Author: Rob Enderle

Cisco stands out as one of the world leaders in Corporate Social Responsibility. This effort is driven by Tae Yoo Cisco’s Senior VP of Corporate Affairs, and one of the more exciting projects is their “Global Problem Solver Challenge.” This challenge focuses on raising young companies that use technology to bring lasting positive change to people’s lives and communities as part of a significant effort to improve life on the planet. Prizes range from $250K for first place and $10K to $75K for the runners-up. These amounts may not seem like much, but small companies often operate below break-even initially,…

One of the most interesting near-term mergers is between NVIDIA and ARM, which has garnered interesting support and some growing resistance. The support primarily is based on the need for ARM to support a parent who wants them and could advance the technology aggressively into the data center and expand it into high growth areas like robotics and AI (artificial intelligence). The resistance is tied to concerns about control over the technology and possible anti-competitive actions by NVIDIA, coupled with competitive concerns that the resulting company might wipe out much of the existing competition. Let’s parse these arguments this week.…

As we drift toward the holiday weekend, one of the more exciting pieces of news is that Tesla is going to put an entire AMD gaming rig in as an option for Tesla cars. This gaming option will be another reason to buy the autonomous driving technology from the company because playing a game without it could end up badly for both the driver and the passenger but, man, what a way to go. Let’s talk about this impressive AMD design win this week and what it means for the future of automobiles. Musk Be Crazy Now there are many…

Both AMD and NVIDIA have released upscaling technology, DLSS for NVIDIA and FidelityFX Super Resolution or FSR for AMD, for games that should reduce the hardware requirements for playing in the high resolution—providing more 4K experiences without buying the highest-end solution. NVIDIA’s offering is the more advanced, but it requires NVIDIA’s latest RTX line of cards to work, while AMD’s approach should work on a broader range of cards from both vendors. Oh, and I should add, if you aren’t playing on a 4K TV or Monitor, you may not even care. The approach both companies are taking is consistent…

Global Foundries was primarily created around what once was AMD’s and IBM’s microprocessor manufacturing capability. It was formed with the fundamental belief that a company focused on manufacturing, with their overhead, could be more cost-effective at building parts because it could get economies of scale far more significant than an internal effort at either AMD or IBM. This move seemed to make a ton of sense on paper, and these moves were used to suggest Intel retained its manufacturing capabilities. But this has not proven to be the case. First, AMD moved away from Global Foundries because the firm refused…

Two terms are used for the same thing: Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). In the companies I cover, Cisco—with an effort driven by Francine Katsoudas EVP and Chief People, Policy and Purpose Officer, and Tae Yoo SVP Corporate Affairs—is the best. But I often consult with other firms struggling with these efforts, often with inadequate budgets and a lack of focus. One of the reasons Cisco stands out is that they find ways to use their unique skills and capabilities to help the world, so they get a massive force multiplier that most traditional philanthropic…

China and the US have been connected increasingly tightly up until recently. As the relations between the two countries degrade and restrictions on technology transfers are put in place and coupled with COVID-19 pandemic concerns, companies that were once tightly partnered will begin to decouple. This decoupling introduces inefficiencies into the supply chain, makes supplies even less reliable, and—given they are driven by tactical thinking—may eventually have to be rebuilt. Let’s talk about how we got here and why there needs to be a strategic approach to the underlying problem. Tactical Solution to A Strategic Problem The current spat between…

This last week Qualcomm had an event on the evolution of the digital cockpit where the company has made several interesting advancements. Bosch was the focused speaker, and they spoke about how 120 companies are now collaborating on the automotive advancements we will be getting over the next decade–over and above things like converting from ICE (Internal Combustion Engines) to electric vehicles and the even more significant move to autonomous driving. But all of this tech will require massive increases in computational performance to work, suggesting we may care more about the processor and related technology in our cars than…

This week HP announced they would achieve a 50% diversity goal in leadership by 2030, and this isn’t a trivial goal given the shortage of a diverse workplace. In addition, during the COVID-19 pandemic, HP had one of the most interesting and effective internship programs I’ve yet seen. I had a friendly chat with Lesley Slaton Brown, the Chief Diversity Officer for HP, this week and found the progress HP has made over this last year impressive. Let me share some of the things we discussed. The Importance And Problem With Diversity Diversity is essential if you want a company…

It is a company event time again, and I’ve been going to large company virtual events for several months. This week was IBM Think, and IBM does a better job than most at these things. Of the events I’ve attended, some things are working better than others, and Think this week, which was particularly well done, was a showcase of many of them. However, Dell, Microsoft, and NVIDIA stood out as well, and I think it would be helpful to talk about what worked and what didn’t and highlight again what everyone still seems to be struggling with for remote…