• The contribution features a new vision of a “multibrained” server of the future as well as improvements in areas like “trusted” and “reliable” computing.
• As a result of its work on trusted computing, Google teamed up with Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Microsoft Corp., and Nvidia Corp. to develop Caliptra, a new hardware Root of Trust standard.

As part of its dedication to the Open Compute Project, Google LLC today unveiled several significant contributions it has made to open hardware ecosystems.

The business revealed them at the OCP Global Summit in San Jose, California. They feature a new vision of a “multibrained” server of the future as well as improvements in areas like “trusted” and “reliable” computing.

Parthasarathy Ranganathan, Google Vice President and Technical Fellow, said the company’s most recent contributions come at a critical time in systems design when demand for accelerated computing power is growing at an uncontrollable rate. However, he claimed that there are significant barriers to meeting that demand, including the slowing of Moore’s Law, which has led to less significant advancements in central processor unit performance, power consumption, and memory and storage cost savings.

He said that Google has reacted to these realities with several system design advances, including new hardware and data center architecture, distributed computing systems, and custom-silicon accelerators. Ranganathan said, “This is only the beginning. There are many more opportunities for advancements, including closely coupled accelerators for core data center functions to minimize the so-called “data center tax.”

At the Open Compute Project Global Summit, Google presented its notion for a multibrained server of the future that is based on the idea of more modular, decentralized, and distributed systems spanning host computing, accelerators, memory expansion trays, and infrastructure processing units.

According to Ranganathan, “We are sharing the work we are doing with all our OCP partners on the varied innovations needed to make this a reality – from modular hardware with DC-MHS, standardized management with OpenBMC and RedFish, the standardized root of trust, and standardized interfaces including CXL, NVMe and beyond,”

Meanwhile, Google’s work on trusted computing prompted it to team up with Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Microsoft Corp., and Nvidia Corp. to develop Caliptra, a new hardware Root of Trust standard. This, according to Ranganathan, is a reusable intellectual property block of code for a root of trust measurement at the system-on-chip level. It is intended to support new developments in confidential computing and other use cases which require chip-level attestation.

Regarding reliable computing, Google said it had established a new server-component resilience workstream with AMD, Microsoft, Nvidia, Arm Ltd., Intel Corp., and Meta Platforms Inc. Google stated that this workstream would create consistent criteria for silent data corruption and errors that the broader industry may adopt. Google will also contribute test execution frameworks and tools and grant access to test environments with defective devices, allowing a larger infrastructure community to pursue a systems-based strategy for tackling issues related to silicon faults and silent data mistakes.

Last but not least, Google wants to make sustainability a fundamental component of the OCP ecosystem. For that purpose, it will disseminate many of the theories and best practices it has integrated into its systems, enabling it to be carbon neutral since 2007 and powered entirely by renewable energy since 2017. According to Ranganathan, all of this is being done to help Google reach its target of having net-zero emissions from all its commercial operations by 2030.

• Boise believes that the cooperation will assist it in expanding the city’s economy and recruiting a diverse workforce.

Micron, a chip manufacturer, headquartered in Idaho, plans to invest USD 15 billion in a new semiconductor facility in its hometown by the end of the decade. The chipmaker estimates that this will generate 17,000 jobs in the United States.

The president and chief executive officer of Micron, Sanjay Mehrotra, stated that his company’s investment was made possible by the recent passage of the CHIPS and Science ACT of 2022. The Act, a USD 280 billion bill, is aimed at bolstering U.S. competitiveness against China and avoiding another chip shortage similar to the one that derailed the automotive and technology industries during the pandemic.

The CHIPS law sets aside USD 52 billion to bolster the semiconductor industry, which has struggled to manufacture the diminutive chips that power everything from smartphones to computers to automobiles as a result of COVID-related supply chain constraints beginning in 2020.

Sanjay Mehrotra said, “Our new leading-edge memory manufacturing fab will fuel U.S. technology leadership, ensuring a reliable domestic supply of semiconductors critical to economic and national security.”

Micron believes that by placing the production plant inside the firm’s operations headquarters, the company could increase its productivity and bring products to market more quickly.

According to Boise Mayor Lauren McLean, the cooperation will assist in expanding the city’s economy and recruiting a diverse workforce.

Boise Mayor Lauren McLean stated, “This is a once-in-a-generation investment in Boise from a home-grown company that is critical to the economic vitality of our community, our state, and our nation.”

President Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act a month ago, and McLean and Mehrotra were there to witness the event. The whole congressional delegation from Idaho, which is made up entirely of Republicans, voted against it.

Biden mentioned Micron’s announcement as “another significant success for America.”

One of the most significant employers in the state of Idaho is Micron. The corporation has multiple factories to produce chips located worldwide, including ones in Singapore and Taiwan.

Chipmaker Intel Corporation revealed that it would begin construction on September 9 for the USD 20 billion worth of semiconductor facilities it plans to build in Ohio. The opening of the factories referred to as fabs is anticipated for 2025. It is planned that President Biden will be present during the groundbreaking.

• Qualcomm and Arm are two of the world’s most influential chip companies, and their standoff is bound to be closely watched in the industry.
• Qualcomm claimed its licenses with Arm encompass custom processors, which the complaint does not take into account.

Arm Ltd has sued Qualcomm Inc for breach of contract and trademark infringement, setting up a legal showdown between the SoftBank Group Corp-owned chip company and one of its biggest customers.

The conflict centers on Qualcomm’s acquisition of chip startup Nuvia Inc last year. According to the suit filed in the US District Court in Delaware, the business developed chip designs using Arm licenses, which can’t be transferred to Qualcomm without permission. Nuvia’s licenses were terminated in February after negotiations failed to resolve, Arm said.

Qualcomm and Arm are two of the world’s most influential chip companies, and their standoff is bound to be closely watched in the industry. San Diego-based Qualcomm is the biggest maker of smartphone processors and modems. But like many others in the chip industry, it relies on an instruction set from UK-based Arm. This company has created much of the underlying technology for mobile electronics. An instruction set is the basic computer code that chips use to run software such as operating systems.

Arm said in a statement, “Because Qualcomm attempted to transfer Nuvia licenses without Arm’s consent, which is a standard restriction under Arm’s license agreements, Nuvia’s licenses terminated in March 2022.” Before and after that date, Arm made multiple good faith efforts to seek a resolution.”

Qualcomm claimed its licenses with Arm encompass custom processors, which the complaint does not take into account.

“Arm’s lawsuit marks an unfortunate departure from its longstanding, successful relationship with Qualcomm,” the company commented. “Arm has no right, contractual or otherwise, to attempt to interfere with Qualcomm’s or Nuvia’s innovations.”

Qualcomm acquired Nuvia to beef up its technology and allow it to field more powerful chips. It’s part of a broader strategy by Qualcomm Chief Executive Officer Cristiano Amon to decrease his company’s reliance on the smartphone industry and grab a share of the laptop chip market and – eventually – the lucrative server processor business. But the suit threatens to hamper those efforts.

Nuvia was acquired at a time when Arm was much in the news of being taken over by Nvidia Corp from SoftBank for USD 40 billion. The CEO of Qualcomm spoke out against the acquisition, claiming that it would threaten Arm’s autonomy in the chip sector. After the US Federal Trade Commission filed suit to stop the acquisition in February, Nvidia decided to back out of the deal.

This week in New York, Qualcomm’s shares dropped 1.6% to USD 132.27. The firm has lost 28% of its value this year, following a larger rout for chip stocks.

SoftBank purchased Arm in 2016 and is preparing to float it separately on the stock market. Some of the greatest names in tech are already on Arm’s customer list, drawn in by the company’s low prices and efficient designs. Arm’s technologies have expanded from mobile devices to become standard in desktop PCs.

Using Arm’s technology as a foundation for in-house chip designs, companies like Amazon.com Inc.’s AWS challenge Intel Corp.’s monopoly on data center server CPUs. Each of these chips can fetch upwards of USD 10,000.

Arm’s customers can be classified into two categories: One’s that implement its designs as the basis for their chips and one that designs their semiconductors but just license the Arm instruction set. Over the years, Qualcomm has had both types of partnerships with Arm. However, the Nuvia acquisition is a part of an effort to design more of its chips in-house. As far as Arm is concerned, it has been argued that Qualcomm still doesn’t have the right to use the technology that the Nuvia products rely on.

Arm regulates technological use by checking the compatibility of new processors. Because of this, it provides a rare glimpse into the practices of businesses across the sector. It will also be able to check if the work done by Nuvia before its acquisition is included in Qualcomm chips. Arm claims that any job done under expired licenses must be destroyed.

Qualcomm is familiar with legal battles over licenses. Profit for the company comes mostly from licensing its proprietary technology, which is crucial in modern wireless communication systems. Samsung Electronics Co. and Apple Inc., the two largest smartphone manufacturers, are among its clients.

After years of litigation, Qualcomm finally emerged victorious against Apple in 2019. It also won a court appeal against the US Federal Trade Commission, which had charged it with predatory licensing practices.

• Qualcomm and Arm are two of the world’s most influential chip companies, and their standoff is bound to be closely watched in the industry.
• Qualcomm claimed its licenses with Arm encompass custom processors, which the complaint does not take into account.

Arm Ltd has sued Qualcomm Inc for breach of contract and trademark infringement, setting up a legal showdown between the SoftBank Group Corp-owned chip company and one of its biggest customers.

The conflict centers on Qualcomm’s acquisition of chip startup Nuvia Inc last year. According to the suit filed in the US District Court in Delaware, the business developed chip designs using Arm licenses, which can’t be transferred to Qualcomm without permission. Nuvia’s licenses were terminated in February after negotiations failed to resolve, Arm said.

Qualcomm and Arm are two of the world’s most influential chip companies, and their standoff is bound to be closely watched in the industry. San Diego-based Qualcomm is the biggest maker of smartphone processors and modems. But like many others in the chip industry, it relies on an instruction set from UK-based Arm. This company has created much of the underlying technology for mobile electronics. An instruction set is the basic computer code that chips use to run software such as operating systems.

Arm said in a statement, “Because Qualcomm attempted to transfer Nuvia licenses without Arm’s consent, which is a standard restriction under Arm’s license agreements, Nuvia’s licenses terminated in March 2022.” Before and after that date, Arm made multiple good faith efforts to seek a resolution.”

Qualcomm claimed its licenses with Arm encompass custom processors, which the complaint does not take into account.

“Arm’s lawsuit marks an unfortunate departure from its longstanding, successful relationship with Qualcomm,” the company commented. “Arm has no right, contractual or otherwise, to attempt to interfere with Qualcomm’s or Nuvia’s innovations.”

Qualcomm acquired Nuvia to beef up its technology and allow it to field more powerful chips. It’s part of a broader strategy by Qualcomm Chief Executive Officer Cristiano Amon to decrease his company’s reliance on the smartphone industry and grab a share of the laptop chip market and – eventually – the lucrative server processor business. But the suit threatens to hamper those efforts.

Nuvia was acquired at a time when Arm was much in the news of being taken over by Nvidia Corp from SoftBank for USD 40 billion. The CEO of Qualcomm spoke out against the acquisition, claiming that it would threaten Arm’s autonomy in the chip sector. After the US Federal Trade Commission filed suit to stop the acquisition in February, Nvidia decided to back out of the deal.

This week in New York, Qualcomm’s shares dropped 1.6% to USD 132.27. The firm has lost 28% of its value this year, following a larger rout for chip stocks.

SoftBank purchased Arm in 2016 and is preparing to float it separately on the stock market. Some of the greatest names in tech are already on Arm’s customer list, drawn in by the company’s low prices and efficient designs. Arm’s technologies have expanded from mobile devices to become standard in desktop PCs.

Using Arm’s technology as a foundation for in-house chip designs, companies like Amazon.com Inc.’s AWS challenge Intel Corp.’s monopoly on data center server CPUs. Each of these chips can fetch upwards of USD 10,000.

Arm’s customers can be classified into two categories: One’s that implement its designs as the basis for their chips and one that designs their semiconductors but just license the Arm instruction set. Over the years, Qualcomm has had both types of partnerships with Arm. However, the Nuvia acquisition is a part of an effort to design more of its chips in-house. As far as Arm is concerned, it has been argued that Qualcomm still doesn’t have the right to use the technology that the Nuvia products rely on.

Arm regulates technological use by checking the compatibility of new processors. Because of this, it provides a rare glimpse into the practices of businesses across the sector. It will also be able to check if the work done by Nuvia before its acquisition is included in Qualcomm chips. Arm claims that any job done under expired licenses must be destroyed.

Qualcomm is familiar with legal battles over licenses. Profit for the company comes mostly from licensing its proprietary technology, which is crucial in modern wireless communication systems. Samsung Electronics Co. and Apple Inc., the two largest smartphone manufacturers, are among its clients.

After years of litigation, Qualcomm finally emerged victorious against Apple in 2019. It also won a court appeal against the US Federal Trade Commission, which had charged it with predatory licensing practices.

• Planned bias detection and mitigation could assist companies, governments, and non-profit organizations gain more from their ad expenses across various groups.
• IBM launched AI Fairness 360, an open-source toolkit to check for and mitigate bias in datasets and ML models, in 2018. Later, it built on this to measure uncertainty.

There are plenty of ways that bias can get woven into Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms and decisions despite the best inputs to identify and root it out. It could be buried in the data to produce the algorithms, the training process itself, or even arise in how algorithms help make decisions.

IBM launched AI Fairness 360, an open-source toolkit to check for and mitigate bias in datasets and ML models, in 2018. Later, it built on this to measure uncertainty. The tool has upgraded the fairness of housing loans, medical decisions, and insurance.

IBM’s latest new open-source Advertising Toolkit for AI Fairness plans to do the same for the advertisement industry. Customers are not seeking better ad approval similarly as they might for approval of a better medical procedure or better mortgage rates.

Bob Lord, IBM senior vice president of the Weather Company and Alliances, said, “The real meat of all this is about integrating bias detection and mitigation tools in core marketing and advertising technologies.”

Expert in the market and consumer data, Statista, a German company, estimates that companies spent USD 764 billion on advertisements last year. It expects the figure to grow past USD 1 trillion by 2026. Planned bias detection and mitigation could assist companies, governments, and non-profit organizations gain more from their ad expenses across various groups. It might even help improve social determinants of health.

Ad meets tech

Lord said, “The bias that exists in advertising has historically been ingrained in how we do marketing.” All of it starts with how data scientists model segments consumers and data. Now the ad industry is going through an infusion of marketing and technology. Lord also said, “We have gotten really good in the advertising industry at targeting people.” Sadly, in the process of targeting people with the latest ML algorithms, advertisers have also neglected the results for specific groups.

For example, IBM worked with the Ad Council on a project to understand the impact of bias in an algorithmically driven COVID-19 vaccine education campaign. The system programmatically served up over 10 million ad impressions consisting of 108 unique creative variations selected by the algorithms. Later, the system optimized the ads for women aged 45–65. Surprisingly, this group ended up clicking through 32 times more than average.

This might have been an excellent result for a new handbag accessory but was ineffective in improving COVID-19 awareness for other demographics. “The bias is not intentional,” Lord explained. “It is hidden in the technology, and we don’t see it because we don’t have bias-detecting technology built into the machines.”

Lord’s team has integrated this technology into AI and ML development workflows for insurance underwriting and mortgage applications. Currently, the company is working with a few quick-service companies to analyze marketing campaigns post the fact. Lord said, “My hope is that a year from now, we could build this technology from the beginning”.

• FICO receives an award for its capabilities in electronic payments fraud, mobile fraud, real-time transaction monitoring, card-based fraud, and data provisioning.
• FICO was rated for its “best-in-class capabilities” in fraud detection by Chartis for the third year in a row.
• Chartis RiskTech Quadrant report highlights the wide adoption of AI and machine learning (ML) across the finance sector.

FICO – a category leader for Financial Crime

FICO recently publicized that it has been declared a Category Leader for Enterprise Fraud Solutions in the newly circulated Chartis 2021 RiskTech Quadrant report. This is the third year in a row FICO has been named as a Category Leader.

In 2020, FICO was recognized as one of the top six overall risk management technology vendors and won Category Leader for AI Applications.

Chartis 2021 RiskTech Quadrant spotlights

Chartis  RiskTech Quadrant spotlights the rise in banks and financial institutions’ spending on risk management systems comprising fraud analytics. The report discusses best practices to deploy effective enterprise-wide solutions for fraud and financial crime management to adapt to changing consumer behavior. Also, it highlights the wide adoption of AI and machine learning (ML) across the finance sector.

FICO’s fraud solutions

Based on Chartis’ analysis, the report ranks the financial crime risk management systems as follows:

• Based on industry trends
• Best practices
• Expenditure patterns

More than 9,000 financial institutions, auto financers, telecommunication organizations, and government agencies use FICO’s fraud solutions to protect against financial losses and damages caused by criminal behavior.

COVID-19 pandemic impact

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic situation worldwide, many businesses rely on FICO’s industry-changing analytics software platform to streamline operations, make smarter decisions, and safeguard enterprises against the latest fraud and financial crime threats.

Enterprise fraud management programs

FICO’s Enterprise fraud management programs offer fraud protection facilities across all channels, accounts, consumers, and products – across the consumer lifecycle.

Experts’ view

Philip Mackenzie, Senior Research Specialist at Chartis Research, commented: “FICO’s ranking as Category Leader reflects its best-in-class enterprise fraud management solutions, which had the highest possible ratings for advanced fraud detection techniques, libraries of pre-packaged fraud rules, and card fraud.”

He further added, “FICO also delivers advanced fraud-detection capabilities in mobile fraud, electronic payments fraud, and real-time transaction monitoring, via an integrated cloud-ready platform.”

Tim VanTassel, Vice President, Head of Product Management at FICO, commented: “FICO is proud to have its cutting-edge solutions recognized by Chartis as the category leader in financial crime risk management systems.”

He further added, “At FICO, we are committed to helping our clients use our award-winning solutions to prevent fraudulent activity as well as developing an industry-leading AI, machine learning, and analytics platform.”

Nikhil Behl, Chief Marketing Officer at FICO, commented: “Recognition as the category leader for three years in a row further highlights FICO’s ongoing investment in innovation, our close partnership with clients, and our dedication to delivering the industry standard for enterprise fraud solutions.”

• ScImage receives Frost & Sullivan’s 2020 North America Enabling Technology Leadership Award.
• PICOM365 platform allows physicians to access all necessary tools to view and interpret videos and images from anywhere using a standard platform.
• The company recently incorporated PicomAlerts to caution consumers in case of any performance issues.
• Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize organizations in a variety of regional and global markets.

2020 North America Enabling Technology Leadership Award

ScImage, Inc. (ScImage) publicized receiving Frost & Sullivan’s 2020 North America Enabling Technology Leadership Award for its Cloud-based Enterprise Imaging Solutions (PICOM365). ScImage is a California-based company and a leading enterprise imaging solution provider in the US, delivering pioneering imaging and workflow solutions to the healthcare industry.

Being a pure cloud-based solution, ScImage offers a seamless interface, best-in-class accessibility, and integration with third-party imaging tools for physicians that allow them to understand images from a comprehensive and single database.

Based on consumer’s feedback, ScImage developed the PICOM365 platform. With architecture thoroughly designed to optimize the cloud, the PICOM365 platform enables fast, agile software development cycles that are quick to deploy and respond quickly to changing industry trends and consumer demands. ScImage’s latest PICOM365 platform is customizable to health institutions’ fluctuating requirements.

The company recently incorporated PicomAlerts, a unique monitoring system that plays a vital role by sending an alert to consumers in case of performance issues that could prevent imaging orders. Also, it empowers PICOM365 to fix potential problems automatically before the consumer experiences gaps or lags in workflows.

The company is innovating its product portfolio following consumer’s evolving business requirements. The PICOM365 Cloud is now home to more than 100 institutions for complex clinical imaging and reporting secure image exchange and interoperability.

Complete imaging process

• Compliant with HL7 (Health Level Seven International) standards, the PICOM365 platform employs proprietary SmartStreaming to decrease lags while reading images.
• Smart edge devices get imaging orders, store them in cloud, and later boost the modality worklist.
• After image acquisition, the collected information goes back to the edge device and gets stored in the PICOM365 Cloud.
• The intelligent edge device identifies physicians’ locations and fetches images from the nearest PICOM365 Cloud or edge cache for onsite and offsite physicians.
• Remotely, users could access images immediately and in seconds.

Experts’ view

Suresh Kuppuswamy, Industry Principal – Transformational Healthcare at Frost & Sullivan, commented: “ScImage has leveraged its foundational expertise to deliver an end-to-end enterprise imaging platform. With the architecture thoroughly designed to optimize the cloud, PICOM365 aids fast, agile software development cycles, is easily deployable, and responds rapidly to changing market trends and customer demands.”

He further added, “Built natively on Microsoft Azure Cloud, PICOM365 is a unique hyper-scalable, multi-tenant, and multi-regional medical imaging infrastructure that brings proactive monitoring to diagnostic imaging workflows.”

Norma Vela Roch, Research Analyst, Best Practices at Frost & Sullivan, commented: “PICOM365’s redundancy and resiliency due to its public cloud and multi-region architecture provide location-independent, low-latency image viewing and reporting experience for all users.”

She further added, “The company’s software-as-a-service pricing model enables smaller private providers to access PICOM365 with low up-front costs. It offers a software-lease and a cost-per-study pricing model for larger institutions, giving health institutions the flexibility to pay based on their use. Its pricing model and advanced customer support have enabled ScImage to achieve an unprecedented 99% customer retention rate and positioned it for further growth.”

Frost & Sullivan, every year, presents this award to an organization that develops unique technology and enhances novel product portfolio and applications. The award acknowledges the high market acceptance ability of the recipient’s technology.

Best Practices awards

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize organizations in various regional and worldwide markets for exhibiting remarkable achievement and exceptional performance in areas such as strategic product development, leadership, consumer service, and technological innovation. Industry analysts compare industry participants and evaluate performance via in-depth analysis, interviews, and extensive secondary research to recognize best practices in the industry.