When the open source streaming service, Apache Kafka, was created in 2011 at LinkedIn, it was a different world.
The way they do that is by taking advantage of today’s cloud environment to separate compute from storage using an object storage service like Amazon S3.
“When you interact and store data in cloud object storage you get to sidestep all these networking fees that plague these big data systems when they get lifted, shifted into the cloud,” he said.
“Based on our experience building the kind of storage system on top of object storage we had built at DataDog, we felt like streaming systems should work the same way.
The founders brought some of the folks who helped build Husky to build the new system, and today they have 9 employees.
Satellite sensors collect an incredible amount of raw data, but on-orbit compute limitations mean that operators have little way to process this data in space.
The startup is developing radiation-hardened edge computers for on-orbit data processing and eventually even autonomous decision-making.
The startup’s first generation space computer is called the AetherNxN, which is based around an Nvidia Orin processor.
Aethero is planning to release a larger, second-generation module for bigger spacecraft before transitioning to a proprietary space processor.
“We see ourselves as becoming the Intel or Nvidia of the space industry,” he said.
The UK has exited the European Union, but semiconductor development is emerging as one of the areas where it hopes to partner for better economies of scale — and much-needed funding.
The UK itself said it would put up a more modest £35 million ($44 million) in funding for UK efforts over the next few years as part of that.
The Chips Joint Undertaking, for example, has an overall budget of about €11 billion from both public and private contributions.
In December 2023, Pragmatic Semiconductor, another Cambridge-based chip company, raised $231 million at a $500 million valuation.
“We are very happy to welcome the UK to the Chips Joint Undertaking as a participating state,” said Jari Kinaret, Chips JU Executive Director, in a statement.
Google announced a bunch of new features for Google Play listings for games including AI-powered FAQs, displaying the latest YouTube videos, new immersive ad formats, and support for native PC game publishing.
These announcements were made at the Google Games Developer Summit held at San Fransisco.
Play Pass and Play PointsTo drive more in-app purchases, Google is now allowing developers to set discounts for users who have the company’s Play Pass subscription.
Support for PC gamesIn the last few years, Google has made its Play Games for PC program available in more than 120 countries.
Now, the company is set to allow publishers to put native PC games on the Play Store.
Covariant is building ChatGPT for robots The UC Berkeley spinout says its new AI platform can help robots think more like peopleCovariant this week announced the launch of RFM-1 (Robotics Foundation Model 1).
“We at Covariant have already deployed lots of robots at warehouses with success.
“We do like a lot of the work that is happening in the more general purpose robot hardware space,” says Chen.
“ChatGPT for robots” isn’t a perfect analogy, but it’s a reasonable shorthand (especially in light of the founders’ connection to OpenAI).
Chen says the company expects the new RFM-1 platform will work with a “majority” of the hardware on which Covariant software is already deployed.
Catalan startup Showee, which is building smart showers with accessibility in mind, is one such company.
Here’s a video showing how it works:More than the hardware, Showee won awards and praise for the social impact it’s trying to make.
The company’s CTO, Eloi Mirambell, admitted that the smart shower’s price will have to go down before it has a real chance at B2C.
The startup says its shower uses 50% less water than a regular shower.
In its FAQ, the startup says that all shower units are sold out, but Showee will be available again starting April 2024.
Apple announced new MacBook Air models with 13-inch and 15-inch screen sizes with M3 Chip.
The 13-inch model starts at $1,099 and the 15-inch model starts at $1,200.
Both variants are available for pre-orders in the U.S. starting today with general availability slotted for March 8.
Apple unveiled the M2 Macbook Air in 2022 and added the 15-inch model to the portfolio last year.
Both Macbook Air models have 18 hours of claimed battery life, a 1080p webcam, Wi-Fi 6E connectivity, and support for two external displays.
Today, Groq announced that it’s forming a new division — Groq Systems — focused on greatly expanding its customer and developer ecosystem.
In forming the new unit, Groq has acquired Definitive Intelligence, a Palo Alto-based firm offering a range of business-oriented AI solutions including chatbots, data analytics tools and documentation builders.
Prior to launching Definitive Intelligence, Madra and Sherry co-launched Autonomic, a cloud-based platform for connecting mobility systems, that Ford acquired in 2018.
Prior to the acquisition, Definitive Intelligence had raised $25.5 million in venture capital.
Definitive Intelligence is Groq’s second acquisition after Maxeler Technologies, a high-performance compute and AI infrastructure solutions firm, in 2022.
Zuckerberg reportedly met Samsung’s executives, including Samsung executive chairman Jay Y. Lee, Wednesday night to discuss potential collaborations around AI chips, semiconductors, and extended reality.
Nvidia continues to dominate the global market for AI chips, leaving a big opportunity for countries that have traditionally been strong in processors or reignite their innovation instincts.
To that end, the social media giant has been ramping up its efforts to secure AI chips, and has been working on its own in-house AI chip, Artemis, for its data centers.
Big tech companies like Microsoft, OpenAI, Amazon, and Google have equally been scrambling for AI chips to support their AI ambitions.
Just yesterday, Zuckerberg met LG Electronics CEO William Cho in Seoul during his tour of Asia.
The Federal Aviation Administration has concluded its review of SpaceX’s investigation of the second Starship launch in November, with the regulator saying Monday that it accepted the “root causes and 17 corrective actions” identified by the company.
While this means the investigation is now closed, SpaceX must implement all the corrective actions and apply for a modified launch license before it can fly Starship again.
When any rocket launch encounters catastrophic issues during flight, the FAA opens what’s known as a “mishap investigation” — that’s what’s happened here.
After the first test, the FAA directed SpaceX to complete 63 corrective actions.
“More Starships are ready to fly, putting flight hardware in a flight environment to learn as quickly as possible.
