Lifeboat Foundation

A silicon wasteland.

In a sign that the United States government’s export restrictions on semiconductor sales to Russia due to its war against Ukraine have been enacted swiftly, multiple reports have emerged today that both Intel and AMD have suspended chip sales to Russia. In addition, reports have also emerged that TSMC’s decision to participate in the sanctions will thwart Russia’s supply of homegrown chips. We have reached out to Intel, AMD, and Nvidia for comment.

The Russian media outlets also claim that the suspensions have been confirmed by the Association of Russian Developers and Electronics Manufacturers (ARPE). Additionally, Chinese IT companies are said to have been notified by Intel that sales to Russia have been banned.

Continue reading “Intel and AMD Halt Chip Sales to Russia: Reports” »

Mobileye is an an Israeli subsidiary of chipmaker Intel (who knew?) that develops self-driving cars and advanced driver-assistance systems. This week at CES the company announced a new chip called EyeQ Ultra, part of its system-on-a-chip line, saying the chip will be able to do 176 trillion operations per second and is purpose-built for autonomous driving.

Geely, meanwhile, is a carmaker based in Hangzhou, China. Founded in 1997, the company’s full name is Zhejiang Geely Holding Group; they’re the largest private automaker in China, and reportedly sold over 1.3 million cars in 2020. Among Geely’s holdings is Swedish carmaker Volvo, as well as an electric vehicle brand called Zeekr that was launched in March of 2021.

The new self-driving car will be a collaboration between Geely and Mobileye, and will be produced under the Zeekr brand. To be clear, the car still won’t quite approach the put-your-feet-up driverless vision. There are five levels of automation in driving, with Level 5 being full autonomy, in which the vehicle can drive itself anywhere (around cities, on highways, on rural roads, etc.) in any conditions (rain, sun, fog, etc.) without human intervention. The Zeekr car will supposedly be Level 4, which means it will be able to operate without a safety driver under certain conditions (namely, good weather), and will still have a steering wheel.

A quest to analyze the unique features of individual human brains evolved into the so-called Midnight Scan Club, a group of scientists who had big ideas but almost no funding and little time to research the trillions of neural connections that activate the body’s most powerful organ.

The research group started in 2013 by two neuroscientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis who aimed to collect a massive amount of data on individual brains. The study’s subjects were the scientists themselves and eight others, all junior faculty or graduate students.

Most efforts to analyze connections involve scanning many brains and averaging the data across groups of people. For this study, the researchers used brain-imaging techniques to evaluate brain networks that control speech and motor function, among other activities. The researchers examined individuals while resting and performing cognitive tasks such as reading.

Tesla’s well-established Supercharger network would be a willing participant in the Infrastructure Bill’s US$7.5 billion effort to build 500,000 EV charging stations nationwide. In comments sent to the FHA, however, Tesla notes that it’d like its exclusive Supercharger stations to get the same grant treatment as any public stations it builds where non-Tesla cars can be charged.

What is a smart factory? It is a shop floor that adopts smart manufacturing, manufacturing that uses technologies and solutions—like AI and IoT—arising from Industry 4.0 to optimize the production process…

Industrial revolutions then, and now

To fully grasp what smart factory is and where it’s headed, we must first understand the history of manufacturing.

Continue reading “Smart Factory: What It Is and the Vital Solutions You Need to Build One” »

Chemical changes inside Mars’ core caused it to lose its magnetic field. This, in turn, caused it to lose its oceans. But how?

As battles erupt in Kyiv, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense appeals private drone owners to use or donate them to repel invading Russian troops.

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has called upon citizens who own drones to use them in support of the country’s armed forces in their battle to prevent the invading Russian Army from capturing the capital, Kyiv.

Continue reading “Ukraine’s Defense Ministry asks drone owners to help repel invading Russian troops” »

The whole person will be set on fire.

Stars are getting sharper in the James Webb Space Telescope’s field of view.

The team recently completed the third of seven planned steps to align the 18 hexagonal segments of Webb’s mirror, marking nearly the halfway point in a complex, weeks-long process.