Supercomputing, equipment spending, and GloFo job cuts. Let’s review some of the most interesting electronics industry news stories from the past several days.
 
Oak Ridge Announces World’s Most Powerful Supercomputer
Last month, the United States Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) revealed Summit, the most powerful computer in the world. According to ORNL reports, the computer can deliver 200 petaflops, or a mind-numbing 200,000 trillion calculations per second. “Summit will provide unprecedented computing power for research in energy, advanced materials and artificial intelligence (AI), among other domains, enabling scientific discoveries that were previously impractical or impossible,” ORNL posted.
 
Semiconductor Equipment Spending Boom
Semicondcutor industry equipment spending continues to grow. SEMI's Christain Dieseldorff recently reported: "The semiconductor industry is nearing a third consecutive year of record equipment spending with projected growth of 14 percent (YOY) in 2018 and 9 percent in 2019, a mark that would extend the streak to a historic fourth consecutive growth year."
 
GlobalFoundries Announces Job Cuts
Semiconductor foundry giant GlobalFoundries announced this week that it is slashing its workforce by 5%, or roughly 900 positions. The cut will bring the company’s international workforce to around 17,000 employees. While the company is cutting staff, it is preparing to launch new 7 nm chips by the end of 2018. Regarding the layoffs, the company released the following statement: “This limited action will impact approximately 5 percent of our global headcount, with a significant portion expected to come from a voluntary separation program. The program is part of a companywide initiative to improve the competitiveness of our cost structure relative to industry peers.”