Rapidus is set to start the operations of a pilot line at its plant for advanced semiconductors in Chitose, Hokkaido, on Tuesday. The launch of the test line will be an important milestone in Rapidus' aim of beginning mass production at the factory in 2027. Securing domestic output bases for chips, a strategic item, is a pressing issue for Japan at a time when geopolitical risks such as a standoff between the United States and China are becoming more apparent. Rapidus was established in 2022 with investments from Toyota Motor, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. and other Japanese companies. The Chitose plant is slated to produce cutting-edge semiconductors with a circuit line width of 2 nanometers, expected to be used in artificial intelligence technology and autonomous driving systems.

It is one of the world's leading tech companies but, unlike its rivals, Apple is yet to reveal its own folding phone design. Now, a possible release date for the long-rumoured foldable iPhone has leaked online - and it suggests tech fans don't have long to wait. According to reports from Apple analysts, the foldable iPhone could be launched before the end of 2026. The rumours also suggest that Apple's latest innovation won't come cheap, with an expected price tag of 2,299. That would make the'iPhone Fold' almost twice the price of Apple's current most expensive smartphone, the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which starts at 1,199 (UK price 1,199).

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for accelerating the mass production of attack drones, according to state media, as international concerns mount over the country's deepening military cooperation with Russia. The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Friday that Kim supervised the latest tests of "various types of suicide attack drones" produced by Pyongyang's Unmanned Aerial Technology Complex. The unmanned drones can hit land and sea targets, effectively acting as guided missiles. Kim "underscored the need to build a serial production system as early as possible and go into full-scale mass production", noting how drones are becoming crucial in modern warfare as he oversaw the tests on Thursday, KCNA said. North Korea first unveiled its suicide drones in August and military experts said the capability could be attributed to the country's growing alliance with Russia, with both sides signing a mutual defence pact.

Generative Design (GD) has evolved as a transformative design approach, employing advanced algorithms and AI to create diverse and innovative solutions beyond traditional constraints. Despite its success, GD faces significant challenges regarding the manufacturability of complex designs, often necessitating extensive manual modifications due to limitations in standard manufacturing processes and the reliance on additive manufacturing, which is not ideal for mass production. Our research introduces an innovative framework addressing these manufacturability concerns by integrating constraints pertinent to die casting and injection molding into GD, through the utilization of 2D depth images. This method simplifies intricate 3D geometries into manufacturable profiles, removing unfeasible features such as non-manufacturable overhangs and allowing for the direct consideration of essential manufacturing aspects like thickness and rib design. Consequently, designs previously unsuitable for mass production are transformed into viable solutions. We further enhance this approach by adopting an advanced 2D generative model, which offer a more efficient alternative to traditional 3D shape generation methods. Our results substantiate the efficacy of this framework, demonstrating the production of innovative, and, importantly, manufacturable designs. This shift towards integrating practical manufacturing considerations into GD represents a pivotal advancement, transitioning from purely inspirational concepts to actionable, production-ready solutions. Our findings underscore usefulness and potential of GD for broader industry adoption, marking a significant step forward in aligning GD with the demands of manufacturing challenges.

Heavy fighting around the largely ruined Ukrainian-held city of Bakhmut is likely to persist for the foreseeable future, according to a senior US administration official. Putin has sent a warship towards the Atlantic and Indian oceans armed with new hypersonic Zircon cruise missiles, which he said were unique worldwide. The Ukrainian foreign minister says that Patriot air defence systems being sent by the United States are expected to be deployed in Ukraine soon. Russia says that mass production of new electronic warfare and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems will start in the next few months. Ukraine says Russia had launched seven missile strikes, 18 air raids and more than 85 attacks from multiple-launch rocket systems in the past 24 hours on three cities – Kramatorsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

The onshoring and buildout of dozens of fabs, many costing tens of billions of dollars, is beginning to spill over into other areas that are critical for chip manufacturing. Materials, in particular, which often gets little attention outside of chip manufacturing, witnessed a big spike in September 2022. In fact, seven materials companies covered in this report made up more than a third of the month's total reported investments, with three of the companies garnering more than $200 million. Other investment targets were sputtering equipment and evaporation materials for deposition, high-purity polycrystalline silicon, fluorine-containing electronic gases, and silicon carbide. In the AI hardware arena, numerous startups are focusing on in-memory and near-memory compute, reducing the volume of data that needs to be moved back and forth between memory and processing elements. Novel architectures also are appearing, such as one that uses sparse mathematics.

With the increasing demand of raw materials nowadays, and the decrease in supplies, the industrial sector is suffering. The environment and the society are also indirectly affected. The goal to reach a sustainable development imposes several studies on the economic, environmental and community level. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the existing body of literature on automated remanufacturing, and its potential impacts on the three pillars of sustainability. A particular interest is given to the growing use of cobots promoted by the principle of industry 4.0. The investigation that covers each part of the remanufacturing process will help in formalizing an approach about the automation of such processes. It highlights the challenges found and aims to improve the remanufacturing sector towards a more sustainable industry.

SHANGHAI, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Xiaomi Corp (1810.HK) is currently running tests on 140 vehicles across China for autonomous driving, CEO Lei Jun said on Thursday. The news marks the latest benchmark for the smartphone maker, which announced last year it would enter the competitive EV sector and challenge established brands and younger tech companies. Speaking at a livestreamed company event, Lei said the company had 500 staff devoted solely to developing autonomous driving technology for its upcoming car and had put 3.3 billion yuan ($490 million) towards the initiative. At the event, Lei also unveiled a humanoid robot dubbed CyberOne, weighing 52kg and measuring 177cm tall, although it was not ready for mass production. Many other Chinese companies are investing in self-driving technology, including ridehailing giant Didi Global and search engine provider Baidu Inc .

China has become the largest Tesla market in the world as the carmaker's shipments to China in 2021 reached 40% of its total worldwide shipments, higher than shipments to the US. Amidst this EV frenzy, technology enterprises and carmakers are hot on developing self-driving technologies, notably Chinese ones. In addition to Baidu's smart cockpit and other solutions, the chip is expected to help Jidu beat competitors in terms of AI performance. Some local semiconductor startups are also competing in this race. Horizon Robotics, once backed by Intel Capital, is collaborating with Holomatic to use Journey 3 and 5 chips and visual perception algorithms in an all-speed integrated self-driving software/hardware solution with a service-oriented architecture (SOA).

The ¥47,300 DeliSofter pot looks much like the rice cookers ubiquitous in Japanese households and it does prepare rice in 24 minutes. But this invention of two Panasonic Corp. engineers is designed to do more and help people with swallowing difficulties. The two women led the creation of a spin-off company, Gifmo Co., to sell the specialized steam cooker, which they say can turn fried chicken soft enough to be sliced with a potato chip. The machine works by first cutting into food with a series of blades and then subjecting it to extremely high pressure at a temperature of 120 degrees Celsius, rendering many familiar foods digestible without sacrificing the original shape or texture, Gifmo said. It promises to restore a sense of normalcy to elderly people's lives and diets, allowing them to mash food with their tongue alone.