For decades, you could test a computer chip’s mettle by how small and tightly packed its electronic circuitry is. Now Intel believes another dimension is as big a deal: how artfully a group of such chips can be packaged into a single, more powerful processor. At the Hot Chips conference Monday, Intel Chief Executive Pat …

Teaching robots to understand language turns out to help them deal with the open-ended complexity of the real world, Google has discovered. The tech giant has grafted its latest artificial intelligence technology for handling language, called PaLM, onto robots from Everyday Robots, one of the experimental divisions from parent company Alphabet. It revealed the resulting technology, called PaLM-SayCan, on Tuesday. …

When you can’t buy that Sony PS5 or Ford F-150 pickup, blame the chip shortage. A worldwide problem triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has metastasized into a years-long disruption of everything electronic and is prompting governments to spend lavishly on chipmaking subsidies. The shortage is leading the tech industry and politicians to try to reverse the United States’ waning importance in the microprocessor …

President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law Tuesday, sending $52.7 billion to processor manufacturers over five years in an effort to help the US reclaim semiconductor industry leadership lost to Taiwanese and Korean companies and challenged by increasingly capable Chinese firms. The legislation has already helped encourage smartphone chip designer Qualcomm to spend $4.2 billion with …

What’s happening Nvidia announced technology to let metaverse developers create lifelike avatars that can give an animated human face to the computers that people will interact with online. Why it matters The metaverse needs new computing tools if it’s to live up to its potential of new 3D realms for working, learning, socializing and goofing off, and Nvidia’s technology could …

Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon launched a public effort in July to scrap the leap second, an occasional extra tick that keeps clocks in sync with the Earth’s actual rotation. US and French timekeeping authorities concur. Since 1972, the world’s timekeeping authorities have added a leap second 27 times to the global clock known as the International Atomic Time (TAI). Instead …

What’s happening Quantum computer maker Quantinuum proved the merits of 1990s idea, catching and correcting errors as a calculation progresses. Why it matters This key step ultimately could potentially make the revolutionary machines practical, tackling problems in areas like materials science and medicine that are out of the reach of conventional computers. Quantinuum, a leader in the nascent field of …

President Joe Biden will sign the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 into law on Aug. 9 in a Rose Garden ceremony, the White House said in a press statement Wednesday, a move that will flood $52.7 billion in funding to US chipmakers over five years.  The bill should help companies like Intel and GlobalFoundries compete with Asian processor manufacturers like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing …

With the COVID spending spree on PCs at an end and consumers spooked by the economy, Intel’s profit and revenue plunged in the second quarter, the chipmaker said Thursday. Intel’s own problems, like delays in data center chip upgrades, also were a major factor. Analysts were appalled. “Intel’s Q2 takes the prize for the worst we have seen in our career,” …

What’s happening Intel’s nascent effort to build chips for other companies, called Intel Foundry Services, won over a major customer, Taiwan-based MediaTek. Why it matters By helping Intel’s efforts to reclaim its chipmaking leadership and expand processor manufacturing in the US, MediaTek’s business could make Intel and the country more competitive. Intel has signed up Taiwanese smartphone chip designer MediaTek …