Semiconductor & Technology Specialist, Ingenuity

William Keating

Dr. William Keating is a highly experienced senior executive with over 25 years experience in the IT/Semiconductor Industry. The majority of Dr. Keating's career was spent at Intel Corporation where he held senior leadership positions in Europe, the US and Asia from 1992 through 2014. He served as Intel's IT Director for APAC, China & Japan from 2005 through 2014 when he was based in Hong Kong and was responsible for the IT systems (Infrastructure, Networks, Data Centres, ERP, Sales & Marketing systems, Business Intelligence etc. ) for all of Intel's offices & factories through the region. From 1998 through 2005, he was the founder & director of an internal IT Consulting Organisation (IT Flex Services), a 500-person team which remains a core part of the Intel IT Organisation to this day. Dr. Keating's first 6 years at Intel were spent in charge of the Factory Automation Systems (Robotics, Databases, Networks, Servers, Clients etc.) supporting Intel's then state-of-the-art 200mm factory network. Since leaving Intel in 2014, Dr Keating established his own Technology Research & Consulting Company (www.ingenuity.hk) where he focuses on the products, roadmaps & technologies of companies such as Intel, AMD, Samsung, Apple, Micron- as well as the key equipment suppliers to those companies e.g. ASML, AMAT, Canon, Nikon etc. Dr. Keating specializes in niche topics of high significance within the semiconductor industry. These include the future of Moore's Law and in particular the significance of Lithography in maintaining Moore's Law (EUV, SDA, NanoImprint), the role & growth of the GPU in specialised applications such as Deep Learning (Neural Networks) for Voice, Image & Pattern recognition at companies such as Facebook, Google & Baidu. He also holds regular discussions on the future of memory, in particular the rise of 3D NAND and the emergence of new memory technologies such as 3D Xpoint.

Semiconductor & Technology Specialist

Bloomberg's Supermicro China Hack Security Reports Grow More Bizarre By The Day

No Yuan Manipulator/Growth /Consumption/End of WTO/Defying the Trade War

Ingenuity

Our focus is exclusively on in-depth research & consulting in the broader semiconductor industry. We focus on the key players, namely Intel, Micron, Qualcomm, Apple, Samsung, NVIDIA, AMD, TSMC & Global Foundries - as well as some of the lesser known, but nonetheless critical, companies such as ASML (for EUV), Mellanox, Cavium, Xilinx etc. We specialise in their products, roadmaps, process technologies, competitive advantages & threats etc. We also help our clients understand the implications of new and emerging technologies, e.g. 3D X-Point, 3D NAND, Carbon Nanotubes, Autonomous Driving, Graphene, Silicon Photonics, Wafer-Level Optics, Artificial Intelligence, FPGA, GPU, ASIC etc. 

Semiconductor Analysis & Research

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

Colombia Semiconductors and semiconductor equipment / Thematic (Sector/Industry)

On October 4'th last week, Bloomberg published an <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-04/the-big-hack-how-china-used-a-tiny-chip-to-infiltrate-america-s-top-companies" target="_blank">article</a> alleging that server motherboards manufactured in China by US-headquartered <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/7921" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:7921:1">Super Micro Computer</a>, had been compromised by agents acting on behalf of the Chinese government and that the those components found their way into the data centers of high profile clients such as <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/666" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:666:1">Apple</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/409" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:409:1">Amazon</a>. Supermicro, whose stock was delisted from the NASDAQ earlier this month due to accounting irregularities and currently trades OTC, went into freefall with its share price collapsing from $21.40 at the open to a low of $8.59 during midday trading. While Supermicro has since recovered slightly to close at $12.40 on October 5't'h, the revelations triggered a broad sell-off in the technology sector has now persisted for two consecutive days. Asian markets were also not immune, with HK-listed Lenovo down some 25% at one stage the following day on fears of its exposure due to its China-based server manufacturing operations. While the Bloomberg report is both comprehensive and compelling, its claims have been robustly denied Apple, Amazon and Supermicro. In our opinion, while Bloomberg may well have uncovered some disturbing evidence of Chinese cybersecurity activities, we find their conclusions highly suspect on multiple fronts. Firstly, a chip of the complexity required to implement the alleged spy functions would require a minimum of 32 pins and could not be mounted on the motherboard without a complete redesign of the board, something that would be impossible to disguise. Secondly, Supermicro's servers are vulnerable, but by virtue of their own sub-standard security rather than as a result of an elaborate hardware hack of immense complexity and risk. In a nutshell, Chinese hackers did not need to infiltrate Supermicro's supply chain in order to gain backdoor access to their servers. The door was already open with a welcome sign hanging outside. Sorry Bloomberg - you appear to have gotten it wrong!

On October 4'th last week, Bloomberg published an article alleging that server motherboards manufactured in China by US-headquartered Super Micro Computer, had been compromised by agents acting on behalf of the Chinese government and that the those components found their way into the data centers of high profile clients such as Apple and Amazon. Supermicro, whose stock was delisted from the NASDAQ earlier this month due to accounting irregularities and currently trades OTC, went into freefall with its share price collapsing from $21.40 at the open to a low of $8.59 during midday trading. While Supermicro has since recovered slightly to close at $12.40 on October 5't'h, the revelations triggered a broad sell-off in the technology sector has now persisted for two consecutive days. Asian markets were also not immune, with HK-listed Lenovo down some 25% at one stage the following day on fears of its exposure due to its China-based server manufacturing operations. While the Bloomberg report is both comprehensive and compelling, its claims have been robustly denied Apple, Amazon and Supermicro. In our opinion, while Bloomberg may well have uncovered some disturbing evidence of Chinese cybersecurity activities, we find their conclusions highly suspect on multiple fronts. Firstly, a chip of the complexity required to implement the alleged spy functions would require a minimum of 32 pins and could not be mounted on the motherboard without a complete redesign of the board, something that would be impossible to disguise. Secondly, Supermicro's servers are vulnerable, but by virtue of their own sub-standard security rather than as a result of an elaborate hardware hack of immense complexity and risk. In a nutshell, Chinese hackers did not need to infiltrate Supermicro's supply chain in order to gain backdoor access to their servers. The door was already open with a welcome sign hanging outside. Sorry Bloomberg - you appear to have gotten it wrong!

SuperMicro China Hack. Bloomberg's Got It Wrong!