Daily Archives: 2022-02-07

Article note: Excellent. An independent ARM is currently important for the industry.

Enlarge (credit: Arm)

SoftBank’s $66 billion sale of UK-based chip business Arm to Nvidia collapsed on Monday after regulators in the US, UK, and EU raised serious concerns about its effects on competition in the global semiconductor industry, according to three people with direct knowledge of the transaction.

The deal, the largest ever in the chip sector, would have given California-based Nvidia control of a company that makes technology at the heart of most of the world’s mobile devices. A handful of Big Tech companies that rely on Arm’s chip designs, including Qualcomm and Microsoft, had objected to the purchase.

SoftBank will receive a break-up fee of up to $1.25 billion and is seeking to unload Arm through an initial public offering before the end of the year, said one of the people.

Article note: I don't understand what kind of buys-security-products-they-saw-in-an-airport-ad useless middle-manager decision making lead to them getting involved with ID.me in the first place.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | imaginima)

The Internal Revenue Service is dropping a controversial facial recognition system that requires people to upload video selfies when creating new IRS online accounts.

"The IRS announced it will transition away from using a third-party service for facial recognition to help authenticate people creating new online accounts," the agency said today. "The transition will occur over the coming weeks in order to prevent larger disruptions to taxpayers during filing season. During the transition, the IRS will quickly develop and bring online an additional authentication process that does not involve facial recognition."

The IRS has been using the third-party system ID.me for facial recognition of taxpayers. Privacy and civil rights advocates and lawmakers from both major parties have objected to the system. The IRS wasn't demanding ID.me verification for filing tax returns but was requiring it for accessing related services, such as account information, applying for payment plans online, requesting transcripts, and the Child Tax Credit Update Portal.

Article note: I click-holed about the NEC V20/V30 8080-alike family a while ago. They really were shockingly impressive parts for how little attention they get. Some of their extensions were awesome and well-conceived, their BCD system is sort of unbelievably sophisticated, and the trapping in- and out- of compatibility mode trick is awesome.