Top articles in September on eeNews Europe

Feature articles | September 30, 2021

By Nick Flaherty

Memory & Data Storage PLDs/FPGAs/ASICs Boards & Embedded Cards Development Kits MPUs/MCUs Artificial Intelligence LEDlighting Authentication & Encryption Sensing / Conditioning Optoelectronics Software & Embedded tools Analog Interconnect & cables IoT

September saw the sad news of the passing of British technology entrepreneur Sir Clive Sinclair at the age of 81. The man behind the Sinclair scientific calculators and the ZX80, ZX81 and the ZX Spectrum home computers had a chequered career but had a huge impact on youngsters taking up coding of all kinds. Tributes came in from around the world.

The chip shortage is of course a major running theme for articles. September has seen Intel promoting plans for a leading edge mega-fab in Galway, Ireland, as well as looking at sites in Bavaria. At the same time the EU and US sat down to make sure support for such ventures, and the proposed European Chips Act doesn’t lead to a trade war, and General Motors took the dramatic step to start going directly to semiconductor vendors to buys chips. Price rises at TSMC are also set to move through into high equipment costs.

The EU also stepped up pressure on Apple to adopt the USB-C form factor for consume charging equipment, and will be bringing in legislation to make this happen over the next 24 months alongside legislation on the power efficiency.

September also saw Samsung back away from a potential deal to buy Dutch chip designer NXP, while we also examined share dealings by its executives in August.

Raspberry PI is the most popular single board computer, largely as a result of the low cost, and the new ability to add AI voice in a development kit was popular, as well as the background to the current shortages.

And as reminder that the Covid-19 pandemic is still with us, new high power LEDs developed in Germany for disinfection systems were also popular this month.

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