Let’s take them in reverse order:
5. Sondrel embarks on HPC project
Sondrel, a provider of ultra-complex custom chips, has announced that it has started front end, RTL design and verification work on a high-performance computing (HPC) chip project for a major new customer. Ollie Jones, Sondrel’s CEO, said, “HPC designs are a key area for Sondrel because they require large, ultra-complex custom chips on advanced nodes, which are our speciality. We have developed the skills, tools and advanced design methodologies to be able to create billion-transistor designs at leading nodes.
4. Intel’s Chips Act funding reduced to $7.9bn
Intel has had its preliminary $8.5 billion Chips Act funding reduced to a confirmed $7.9 billion. According to the New York Times, the reduction was because of company plans to rein back its investment in Ohio, a $3 billion foundry deal from the Pentagon and unconvincing results for its process development effort. As well as the $7.9 billion grant, Intel is also in line for $11 billion in government loans.
3. Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5
For embedded processing Raspberry Pi has revealed the 55 x 40mm ‘Compute Module’ form of Raspberry Pi 5. Processing come from a Broadcom BCM2712 with four 2.4GHz Cortex-A76 cores. All connections to Compute Modules are via two high in count connectors – there are no ‘standard’ interface connectors. There are multiple ram and flash options, and an optional wireless module for 2.4GHz and 5GHz IEEE 802.11 b/g/n/ac (Wi-Fi) and Bluetooth 5.0.
2. Official wireless Raspberry Pi Pico 2
Raspberry Pi has announced the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth version of its 21 x 51mm Pico 2 microcontroller board. Called ‘Pico 2 W’, it shares the dual 150MHz Arm Cortex-M33 cores, which can be replaced at boot by dual Hazard3 RISC-V processors. Memory remains 520kbyte of on-chip SRAM plus 4Mbyte of on-board QSPI flash. The added wireless interfaces are 2.4GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.2.
1. Mixed outlook for semis in 2025
WSTS reported third-quarter 2024 semiconductor market revenue of $166 billion, up 10.7% on Q2. 3Q 2024 growth was the highest quarter-to-quarter growth since 11.6% in 3Q 2016, eight years ago. 3Q 2024 growth versus a year ago was 23.2%, the highest year-to-year growth since 28.3% in 4Q 2021. Nvidia remained the largest semiconductor company in 3Q 2024 with $35.1 billion in revenue due to its strength in AI GPUs. Nvidia sells its AI GPUs as modules which include memory supplied by SK Hynix, Micron Technology, and Samsung…
