Nathan Slager

5th gen Intel Xeon brings significant idle power improvements over 4th gen. Check out this article from servethehome. #iamintel #xeon

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Today marks the end of the first week of my Headstarter AI SWE fellowship! 💻 This week has been packed to the brim with great activities. I’ve already gotten to: -build a new personal website, stonewerner.com -meet several accomplished founders such as Shariar Kabir, Miguel Acero, (both Ruby YC 23) and Nabeel Alamgir🦄 (Lunchbox) -conduct a mock DSA interview (LeetCode) and get real time feedback from my AI interviewer Some key 🔑 takeaways so far: -When meeting someone new, especially someone of high importance, ask them quality questions about them, their business, or their journey. People most likely won’t remember you, but they will remember a great question you asked. -Dustin Beadle told us the most powerful skill going forward is communication. It is crucial to be able to communicate yourself and your ideas to your team and to potential clients or customers. All the tech in the world is useless if nobody “gets it.” - Logan Havern emphasized to focus on finding a pain point and putting 100% of your energy into solving that pain point when trying to attract users. I’m very much looking forward to the 6 more weeks of the fellowship where my team and I will compete in hackathons, build AI-powered projects, and finish the fellowship by launching an app and scaling to 1000 users! 🚀 Huge shoutout to Yasin Ehsan 🚀 and Faizan Ahmed for building such an amazing community. 🙌 #headstarter #ai #startups #software

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Here's a counterintuitive way to get more done. ✍🏼 Let me know how it works ♻️ Repost if you enjoyed it 🧲 Join 2.4K+ others in my RF engineering newsletter (link in bio/comments)

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Answer to I am going to step into my 2nd year of electronics engineering. What should I do in order to become a great electronics engineer and have deeper understanding of subjects? Also mention some prerequisites? by Sanjay Kumar https://lnkd.in/gHP8M8Ms #embedded #electronics #students

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From 2017 - 2021, I lead growth efforts for Southern California’s largest innovation lab, Toolbox LA. 🚀 It was HQ for MiLA Capital, an early-stage hardware fund investing in tech you can touch. 🤖 I was fortunate to have amazing leaders who believed in my abilities and let me experiment. They also took the time to teach me new concepts about project management and finance. This was critical to our success. Without exceptional leaders, it's really hard to scale anything successfully. I feel so fortunate to have worked for smart, kind, and thoughtful investors who taught me so much. Thank you, Noramay Cadena, Carmen Palafox, and Shaun Arora for all that you've done to help my career. Here are some results I achieved through strategic marketing initiatives around customer acquisition (we had 2 business models: monthly membership fees and event space booking fees) 🚀 Grew memberships and revenue within the 24 months of operation from $4,000 to $35,000 MRR 🚀 Maintained a sales pipeline of over $500k in leads utilizing the HubSpot CRM system 🚀 Leveraged new and emerging industry-related digital channels (Peerspace, LiquidSpace, Croissant) for brand awareness and $150k in lead generation 🚀 Worked with LA Mayor Eric Garcetti’s team to launch Toolbox LA in tandem with LA’s Manufacturing Week, resulting in over 1000+ RSVPs, media coverage, and a continuation of successful government relationships 🚀 Launched First Fridays, a monthly event series showcasing local artisans, small businesses, creatives, and DTC brands There was a lot more we accomplished, but those achievements are the ones I am most proud of. Reflecting on this time, I am incredibly grateful for the ability to experiment. Freedom and trust within an organization are key to sustainable growth. We also had a major advantage in our value proposition: we were the only innovation lab in Southern California with open, community access to a full maker space, wet lab, and coworking amenities. I learned so much about product prototyping from the members and portfolio companies. I wish I could tell you this place still existed, but we were one of the unfortunate consequences of the pandemic. We shut down in January 2021. Now, it serves as home to Machina Labs, which is doing some truly innovative work in AI and manufacturing. I still use the Toolbox LA mantra when tackling hard problems: "Wake up, kick ass, repeat" This is just one chapter in my 16 years of experience in marketing, community building, and partnerships. Would you like to learn more about customer acquisition strategies? The RAR Studio is now accepting applications for Cohort 2 of Founder Bootcamp. You'll get to learn all my tips and tricks. And you'll also get 1:1 strategy sessions each week. Apply now: https://bit.ly/4aRHzF8 Would love to hear from anyone who's building something interesting and chat about growth strategies! #marketing #community #innovation #growth #leadership

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Turns out that an "invalid memory access" the cousin of the dreaded null pointer brought the entire world on its knees.. OS Kernel code and driver design methodology has practically remained unchanged in the last 40 years or so but the OSes and drivers have gotten extremely complex At Vayavya Labs Pvt. Ltd. we have been pioneering a "correct by construction" framework called DDGen that abstracts and reduces the complexity of coding device drivers. The ultimate goal is to read a device spec, generate driver on the fly, run a bunch of tests and integrate dynamically with the OS thereby reducing the manual touch points and causes for error. Check this out for more details http://devicedrivers.org/ Sandeep Pendharkar RK Patil Venu Kolathur

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A very interesting pitch indeed. Plasma based process doesn’t typically works in case of HAR and thermal processes require very high temperature unless either catalyzed OR a specifically designed silicon precursor in which the catalytic amine functionality is embedded as a single precursor which still requires an oxidizing coreactant. The drawback is carbon and or nitrogen containing films. The same is true for a pyridine catalyzed reaction. Also, pyridine is a good theoretical example but doesn’t works that well at HAR. Simpler smaller amines works far better. In the end, slow deposition often results in denser films which in turn results in low leakage current and higher breakdown voltage. The reduction in time seems like faster deposition but in reality the deposition step may still be similar or even slower but purge time has been substantially reduced. Sounds like combination of lower dose and smaller volatile catalyst. However, the choice of plasma vs thermal process depends on the desired electrical properties as well. Overall a good read. Thanks for sharing. A clean deposition of oxide at 27 C with better film properties is interesting! #semiconductors #ald #atomiclayerdeposition

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Sometimes you learn a thing or two from corporate publications... Cadence has reduced its GHG footprint 33% since 2019, with a goal of reaching net zero by 2040. My first thought was: 2040? We're a software company - we don't own vehicle fleets or power plants. We do operate data centers and offices, and we travel. But how hard could it be for a software company to get to net zero? I learned that this goal encompasses Scope 1 (direct), Scope 2 (operations), and Scope 3 (value chain) GHG emissions, and what those terms mean. For scope 1 & 2 -- the emissions that we control directly -- we're basically already there. 99% of our net emissions fall into Scope 3. Scope 3 consists of upstream (what we buy) and downstream (what our customers do with what we sell), and are much harder to mitigate than our own operations. Reducing upstream emissions means engaging with suppliers to understand their operations, and making procurement choices that steer you toward net-zero. That includes everything from servers to office furniture to airline tickets. Reducing downstream emissions is still more complex - it means engaging customers to understand how they are using our products, and what their mix of energy is. Customers' progress toward their own sustainability goals help us achieve ours. This was a good lesson for some light Monday reading... #CadenceMissionSustainable #WeAreCadence https://lnkd.in/esswUYYh

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One of the major challenges in developing anything related to hardware is the threat that ultimately one of the really big players is going to come along with something that fundamentally disrupts your entire business case. Looking at Apples recent patent applications for biosensors in earbuds, this might be such a moment coming up for a lot of MedTech startups working with sensor-hardware to solve big health challenges. It is definitely something to be aware of and monitor closely. Nobody knows how long Apple are going to be before the biosensors start shipping embedded in their popular AirPods, and no one knows yet whether they will be truly medical grade in a way that HCPs will find them 'good enough'. But it would probably be a good idea to prepare for it to happen. Having said all this the jury is still out on what patients feel about this? Historically, patients have not been too fond of getting to closely attached to big pharma. Are they going to feel the same about entrusting big tech with their healthdata, when it really matters? Maybe. Interesting times. #healthtech #bigtech #competition #biosensors https://lnkd.in/dnEcVPGU

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Last week, I shared BLT's webinar on the AMD Versal™ AI Engine Tool Flow. As a part 2, we've put together a comprehensive guide for getting started. See below to learn how to quickly get started and bring your projects from prototype to production today! #Versal #HowDoIMakeThisWork #AIGraph #Hardware #SoC #NoC #Vitis

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🌟 First Week Update at Headstarter AI 🌟 I want to start this post with something Nabeel Alamgir🦄 said: "You should not spend too much time on things that are not going to work. You have to spend all your time when people are opting in." It’s been a week since I started my Fellowship at Headstarter AI, and it has been everything I expected and more. This is exactly how I wanted to spend my summer: growing my skillset, building projects, and networking. Today, we had the Our Pathways to Tech event, hosted by Yasin Ehsan 🚀. We heard from some amazing industry leaders who shared their stories and insights, giving me a lot to think about as I continue my journey in tech. The key speakers included: Dustin Beadle, Director at Lattice and former Director at AMD, explained the importance of having a good group dynamic, working in a team with open communication, and handling task conflicts while avoiding personal conflicts. Logan Havern, CEO of DataLogz, inspired me with his journey of raising $12M and growing his platform to its current success. Nabeel Alamgir🦄 , CEO of LunchBox, who raised $100M in VC funding. His story showed how essential perseverance and strategic planning are for growing a startup. I loved how he talked about being yourself and seeking many no's to find the right fit. Shariar Kabir, CEO of Ruby (YC W23) and Ex-Salesforce, encouraged us to find a niche and solve market problems, motivating us to build our own startups. "If you don’t struggle, you don’t improve." Miguel Acero, CTO of Ruby (YC W23) and Ex-Google, shared his journey from Google to building an innovative fintech company. I appreciated his advice on always checking documentation and working on side projects. This event was a real eye-opener, especially hearing from Shariar Kabir and Miguel Acero about their journey from Google to creating an innovative fintech company. I’m excited to dive deeper into my projects and continue learning from such inspiring people. #SWEFellowship #HeadstarterAI #LearningJourney #TechGrowth #Networking #PathwaysToTech

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I have finally delved into this year's "100 Silicon Startups Worth Watching in 2024," recently published by EE Times | Electronic Engineering Times. One insight from Peter Clarke in his preface is the interesting shift in the geographical distribution of these top 100 companies. While there's a slight decline in California and North American representation (is it real?), the most striking changes are the sharp decrease in Chinese companies and the meaningful rise in European entries. Peter attributes the Chinese decline to trade tensions: "#China continues to have high levels of startup activity, but its reduced presence on the Silicon 100 reflects the trade tensions between the U.S. and China. That friction has intensified in recent years and has hit a number of Chinese startups that may have had international aspirations but have been denied access to leading-edge silicon out of foundry TSMC." #Europe, on the other hand, has seen an increase from 23 to 29 startups, with the U.K. leading the charge: "The U.K. has 12 startups on the current list, up from nine startups in version 23. The U.K., with longstanding entrepreneurial bases in Cambridge, Oxford, Bristol, and Edinburgh, has enjoyed strong representation for many years." In my view, this growth is a testament to #Europe's robust academic system, coupled with government support, investments, and incubators like Silicon Catalyst.UK. Israel continues to excel: "Israel has always punched way above its weight by population and continues to do so," with its representation growing slightly from 7 to 8 this year, including NeuReality*, POLYN Technology, NeoLogic*, Speedata.io, Pliops, Chain Reaction Ltd.*, Hailo, .Quantum Machines . (*=new additions to the 2024 list). This list provides a good overview of this dynamic and evolving industry, blending both emerging and more established technologies. It's a must-read for anyone interested in the future of #semiconductor #innovation. For the full list: https://lnkd.in/dgfrNUWX

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Another excellent article by Adam Kovac on a trending issue in digital design. Glitch power has been a growing concern for all types of modern designs and contributing significantly to the overall dynamic power of the chip! It is extremely important to address this from early design stages of RTL development to be able to meet power targets and ensure PPA gains.. It was pleasure and insightful to talk to Adam on this article. #power #glitch #ShiftLeft #early #energyefficiency

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SWEBench is an #AIcoding challenge where AIs have to independently solve real world coding issues from real github projects. Like the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the challenge is as much about efficiency & stability as it is about raw power or ability to spend money. AppMap's Navie AI posted 14.6% solution rate, currently 2nd place ahead of Amazon Q and others. We achieved this for a record low cost of $0.88 per issue, up to 20x less costly than others. Learn more about our race for benchmark here, what is next, and how you can get your hands on Navie *today*. https://lnkd.in/eAJRERdE

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Efficient Power Conversion Corp (EPC), headquartered in El Segundo, CA, specializes in gallium nitride on silicon (eGaN) power FETs and integrated circuits for power management applications, with recent validation of their GaN intellectual property rights by the US International Trade Commission (ITC). The ITC upheld EPC's patents and found Innoscience Technology Co Ltd guilty of infringing EPC’s foundational patent, potentially leading to a ban on importing their products into the USA. This ruling is a significant validation of nearly two decades of EPC's hard work and research, reflecting the importance of their intellectual property portfolio. The ITC's final determination is expected on November 5. Innoscience EPC - Efficient Power Conversion #semiconductor #intellectualproperty #industry #lawsuit #technology #GaN https://lnkd.in/di792VMW

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**Day 2 as a Headstarter AI fellow with Jack O'Brien** Today, I had the pleasure of being introduced to Jack O'Brien (former Google software Engineer and tech lead, & former CTO of A16z-backed company “stonks”). In todays meeting Jack O'Brien shared valuable insights on how to acquire your first users, build a waitlist, and generate your first $1,000 in revenue. Here are some key takeaways. 1. **Create something cool enough**: Develope something as little as a landing page to get people to sing up and test if people would actually use your product. 2. **Leverage your network**: Get friends, family, and acquaintances to use your product and provide feedback. 3. **Promote Widely**: Share your product all over social media to gain visibility and attract users. A huge thank you to Jack O'Brien for the insightful session and to the Headstarter AI team Faizan Ahmed Yasin Ehsan 🚀 for organizing another great day of learning!

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Scoop with Kenrick Cai: OpenAI is formally resurrecting its robotics team after abandoning efforts to build general purpose robots in 2020. Its new team has been around for just a couple of months and is currently hiring research engineers to develop models for just partners right now. The team's narrower focus may nevertheless have some overlap with companies that OpenAI hopes to engage in business. Companies like Covariant, started by former OpenAI robotics team members, are also attempting to train their own robotics models. And, two sources said, OpenAI has already gone head to head with companies in this space for a limited pool of talent. https://lnkd.in/g8Vs4nP3

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