54-2509599

Magen Margalit Appointed as VP Digital at CodeValue

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CodeValue, a prominent technology company traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE:SPDV), is thrilled to announce the appointment of Magen Margalit as CDO (Chief Digital Officer). Magen joins CodeValue, bringing with him nearly two decades of profound experience in the technological landscape.

In his new role, Magen will spearhead initiatives aimed at enhancing organizational capabilities through the strategic integration and intelligent utilization of digital platforms and tools.

Prior to joining CodeValue, Magen served a remarkable 19 years at Bank Hapoalim, where he played pivotal roles in various technological capacities. Notably, he led the modernization and innovation system, overseeing approximately 250 employees and driving the establishment of a cutting-edge cloud-based architecture. Magen also played a key role in shaping the digital transformation landscape within the organization.

Among his achievements at Bank Hapoalim, Magen led a collaborative effort with the Bank of Israel, the board of directors, and the IT division to establish a new computer center. His responsibilities extended to managing procurement agreements, navigating technological crises, and implementing disaster recovery strategies.

Magen holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science with a specialization in bioinformatics from Tel Aviv Academic College and a Master’s degree in Business Administration with a focus on technology and entrepreneurship from Tel Aviv University. Additionally, he has completed directors’ training on behalf of Tel Aviv University.

Tali Shem Tov, CEO of CodeValue, expressed her confidence in Magen’s ability to lead the company’s digital transformation efforts. “Magen was chosen to lead the digital transformation of the company’s customers, ensuring the right solutions are tailored to organizations from a broad perspective. His expertise in implementing modern architecture, coupled with his strategic approach to organizational and business processes, will undoubtedly bring significant business value to CodeValue and its customers.”

In response to his appointment, Magen Margalit shared his excitement about this new chapter, stating, “After almost 20 satisfying years at Bank Hapoalim, I am thrilled to embark on a new path with CodeValue. I express my gratitude to Tali Shem Tov for the trust she places in me. Particularly during these challenging times, organizations require swift adaptability to create new services while ensuring business continuity. I am eager to contribute to these processes and make CodeValue my second home.”

 

Razor Labs secured a $31.2 million Deal

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Razor Labs (TASE: RZR), a leader in the development of advanced technological solutions based on artificial intelligence for industrial equipment, has signed a significant partnership agreement with a leading multinational corporation, primarily operating in the mining sector, with mining sites around the world, especially in Australia, South Africa, and the United States.

The strategic deal includes the implementation of DataMind AI, Razor Labs’ leading product, an advanced artificial intelligence system designed to streamline mining operations, predicting, identifying, and preventing machine failures to reduce unplanned shutdowns and maintenance costs. The contract has been signed for a period of eight years, with an option to extend the service supply and add functional enhancements later on.

The client will purchase licenses for the DataMind AI™ product for five years for 14 mining sites. The total annual license cost is estimated at $3.3 million. The client has committed to purchase hardware equipment for $9.1 million, mainly sensors and associated equipment required to connect the client’s machines to the product and generate the necessary data. The company estimates the expected compensation for implementation services will be about $5.6 million.

Raz Roditi, Founder and CEO: “The signing of this strategic agreement constitutes an unequivocal expression of confidence in the necessity and great value our technology generates for the mining market. After reviewing our product, the client decided to  implement DataMind AI™ extensively at a number of its global mining sites. This agreement lays the foundation and supports our marketing efforts in the mining industry and other potential sectors.”

Michael Zolotov, Founder and CTO: “The product we developed uses the widest variety of sensors on the market to monitor and prevent all failures in industrial machines. Just as a doctor diagnoses diseases using CT, MRI, EKG, blood tests, and more, we understand that using vibrations alone, the most common sensor in the industry today, is not enough.

The system we developed includes over ten different types of sensors and even cameras. The artificial intelligence cross-references all the information and provides the client with a simple bottom line of all the impending failures in the machines months in advance.

The technological challenge that the 8200 unit alumni team here managed to solve is the ability to analyze and integrate such diverse types of data and to perform diagnostics of hundreds of different machine failures.

This deal allows this unique technology to generate an impact on an international scale with the implementation of 8,400 sensors across 14 mining sites. The implementation will not only lead to a tremendous optimization of production processes but also to the prevention of catastrophic failures of machines that also cause injuries to the mining sites’ operational teams.”

Tomer Srulevich, CBO: “The international experience and work with giant global companies over the past two years have allowed us to affirm the substantial need for DataMindAI™’s solution in the mining sector. The deal was woven after deep collaboration and intensive work of the teams at the client’s sites and is based on the results and impact of the technology.”

The global mining market is valued at $2 trillion, with thousands of active mining sites worldwide. While Israel does not have a mining industry, Razor Labs was chosen as the technology supplier for an international company due to the company’s innovative technology that uses the broadest range of sensors in the market to monitor and prevent all malfunctions in industrial machines.

Following the IPO on the stock market for securities in 2021, the company underwent a reorganization. The process allowed the company to bring in team members with extensive business experience to leverage the company’s advanced technological capabilities and transform from a service company to a product company, penetrating new target markets. As a result of this, DataMind AI™ was launched, a leading AI solution that is already implemented at sites in Australia and Africa, with the current deal constituting a significant strategic move highlighting the importance and potential of the company’s innovative product.

NeuReality Launches NR1 AI Inference Solution in Time to Unleash Generative AI Across All Industries

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NeuReality launches its much anticipated, fully-integrated NR1™ AI Inference solution next week at the international SC23 Conference – a long awaited cure for the ailments of big CPU-centric data centers of today that suffer from high inefficiency and expense. Now with 10x performance, 90 cent cost savings on AI operations per dollar, and a line-up of business partners and customers, NeuReality will demonstrate the world’s first affordable, ultra scalable AI-centric servers designed purely for inference; meaning, the daily operation of a trained AI model.

As expensive as it is to run live AI data in the world’s data centers, AI inferencing remains a blind spot in our industry, according to NeuReality Co-founder and CEO Moshe Tanach. “ChatGPT is a new and popular example, of course, but generative AI is its infancy. Today’s businesses are already struggling to run everyday AI applications affordably – from voice recognition systems and recommendation engines to computer vision and risk management,” says Tanach. “Generative AI is on their horizon too, so it’s a compounding problem that requires an entirely new AI-centric design ideal for inferencing. Our customers will benefit immediately from deploying our easy-to-install and easy-to-use solution with established hardware and solution providers.”

Anticipating the need for more affordable, faster, and scalable AI inference goes back to before 2019 when NeuReality was founded. The company focuses on one of the biggest problems in artificial intelligence; that is, making the inference phase both economically sustainable and scalable enough to support consumer and enterprise demand as AI accelerates. But for every $1 spent on training an AI model today, businesses spend about $8 to run those models, according to Tanach. “That astronomical energy and financial cost will only grow as AI software, applications and pipelines ramp up in the years to come on top of larger more sophisticated AI models.”

With the NR1 system, future AI-centric data centers will see 10x performance capability to empower financial, healthcare, government and small businesses helping them to create better customer experiences with more AI inside their products. That in turn can help companies generate more top-line revenue while decreasing bottom-line costs by 90 percent.

“NeuReality’s AI inference system comes at the right time when customers not only desire scalable performance and lower total cost of ownership, but also want open-choice, secure and seamless AI solutions that meet their unique business needs,” says Scott Tease, Vice President, General Manager, Artificial Intelligence and HPC WW at Lenovo.

“NeuReality is bringing highly efficient and easy-to-use AI innovation to the data center. Working together with NeuReality, Lenovo looks forward to extending this transformative AI solution to customer data and delivering rapid AI adoption for all.  As a leader in our Lenovo AI Innovators Program, NeuReality’s technologies will help us to deliver proven cognitive solutions to customers as they embark on their AI journeys,” says Tease.

At SC23 next week, NeuReality will demonstrate its easy-to-deploy software development kit, APIs, and two flavors of hardware technology: the NR1-M™ AI Inference Module and the NR1-S™ AI Inference Appliance. Along with OEM and Deep Learning Accelerator (DLA) providers, each demo addresses specific market sectors and AI applications that showcase the breadth of NeuReality’s technology stack and compatibility with all DLAs. The systems architecture will feature one-of-kind, patented technologies including:

  1. NR1 AI-Hypervisor™ hardware IP: a novel hardware sequencer that offloads data movement and processing from the CPU, an architectural cornerstone for heterogenous compute semiconductor device;
  2. NR1 AI-over-Fabric™ network engine: an embedded NIC (Network Interface Controller) with offload capabilities for an optimized network protocol dedicated for inference. The AIoF™ (AI-over-Fabric) protocol optimizes networking between AI clients and servers as well as between connected servers forming a large language model (LLM) cluster or other large AI pipelines;
  3. NR1 NAPU™ (Network Addressable Processing Unit): a network-attached heterogenous chip for complete AI-pipeline offloading, leveraging Arm cores to host Linux-based server applications with native Kubernetes for cloud and data center orchestration.

“The next era of AI relies on broad deployment of ML inference in order to unlock the power of LLMs and other maturing models in new and existing applications, ” says Mohamed Awad, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Infrastructure Line of Business, Arm. “Arm Neoverse delivers a versatile and flexible technology platform to enable innovative custom silicon such as NeuReality’s NR1™ NAPU, which brings to market a powerful and efficient form of specialized processing for the AI-centric data center.”

NeuReality is shipping by the end of 2023 with an established value chain of software partners, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), semiconductor deep learning accelerators (DLA) suppliers, cloud service providers, and enterprise IT solution companies such as Arm, AMD, CBTS, Cirrascale, IBM, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Supermicro, and more. As a result, financial services, healthcare, government and smaller businesses can expect to access easy-to-deploy and easy-to-use AI inference solutions from NeuReality with profitable performance.

“We are thrilled to be working with NeuReality to deliver inference-as-a-service in banking, insurance and investment services,” says PJ Go, CEO, Cirrascale Cloud Services. “As a specialized cloud and managed services provider deploying the latest training and inference compute with high-speed storage at scale, we focus on helping customers choose the right platform and performance criteria for their cloud service needs. Working with NeuReality to help solve for inference – arguably the biggest issue facing AI companies today – will undoubtedly unlock new experiences and revenue streams for our customers.”

Tanach adds: “Along with our partners, we have re-imagined inference and, in the process, have set the standard for the future of AI which is more cost effective, carbon-conscious and performance-driven. The NAPU is the Swiss army knife of AI-inference servers – easily integrated into any existing system architecture and with any DLA. So, no one needs to wait two or three years for someone to invent the ideal AI inference chip. We already have it.”

“LiDAR market will be a ‘Winner takes Most'”

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Photo above: Omer Keilaf, Innoviz Co-Founder and CEO

The Tier-1 direct supplier of high-performance, automotive grade LiDAR sensors and perception software,  Innoviz Technologies, announced that its Revenues in Q3 2023 were $3.5 million, up 138% compared to revenues of $1.5 million in Q2 2023 and up 297% compared to revenues of $0.9 million in Q3 2022. The increase in revenues was driven by strong growth in InnovizTwo unit sales, which increased 102% sequentially.

Two major programs have moved to high gear during the quarter: BMW began shipping production units of its InnovizOne LiDAR sensor components to its first generation program. “We worked closely with the teams at Magna and BMW to complete testing and lock the final version of the software that will be installed on BMW 7 vehicles in the coming weeks,” said Omer Keilaf, Innoviz Co-Founder and CEO. “While the 7 Series was always planned to be our initial flagship launch for the InnovizOne, our technology was certified on several models and variants within the BMW Group, and our efforts are now shifting towards integration with additional models.”

Autonomous Shuttle with 6 LiDAR Sensors

The other development is a progress in a promising shuttle program with a leading automotive supplier, who had decided to change the platform from a four-LiDAR configuration to a six-LiDAR configuration. Keilaf: “We expect this program to be fully driverless (Level 4) electric vehicle capable of carrying over 20 passengers and the ability to operate 24 hours a day. The earliest applications are likely to be people movers in environments like airports, college campuses, private communities, and corporate campuses.

“This opens it up to urban centers and possibly even suburban environments where it could become a lower cost or much more flexible alternative to legacy public transportation models. In the initial stages, the shuttles can complement existing bus and train transportation systems, possibly linking different modes of transportation together or connecting otherwise uneconomical routes. Over time, it’s not hard to imagine the autonomous routes increasingly dislocating the legacy routes as adoption grows.”

They don’t know how much they don’t know

Keilf said that the BMW 7 program is a milestone for Innoviz and for the entire intustry as well: “It sends a strong signal to other OEMs that we can reach SOP (Start of Production) and hit our goals and milestones. It also differentiates us from our competition: There are a number of other LiDAR companies out there claiming to compete with us in automotive LiDAR space. But some don’t have even a single series production award yet. And some have awards but have yet to execute on SOP-related milestones. From our experience, those who haven’t executed on these milestones don’t even know how much they don’t know at this point.

“We already have BMW and Volkswagen Group as customers, and they collectively represent 15% of global automotive production. If we can secure just one or two more major OEMs as customer and we will have a substantial lead, since we believe the LiDAR market will ultimately be a ‘winner takes most’ industry. There are primarily two or three main platforms that everyone is using, either it’s NVIDIA or Mobileye or Qualcomm. We are very familiar with all of these platforms. Some of our work with these platform players is in order to learn about their hardware accelerators, so we can make use of them as best as possible.”