6 Models of the Modern Datacenter

A look inside the new datacenters of Fidelity, GM, Capital One, Equinix, ServiceNow, and Bank Of America shows the future of computing.



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Always-on Analytics Beyond NSA's Dreams

It looks as if always-on analytics will pair with always-on connectivity and augmented reality, beyond the NSA's wildest dreams.



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Broadcom exiting cellular baseband processors

Broadcom is pulling out of baseband processors.

The company has hired J P Morgan to evaluate options including a ‘potential sale or wind-down’.

The baseband processor market is dominated by Qualcomm with 64% market share followed by Mediatek with 12% share and Intel with 8% share. At the beginning of last year, Broadcom was the No.4 player in baseband processors but it was overtaken in Q3 by Spreadtrum.

Getting out of baseband will save the company $600 million a year on R&D and S&GA expenses plus a further saving of $100 million in stock-related compensation, says Broadcom,

However there may be re-structuring charges which are not included in the $600 million.

Broadcom shares soared on the news.

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Smartphone royalties match BOM

Royalties paid by smartphone makers to license patents are costing almost the same as the BOM, says a report written by Intel’s vp and associate general counsel Ann Armstrong and two private practice lawyers.

“We estimate potential patent royalties in excess of $120 on a hypothetical $400 smartphone—which is almost equal to the cost of the device’s components,” say the lawyers.

LTE royalty rates are, per $400 device:

$

Qualcomm. 13

Motorola. 9

Alcatel- Lucent. 8

Huawei. 6

Ericsson. 6

Nokia. 6

Nortel. 4

ZTE. 4

Siemens. 3.2

Via Licensing 2.10

Sisvel 1.36

These account for $54 of the price of the $400 smartphone and, in addition, there are other companies with necessary LTE patents which have not announced their LTE royalty rates like Samsung, InterDigital and LG.

Patent holders have been selling or licensing patents to companies which then use the patents to sue people and make a profit for themselves and the original patent holder. An example is MobileMediaIdeas owned by Sony and Nokia.

Such companies are called ‘Patent Privateers’ and are favoured by struggling companies, says the report. Their net effect is to drive up royalty rates. However their success rates in litigation are low.

Of 58 cases relating to standard essential patents (SEPs) necessary to manufacture a smartphone which were initiated by Motorola, InterDigital and Samsung, only 7 were found valid, 18 found invalid, 17 found not infringed, and 16 were withdrawn or dismissed.

Tech companies are plagued by trolls’ lawsuits, says the report. Apple has had 191 in the last five years, Samsung 152, HP 150, AT&T 147, Dell 140, Google 127, Amazon 125, Sony 125, Verizon 124, LG 117, HTC 115.

These figures do not include demands for royalties that never got to court.

The net result of all this trolling activity is, says the report, a reduction of profitability in phone manufacturing, the limitation of phone manufacturing to companies which already have a large patent portfolio and a consequent reduction in the smartphone industry’s competitiveness.

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Leap Motion Gives Gesture Update

Motion sensing company Leap Motion is testing advanced software that will identify complex movements. Founder and CTO David Holz spoke with EE Times about his vision for changing the way humans interact with technology.



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100G Effort Eyes One Optical Lane

A June workshop will scope out the possibilities and challenges for sending 100 Gbits/s over a single lambda focusing on data centers.



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Modular Products Make Strong Gains

A recent abundance of new modular test products indicates that modular instruments are gaining ground on boxes.



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