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Weekly Recap: Boston Dynamics sold, HomePod, iMac Pro, 5 nm chip and Boson kits

June 9, 2017.

Alphabet sells Boston Dynamics to Softbank

Atlas - Boston Dynamics.

Atlas, a bipedal humanoid robot. © Boston Dynamics.

At the end of 2013, Google acquired Boston Dynamics with a view to setting up a new robotics division. Andy Rubin, father of Android, headed up the division, eventually called “Replicant” by Google. But analysts at Alphabet Inc. concluded that Boston Dynamics was years away from generating a marketable product able to contribute revenue to the company’s bottom line. A decision was made to sell the company; Toyota’s and Amazon’s research institutes were rumoured to be among interested purchasers in March 2016. Finally, Alphabet Inc. has agreed to sell robotics firm Boston Dynamics to SoftBank, the Japanese telecommunications and technology company. Terms of the deal remain undisclosed.

The Verge, “Alphabet agrees to sell Boston Dynamics to SoftBank.”

 

HomePod, the iPod for the home

HomePod.

HomePod.

HomePod. © Apple.

At the annual WWDC developers conference, Phil Schiller unveiled a brand-new Apple product, the HomePod, a connected system of seven tweeters and an array of basses for 360-degree sound, which works with Apple Music. The interface is vocal thanks to Siri and six microphones. That said, Apple isn’t positioning the product as an assistant, which is probably a good thing given Siri’s lacklustre performance compared to the competition (Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant). The HomePod’s brain is an A8 system-on-a-chip (that of the iPhone 6). This new gadget will only be available at the end of the year, and even then only in the U.S., Great-Britain and Australia, for the relatively high price of US$350.

Apple, “HomePod reinvents music in the home.”

The Verge, “How does Apple’s HomePod compare to cheaper options from Amazon and Sonos?

 

The iMac Pro surprise

iMac Pro.

iMac Pro. © Apple.

It came out of the blue, with no sneak leaks… so we were completely surprised when the iMac Pro was unveiled at the WWDC developers conference. This 27-inch model with a 5K display in a “space grey” shell is propelled by 8, 10 or 18-core Xeon processors (depending on the model). It also sports the Radeon Vega GPU (up to 16GB of memory), 128GB of ECC RAM, up to 4TB of SSD, 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports, and a 10 Gbit/s Ethernet. The machines will be available at the end of the year at a starting price of US$5,000 (you’ll have to be both patient and affluent). Apple says this will be the most powerful Macintosh ever built, but the company is already working on a future Mac Pro with a “modular design”, as opposed to the “closed all-in-one design” typical of iMacs.

Apple, “iMac Pro, the most powerful Mac ever, arrives this December.”

Ars Technica, “Here’s hoping the iMac Pro learns from the Mac Pro’s mistakes.”

 

World’s first 5 nm chip

Nicolas Loubet and a wafer of the new 5nm chips.

IBM’s Nicolas Loubet and a wafer of the new 5 nm chips. © IBM.

IBM, working with Samsung and GlobalFoundries, has unveiled the world’s first 5 nm silicon chip. Beyond the usual power, performance, and density improvement from moving to smaller transistors, the 5 nm IBM chip is notable for being one of the first to use horizontal gate-all-around (GAA) transistors, and the first real use of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. IBM says that, compared to commercial 10 nm chips (presumably Samsung’s 10 nm process), the new 5 nm technology offers a 40 percent performance boost at the same power, or a 75 percent drop in power consumption at the same performance.

Ars Technica, “IBM unveils world’s first 5nm chip.”

Développez.com, “IBM, Samsung et GlobalFoundries présentent la première puce gravée à 5 nm, grâce aux nouveaux transistors GAAFET.”

 

Boson Kits

Boson Modules.

Boson Modules. © DFRobot.

Boson’s DFRobot kits are designed to look like toys to turn kids on to electronics, programming and robotics. The modules are divided into four easily-identifiable, color-coded categories: blue for inputs, green for outputs, yellow for functions and pink for power. No need for soldering: Boson blocks simply connect to one another. The system offers no less than fifty types of modules across all four categories. There are sensors for temperature, humidity, conductivity, infrared, light, movement, sound, etc., as well as several buttons and joysticks for inputs. Outputs are motors, fans, LEDs, OLED monitors, etc. Functional modules allow for building basic logic functions, like “AND”, “OR” and “NOT”. The system is compatible with Arduino, allowing for more advanced programme writing in Scratch, Blockly, Python and JavaScript. Available by pre-order on KickStarter, for US$45 to US$309 depending on the number of modules included (11 to 59) and delivered as of next September.

Circuit Breaker, “The Boson kit is a modular robotics set that will teach kids STEM topics and coding.”