Microsoft announced a series of updates to help bring the promise of intelligent manufacturing closer to its customers and partners. Product updates include:
In addition, Microsoft is announcing new solutions with industry-leading customers and partners. More than 25 innovative companies will join Microsoft including:
Additional business updates include the newest book to our Future Computed book series: The Future Computed: AI and Manufacturing. The book will explore how manufacturers around the world are embracing AI in its businesses, sharing insights from Microsoft customers.
Rolls-Royce and Intel are intending to collaborate on designs for sophisticated intelligent shipping systems that will make commercial shipping safer.
This will advance smart, connected and data-centric systems for ship owners, operators, cargo owners and ports, bringing together the expertise in advanced ship technology from Rolls-Royce with components and systems engineering from Intel. With a focus on safety, new ships will have systems with the same technology found in smart cities, autonomous cars and drones.
The new shipping intelligence systems will have data centre and artificial intelligence capabilities as well as sophisticated edge computing throughout that independently manage navigation, obstacle detection and communications. The components embedded in these systems are dedicated to work load consolidation, edge computing, communications and storage.
Kevin Daffey, Rolls-Royce, Director, Engineering & Technology and Ship Intelligence said: “We’re delighted to sign this agreement with Intel, and look forward to working together on developing exciting new technologies and products, which will play a big part in enabling the safe operation of autonomous ships. This collaboration can help us to support ship owners in the automation of their navigation and operations, reducing the opportunity for human error and allowing crews to focus on more valuable tasks.
“Simply said, this project would not be possible without the leading-edge technology Intel brings to the table. Together, we’ll blend the best of the best, Intel and Rolls-Royce to change the world of shipping.”
Adrian Criddle, General Manager and SVP of Intel UK said: “Rolls-Royce is a key driver of innovation in the shipping industry we are proud to be working with them on smart, connected and data-centric systems that will be a foundation for safe shipping operations around the world in the future.”
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Technion, Israel’s technological institute, has announced that Intel is collaborating with the institute on its new artificial intelligence (AI) research centre. The announcement was made at the centre’s inauguration attended by Dr. Michael Mayberry, Intel’s Chief Technology Officer, and Dr. Naveen Rao, Intel Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the Artificial Intelligence Products Group.
The centre features Technion’s computer science, electrical engineering, industrial engineering and management departments, among others, all collaborating to drive a closer relationship between academia and industry in the race to AI. Intel, which invested undisclosed funds in the centre, will represent the industry in leading AI-dedicated computing research.
Intel is committed to accelerating the promise of AI across many industries and driving the next wave of computing. Research exploring novel architectural and algorithmic approaches is a critical component of Intel’s overall AI program. The company is working with customers across verticals – including healthcare, autonomous driving, sports/entertainment, government, enterprise, retail and more – to implement AI solutions and demonstrate real value. Along with Technion, Intel is also involved in AI research with other universities and organisations worldwide.
Intel and Technion have enjoyed a strong relationship through the years, as generations of Technion graduates have joined Intel’s development center in Haifa, Israel, as engineers. Intel has also previously collaborated with Technion on AI as part of the Intel Collaborative Research Institute for Computational Intelligence program.
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CHINA: According to the latest supercomputing reports, China is set to build the world’s first exascale computer by as early as 2019, which is is defined as one that is capable of conducting one billion billion calculations per second. Making it 10 times faster than the current world’s fastest computer, the Sunway Taihulight, and capable of the same calculation power as the world’s top 500 super computers combined. An Hong, a professor of computer science at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei and a member of the advisory committee on high performance computer development in the central government, has stated that this exascale computer will be utilised for China’s maritime expansion and narrow the maritime power gap between China and the US by providing the most thorough analysis of marine-related data sets. It can also be utilised for high-end equipment manufacturing, oil exploration and car collision simulation. Thus, allowing for China to possess a greater stance over international affairs due to an increased knowledge over manufacturing systems, ocean simulations, weather forecasts and climate change. In turn, this has spurred the US government to commissioned six companies including IBM, Intel and Hewlett Packard Enterprise to derive counter intelligence solutions against China’s lead on high performance computing and hopes to establish its own exascale computer by 2021. Currently, China not only hosts Sunway and Tianhe, which are the first and second ranking supercomputers on international performance charts, but also overtook the US in 2017 in terms of installed supercomputing capacity. An event that Horst Simon, deputy director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California has termed as an “inflection point”.
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FRANCE: Dr. Eric Virey, Senior Technology & Market Analyst at Yole Développement (Yole) has commented that, “MicroLED displays could potentially match or exceed OLED performance in all critical attributes.” This includes brightness, contrast, color gamut, refresh rate, viewing angle, ruggedness and durability, resolution and pixel density, lifetime and power consumption etc.
Yole and its partner Knowmade, both part of Yole Group of Companies, have already released two microLEDs reports to reveal the status of the technology and give a deep understanding of the industry, the companies involved and the related supply chain.
Sony’s demonstration of a full HD 55” microLED TV at CES 2012, more than six years ago, was the first exposure for microLED displays and generated a lot of excitement. Since Apple acquired the Luxvue in 2014, many leading companies such as Facebook, Google, Samsung, LG or Intel have entered the game via sizable internal developments and acquisitions, like those of mLED and eLux, or investments in startups such as glō or Aledia.
Analysing Apple’s microLED patent activity shows that the company essentially halted its filing around 2015. This is a surprising finding in the light of the fact that the consumer electronics giant has maintained a large project team and consistently spent hundreds of millions of dollars annually on microLED development. A closer analysis however, brought up the name of a possible strawman entity used by Apple to continue filing patents and shows that the company is still advancing key aspects of microLED technologies.
“Despite a later start compared to pioneers such as Sony or Sharp, Apple’s portfolio is one of the most complete, comprehensively covering all critical technologies pertinent to microLEDs,” explained Dr. Virey from Yole. “The company is the most advanced and [is] still one of the best positioned to bring high volume microLED products to the market. However, it also faces unique challenges”, he added.
Apple can’t afford to tarnish its brand and introduce a product featuring such a highly differentiating technology that would be anything but flawless. Moreover, it requires high volumes, which makes setting up the supply chain more challenging than for any other company. In addition, the company has no prior experience in display manufacturing and due to its need for secrecy, has to develop pretty much everything internally, which requires the duplication of technologies and infrastructures that others have the option to outsource.
The smartphones sector is a good example to illustrate the leadership of Apple. Indeed, smartwatch volumes could reach 100 million units by 2027 and Apple has the potential to remain the single largest smartwatch maker, explained Yole’s analysts in microLED reports. Yole’s scenario assumes that Apple would start using microLEDs in 2021 in a new flagship model, and, as is common with the brand, will propagate the technology in a staggered fashion over the next three years as legacy products are discontinued.
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