silicon

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Google hosted a packed house of clean-tech industry fans Tuesday morning at the Googleplex in what amounted to a pep rally against a California ballot proposition that would suspend a law on emissions.

In the time-honored California tradition of stuffing electoral ballots with as many controversial issues as possible, this November voters will be asked to consider Proposition 23 (click for PDF), which if approved would block a previously passed law--AB32--regulating emissions in California until unemployment levels drop below 5.5 percent for a full year. AB32 essentially requires that California emission levels match the … Read more

Venture capitalists are now less optimistic about the entrepreneurial atmosphere in Silicon Valley over the next 6 to 18 months, according to the Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Confidence Index, which reported its first drop in confidence in more than a year.

Based on a June survey of 32 Silicon Valley VCs, the index (PDF) dropped to 3.28 on a 5-point scale (1 indicating low confidence and 5 indicating high) for the second quarter. The latest number showed a decline from the first quarter's mark of 3.65 and ended a five-quarter rise in confidence after hitting a low at the end of 2008.

The downturn in confidence was sparked by concerns over sluggish economic growth in the U.S. and abroad as well as regulatory uncertainty in the VC industry, according to the index.

Several of the venture capitalists interviewed for the survey believe the still struggling economy may dampen investments, with one VC noting that the industry is basing its long-term investments more on short- and medium-term worries. Two VCs also said that fear is growing over the fragile economies in Europe and China and that both markets need to be watched for any impact they may have on business opportunities over the next year.… Read more

Intel has unveiled the prototype of a high-speed fiber-optic data system based on silicon chips with integrated lasers and detectors. The system runs at 50Gbps, with Intel claiming future scalability to 1Tbps and beyond.

Unlike current systems, Intel's prototype does not depend on discrete components to generate and detect light; instead, these are part of the same silicon substrate that contains other components, and can be made at the same time on the same dies during chip fabrication.

"It's about bringing silicon manufacturing to optical communications, bringing Moore's Law to high-bandwidth communications for every computing platform, … Read more

Not to beat this dead horse any further, but there's one thing I don't get about the whole iPhone 4 antenna hubbub: don't 99 percent of users carry their phones in a case anyway? I can't remember the last time I spotted a "naked" one. (iPhone, that is, not user. Come to think of it, haven't seen many naked users, either. Which is good.)

And if you use a case, problem solved, right? Right. Here's how to solve it on the cheap: Cases.com is offering a free LifeGrip Silicone Case for iPhone 4… Read more

commentary Former Intel CEO Andy Grove is dead on about the dire need to come up with policies to create more manufacturing jobs in the U.S. Look no further than the bustling economies in Asia if there is any doubt.

Here's a key point Grove makes in the Bloomberg piece. "Our fundamental economic beliefs, which we have elevated from a conviction based on observation to an unquestioned truism, is that the free market is the best economic system--the freer, the better...So we stick with this belief, largely oblivious to emerging evidence that while free markets beat planned economies, there may be room for a modification that is even better."

And, in a corollary, he says that the relentless push by U.S. companies to move manufacturing overseas breaks the innovation and job-creating chain, what he calls "scaling up" where companies "work out design details, figure out how to make things affordably, build factories, and hire people by the thousands. Scaling is hard work but necessary to make innovation matter."

Grove continues. "Not only did we lose an untold number of jobs, we broke the chain of experience that is so important in technological evolution. As happened with batteries, abandoning today's 'commodity' manufacturing can lock you out of tomorrow's emerging industry."

Grove is right. I lived in Japan for 10 years (until 1993). I worked mostly as a journalist, covering the Japanese high-technology industry. In one job, I translated and rewrote reams of articles from the Japanese industrial dailies (covering machine tools, cars, chemicals, computer components) over a three-year period (which, by the way, we sent to clients like AT&T, Motorola, and IBM), giving me pretty good insight into Japan's vaunted manufacturing system.

The underlying philosophy--monozukuri (making things)--was so beneficial to the Japanese economy… Read more

When I cook, I have a bad habit of burning myself. This is due entirely to carelessness on my part--if I try to flip something that I'm frying or sauteing and it flips right out of the pan, I will often simply pick it up with my fingers to toss it back in. In a word, ouch.

Fusionbrands wearable cooking tongs are made from heat-resistant silicone and let you use your fingers without scalding them. Use them on either hand to flip, turn, or stir-fry your food while keeping a close watch. The 7-inch tongs keep your fingers and … Read more

MENLO PARK, California--If you've never seen 11 all-purpose robots doing a choreographed flag-waving dance--and really, who has?--Willow Garage was the place to be Wednesday night.

That's because Willow Garage, a developer of robotics hardware and software, threw a party to celebrate the "graduation" of 11 teams (see video below) from around the world, each of which has won the right to take possession for two years of one of Willow Garage's PR2 open-source robots and work on a series of innovative and unique research projects.

The idea is that each team, using the PR2 … Read more

Smaller, faster gadgets may be cool, but keeping them from getting too hot poses challenges.

Consumer electronics, of course, contain many sources of heat, including interconnecting wiring and millions of transistors. In the past, bigger and bigger fans have been employed to keep chips from overheating, thus expanding a gadget's lifespan. But as electronics continue to shrink, so does the space where fans can be placed.

Enter graphene, a sheet of densely arranged carbon that's just a single atom thick and boasts strong heat-conducting properties. Researchers at UC Riverside's Nano-Device Laboratory have discovered a way to layer … Read more

As the world starts to recover from the economic downturn, venture capitalists from such diverse areas as Silicon Valley and China are showing renewed optimism in their industries and regions.

Analyzing the results of an April 2010 survey of 36 San Francisco Bay Area VCs, the Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Confidence Index for the first quarter of 2010 rose to 3.65 on a 5-point scale, up from last year's fourth quarter mark of 3.48.

On the other side of the Pacific, 16 VCs from China and Hong Kong polled this month registered 3.94 on the 5-point … Read more