Electronic Data Automation (EDA) Tools and their providers, like Cadence, are not widely known but play a critical role in the semiconductor industry.  In the episode, I talk to Rob Knoth, Group Director of Strategy and New Ventures at Cadence, about the EDA Tools ecosystem, the company's announcements at the Supercomputing 2024 event, its symbiotic relationship with AI powerhouse Nvidia, application of EDA tools beyond semiconductors and more. 

Ericsson held its Analyst Conference on Nov. 7, 2024, at its D-15 Labs Innovation Center in Santa Clara, CA. It was a packed event with many interesting sessions with speakers from Ericsson and scores of its partners, including Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Meta, AWS, Google Cloud, Dell, Intel, and others. The theme of the event was "Programable High Performance Networks." As expected, the emphasis was on programmability, to scale the network up and down to make it fit the use cases, network scenarios, apps, and service needs. In this episode, Leonard Lee of Next Curve and I discuss Network APIs, monetization, mechanisms that distribute the "value" across the value chain, and how Ericsson is accelerating it through its JV with operators. We also delve into the role of AI, Edge AI, rApps, and Ericsson's pilot of making cellular primary connectivity for enterprises, eliminating wire and wired connectivity.  

The Lenovo Tech World and Global Industry Analyst Conference were held in Bellevue (Seattle) from October 15th to 17th, 2024. During these events, the company showcased its vision for the industry through its "Hybrid AI" approach, technology, products, and services, as well as its broad industry partnerships. In this episode, Leonard Lee of Next Curve and I discuss how Lenovo, with its "pocket-to-cloud" offerings, is well positioned for "Hybrid AI,” how it is accelerating AI adoption by practicing what it preaches in its own operations, its entry into the Automotive space, Server water cooling leadership, reimagining Motorola's smartphone business, and more.

Lenovo Innovation World 2024 was held in Berlin on September 4th—5th. During this event, the company announced a slew of Copilot+ PCs powered by the new Intel Core Ultra 400v, AMD Ryzen AI 300, and Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus (8-core) SoCs. In this episode, I talk to Olivier Blanchard, Research Director, Futurum Research, about the various SoCs, their strengths and weaknesses, the need for OEMs to position them well, specifically what Lenovo should do to maintain its formidable market leadership, and finally, key takeaways from the event. Also, check out the reviews of these Copilot+ PCs powered by Snapdragon XElite SOC  Lenovo Slim7x - https://bit.ly/3WK9W4n Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge - https://bit.ly/3XJSGLN

For the first time, an AMD executive joins our podcast. In this episode, I sit down with Salil Raje, SVP and GM of Adaptive and Embedded Computing Group at AMD. As a pioneer in the FPGA market, Salil provides unique insights into the industry's current landscape and AMD's strategic direction. We delve into the status of Xilinx's integration into AMD after two years of acquisition, the challenges and opportunities of Edge computing/AI, and how AMD's upcoming Versal 2 platform aims to revolutionize this space.

Galaxy Unpacked, held in July 2024, unveiled a robust lineup of devices, including two groundbreaking foldable smartphones, a trio of advanced wearables, and innovative earbuds. In this episode, I talk to Blake Gaiser, Samsung's Director of Smartphone Product Management, about the journey and evolution of the Galaxy Z Fold6 and Z Flip6, how Watch 7, Ultra, and Galaxy Ring are coming at a stage when the line between consumer and medical devices is blurring, what made Samsung make a bold design change for Buds 3, and finally, the company's overarching strategy for Galaxy AI. Also, please check out my views about Galaxy Unpacked expressed on Next Curve Rethink Webcast: https://www.tantraanalyst.com/ta/quotes/#:~:text=Next%20Curve%20Rethink%20Webcast

This is the fourth episode in our series, focused on analyzing the introduction of CoPilot+ PCs. In this, I discuss with Pooja Sathe, Director and category leader of Worldwide Commercial AI PCs at market leader Lenovo, about their “Windows on Arm” journey with Qualcomm from the early beginnings until Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus SoCs, the design principles behind CoPilot+ PCs, customer feedback, target enterprise profiles, and personas for these PCs, and what the future competitive landscape will look like when Intel and AMD SoCs enter the market. We also delve into Lenovo's efforts to ensure app compatibility of Windows on Arm, the role of AI/NPU now and their evolution, Lenovo's definition of AIPC, whether AIPCs will be a separate category or whether everything will be AIPCs in the future, and more. 

The ever-expanding edge computing landscape is a tangled web of diverse hardware, software,  and ecosystems. In this episode, I talk to Muneyb Minhazuddin, VP and GM of Network and Edge at Intel, about the challenges of Edge and how Intel's Tiber Edge AI platform helps its customers manage it.  We delve into the need for Tiber, how it can simplify the complexities of Edge AI, go-to-market strategy, traction so far, the real-life applications and use cases, collaboration with Hyperscalers, Intel's new strategy on selling software, what the future holds, and more. 

In this episode, Leonard Lee of Next Curve joins me in discussing and analyzing the key takeaways from Computex and Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference. Computex Buzz: CoPilot+ PCs Take Center Stage: We explore how CoPilot+ PCs overshadowed everything at Computex, show and tell of Qualcomm, the announcement of Lunarlake by Intel, Ryzen Gen3 of AMD, both powering X86-based CoPilot+ PCs, opportunities during back-to-school season, changing competitive landscape by Holiday season and more. Apple Intelligence Announcement: We delve into Apple Intelligence, its current standing against competition, Apple's collaboration with Open AI, security and privacy concerns, benefits of vertical integration in Hybrid AI, and more.        

This is the third in the series of Tantra's mantra episodes analyzing the CoPilot+ PCs from the market, SoC, and OEM perspectives.  In this episode, I talk to Hassan Anjum, Head of Product Management for Samsung New Computing Business, which covers the Galaxy Book series of premium laptops.  We discuss the needs of premium PC customers, why Windows on Arm is different this time, app compatibility, competitive landscape, Samsung differentiation, positioning when CoPilot+ PCs with Intel and AMD arrive later in the year, and much more.  Hassan says this will be Samsung's biggest PC launch ever with Qualcomm and Microsoft. 

TELUS will be the first operator to use Open RAN for not only new 5G deployment but also to replace the legacy 4G network. Although the Government mandate necessitated the replacement, it was still a bold decision. TELUS will also be a multi-vendor true Open RAN deployment, with radios, cloud platform, RAN software, servers, and processors, all coming from different vendors. It expects almost 50% of the network to be Open RAN by the end of 2025. In this episode, I talk to Nazim Benhadid, CTO of TELUS, on the factors that led to choosing Open RAN, their large-scale live network performance testing, the decision to use look-aside accelerator configuration, and being their own Systems Integrator, as well as his recommendations to the other brownfield operators looking to deploy Open RAN.

On this landmark day for “Windows on ARM,” where over 20 AIPC models from seven OEMs powered by Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus were announced, I sit down with Nitin Kumar, Qualcomm’s VP of Product Management for compute chipsets. In this extensive discussion, we explore Qualcomm’s business strategy, the needs of PC OEMs, and the positioning of the X Series platforms. We also examine the competitive landscape, the app developer ecosystem, and more. Additionally, we delve into Copilot+, current and future use cases for on-device AI, app compatibility, and go-to-market strategies.

The PC industry is on the cusp of a revolution, with major Windows OEMs poised to launch a wave of premium Arm-based AIPCs (laptops) powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon XElite and XPlus processors. In this episode, Leonard Lee from Next Curve and I delve deep into what makes "Windows on Arm" a game-changer this time around. We explore performance improvements, the evolving app ecosystem, the focus on AI, and more. We also discuss the competitive landscape and the delicate balancing act OEMs face in navigating their relationships with Intel and Qualcomm.

"2023 was the year of experimentation and 2024 is the year of implementation, for Gen AI" was the clear message from the Adobe 2024 Summit. In this episode Bob O'Donnell of TEChnalysis and I delve into key takeaways from the summit and analyze how Adobe's firefly is improving the efficiency of "Digital Content Supply Chain" helping enterprises traverse their Digital Transformation journey.  We also talk about Adobe's customer focus and its surprise strategic collaboration with Microsoft.   Reference Articles: https://www.tantraanalyst.com/ta/iot-ai-compute/  https://www.technalysisresearch.com/blogs/2024%20Blogs/march_26_2024_blog.html

After the successful launch of eMBB, everybody is eagerly looking at the next phase of 5G. Industry observers are wondering where the subsequent growth will come from, how the mobile network operators will recoup the enormous investments they have made in deploying 5G, when the exciting applications and use cases we have discussed for years will come to fruition, and what the key enablers will be. In this long-ranging discussion with John Smee, SVP and Head of Wireless Research at Qualcomm, I explore 5G Advanced, drivers of wide deployments of 5G Stand Alone, and the role of AI in the evolution of 5G, 6G, and beyond.  

Intel Foundry Services (IFS) marked a significant milestone on Feb 21, 2024, with its highly anticipated debut event, where the company unveiled its comprehensive strategy and roadmap. The occasion was also highlighted by the enthusiastic backing from its key customers and partners.   In this episode, Bob O'Donnell, President and Chief Analyst at TECHnalysis Research, and I analyze  IFS's present status. We explore the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for them, shedding light on the dynamic landscape of their business. Additionally, we examine CEO Patrick Gelsinger's pivotal role in orchestrating the IFS's transformative journey.

Apple's Vision Pro has the potential to change the XR landscape entirely because of its high-end feature set, pricing point, and ecosystem. Its impact on the consumer market is very profound. But not yet clear on the Enterprise market.  In this episode, I talk to Vishal Shah, GM of XR and Metaverse business for Lenovo, about the needs of the enterprise market, the impact of Vision Pro, and how Lenovo differentiates its XR offerings. 

In this episode, fellow analyst Leonard Lee from Next Curve and I discuss our impressions and the key takeaways from the recently held Industry Analyst Day 2023 of Marvell Technology. Marvell executives pitched how they are well positioned to exploit the massive surge in interest in Gen AI through their custom silicon and interconnect offerings. They also talked about the roadmap for leadership in  Automotive Ethernet. 

Recent market developments, like license litigations and the need for high-performance, low-power processors, have heightened the focus on RISC-V, the open standard Instruction Set Architecture (ISA).In this wide-ranging discussion with the RISC-V International CEO, Calista Redwood, I discuss where the ISA currently stands, how the ecosystem is expanding, what the challenges are, and when the market can expect RISC-V to support more complex, high-performance workloads, and be a formidable competitor for the incumbent Intel's X-86 and Arm architectures.

While everyone is looking for the proliferation of 5G IoT, LoRAWAN has been revolutionizing the low-power, long-range IoT industry for a long time. In this episode, I discuss with Donna Moore, the CEO and chairwoman of LoRa Alliance, the current state of LoRa WAN, its unique characteristics, the most suitable use cases, how it complements 5G IoT, and how the Alliance is helping the ecosystem. 

Apple's announcement of the Vision Pro XR headset fundamentally changed the dynamics of the XR industry. My good friend and fellow analyst Leonard Lee from Next Curve and I discuss Apple's positioning of the device, its impact on the XR industry, especially existing players, and strategies they can utilize to compete with Apple.

As the vRAN / Open RAN deployments are slowly ramping up, there are a lot of questions on the best compute architecture to use, especially for L-1 processing. The objective is to utilize the most power-efficient, cost-effective, and scalable option. The popular choice seems to be using optimized silicon instead of a generic CPU. In this episode, I talk to Joel Brand of Marvell Technology about why silicon optimized for radio workloads such as DSP-based accelerator is better. Joe also shared details about their Octeon10 Fusion processor announced at MWC 2023 and their partnership with Nokia, Samsung, and others.  My article on the subject: What is the best compute architecture for vRAN/open RAN?   

This episode was recorded at Verizon's 5G Innovation Lab in San Francisco, during its inauguration event. I spoke to Brian Mecum, VP of Device Technology and Sports Innovation at Verizon, regarding the lab, partners, applications/services developed there that have become commercial, next phase of 5G for Verizon and more.   

The recent bursting of the Metaverse hype bubble has allowed the AR/VR/XR/MR discussions to be real applications, services and use cases rather than hyperbole.  In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Thomas Dexmier, Country Head for Australia and New Zealand at HTC VIVE. We discussed the current status of the XR market, the challenges and opportunities that it presents, as well as the exciting launch of the XR Elite headset by HTC VIVE. Additionally, we delved into the rumors surrounding Apple's potential entry into the XR market, and what that could mean for the industry.

In this episode, I talk to Brad Robbins, CEO of Lite Point, a leading test and measurement (T&M) vendor that offers mass market Wi-Fi and 5G solutions. Brad and I discuss the role of T&M in the technology/product life cycle, Lite Point's business strategy, differentiation, its Wi-Fi 7 and 6G journey, challenges in the year ahead, and more. 

Questions about 5G's RoI and monetization opportunities beyond smartphone and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) market are lingering. At the same time, 5G Advanced is brewing up, and discussions on 6G are starting. In this episode, I talk to Stephen Rose, GM of IBM for Global Telco, Media, Entertainment & Distribution verticals, on what cellular operators should do and what opportunities lie ahead.

Open RAN Layer-1 workload that performs and manages most of the radio functions is one of to critical blocks. It is highly complicated and requires real-time processing. The complexity only increases with advanced features such as massive MIMO, carrier aggregation, URLLC, etc. The debate in the industry is whether general compute or optimized accelerators are the most cost and power-efficient solutions. In this episode, I speak with Joel Brand of Marvell Semiconductor on his views on this debate. Relates articles to the subject: http://bit.ly/TA-Insights (click on vRAN/Open RAN tab)  

After much back and forth, the US government passed the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. The act provides $280 billion in funding to the US semiconductor industry. A significant part of the funding (> $50 billion) goes to fab companies for establishing new fabs in the USA, bringing much-needed resiliency to the semiconductor supply chain. The remaining funding is earmarked for various foundational, long, and short-term science and technology programs. In this episode, I discuss what is included in the act and when we can see the law's impact in real-life, with the veteran semiconductor policy expert Falan Yinug of Qualcomm. 

The tech industry is reeling under one of the worst supply shortages, This is affecting almost every industry, but some such as Automotve, are affected much more severely than others. In this episode I discuss with Qualcomm's Falan Yinug and Accenture's Timothy Chu, how the global pandemic, geopolitical issues, Ukrane war, and inflation have created a perfect storm. And the reasons behind this disparity in the effects as well as possible solutions.  This discussion is based on a comprehensive report on the semiconductor value chain publsihed by Accenure, commissioned by Qualcomm. Here is a link to the full report: Harnessing the power of the semiconductor value chain 

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has been a growing trend recently and became a norm during the pandemic. The biggest driver for this trend has been the upfront cost savings for the enterprises. A recent Oxford Economics report commissioned by Samsung analyzes the phenomenon with Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) approach and casts doubt on the perceived cost savings. In this episode, I discuss the study's findings with Chris Balcik, VP of B2B Sales at Samsung USA.  Here is the link to download the full report: Maximizing mobile value - BYOD or not to BYOD (sign-up required)  

In this episode, I interview Chris Pearson, President of 5G Americas, the US cellular operator and vendor organization. The discussion includes the opportunites and challenges of 5G Americas. as well as how the next phase of 5G and 6G will take shape in the USA. 

Discussion with Qualcomm RAN product marketing head Gerardo Giaretta on why in-line accelerators are needed for 5G virtualized and Open RAN deployments and their collaboration announcements done at MWC 2022. For reference, check out our previous podcast and articles on the subject below: Forbes: What It Takes To Build Modern 5G Open Radio Networks (Open RAN)  HPE and Qualcomm announcement signifies the role of cloud and telco collaboration in Open RAN   Podcast: Qualcomm re-entering cellular infra business with 5G RAN Solutions - How, What and Why?  

Samsung Networks had lots of news before, during and after Mobile World Congress 2002. I go behind the headlines with its head of Marketing and Business Development, Derek Johnston to discuss what that means for the company and the industry at large.  Check out this article on Samsung Networks' growth tragectery - https://bit.ly/3GSI2YY   

The discussion about 5G Private Networks often revolves around Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) and how such networks are a perfect match. In this episode, I chat with Dr. Mehmet Yavuz, CTO, and co-founder of Celona, a leading Private Network solution provider, to answer the question, "Wait for URLLC or deploy them today?" Additionally, address the perennial question, "What does a Private cellular Network do that Wi-Fi can't."  

In this episode, I discuss the mmWave RoI report and its specifics with its lead author Stephen Rose of Bell Labs Consulting. The discussion revolves around the methodology, findings, and the value of the report cellular operators and industry at large. As a reference, here is my article summarizing the findings of the report published on RCR Wireless News Can 5G mmWave deployments be profitable? Yes! Says Bell Labs Consulting      

Once famous for its simplicity, Wi-Fi has gotten increasingly complex, with many spectrum bands, (2.4 GHz, two bands of 5 GHz, 6 GHz & more to come) new topologies (e.g. Mesh), a diverse mix of devices, applications, and use cases, each requiring varied needs of speed, bandwidth, latency, etc. This has made managing even simple home Wi-Fi very difficult for the average consumer. In this podcast I talk to Bill McFarland, CTO of Plume on how managed Wi-Fi works, how it can solve the challenge of managing Wi-Fi networks, and what role AI has in making all that possible.

Learn more about what, why, and how of 5G Advanced, especially regarding the new and exciting areas it is exploring—Artificial Intelligence, Full Duplex Operation, and Network Power Saving. Each of these has its challenges when it comes to standardization. I discuss with Dr. Tingfang Ji of Qualcomm what 3GPP is looking to study and standardize, including specific features and possible performance benefits. Also, check out these additional resources referenced in the podcast: Article Series: Demystifying Cellular Patents and Licensing Podcasts: How to evaluate 5G patents – Views from the subject matter expert Is owning lots of patents equal to 5G technology leadership?

While automobiles are being transformed from mechanical machines to electromechanical gadgets driven by SoCs and software, the trend is to move from 10s of single-function, limited-capability microcontroller-based ECUs to fewer high-performance SoC-based domain controllers. Stefan Buerkle, SVP Sales at Bosch USA, and Shyam Krishnamurthy  VP & Head of Auto business at Qualcomm discuss the drivers, challenges, and the current market status of domain consolidation.

A detailed discussion with the incoming chairman of 3GPP's largest group RAN - Technical Standards Group (RAN-TSG) regarding 5G Advanced and beyond, his vision for 5G evolution, his priorities, challenges, and opportunities, and how 3GPP is well poised to go beyond smartphone market into many industry verticals. Also, please check out my two ongoing article series related to 3GPP and standards: http://bit.ly/TA-Series  1 - Demystifying Cellular Patents and Licensing  2 - The Chronicles of 3GPP Rel. 17    

An in-depth discussion with Jeni Panhorst VP & GM of Intel, on the latest trends in the Networking and EdgeCould market, what are the challenges the ecosystem is facing, and how Intel's latest 3rd Gen Xeon Scalable processors can address them. The Xeon Scalable 3rd Gen processors were announced at a recent event titled "How Wonderful Gets Done."  

Defying expectations, rural 5G is attracting a lot of attention. FCC has set up a sizable "5G Fund" to help rural cellular carriers to expand the reach of 5G in the rural parts of the country. In this episode, I discuss with Michael Irizarry - CTO of US Cellular, opportunities, challenges, and the driving forces behind rural 5G. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Articles mentioned in the podcast: 5G FWA Broadband: A Better Option For Urbanites, Increased Access For Ruralites 5G Integrated Access Backhaul (IAB) - Article Series

Small coverage footprint is one of the major challenges of mmWave bands. They require hyper-dense deployments to be effective. But bringing fiber backhaul to these is very expensive as well as time-consuming. Integrated Access Backhauls (IABs) introduced in 3GPP Rel. 16 solve that issue. It’s not just IABs, you will also need Self Interference Cancellation (SLIC) implemented in them to maximize the performance. In this episode, I talk to David Cutrer, CEO of Kumu Networks, the company developing SLIC for IABs, on how it works and when are the large-scale deployments of IABs expected. For more details, check out my Forbes article, and the article series on RCR Wireless News: https://bit.ly/TA-IAB

Intel is a leading provider of the solutions to virtualized networks--both core and RAN. In this wide ranging discussion, I talk to Caroline Chan, VP and GM of Intel's 5G Infrastructure Division (Network Platform Group) about Intel's vRAN and Open RAN journey so far, quiz her about what makes her think the market forces are aligning to make these new architectures mainstream, and how Intel is accelerating that trend with its technologies, products and partnerships.

Qualcomm was a major cellular infrastructure player in the CDMA days, but only had a limited Small Cell offerings in 4G. It all changed with their recent announcement of 5G RAN solutions for virtualized and open radio networks. In this episode, I talk to Gerardo Giaretta of Qualcomm to understand the reasons behind this new development as well as the overall vRAN and Open RAN market landscape.

Patent evaluation is a complex process. Many industry observers usually take an easy route and use simple patent counting to decide technology or market leadership, completely disregarding the quality of the patents they hold. But when it comes to patents, we know that quality matters much more than simple quantity. In this episode I talk to the head of a leading patent evaluation firm Patent Sight William Mansfield regarding patent quality vs. quantity, the patent evaluation process, and most importantly the Patent Asset Index ranking. Links to my patent quality vs. quantity articles for further reading - http://bit.ly/TA-Series 

After many years of discussions and token deployments, Open and virtualized RAN (Open RAN and vRAN) architectures are seeing lot of market interest and traction. In this interview podcast, we discuss their suitability for 5G, drivers, current status, and future trends, as well details about Samsung's recently announced Open and vRAN offerings.

The cosmic combination of 5G and AI will play a key role in the future of robotics. In this interview with Dev Singh, the head of robotics business at Qualcomm, I go behind the market speak and hyperbole to discuss the current trends, exciting applications and services they are currently working on, and how their recently announced cutting edge robotics platform, RB5, will deliver on the promise of industry 4.0.

A recent report ranked the global telecom companies based on how many 5G Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) each of those companies owned. Many industry observers and media wrongly equate patent holding to technology leadership. This podcast takes a deep dive into the perils of simple “patent counting” and explains how SEP designation works. It also explores why patent quality is more important than quantity, and what are the best ways to evaluate patents. Links referred in the podcast: Demystifying Cellular Patents and Licensing