Sunday, September 13, 2020

NVIDIA to acquire ARM for $40 billion

 In a deal that will redefine the semiconductor market, NVIDIA agreed to acquire Arm Limited from Softbank for $40 billion. Under the deal, NVIDIA will pay to SoftBank a total of $21.5 billion in NVIDIA common stock and $12 billion in cash. NVIDIA will also issue $1.5 billion in equity to Arm employees. The deal does not include Arm’s IoT Services Group.

NVIDIA vowed to retain Arm's open-licensing model while maintaining the global customer neutrality that has been foundational to its success. NVIDIA also committed to retaining Arm's headquarters in Cambridge, UK.

SoftBank will retain a minority stake in NVIDIA, which is expected to be under 10%.

“AI is the most powerful technology force of our time and has launched a new wave of computing,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “In the years ahead, trillions of computers running AI will create a new internet-of-things that is thousands of times larger than today’s internet-of-people. Our combination will create a company fabulously positioned for the age of AI.

“Simon Segars and his team at Arm have built an extraordinary company that is contributing to nearly every technology market in the world. Uniting NVIDIA’s AI computing capabilities with the vast ecosystem of Arm’s CPU, we can advance computing from the cloud, smartphones, PCs, self-driving cars and robotics, to edge IoT, and expand AI computing to every corner of the globe.

“This combination has tremendous benefits for both companies, our customers, and the industry. For Arm’s ecosystem, the combination will turbocharge Arm’s R&D capacity and expand its IP portfolio with NVIDIA’s world-leading GPU and AI technology.

https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-to-acquire-arm-for-40-billion-creating-worlds-premier-computing-company-for-the-age-of-ai

NVIDIA acquires Mellanox - focus on Next Gen Data Centers

NVIDIA completed its $7 billion acquisition of Mellanox Technologies. The deal was originally announced on March 11, 2019.

NVIDIA says that by combining its computing expertise with Mellanox’s high-performance networking technology, data center customers will achieve higher performance, greater utilization of computing resources and lower operating costs.

“The emergence of AI and data science, as well as billions of simultaneous computer users, is fueling skyrocketing demand on the world’s datacenters,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Addressing this demand will require holistic architectures that connect vast numbers of fast computing nodes over intelligent networking fabrics to form a giant datacenter-scale compute engine.

“We share the same vision for accelerated computing as NVIDIA,” said Eyal Waldman, founder and CEO of Mellanox. “Combining our two companies comes as a natural extension of our longstanding partnership and is a great fit given our common performance-driven cultures. This combination will foster the creation of powerful technology and fantastic opportunities for our people.”

NVIDIA also promised to continue investing in Israel, where Mellanox is based.

NVIDIA acquires Cumulus, promising full-stack data center innovation

NVIDIA has acquired Cumulus Networks. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Cumulus, which was founded in 2010 by JR Rivers and Nolan Leake, developed a Linux-based operating system for network switches. The company signed licensing deals with Dell, HPE, Mellanox, and Lenovo. Cumulus is also known for its pioneering work with the open network install environment (ONIE) project.  Investors in the company included Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Peter Wagner and 4 of the 5 original VMware founders. Cumulus is based in Mountain View, California.

NVIDIA said the combination of its recently-acquired Mellanox division with Cumulus Networks will enable a new era for accelerated, software-defined data centers.

NVIDIA's target is to "innovate and optimize across the entire networking stack from chips and systems to software including analytics like Cumulus NetQ, delivering great performance and value to customers."

Mellanox has been collaborating with Cumulus since 2013. Mellanox Spectrum switches already ship with Cumulus Linux and SONiC, the open source offering forged in Microsoft’s Azure cloud and managed by the Open Compute Project.

SoftBank Confirms Acquisition of ARM

SoftBank Group Corp. agreed to acquire ARM Holdings Plc in an all-cash deal valued at £24.3 billion. (US$32.4 billion), or 1,700 pence per ARM share, and representing a premium of 43% over the closing price on preceding trading day. The deal would be Softbank's largest to date.


SoftBank, which is based in Tokyo and is headed by Masayoshi Son, said it intends to preserve the ARM organization and business model, including ARM's senior management team and its headquarters in Cambridge, England. The companies said they intend to double employee headcount in the UK over the next five years.

ARM is the leading developer of RISC processor designs that are widely licensed for use in smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, embedded systems, and, increasing, servers. The company posted 2015 revenue of £968.3 million. A total of 14.8 billion ARM-powered SoCs shipped in 2015, up from just over 12 billion in 2014.

SoftBank will fund the acquisition with cash on hand and a load from Mizuho Bank of Japan.


“We have long admired ARM as a world renowned and highly respected technology company that is by some distance the market-leader in its field. ARM will be an excellent strategic fit within the SoftBank group as we invest to capture the very significant opportunities provided by the “Internet of Things,” stated  Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank.

Regarding strategic rationale, both companies said they see big opportunities ahead with IoT.




NVIDIA video: accelerating public and private clouds

 Customers deploying cloud infrastructure run into performance issues in four key areas: virtualization, SDN, storage, and security. In this video, Ash Bhalgat, Senior Director of Cloud & Telco Market Development at NVIDIA’s Networking Business Unit, explains how to achieve maximum cloud infrastructure efficiency without sacrificing performance by using NVIDIA’s Mellanox Networking products and open-source software tools.

See video: 


Ericsson hits 5.4 Gbps in its own C Band campus network

 Ericsson demonstrated a 5G campus network using C Band spectrum and achieving 5.4 Gbps peak cell capacity.

The demonstration used Ericsson's commercial equipment and 16-layer Multi-user MIMO 256 QAM with 8 UEs over 100MHz on C Band.

The C Band campus network utilizes a test license C Band Special Temporary Authorization (STA) from the FCC and consists of 64T64R AAS radio, baseband, Router 6000 and core network equipment from Ericsson, and is part of the 5G Distributed Innovation Network at Ericsson’s Plano, Texas, facility.

Kevin Zvokel, Head of Networks, Ericsson North America says: “Exceeding 5 Gbps on C Band spectrum sets high expectations for mid-band 5G deployments in the US. Ericsson is prepared to help our customers deploy 5G infrastructure now with superior performance and coverage to deliver the full potential of 5G.”




Ericsson 5G Radio Dot deployed in Shenyang's subway

 Ericsson’s 5G indoor radio small cell solution has been deployed on Shenyang’s subway Line 9.

The Ericsson Radio Dot system is now providing China Mobile 5G connectivity across all 22 stations on the line. The 5G network has been operational for several months. The Ericsson 5G Radio Dot System on Line 9 operates on various China Mobile frequencies. It provides a stable downlink of 1Gbps and a maximum transmission rate of up to 1.4Gbps. A 1GB high-definition movie could therefore be downloaded within 10 seconds.

More than 900,000 passengers use the subway system in Shenyang, northeast China, every day. 

Ericsson said it managed to install more than 500 5G Radio Dots across the 22 stations in just 20 days - 40 days ahead of schedule.

Dr. Jessey Huang, Head of Ericsson’s Indoor Product Line, says: “The Ericsson 5G Radio Dot provides high-quality 5G performance in areas where it has been traditionally difficult to get coverage and high data speeds. As 5G subscriptions increase, the 5G Radio Dot is the perfect answer to meeting the increasing data needs of subscribers in such areas, for example, subway stations.  We have worked closely with China Mobile on the Shenyang Subway Line 9 deployment and it is a milestone for 5G-enabled transportation in Liaoning province. This opens doors to high-speed connectivity with low latency to passengers for bandwidth-intensive applications while on the move. The 5G-enabled subway will also facilitate Shenyang’s transformation to a smart city.”


Ericsson updates its Radio Dot for 5G

Ericsson has enhanced its Radio Dot System with a tri-band model supporting multi-band, multi-operator deployments; a new fiber solution for increased backhaul flexibility; and a model supporting 4G and 5G deployments.

The new multi-band Dot and IRU ensure higher network speeds through carrier aggregation, including support for both 4G and 5G on one Cat cable – an industry-leading solution. This creates stable and easy migration paths for service providers. The fiber solution will also allow service providers to capitalize on pre-existing fiber in buildings, showcasing the company’s flexibility in design and delivery.

Ericsson plans to ship these new solutions in the second half of 2020.

Korean cable laying ship catches fire and sinks

 A fire broke out on the Souther Korean-flagged cable-laying ship Responder west of the southern tip of Tsushima island, East China sea, South Korea. The incident occurred west of the southern tip of Tsushima island in the East China sea.  According to Maritime Bulletin, all sixty personnel were evacuated. The ship subsequently sank.


https://youtu.be/593KwsfiajI

http://www.maritimebulletin.net/2020/09/11/cable-laying-ship-on-fire-all-60-personnel-evacuated-east-china-sea/

Huawei and China Unicom hit 4.7 Gbps per cell with indoor MIMO

Huawei and China Unicom achieved a peak rate of up to 4.7 Gbps for cells with 100 MHz bandwidth in a test of 5G indoor distributed Massive MIMO

This indoor distributed Massive MIMO test was deployed and verified in the China's National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA) using multiple terminals, and results showed that the downlink peak rate reached 4.7 Gbps in 100 MHz C-band cells.

Dr. Li Fuchang, Director of the Wireless Technology Research Center of China Unicom Research Institute, said: "At China Unicom, we are committed to improving the quality of products and services through innovation to bring intelligent technologies to customer's lives and increase the efficiency of production for businesses. To achieve this goal, China Unicom has been working with Huawei to innovate on the indoor distributed massive MIMO technology. With the rapid development of user bases and applications, 5G traffic requirements will increase also rapidly. This solution will help us pursue flexible capacity expansion on live networks, laying a solid technological foundation for continuing to deliver premium 5G experience for customers and diversifying 5G vertical applications for various businesses."

 technology.

The indoor distributed Massive MIMO technology is one of the innovative applications implemented in the 5G Capital project, which was launched last year in Beijing by Huawei and China Unicom to demonstrate the transformative power of 5G.

Ribbon to offer its UCaaS on IBM Cloud

 Ribbon Communications has joined the IBM Cloud for Financial Services ecosystem and intends to onboard its Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) offering to the platform. 

Ribbon's Kandy Business Solutions will provide financial institutions with a full suite of cloud-based Unified Communications (UC) services (Cloud PBX, Cloud Collaboration, Cloud Contact Center, SIP Trunks) and clients like chat, video, voice and text, enabling the seamless transition of business communications to the cloud.

"We are excited to expand our relationship with Ribbon Communications by helping to onboard its Kandy Business Solutions to the IBM Cloud for Financial Services," said Evaristus Mainsah, General Manager, Cloud, Cloud Pak and Edge Ecosystem, IBM. "Ribbon's offering can help financial institutions transform their business communications with a safe platform. Ribbon's participation in our ecosystem helps to provide financial services customers with innovative tools and solutions that enable them to move their operations to the cloud."

  • Ribbon recently announced that it has entered into an agreement to sell the Kandy Communications business, including Kandy Business Solutions, to American Virtual Cloud Technologies, Inc. (AVCtechnologies). The proposed sale, which is expected to close in the second half of 2020, is subject to receipt of the approval of AVCtechnologies' stockholders, AVCtechnologies' completion of an equity offering, consent of the lenders under Ribbon's credit facility, as well as other customary closing conditions.