On the Weekly Briefing podcast: Prosthetic vision, a common concept in science-fiction, has long been out of reach in reality – but perhaps for not much longer. Researchers are about to start experiments to see if they can restore vision to the blind using prosthetics based on advanced sensor technology. Our guest is Philip Troyk, head of the Pritzker Institute of Biomedical Science and Engineering at Illinois Tech and the CEO of semiconductor supplier Sigenics.
Oct 08, 2021•39 min•Season 6Ep. 156
This week’s podcast: AI is different from traditional computing, and it is stressing supporting technology in entirely new ways. That goes not only for processors (as one might expect), but also for memory chips. This week, a conversation with Steven Woo of Rambus, on the special challenges of AI.
Oct 01, 2021•40 min•Season 155Ep. 6
This week’s podcast: Some amazing things have been accomplished with AI, but if AI is to become widely adopted, it must be safe and reliable, and there is no framework for demonstrating AI is either. Helen Toner, Director of Strategy at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology, talks about what safe, reliable AI should look like.
Sep 24, 2021•30 min•Season 6Ep. 154
This week’s podcast: We’ll be talking about the IoT, why AI and ML are critical at the edge, not just for applications, but for security. Our guest this week is Chris Catterton; he’s the head of solution engineering at a startup that two weeks ago was called OneTech but as of this week has been renamed Micro.AI.
Sep 17, 2021•38 min•Season 6Ep. 153
This week’s podcast: Facebook is heading for the metaverse, and Nvidia toward the omniverse. These “places” are going to combine the real and the digital in many different ways, but they’ll all depend on display technology. We talk with Jon Peddie and Kathleen Maher from Jon Peddie Research about what a metaverse might be, and what metaverses mean for the electronics industry and, more importantly, for the us as we interface with the world.
Sep 03, 2021•45 min•Season 6Ep. 151
This week’s podcast: After designing the world’s first working microprocessor and then pioneering in artificial intelligence, Federico Faggin has one last great frontier left to explore: human consciousness. A free-wheeling conversation with an industry legend on machine learning, quantum physics, experience, and more.
Aug 27, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Season 7Ep. 150
This week’s podcast: Our guest this week is Hassane El-Khoury, who nine months ago was named president and CEO of Onsemi (formerly ON Semiconductor). We talk about the transformation of the company, and what it’ll take to succeed in the semiconductor market when every IC company is going after the same growth markets.
Aug 20, 2021•32 min•Season 6Ep. 149
This week’s podcast: Tyson Tuttle spent the majority of his career at Silicon Labs, at the C-level for the last 12 years, and now he’s moving on from the company. A discussion with Tuttle about the risk of betting it all on the Internet of things, on where the IoT might be going, about managing a modern company, and more.
Aug 13, 2021•40 min•Season 6Ep. 148
This week’s podcast: You thought the Internet of things was big? Welcome to the Internet of everything. Our guest this week is Qualcomm Technologies VP of engineering John Smee. Qualcomm is one of the companies defining the standards and building the technology of the Internet of everything. We asked Smee for a Big Picture view of what it is and what it could be, and he delivered: the internet, connected cars, smart cities, VR, 5G, edge systems, and so very much more.
Aug 06, 2021•56 min•Season 6Ep. 146
This week’s podcast: Our guest is Intel SVP Sanjay Natarajan. There are only three companies in the world that can make the most advanced ICs possible —TSMC, Samsung, and Intel — and lately, people have been wondering about Intel. Intel just announced a roadmap that will take it to 2025 and (the company says) regain its position as the leading IC manufacturer. We talk with Natarajan about Intel “getting its mojo back.”
Jul 30, 2021•30 min•Season 6Ep. 146
This week’s podcast: The advantages of making power ICs in materials like gallium nitride instead of silicon are rapidly snowballing. We talk with guest Doug Bailey, marketing VP and applications engineering with Power Integrations, about what the evolution from Si to GaN means for engineers and how they design products, and also about some very tangible consequences for consumers.
Jul 23, 2021•29 min•Season 6Ep. 145
This week’s podcast: As the semiconductor sector evolves, we tend to scrutinize the evolutionary steps – the new technologies, the mergers and acquisitions. That elides the big question: what is the industry evolving toward? A discussion with Tirias Research analyst Jim McGregor on where this bus is heading.
Jul 16, 2021•34 min•Season 6Ep. 144
This week’s podcast: A few years back, engineers created the SAM car, a vehicle that enabled quadriplegic former Indy racer Sam Schmidt to drive again. Now they’ve followed with the SAM suit, an exoskeleton that let Schmidt dance with his daughter at her wedding. Sam, the SAM car, and the SAM suit, with Arrow Electronics chief marketing officer Victor Gustaf Gao.
Jul 09, 2021•26 min•Season 6Ep. 143
This week’s podcast: EE Times just published the 2021 edition of the Silicon 100, our latest list of startups that merit everyone’s attention. In this episode we talk Peter Clarke, the impresario behind the Silicon 100, about the latest round of startups and what the list says about where the electronics industry is heading.
Jul 02, 2021•35 min•Season 5Ep. 142
This week’s podcast: An interview with former NSC member Brigadier General (ret.) Robert Spalding, now the CEO of a company that just emerged from stealth mode with a technology that will not only battle-harden modern 5G networks, it’ll help pave the way to the post-smartphone world. The world is courting disaster by making more and more of everyday life reliant on 5G systems that are vulnerable to cyberespionage.
Jun 25, 2021•39 min•Season 6Ep. 141
On this week’s podcast: John Glenn was the third person to do everything he’s most famous for as an astronaut, so why does he have such an outsized place in world history? In this episode we talk with Jeff Shesol, who puts Glenn’s orbiting of the Earth in perspective in his new book Mercury Rising. Shesol reveals for the first time ever that Glenn’s flight was far more perilous than anyone had ever let on before.
Jun 18, 2021•40 min•Season 5Ep. 140
On this week’s podcast: Colonial Pipeline got hacked, which forced the company to shut down the gasoline supply to much of the East Coast for about a week. People are finally beginning to understand how widely vulnerable we all are to cyberattacks. But how vulnerable are we? And what can we do about it? A conversation with cybersecurity expert Damon Small of NCC Group.
Jun 11, 2021•45 min•Season 5Ep. 139
On this week’s podcast: Kristina M. Johnson is an engineer who has had a hand in several innovations in optoelectronics, started companies, run engineering schools, and served in as an Undersecretary in the Energy Department. We talk with her about encouraging young engineers, her experiences in engineering, and about receiving the inaugural IEEE Dresselhaus Medal.
Jun 04, 2021•34 min•Season 5Ep. 138
On this week’s podcast: The adoption of renewable energy sources complicates the process of managing power grids. To compensate, the industry is trying to develop massive storage batteries, but what if we were to tap the batteries in electric vehicles instead? We talk with Infineon’s Ritesh Tyagi about vehicle to grid technology, or V2G.
May 28, 2021•38 min•Season 5Ep. 137
This week’s podcast: Space exploration was once the exclusive province of nation-states. Now space is being commercialized. But what does that mean, exactly? Where are we heading, and how will we get there? In this episode, the new space race — what it means for aerospace, communications, nanomedicine, and for humanity in general. Our guest is futurist Ian Khan.
May 21, 2021•31 min•Season 5Ep. 136
This week’s podcast: There is so much more to learn before machine vision is anywhere near as capable as human eyesight, but we’re making progress toward that goal all the time. This week we discuss progress in the field of machine vision with Jeff Bier, founder of the Edge AI and Vision Alliance.
May 14, 2021•38 min•Season 5Ep. 135
This week’s podcast: The concept of smart cities got a lot of buzz 20 years ago, and then the hype died. But in the intervening years, there’s been a lot of activity preparing for a resurgence of smart city efforts. This week we examine what’s happening with smart cities, and why smart city technology might be on the verge of significantly wider adoption, with our guest Mari Silbey of smart city advocates US Ignite.
May 07, 2021•40 min•Season 5Ep. 134
This week’s podcast: Silicon Labs just sold off a thriving business line that represented 40 percent of sales. Junko Yoshida interviews Silicon Labs CEO Tyson Tuttle on why a company would do something like that. Also, the Artful Engineer, with application engineer and singer/songwriter Jim Heckroth.
Apr 30, 2021•27 min•Season 5Ep. 133
This week’s podcast: Nvidia is as dominant in its area of expertise — GPUs, as Arm is in its area of expertise — processor core designs. Each already has an enormous amount of market power. Is letting them combine a good idea? A critical look at the proposed combination of Nvidia and Arm with analyst Mike Feibus, who’s got a new report examining the potential merger.
Apr 23, 2021•28 min•Season 5Ep. 132
This week’s podcast: Ten years ago, Arm introduced its v8 architecture of its processor cores, which turned out to be a pretty big deal. The company just revealed v9. The announcement was light on details, but details were available if you just looked for them. Tirias analyst Kevin Krewell looked for them. We talk with him about what he found.
Apr 09, 2021•26 min•Season 6Ep. 130
This week’s podcast: Every year, the automotive industry is offering vehicles with increasingly autonomous capabilities. There is a problem in how it describes its progress that is already undermining vehicle safety. This week: the trouble with Level 3. Also, workers at an Amazon facility are voting on whether or not to unionize. A look at the nature of work in the high tech industry.
Apr 02, 2021•31 min•Season 6Ep. 129
This week’s podcast: People were wondering if Intel would finally get out of the IC manufacturing business. Instead, it’s going to broaden its manufacturing operations in a standalone foundry business. We talk with analysts Jim McGregor and Kevin Krewell, who explain the move. Also, we’ve got a new, up-to-the-minute reference guide on gallium GaN power electronics; we preview what’s in it.
Mar 26, 2021•44 min•Season 5Ep. 128
This week’s podcast: Electronics manufacturer love to call their products reliable, but are they really? One way to find out is to take them places where failure is not an option. Our guest this week is engineer and mountaineer Matt DuPuy. We talk about relying on gadgets in places that are hostile to humans and electronics alike. Also — science & art are more akin than we realize. An interview with engineer and musician Jack Weast from Intel.
Mar 19, 2021•31 min•Season 5Ep. 127
This week’s podcast: Colin Barnden, an analyst and a regular contributor to EE Times, recently came to an intriguing supposition: car makers are likely to give up their factories, just like most semiconductor manufacturers gave up their fabs. This week Junko and I talk with Colin about his rather startling prediction.
Mar 12, 2021•33 min•Season 5Ep. 126
This week’s podcast: The biggest technology companies in the world have been reshaping business, society, and culture – and they’re facing mounting opposition to what they’re doing. A conversation with Robin Gaster, author of the book “Behemoth: Amazon Rising.” Also: the way we’ve been listening to music lately, there’s been little emphasis on audio quality. Qualcomm is seeking to change that with high-def audio technology and what it hopes will be an extensive ecosystem of partners....
Mar 05, 2021•33 min•Season 5Ep. 125
