Categoria: HardwareSoftware

You can lose everything

Europe’s top markets regulator has warned investors about the pitfalls of buying newly issued crypto coins, an experimental and unregulated form of online crowd funding particularly used by start-up businesses.

But the European Securities and Markets Watchdog (ESMA) said on Monday such Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) were unregulated, volatile, not transparent and technologically untested.

“ICOs are extremely risky and highly speculative investments,” the agency said, adding there was a risk of “the total loss of your investment”.

“Many of the coins or tokens … have no intrinsic value other than … to use them to access or use a service/product”, said the agency, warning coin issuers they may be subject to existing regulations.

After Swiss and Wall Street regulators, ESMA is the latest to demand tighter scrutiny of cryptocurrencies. China has banned ICOs.

By creating and issuing digital tokens, entrepreneurs can sometimes raise tens of millions of dollars within hours – with little regulatory oversight. Token holders are generally not given a share in a project or security.

ICOs have fueled a rapid rise in the value of all cryptocurrencies, from about $ 17 billion at the start of the year to a record high of close to $ 180 billion in early September.

Running at 16Gbps

Inside Samsung’s bragging announcement that it managed to sweep a total of 36 CES 2018 innovation awards, is the announcement of its “fastest and lowest power DRAM”, a 16Gb GDDR6 memory running at 16Gbps.

According to a brief statement, Samsung says its GDDR6 is running at 16Gbps with 64GB/s data I/O bandwidth. Operating at 1.35V, it also offers significant advantages compared to the GDDR5 memory which usually runs at 1.5V and offer speeds of around 8Gbps.

According to what we know GDDR5 does work at 1.5V, but also supports 1.35V in low-power operation, with a slightly lower rata rate and has dynamic voltage scaling with on-the-fly change between 1.5V and 1.35V.

Micron’s own GDDR5X specification shows that it is quite similar to the announced GDDR6 memory from Samsung, with a slightly lower 8Gb density. It also works at 1.35V and has a separate 1.8V supply but offers significant improvement in data rates, reaching up to 16Gbps.

It will be quite interesting to see the full specification of Samsung’s announced 16Gb GDDR6 memory but guess we will hear about it at CES 2018 show. We also expect both Micron and SK Hynix to announce GDDR6 memory by the end of this year or early next year.

Not in best interest of shareholders

As Fudzilla suspected, Qualcomm’s board of directors has unanimously rejected Broadcom’s offer to acquire it. The board thinks it is not good for shareholders and that it dramatically undervalues Qualcomm.

This is just not how these big acquisitions work, usually, these companies sit together, work for a while and try to negotiate important details and then go to the public. The $ 105 billion bid does sound a lot but bear in mind that Nvidia’s market cap is about $ 130 billion dollars, a product of great stock performance, but honestly, Qualcomm’s portfolio seems broader and shows more potential on the long run.

Nvidia’s spike was based on machine learning and artificial intelligence performance and some automotive promise for the future. Qualcomm has more, including the soon to finish NXP acquisition, a great patent portfolio, high-end phone SoC leadership, Modem and WiFi leadership in 4G and 5G and even automotive, the world’s first 10nm server and Windows 10 holding great Snapdragon potential. These are just some of the things that Broadcom would gain if it was successful with the acquisition.

“It is the Board’s unanimous belief that Broadcom’s proposal significantly undervalues Qualcomm relative to the Company’s leadership position in mobile technology and our future growth prospects,” said Paul Jacobs, Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board of Qualcomm Incorporated. 

“No company is better positioned in mobile, IoT, automotive, edge computing and networking within the semiconductor industry.  We are confident in our ability to create significant additional value for our stockholders as we continue our growth in these attractive segments and lead the transition to 5G”, said Steve Mollenkopf, Chief Executive Officer of Qualcomm Incorporated.

“The Board and Management are singularly focused on driving value for Qualcomm’s shareholders. After a comprehensive review, conducted in consultation with our financial and legal advisors, the Board has concluded that Broadcom’s proposal dramatically undervalues Qualcomm and comes with significant regulatory uncertainty.  We are highly confident that the strategy Steve and his team are executing on provides far superior value to Qualcomm shareholders than the proposed offer”, said Tom Horton, Presiding Director for Qualcomm Incorporated.