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Intel To Acquire Deep Learning Company Nervana
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Intel is acquiring deep-learning startup Nervana Systems in a deal that could help it make up for lost ground in the increasingly hot area of artificial intelligence.
Founded in 2014, California-based Nervana offers a hosted platform for deep learning that’s optimized “from algorithms down to silicon” to solve machine-learning problems, the startup says.
Businesses can use its Nervana cloud service to build and deploy applications that make use of deep learning, a branch of AI used for tasks like image recognition and uncovering patterns in large amounts of data.
Also of interest to Intel, Nervana is developing a specialty processor, known as an ASIC, that’s custom built for deep learning.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but one estimate put the value above $350 million.
“We will apply Nervana’s software expertise to further optimize the Intel Math Kernel Library and its integration into industry standard frameworks,” Diane Bryant, head of Intel’s Data Center Group, said in a blog post. Nervana’s expertise “will advance Intel’s AI portfolio and enhance the deep-learning performance and TCO of our Intel Xeon and Intel Xeon Phi processors.”
Though Intel also acquired AI firm Saffron late last year, the Nervana acquisition “clearly defines the start of Intel’s AI portfolio,” said Paul Teich, principal analyst with Tirias Research.
“Intel has been chasing high-performance computing very effectively, but their hardware-design teams missed the convolutional neural network transition a few years ago,” Teich said. CNNs are what’s fueling the current surge in artificial intelligence, deep learning and machine learning.
As part of Intel, Nervana will continue to operate out of its San Diego headquarters, cofounder and CEO Naveen Rao said in a blog post.
The startup’s 48-person team will join Intel’s Data Center Group after the deal’s close, which is expected “very soon,” Intel said.
Source- http://www.thegurureview.net/aroundnet-category/intel-to-acquire-deep-learning-company-nervana.html
Will UMC Chip Shipments Drop In The Fall?
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Foundry UMC is expecting its shipments to fall by five percent in the fourth quarter of 2015, as a result of ongoing inventory adjustments within the industry supply chain.
Revenues for the last part of the year will be adversely affected by an about one per cent drop in wafer ASPs and capacity at its plants will slide to 81-83 per cent in the fourth quarter from 89% in the third.
UMC’s had already lowered capacity in the third quarter. At the beginning of the year it was running at 94 percent.
The company’s revenues decreased 7.1 per cent to $1.07 billion in the third quarter, with gross margin slipping below 20 per cent.
UMC net profits were down 62.9 per cent on quarter, as both operating and non-operating income eroded. This is bad news because in the first three quarters of 2015, UMC’s net profits increased 35.8 per cent from a year earlier.
However UMC is continuing to invest in new capital and will spend $1.8 billion.
CEO Po-Wen Yen said that the continuing IC inventory adjustment will dampen fourth quarter wafer shipments, but UMC continues on the path towards long-term growth.
“Throughout 2015, UMC engineers and Fab12A have worked tirelessly to bring several new 28nm product tape-outs into volume production. “UMC is working to bring a timely conversion of new 28nm requirements into production, which will strengthen our business.”
Courtesy-http://www.thegurureview.net/computing-category/will-umc-chip-shipments-drop-in-the-fall.html
Semiconductor Sales Still Down In 2015
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Semiconductor Sales Still Down In 2015 : :: TheGuruReview.net ::
Sales of semiconductors have remained sluggish during 2015 and look set to drop still further in 2016, according to new research from Gartner.
Last quarter, 2.5 percent growth was expected for 2015, but this has been revised down to a one percent drop in the market. 2016 remains predicted to see a 3.3 percent drop.
“We are continuing to see weakness in end-user electronics demand in response to an uncertain economic environment, which is putting a dampener on 2015 spending,” said Takashi Ogawa, research vice president at Gartner. “Next year we are anticipating DRAM manufacturers to respond to oversupply with dramatic reductions in their investment plans.”
The drop likely comes off the back of weak PC sales too, with Gartner last week revealing that, despite the release of Windows 10, sales of devices slumped 7.7 percent in the third quarter.
The future looks brighter, though, and figures for 2017, 2018 and 2019 show significant growth with the losses of 2015 more than recovered as soon as 2017.
A number of key companies, including Intel, have cut spending in the past quarter against a backdrop of slow demand for electronics. This has led in some cases to semiconductor plants significantly shrinking production to avoid a surplus of obsolete chips in the fast evolving industry.
“In the DRAM market, weak end-market conditions combined with new foundries coming on line at Samsung and SK Hynix have created a weaker market than anticipated in our last forecast,” said Ogawa.
“As a result, we anticipate that DRAM manufacturers will move more quickly from investing in new capacity to a maintenance and upgrade existing capacity mode of operation.”
Meanwhile, NAND memory has actually moved to a small predicted growth of 0.1 percent against a 19.4 percent drop predicted last quarter. The rise of NAND thanks to alliances such as the one between SanDisk and HP has led Gartner to predict a 10 percent shift from DRAM to NAND in the next six months or so, while DRAM manufacturers will begin to slow investments around this time next year.
The news comes after reports that SanDisk is looking to consolidate its business by putting itself up for sale to another market player. WD and Micron are said to be likely buyers.
Source-http://www.thegurureview.net/computing-category/semiconductor-sales-still-down-in-2015.html
Is The Chip Market On The Rebound
Don’t let anyone fool you, the chipmarket is still not doing that well and there are a few problems to be sorted out before real money will be made.
FC Tseng, vice chairman for foundry VIS said that handset makers have too much inventory in their warehouses and the much hyped IoT market boom has not yet arrived.
In fact it is looking like 2015 will not be as good as 2014, which was pretty good at least as far as VIS was concerned.
Semiconductor demand for IoT applications will emerge, but no one has really worked out what the key drivers of IoT market growth will be, Tseng said.
Smartphones, devices such as watches, bracelets and glasses are all being identified as the popular applications when it comes to wearables and the Internet of Things.
VIS forecast that the global 2015 semiconductor market will increase 5 per cent in production value to $358 bn, while the foundry sector will grow by a larger 10 per cent on year to about S$50 bn.
VIS chairman and president Leuh Fang warned that the company has seen a low visibility of customer orders for the third quarter of 2015.
VIS reported record revenues and profits for 2014 and has been spending on capital expenditure like a mad thing in 2015.