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Opening Up ASIC Design

The odds are that if you’ve heard about application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) at all, it’s in the context of cryptocurrency mining. For some currencies, the only way to efficiently mine them anymore is to build computers so single-purposed they can’t do anything else. But an ASIC is a handy tool to develop for plenty of

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Decentraland says 26K attended its virtual fashion week in March 2023, vs. 108K in 2022, a 76% drop, despite brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Adidas sponsoring (RT Watson/The Block)

RT Watson / The Block: Decentraland says 26K attended its virtual fashion week in March 2023, vs. 108K in 2022, a 76% drop, despite brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Adidas sponsoring  —  – Fashion Week attendance on Decentraland dropped to 26,000 from 108,000.  No more than 900 people were online simultaneously during the four-day event.

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Researchers say Twitter’s open sourced For You code still misses context that fully explains its recommendation system, despite a supposed push for transparency (Caroline Mimbs Nyce/The Atlantic)

Caroline Mimbs Nyce / The Atlantic: Researchers say Twitter’s open sourced For You code still misses context that fully explains its recommendation system, despite a supposed push for transparency  —  Elon Musk offered a rare look into the social platform’s algorithm.  Experts say you shouldn’t take it too seriously.

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Sources: Bengaluru-based Dunzo, a Google-backed quick commerce startup, raised $75M in convertible notes, lays off 30% of staff, and will cut 50% of dark stores (Digbijay Mishra/The Economic Times)

Digbijay Mishra / The Economic Times: Sources: Bengaluru-based Dunzo, a Google-backed quick commerce startup, raised $75M in convertible notes, lays off 30% of staff, and will cut 50% of dark stores  —  Reliance Retail-backed quick commerce startup Dunzo has secured funding of $75 million through convertible notes.

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Samsung announces a multi-year extension with AMD on their IP licensing agreement to bring multiple generations of AMD Radeon graphics to more Exynos SoCs (Cho Mu-Hyun/ZDNet)

Cho Mu-Hyun / ZDNet: Samsung announces a multi-year extension with AMD on their IP licensing agreement to bring multiple generations of AMD Radeon graphics to more Exynos SoCs  —  Samsung said on Thursday that it has signed a multi-year extension with AMD on their licensing agreement which gives …

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Lower-income US students feel they’re at a disadvantage when pursuing Big Tech internships as the selection process exhibits longstanding inequities in hiring (Natasha Singer/New York Times)

Natasha Singer / New York Times: Lower-income US students feel they’re at a disadvantage when pursuing Big Tech internships as the selection process exhibits longstanding inequities in hiring  —  Critics say the intern selection process often favors wealthier students, just like the admission process at some elite colleges.

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China-based SJ Semiconductor, which offers a 12-inch wafer bumping and testing service, raised a $340M Series C extension at a $1.8B valuation (Stephanie Li/DealStreetAsia)

Stephanie Li / DealStreetAsia: China-based SJ Semiconductor, which offers a 12-inch wafer bumping and testing service, raised a $340M Series C extension at a $1.8B valuation  —  Chinese chip maker SJ Semiconductor has raised nearly $340 million in its Series C extension round, according to a release.

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Study: ChatGPT cited nonexistent Washington Post, Miami Herald, and Los Angeles Times articles and fabricated a sexual harassment story about a law professor (Washington Post)

Washington Post: Study: ChatGPT cited nonexistent Washington Post, Miami Herald, and Los Angeles Times articles and fabricated a sexual harassment story about a law professor  —  The AI chatbot can misrepresent key facts with great flourish, even citing a fake Washington Post article as evidence

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OpenAI details its approach to AI safety, including evaluating AI systems, improving safeguards based on real-world use, protecting kids, and respecting privacy (OpenAI)

OpenAI: OpenAI details its approach to AI safety, including evaluating AI systems, improving safeguards based on real-world use, protecting kids, and respecting privacy  —  Ensuring that AI systems are built, deployed, and used safely is critical to our mission.  —  Authors  —  OpenAI  —  Safety & Alignment

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Kyoto-based Kyocera plans to spend ~$470M over six years on a new chip materials plant in Nagasaki prefecture, its first domestic production facility since 2005 (Nikkei Asia)

Nikkei Asia: Kyoto-based Kyocera plans to spend ~$470M over six years on a new chip materials plant in Nagasaki prefecture, its first domestic production facility since 2005  —  Manufacturer chooses Nagasaki for its first new domestic factory in 20 years  —  KYOTO, Japan — Kyocera will invest 62 billion yen …

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A week ahead of Ethereum’s Shanghai and Capella upgrades, ETH is up 6% over the past three days, surpassing $1,900 to a nine-month high and outperforming BTC (MacKenzie Sigalos/CNBC)

MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC: A week ahead of Ethereum’s Shanghai and Capella upgrades, ETH is up 6% over the past three days, surpassing $1,900 to a nine-month high and outperforming BTC  —  – Ether is trading at a nine-month high and has outperformed bitcoin this week ahead of a major network upgrade.

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Tests show that Twitter’s “stay informed” labels, implemented in February 2022 to flag tweets with links to Russia or China-controlled sites, no longer appear (Semafor)

Semafor: Tests show that Twitter’s “stay informed” labels, implemented in February 2022 to flag tweets with links to Russia or China-controlled sites, no longer appear  —  Twitter is no longer taking steps to limit the reach of Chinese and Russian state-controlled media outlets …

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Report: Phil Harrison, the head of defunct cloud gaming service Google Stadia, left the company in January 2023; Harrison joined Google as a VP in January 2018 (Ben Schoon/9to5Google)

Ben Schoon / 9to5Google: Report: Phil Harrison, the head of defunct cloud gaming service Google Stadia, left the company in January 2023; Harrison joined Google as a VP in January 2018  —  When Google launched Stadia, it put gaming industry veteran Phil Harrison at the lead.  Now, it’s been confirmed Harrison has left the company.

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A Soft Soldering Jig For Hard Projects

We’ve seen some absolutely gorgeous freeform circuit sculptures. There’s a mystic quality to taking what has normally been hidden away for safety and reliability reasons and putting it on display for everyone to see. Of course, creating these unique circuit sculptures takes considerable time and effort. [Inne] created several silicone soldering jigs to help with

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Google says Play Store apps that allow account creation will soon need to let users “initiate account and data deletion from within the app and online” (Abner Li/9to5Google)

Abner Li / 9to5Google: Google says Play Store apps that allow account creation will soon need to let users “initiate account and data deletion from within the app and online”  —  Google is continuing its work on Data safety in the Play Store by requiring that developers provide a way for users to delete their

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