Robert Dow

On being first

Doesn’t always mean you win AMD and Nvidia have been leaders in being first; Intel, ARM, Apple, Samsung, and others have been quick, but seldom first. Qualcomm has had some firsts.  First-to-market (FTM), also referred to as first-mover advantage, or FMA, can often gain a significant advantage if it is the first entrant and gains a competitive advantage through control … Read more

I know a conspiracy when I see one…

They can deny it all they want In the second week of April 2015, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the neo-economic arm of the DoD, DoE, DHS, NSA, and FBI, told Intel to take 50,000 of its Xeon processors out of the truck they were in and put them back in the warehouse—they weren’t going to get shipped to China … Read more

From CES to GDC to NAB – The alphabet tour continues

As always, the year begins with CES, at least if you work in technology land, and if you don’t, you’re probably not going to be reading this brand-new shiny issue of the TechWatch Quarterly, unless … hi, Mom! This year, CES brought us so many things including connected cars, 4K TVs, and the threat of 8K TVs, robots, drones, intelligent … Read more

The ultimate selfie and safety – Who’s driving your car?

Autonomous vehicles are coming. In a year or two, three max, autonomous cars will be operating on the highway, but probably not in city and residential streets. However, we won’t instantaneously have highways filled with autonomous cars. About 100,000 cars are built each year, and there are more than 3 million cars on the road, so at that production rate … Read more

The personal robot is coming for you and your job

Humans just love robots and there is a great deal of work going on to build mechanical robots and in some cases give them enough AI smarts so they can function as companions or maybe even workers. This is a new world that’s just getting started. Robbie the Robot will never die – he is part of our cultural imagination. … Read more

Moore’s Law turns 50

Where were you when it was postulated?  Moore’s Law has been a fantastic observation, and a self-fulfilling prophecy that has spurred us on to do more, do it faster, make it smaller, and cheaper. We do it because we think we can. Moore’s Law has been great for information systems and all the happy recipients of the technology developments as … Read more