Synaptics Incorporated has extended its award-winning Synaptics Astra AI-Native platform with the SR-Series high-performance adaptive microcontroller units (MCUs) for scalable context-aware Edge AI. The series features three tiers of operation: performance (100 GOPS), efficiency, and ultra-low-power (ULP) always-on (AON) to deliver intelligence at every power level. Based on an Arm Cortex-M55 core and the Arm Ethos-U55 neural processing unit (NPU), the SR-Series is supported by the Astra Machina Micro development kit and open-source SDK. It is optimized for multimodal consumer, enterprise, and industrial Internet of Things (IoT) workloads with accelerators and adaptive vision, audio, and voice algorithms. The small-form-factor MCUs have a rich set of peripherals—including multiple camera interfaces—to help minimize system cost, power, and footprint while enabling integration into a wide range of devices, such as battery-operated security cameras, sensors, appliances, point-of-sale, digital signage, and scanners.

Announced at EW2024 with the SL-Series MPUs, the Synaptics Astra AI-Native compute platform for the IoT combines scalable, low-power compute silicon for the device Edge with open-source, easy-to-use software and tools and Veros wireless connectivity. The platform was built upon Synaptics' foundation in neural networks, field-hardened AI hardware and compiler design expertise for the IoT, and refined, in-house support of a broad base of modalities.

Synaptics Incorporated today launched the Veros Seamless Intelligent Connectivity brand with high-performance systems on chip (SoCs) for Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth, and 802.15.4. Signifying leadership and innovation, Veros encapsulates decades of field-hardened technology and IoT connectivity expertise. It encompasses Synaptics' entire wireless portfolio of proven solutions characterized by superior performance, interoperability, coexistence, power efficiency, and bill of materials integration.

The new high-performance SoCs, the SYN4383 and SYN43756E, add to Veros by explicitly targeting devices that demand the highest Wi-Fi throughput and range with seamless network interoperability. The SYN4383 extends Synaptics' award-winning "Triple Combo" Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/802.15.4 series with real simultaneous dual-band (RSDB) operation and greater system integration. The SYN43756E fortifies Synaptics' widely adopted 2x2 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combo SoCs with a 6E Wi-Fi band and LE Audio.

Targus, a leader in universal docking solutions and tech accessories, announced the retail availability of its first-to-market hybrid/universal docks that support four 4K displays or a single 8K display plus two 4K displays via a single USB-C cable. Both state-of-the-art docks will be on display at CES 2023, Jan. 5-8 in Las Vegas. "Today's professionals need to work productively from anywhere, with the advantage of multiple monitors and greater security," says Andrew Corkill, Vice President of Global Marketing & eCommerce at Targus. "Our new DOCK710 and DOCK720 deliver that productivity, performance, and security in a compact design to maintain a clutter-free workspace."

"Targus is at the cutting edge of docking station design for high-productivity workers on the move," says Jeff Lukanc, Synaptics' VP of Video Interface Marketing. "Their customers demand the best, so we're delighted they have chosen to combine our DisplayLink and SentryPoint technologies to ensure both optimum 4K video performance and a convenient, seamless, and secure user experience."

According to the latest TrendForce statistics, revenue of the top ten global IC design houses reached US$39.56 billion in 2Q22, growing 32% YoY. Growth was primarily driven by demand for data centers, networking, IoT, and high-end product portfolios. AMD achieved synergy through mergers and acquisitions. In addition to climbing to third place, the company also posted the highest annual revenue growth rate in 2Q22 at 70%.

Qualcomm continues in the No. 1 position worldwide, exhibiting growth in the mobile phone, RF front-end, automotive, and IoT sectors. Sales of mid/low-end mobile phone APs were weak but demand for high-end mobile phone APs was relatively stable. Company revenue reached US$9.38 billion, or 45% growth YoY. NVIDIA benefitted from expanded application of GPUs in data centers to expand this product category's revenue share past the 50% mark to 53.5%, making up for the 13% YoY slump in its game application business, bringing total revenue to US$7.09 billion, though annual growth rate slowed to 21%. AMD reorganized its business after the addition of Xilinx and Pensando. The company's embedded division revenue increased by 2,228% YoY. In addition, its data center department also made a considerable contribution. AMD posted revenue of US$6.55 billion, achieving 70% growth YoY, highest amongst the top ten. Broadcom's sales performance in semiconductor solutions remained solid and demand for cloud services, data centers, and networking is quite strong. The company's purchase order backlog is still increasing with 2Q22 revenue reaching US$6.49 billion, an annual growth rate of 31%.

According to the latest TrendForce statistics, the top ten IC designers worldwide posted a combined revenue of US$39.43 billion in 1Q22, or 44% growth YoY. Qualcomm, NVIDIA, Broadcom ranked in the top three. After the acquisition of Xilinx, AMD surpassed MediaTek in the fourth position. In addition, according to TrendForce tracking of IC design industry trends, revenue generated by Will Semiconductor and Cirrus Logic was enough to be included in the top ten for the first time.

Benefiting from growth performance in handsets and RF front-end divisions in addition to its IoT and automotive divisions in 1Q22, Qualcomm's quarterly revenue reached US$9.55 billion, or 52% growth YoY, ranking number one in the world. The expanded application of GPUs in data centers boosted this portion of NVIDIA's revenue to 45.4%, surpassing the 45% accounted for by its gaming business, combining for a total revenue of US$7.9 billion, or 53% growth YoY. Broadcom's revenue from semiconductor solutions is substantial, including network chips, broadband communication chips, and storage and bridging chips. Its business has maintained stable sales performance, with revenue reaching US$6.11 billion, or 26% growth YoY. After the addition of Xilinx, AMD's revenue reached US$5.89 billion, or 71% growth YoY. However, even excluding Xilinx, due to strong sales in its enterprise, embedded and semi-customized divisions, AMD's own business revenue still hit an all-time high of US$5.33 billion.

MEMS or microelectromechanical systems have been around for some time and the technology has allowed for the miniaturisation of a wide range of things. If you're not familiar with MEMS, then the quick version is that it's a way of making movable parts out of the same type silicon used to make semiconductors out of, in the same kind of fabs. xMEMS is a company that has specialised in making what the company calls microspeakers using MEMS technology and the first headphones based on its microspeakers should arrive later this year. The company was demoing a 3D printed mockup together with an OEM manufacturer called Vencer at Computex and we got some hands and ear on time with them.

The 3D printed units aren't what you'd call amazing looking and the fit was far from perfect, especially as the foam eartips that were installed didn't form a proper seal for yours truly. As such it was impossible to make any kind of sound quality judgement on the show floor, but it would appear that MEMS earphones share a lot with balanced armatures, in that a good seal is needed for them to sound good. The demo unit connected via USB-C and what's not in the picture, was a rather big and unsightly three button control unit on the cord, which also contained a CX31988 audio codec from Synaptics. One interesting aspect of MEMS speakers is that they can be used in both open and closed modes, where the open mode would be used for things like having phone calls or instead of enabling ambient mode on ANC type earbuds. The closed mode would work like a normal pair of driver units inside your earbuds. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long for a final product to arrive and put it through its paces, but we weren't given any indication on when retail products could be available, beyond sometime later this year.

Synaptics Incorporated today announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire DisplayLink Corp., a leader in high-performance video compression technology, for $305 million in an all-cash transaction. The deal is expected to close in Synaptics' first quarter of fiscal year 2021, subject to customary closing conditions, and be financed from existing cash on hand. Synaptics expects the transaction to add approximately $94 million in annualized sales and be immediately accretive to non-GAAP gross margins, non-GAAP operating margins, and non-GAAP earnings post-close.

DisplayLink's high performance software compression technology enables universal docking and casting of high bandwidth video from any device to any display using any transport medium such as USB, Ethernet or Wi-Fi. For the Enterprise IT market, the solution supports multi-OS environments including Windows, MacOS, ChromeOS and Ubuntu Linux enabling a myriad of devices to seamlessly dock to multiple high resolution (4K, 8K) displays.

Synaptics Incorporated today announced the signing of definitive agreements under which Synaptics will acquire certain assets and manufacturing rights associated with the wireless IoT business of Broadcom for approximately $250 million in an all-cash transaction. Under the terms of the agreements, Synaptics will acquire certain rights to Broadcom's existing Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS/GNSS products and business in the IoT market as well as future roadmap devices designed in advanced process nodes. The acquisition further strengthens and accelerates Synaptics' position in the fast-growing consumer IoT market.

Synaptics expects the transaction to add approximately $65 million in current annualized sales and provide significant revenue growth potential. The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to Synaptics' non-GAAP gross margins and non-GAAP earnings post-close.

News made the rounds recently of AMD's Lisa Su's reported plans of leaving the company in favor of a #2 position at IBM. The report, which was broken by WCCFTech, pegged Lisa Su as already being sprucing up her successor in the form of Rick Bergman, who recently joined AMD after leaving his CEO position with Synaptics.

Now, Lisa Su herself has come out on Twitter to say that there was zero truth to the report, and that she plans to stay with AMD, where "the best is yet to come". Of course, no CEO would confirm such a report from a media outlet - these things take their time and are done in their own corporate way, and there's really no other response that Lisa Su could have given that wouldn't damage AMD's current outlook. Her presence and confidence in her delivery is part of the reason for investor confidence in AMD. That said, I doubt there would be a better time for Lisa Su to actually move higher up in her own career perspectives than from AMD's current state.

AMD sent out a press release earlier today confirming that Rick Bergman has rejoined the company after eight years as president and CEO of Synaptics. He was, as the grizzled veterans of TechPowerUp may recall, with the AMD/ATI conglomeration for a decade before then. Rick, in AMD's own words, "brings extensive semiconductor experience, a deep technology understanding from a platform and product perspective, and extensive general management experience" and will take over as the external VP of Computing and Graphics from Sandeep Chennakeshu, who leaves AMD at the end of August after a short stint with the company for unnamed reasons.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES today announced that the company's 22nm FD-SOI (22FDX ) technology has delivered more than two billion dollars of client design win revenue. With more than 50 total client designs, 22FDX is proving to be the industry's leading platform for power-optimized chips across a broad range of high-growth applications such as automotive, 5G connectivity and the Internet of Things (IoT).

For clients who need significant reductions in power and die size relative to a traditional bulk CMOS process, 22FDX offers the industry's lowest operating voltage, delivering up to 500MHz frequencies at only 0.4 volts. The technology also delivers efficient single-chip integration of RF, transceiver, baseband, processor, and power management components, providing an unparalleled combination of high performance RF and mmWave functionality with low-power, high density logic for devices that require long-lasting battery life, increased processing capability, and connectivity.

"At Synaptics, as we expand upon our industry-leading mobile and PC businesses to include delivering new and innovative products that address the booming IoT market, we require the best available technologies to enable us to deliver top-notch solutions including voice and multimedia processing capabilities for our customers," said Rick Bergman, President and CEO at Synaptics. "GF's 22FDX technology delivers a potent mix of low static and dynamic power along with excellent performance to give us a great platform for our world-class products."

Michael Myng, more commonly known as ZwClose, was approached by a friend to look into the possibility of controlling the keyboard's backlighting on his HP laptop. Michael was down for the challenge, and his friend sent the Synaptics SynTP.sys file over to him. After analyzing the keyboard driver, he found the sleeping keylogger. The logging function is disabled by default. However, intruders can enable it easily by modifying the registry value through malicious code. Michael reported the issue to HP, and the company released a list of the affected laptop models along with a security patch. The list contains over 400 models from HP's most popular product lines like the EliteBook, ProBook, ZBook, Spectre Pro, ENVY, Pavilion, OMEN - just mention a few. Now that the vulnerability is public, we urge HP laptop owners to install the security patch ASAP. The fix is also available on Windows Update if that's your preferred method.

Synaptics Incorporated, the leading developer of human interface solutions, today announced its AudioSmart CX21988-THX is the industry's first USB-C audio codec solution to achieve THX Approval. By offering a THX Approved USB-C audio codec, Synaptics can supply OEMs with an important building block that affords a significant head start in the development of THX Certified headphones and headsets, mobile gaming devices and other personal audio devices. THX, founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1983, is a globally recognized assurance of uncompromising quality, consistency and performance.

"The key to developing a great sounding set of headphones, especially ones capable of accurately reproducing the engineered sound field of a mix, is utilizing a winning combination of professional-grade components," said Peter Vasay, Senior Vice President, Technology and Operations, THX. "The Synaptics AudioSmart CX21988-THX USB-C codec impressed us, as it supports high-resolution audio with best-in-class headphone performance, and boasts ultra-low distortion, and tuning options to greatly improve the performance of connected transducers. We believe it to be the ideal foundation for the development of THX Certified headphones."

Thermaltake gaming hardware brand Tt eSports today announced the Black FP gaming mouse with integrated fingerprint sensor, which it had first unveiled at the 2016 International CES, earlier this year. The mouse, which is mostly based on the Black V2 platform, integrates a Synaptics IronVeil fingerprint sensor located along its left side, just above where you'd rest your right thumb.

The Synaptics IronVeil sensor is compliant with FIDO-UAF specifications, and has an NSA-approved software path to your machine. Your machine sees the sensor as a separate device. Data from this sensor is encrypted with the 256-bit AES standard. The sensor can be used to authenticate a variety of functions such as Windows Hello machine login, game-client login, in-game purchase authentication, and biometric file encryption. As a mouse, it gives you an Avago 9500 sensor with 5,700 dpi laser sensor resolution, Omron switches, 7 programmable buttons, Teflon glide bases, and adjustable weights. Available now, the Tt eSports Black FP is priced at US $59.99.

Thermaltake's gaming hardware brand Tt eSports is the first to integrate Synaptics IronVeil fingerprint sensor into the mouse, with its new Tt eSports Black V2 gaming mouse. Placed slightly above where your right thumb would grip the mouse, this 4 mm x 10 mm rectangular sensor scans your thumbprint with an accuracy of 1/50,000 false-pass and 3/100 false-fail; letting you use the IronVeil software to authenticate a variety of things.

IronVeil technology is FIDO compliant, and is natively supported by Windows 10 and Windows Hello, letting you log-in or wake/unlock your machine using your thumb. It's also supported by various e-commerce websites, MMO games (login and quick in-game micro-transactions), game DRM services (such as Steam and Origin), and multi-step authentication by popular social-media websites. The rest of the mouse's feature-set is identical to the Black V2 that's already in the market for $49.99. The IronVeil-integrated variant of this mouse will launch soon, at $59.99.

Synaptics Inc., a leading developer of human interface solutions for mobile computing, communications and entertainment devices, today announced support for NVIDIA's DirectTouch architecture for the tablet market. Through its engineering partnership with NVIDIA, Synaptics continues to address consumer demand for thinner and lighter tablet devices that deliver an enhanced user experience. By collaborating with NVIDIA on DirectTouch, Synaptics offers OEMs broad choices on tablet touch solutions, including the recently announced high-performance, single asic ClearPad 7300, the industry's premier large touch screen solution.

With industry leading system-level engineering expertise, global design and technical support centers and over 1 billion capacitive touch solutions in the market, Synaptics is uniquely positioned to help enrich the success of the DirectTouch architecture. DirectTouch is a new technology of the NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor, the world's only 4-PLUS-1 quad-core processor with a fifth battery saver core.