Mannerisms

The Lenin prizes – formerly the Stalin prizes, but the name was changed at the time of the campaign against the Cult of Personality, soon after Stalin‘s death – are competed for annually by scientists, engineers, artists, inventors. So 62 years ago, started an article on the Soviet scene in electronics weeklies edition of April 12, 1961. The article continues: ...

Teacher shortages are a global phenomenon, according to a report by UNESCO. While the problem is sometimes associated with aging societies which have to compensate for teacher retirements, the world’s still-growing regions on the other hand are due to hire a lot of entirely new teacher positions by 2030. Both scenarios are expected to pose considerable challenges as teaching professionals ...

I had an intriguing lunch invitation the other day from one of the Labour Party’s movers and shakers, Ed confides to his diary. To avoid being spotted, ‘lunch’ consisted of a couple of sandwiches and a bottle of plonk in a secluded corner of Hyde Park. He began by flattering me, saying the Labour party fixers admired the work I ...

21 years ago the semiconductor device manufacturers were highly disenchanted with the EDA industry. At Electronica 2002: Fred Shlapak, CEO of Motorola Semiconductor, said the EDA industry a consortium to sort out its problems because it was incapable of solving its problems on its own. Shlapak said that mask costs – which were rising towards the $2m to $3m level ...

Mexico was the biggest trade partner of the US in 2023 and the biggest source of the country’s imports ahead of China. Trade with Mexico – both imports and exports – totaled close to $800 billion last year as efforts to source closer to home and reduce dependence on China are ongoing in the U.S. and other Western countries. The US ...

21 years ago the tallest elevator in the world was built. Here it is:   The lift  takes passengers up 326 metres (1070 feet) in two minutes. The elevator’s shafts and tunnels were carved from a quartz sandstone column. 154 metres of the lift are embedded into the column, and the remaining 172 metres are set into exposed steel and ...

The Ambanis remain the wealthiest among Asia’s families, thanks to its Reliance Industries conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai, according to Bloomberg. The Ambanis’ are worth more than double the next clan in the ranking of Asia’s richest families, the Hartonos of Indonesia’s Djarum brand. The  2024 ranking now features four Indian families in the top 10, up from just two last ...

Donald Trump’s remarks about encouraging Russia to attack NATO countries which don’t pay their defence dues set the Brussels  chickens clucking in their  coop. Instead of wringing their hands and wondering if the USA will pull out of NATO, they should just stump up. Here’s  the state of play on what each NATO country contributes to the NATO budget as ...

Thanks to Forbes and Statista for this – the eight largest private companies in the US as published by Forbes:

The strangest thing I ever read about the semiconductor industry – and I’ve read some very strange things – is the Wall Street Journal story that OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman is trying to raise $5-7 trillion to build fabs to make AI chips. At $20 billion a pop, that’s 250 to 350 fabs. Will there be so many AI software ...

The appearance of a transformerless transistorised five-Watt amplifier on the Lowther stand was a pleasant surprise. So, 62 years ago, started a report on the international audio festival and fair at the hotel, Russell in London, published in Electronics Weekly on April 12, 1961. The report continues: This amplifier, without any transformers, is a symmetrical push-pool system for use with ...

The AI Chip Game Part 1  recounted how Nvidia’s best customers for accelerators – Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Meta – were building their own chips to undercut Nvidia and get more individually focussed ICs. The AI Chip Game Part 2 looks at Nvidia’s response which is to set up a custom IC unit to help its customers design accelerators. According ...

With EV sales dropping and the fleet buyers turning away from them, I feel the time has come to formulate a credible government line on their future, Ed confides to his diary. Clearly the tech is not ready – but it could be by the end of this decade or early in the next when solid stage batteries giving 1000+ ...

21 years ago there was quite a debate going on about which standards would be adopted for mobile data. At the Intel IDF in Munich in 2002, Intel evp Sean Maloney argued that the WLAN industry must shun proprietary products and stick to using global standards in order to avoid starting a standards war and confusing consumers. “We do not ...

Alphabet had  Q4 revenue growth of 13% –  the second time in a row the company has reached double-digits in year-on-year growth since Q2 2022. Alphabet saw increases in advertising revenue to $65.5 billion, up from $59 billion a year ago. Cloud revenues had a 26% increase from the same time last year. This development is expected to continue in ...

This barrier was built to stop flooding. The 78 moveable linked gates sit beneath the surface when the water levels are normal, allowing the gates to fill with water. When the water level rises, the water is pumped out of the gates and replaced with air, so the gates rise to the surface and form a barrier capable of stopping ...

We’ve been hearing variations of the same story for years: “Facebook is no longer cool”, “people are leaving Facebook behind”, “teenagers are over Facebook” and so on and so forth. And yet, here we are, two days ahead of the platform’s 20th birthday and Facebook is still growing. According to Meta’s latest earnings release, the world’s largest social network ended ...

Thanks to https://www.plus500.com/   for this one – the nine countries with the most top 100 European companies: 1       UK               –             22  2=.  France          –            21  2=    Germany             – ...

Nvidia’s toughest rivals may not be other chip companies but its customers. Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta are all building their own chips for training AI systems. Last year, Google spent $2-3 billion on making a million proprietary AI chips, Amazon spent $200 million on 100,000 AI processors and Microsoft began testing its first AI chip, according  to Pierre Ferragu, ...

62 years ago GEC could come up with quite witty ads of which this is one – published in Electronics Weekly’s edition of April 12 1961: