Latest / Connecting the Dots / Connecting the Dots - 6-3-2025

Transcript

Connecting the Dots - 6-3-2025 · Connecting the Dots

• 0:00
  Today's tech news moves fast, but understanding
• 0:03
  it shouldn't be hard. That's why Snarful Solutions
• 0:06
  Group brings you Connecting the Dots, where we
• 0:09
  break down what's happening in tech and why it
• 0:11
  matters to you. Now, let's dive in with your
• 0:14
  hosts. Hello and welcome to Connecting the Dots,
• 0:17
  brought to you by us here at Snarful Solutions
• 0:19
  Group in Sacramento, California. It's Tuesday,
• 0:21
  June 3rd, 2025. I'm Alex. And I'm Morgan. And
• 0:25
  it's a beautiful day here in Sacramento, isn't
• 0:26
  it? Sunny getting up to about 91 degrees today.
• 0:29
  Definitely feels like summer's arrived. Oh, yeah.
• 0:31
  Lovely here. A bit different elsewhere, though.
• 0:33
  We're still seeing those severe weather threats,
• 0:36
  particularly in the central U .S. and down in
• 0:38
  southern Florida. Lots of rain, thunderstorms,
• 0:41
  flash flooding risks. Yeah, definitely some intense
• 0:44
  weather hitting parts of the country. Yeah. And
• 0:46
  sounds like another system is moving towards
• 0:48
  the four corners, too. That's right. They're
• 0:50
  expecting more showers, potentially thunderstorms
• 0:52
  later this week from that. one so yeah folks
• 0:55
  in those areas need to keep an eye on the forecast
• 0:57
  absolutely stay safe out there quick look at
• 1:00
  the markets for Tuesday June 3rd the Dow Jones
• 1:03
  closed up at forty two thousand three hundred
• 1:05
  nine point seven one okay and the S &P 500 finished
• 1:09
  the day at five hundred and thirty eight point
• 1:11
  two got it okay so that's the picture nationally
• 1:14
  and on Wall Street let's shift gears now and
• 1:18
  do our deep dive into the tech world Today, we're
• 1:21
  connecting the dots on three really interesting
• 1:23
  tech stories, looking at what they actually mean
• 1:25
  for you. Exactly. We're going to unpack the hidden
• 1:30
  infrastructure that's really making the AI boom
• 1:32
  possible, then look at a major creative tool
• 1:35
  making a surprising jump to mobile, and finally
• 1:38
  dig into a big effort to build a whole new mobile
• 1:41
  OS ecosystem. It's all about the underlying tech,
• 1:44
  shaping how we compute and connect. Sounds great.
• 1:47
  Let's start with that first in the AI infrastructure.
• 1:49
  We hear so much about the amazing chips, right?
• 1:53
  The NVIDIA GPUs, Google's TPUs, but you're saying
• 1:56
  there's more to it. Oh, absolutely. That's really
• 1:58
  the core point from our sources here. Think of
• 2:00
  those chips like... super powerful engines, but
• 2:03
  for the really massive AI tasks, like training
• 2:05
  these enormous language models, you need thousands
• 2:07
  of those engines working together. And for that
• 2:10
  to happen efficiently, they need incredibly fast
• 2:12
  connections between them, like unbelievably fast
• 2:14
  data highways. So it's the communication between
• 2:17
  the chips that's becoming the bottleneck, or,
• 2:19
  well, the area needing huge upgrades. Precisely.
• 2:23
  Yeah, bottleneck is a good word. Imagine data
• 2:25
  centers just packed with these AI chips. To train
• 2:28
  one big model, you're shuffling enormous amounts
• 2:31
  of data petabytes back and forth between thousands
• 2:33
  of them constantly. If those links are slow,
• 2:37
  the chips just sit there waiting. Waste time,
• 2:40
  waste power. So you need what's called a scale
• 2:42
  -out network. It's designed specifically to make
• 2:45
  thousands of these processors act like one giant
• 2:49
  distributed computer. OK, these internal data
• 2:51
  set are highways. And the key players building
• 2:54
  them According to the sources are Broadcom and
• 2:57
  Marvell. That was the two big ones highlighted.
• 3:00
  Yeah, they're central to this whole AI networking
• 3:02
  build out. The demand for AI computing is just.
• 3:04
  exploding, pushing this massive upgrade cycle
• 3:07
  for data center networks. We're talking moving
• 3:10
  from 400 gigabits per second links, which was
• 3:13
  state of the art not long ago, to 800 gigabits.
• 3:16
  And now everyone's pushing towards 1 .6 terabits
• 3:18
  per second. And Broadcom and Marvell provide
• 3:21
  the critical silicon chips that make those speeds
• 3:24
  possible. This is expected to be a huge growth
• 3:27
  driver for them, you know, through 2025 and probably
• 3:30
  beyond. OK, so. Big let companies building data
• 3:34
  centers obviously care. Mm -hmm But why does
• 3:37
  this matter to me the person using say an AI
• 3:40
  chatbot or an image generator great question
• 3:42
  It connects back directly to your experience
• 3:49
  Networks mean those services can respond quicker.
• 3:52
  Yeah, they can handle more complex requests Maybe
• 3:55
  generate images faster or give you chatbot answers
• 3:58
  with less delay and potentially Over time, as
• 4:01
  this infrastructure gets more efficient, it could
• 4:03
  make those services cheaper to run and maybe
• 4:05
  cheaper for you to use. Right, that makes sense.
• 4:07
  And there's another angle. Better networking
• 4:09
  makes it easier for different types of AI chips
• 4:11
  to work together in the same data center. That
• 4:14
  fosters competition between chipmakers, maybe
• 4:17
  Google's TPUs competing better with NVIDIA's
• 4:19
  GPUs, or Amazon's Tranium chips finding wider
• 4:22
  use. More competition usually means more innovation
• 4:26
  and potentially better prices for everyone. Okay,
• 4:29
  so let's break down their rules. Broadcom is
• 4:31
  mostly about the switches, the traffic cops of
• 4:34
  the network. Exactly. They dominate the market
• 4:36
  for high -performance Ethernet switching ships.
• 4:39
  Their Tomahawk line is kind of the industry standard.
• 4:42
  Tomahawk 5 is already out there doing 51 .2 terabits
• 4:46
  per second on one ship. which is just a staggering
• 4:49
  number. It really is. And the next one, Tomahawk
• 4:52
  6, is expected later this year, doubling that
• 4:54
  to 102 terabits per second. They also provide
• 4:57
  other key pieces, like ways to connect the switch
• 4:59
  to the processors really fast, using things like
• 5:02
  PCIe Gen 5 and co -packaged optics. Their AI
• 5:06
  networking revenue is soaring up over 60%, which
• 5:09
  shows you the demand. And Marvell, where do they
• 5:11
  fit in this picture? They're doing something
• 5:12
  called PM4 DSPs. Right. So PM4 DSP's digital
• 5:17
  signal processors are crucial little chips that
• 5:20
  sit inside the optical modules or the active
• 5:22
  electrical cables that actually carry the data
• 5:25
  between switches and chips. Think of them as
• 5:27
  like translators and amplifiers ensuring the
• 5:30
  signal integrity at these super high speeds.
• 5:32
  OK. Marvell is the leader here. Huge market share.
• 5:35
  Over 70 percent. Big business for them. Over
• 5:37
  one and a half billion dollars last year. Just
• 5:40
  from this. And they're also pushing the next
• 5:43
  generation, the 1 .6 -parabit stuff, using advanced
• 5:47
  tech like silicon photonics or Syfo, basically
• 5:50
  using light pulses on silicon chips for data
• 5:53
  transmission. Now, the source has also mentioned
• 5:55
  this kind of tension, right? NVIDIA has its own
• 5:57
  networking tech, InfiniBand. But the big cloud
• 6:01
  providers, Amazon, Google, Meta, they seem to
• 6:04
  prefer something else. Yeah, this is a really
• 6:06
  critical dynamic. It's about open versus closed
• 6:08
  systems. If you're a giant cloud company spending
• 6:10
  billions on hardware, you want flexibility. You
• 6:12
  don't want to be locked into one supplier's proprietary
• 6:15
  system if you can avoid it. Makes sense. NVIDIA's
• 6:17
  InfiniBand is really good, highly optimized for
• 6:20
  their GPUs, but it is largely NVIDIA's system.
• 6:23
  The cloud giants who are building their own custom
• 6:26
  AI chips too, they naturally lean towards open
• 6:28
  standards. where Ethernet pushed by Broadcom.
• 6:31
  comes in as the alternative. That's the play.
• 6:34
  Ethernet is, you know, everywhere. It's the standard.
• 6:38
  Broadcom is heavily promoting a technology called
• 6:40
  ROCE. It's RDMA, over -converged Ethernet. Basically,
• 6:45
  ROCE adds capabilities to standard Ethernet that
• 6:48
  make its performance, especially its latency,
• 6:50
  much closer to InfiniBand for these AI workloads.
• 6:53
  So it makes Ethernet competitive for AI. Exactly.
• 6:56
  It gives the cloud providers a viable, open,
• 6:58
  standard -based alternative. They can use regular
• 7:00
  Ethernet switches potentially for multiple vendors
• 7:03
  and still get the performance they need for these
• 7:05
  massive AI clusters. And using standard Ethernet
• 7:08
  with RoC, does that mean they could more easily
• 7:11
  mix GPUs from NVIDIA with, say, their own custom
• 7:14
  chips on the same network? That's definitely
• 7:16
  part of the appeal. An open standard like Ethernet
• 7:19
  promises better interoperability. Plus, there
• 7:22
  are arguments about scale and cost. Some say
• 7:25
  Ethernet architectures can scale out to larger
• 7:27
  numbers of processors more easily than traditional
• 7:29
  InfiniBand fabrics, maybe. And standard Ethernet
• 7:33
  switches can handle traffic for both CPUs and
• 7:35
  GPUs, potentially simplifying the overall network
• 7:38
  design and saving costs, compared to needing
• 7:40
  separate networks. And it's not just Broadcom,
• 7:43
  right? Competition is driving this faster pace.
• 7:45
  Sources mention Enovium. as pushing them. Oh
• 7:48
  yeah, absolutely. Competition is fierce. Novium,
• 7:51
  before Marvell acquired them, was a major challenger
• 7:53
  with their Terralinks chips. They went head -to
• 7:55
  -head with Broadcom's tomahawk on everything's
• 7:57
  speed, how much data the chip could buffer, latency,
• 8:00
  power use. This constant push for more bandwidth,
• 8:04
  and also trying to simplify the network, make
• 8:05
  it flatter to reduce delay and cost, that's what
• 8:08
  keeps companies like Broadcom and Marvell innovating
• 8:11
  like crazy. So wrapping up this first part, it's
• 8:13
  really this hidden layer, the network plumbing
• 8:15
  built by companies like Broadcom and Marvell,
• 8:18
  that's critical to making all the AI stuff we're
• 8:20
  starting to see actually work and work faster.
• 8:22
  It truly is the foundation. Without these high
• 8:25
  -speed connections, the AI revolution grinds
• 8:27
  to a halt. It's the unsung hero, maybe. Okay,
• 8:31
  fascinating stuff. Let's totally shift gears
• 8:33
  now from the data center depths to something
• 8:36
  right in your hand or, well, potentially in your
• 8:39
  pocket soon, Photoshop. on Android. Yes. This
• 8:42
  is pretty big news for mobile creative types,
• 8:45
  or really anyone who edits photos on their phone.
• 8:49
  Adobe has launched a, well, a proper Photoshop
• 8:52
  app for Android. It's in beta right now. A proper
• 8:54
  one, not like Photoshop Express or one of those
• 8:57
  lighter apps. That seems to be the key thing
• 8:59
  here based on the sources. It's built for mobile,
• 9:01
  obviously, touch controls and all that, but it
• 9:03
  brings over a lot of the core desktop power.
• 9:05
  We're talking layers, masks, complex selections.
• 9:09
  Things you expect from real Photoshop. Wow, layers
• 9:12
  and masks on a phone. That's significant. Yeah.
• 9:14
  And they've included familiar tools like the
• 9:16
  Spot Healing Brush, Clone Stamp, Magic Wand,
• 9:19
  but optimized for touch. Plus some mobile first
• 9:21
  things like Tap Select. And the source has said
• 9:24
  it's free during the beta, at least. That's right.
• 9:28
  That's the really appealing part for users right
• 9:29
  now. Download the beta and all the features are
• 9:32
  unlocked free to use. No Creative Cloud subscription
• 9:35
  needed to try everything out while it's in beta.
• 9:37
  OK, you know what's coming next. AI. Does it
• 9:40
  have the Firefly stuff? Of course. Can't launch
• 9:43
  a creative tool these days without AI, it seems.
• 9:45
  Yeah. Yes. Firefly powered generative fill is
• 9:48
  built right in. Whoa. So you can like type add
• 9:51
  a dog and it adds a dog to your photo on your
• 9:54
  phone. Pretty much. You can add things, remove
• 9:56
  things, expand the canvas and have AI fill in
• 9:58
  the background. All using text prompts right
• 10:01
  there in Android app. It's that same powerful
• 10:04
  generative fill from the desktop now on mobile.
• 10:07
  That's actually incredible. Making that kind
• 10:09
  of AI accessible on a phone is huge. What about
• 10:11
  people who maybe haven't used layers or AI fills
• 10:14
  before? Is there help? Yep, they thought of that.
• 10:17
  Adobe built tutorials right into the app. They
• 10:19
  guide you through layers, selections, and how
• 10:22
  to use the AI tools. There's also a community
• 10:24
  forum mentioned so users can help each other
• 10:26
  out. Makes sense. What kind of phone do you need?
• 10:28
  Does it require a super high -end device? There
• 10:31
  are requirements. You need Android 11 or newer.
• 10:34
  And crucially, it needs at least 6 GB of RAM.
• 10:37
  But they recommend 8 GB or more. OK. 8 GB RAM
• 10:41
  recommended. That points to it being pretty powerful.
• 10:44
  Yeah. Probably for the AI features. That's the
• 10:46
  likely reason, yeah. Those AI models, even if
• 10:48
  some processing happens in the cloud, still demand
• 10:51
  a good amount of local resource to run smoothly.
• 10:54
  So stepping back. What's the big picture here
• 10:56
  for Android users? It's basically bringing truly
• 11:00
  professional level photo editing and cutting
• 11:02
  edge generative AI to Android phones and tablets.
• 11:05
  It's way beyond simple filters. You can do complex
• 11:08
  composites, serious retouching, AI magic, all
• 11:11
  on the go. And after the beta? Will it cost money?
• 11:14
  The sources suggest it'll likely follow the iOS
• 11:16
  model. So the app might remain free to download,
• 11:19
  but accessing all the premium features, maybe
• 11:21
  things like object select, advanced blending,
• 11:25
  could require a subscription, something like
• 11:27
  maybe $8 a month. Okay. But importantly, if you
• 11:30
  already pay for Photoshop on your desktop through
• 11:33
  Creative Cloud, you'll likely get the premium
• 11:35
  mobile features included. Right. So potentially
• 11:38
  a massive upgrade for mobile editing, especially
• 11:40
  if you're already in the Adobe ecosystem. Definitely.
• 11:43
  It really blurs the line between what you can
• 11:45
  do on mobile versus Desktop for photo work. Okay,
• 11:49
  cool. Let's move on to our third story a new
• 11:52
  phone from Huawei the pure X But the real story
• 11:56
  is the operating system. That's the angle. Yes
• 11:59
  So Huawei launched this phone the pure X in China
• 12:02
  and the design is Well, it's unique. It kind
• 12:05
  of folds like a flip phone when closed with a
• 12:07
  small outer screen. But then it unfolds sideways
• 12:10
  like a book to a larger inner screen. But you're
• 12:12
  apparently meant to hold it sideways and use
• 12:14
  that inner screen vertically in portrait mode.
• 12:16
  It's different. Hmm. Yeah, it sounds a bit unconventional.
• 12:19
  OK, but the OS is the main event. Correct. This
• 12:22
  Pura X is the first big flagship phone from Huawei
• 12:25
  running what they call Harmony OS 5 .0 or Harmony
• 12:29
  OS Next. And the key claim. The really significant
• 12:33
  part is that this version is supposedly completely
• 12:35
  free of Android source code. Wow. So they've
• 12:38
  actually built their own OS from the ground up,
• 12:40
  ditching the Android base they used before. That's
• 12:42
  the assertion, and it represents a massive strategic
• 12:45
  effort by Huawei. They're aiming to establish
• 12:48
  Harmony OS as a genuine third major mobile ecosystem
• 12:51
  alongside Android and iOS. Not just a skin on
• 12:54
  top of Android, but a completely separate platform.
• 12:57
  They're pushing developers hard to build native
• 12:59
  Harmony OS apps. Okay. trying to build a whole
• 13:01
  new ecosystem. That sounds incredibly difficult.
• 13:04
  What's the biggest challenge for someone buying
• 13:06
  this phone then? Apps. It always comes down to
• 13:09
  apps. Building an ecosystem takes years and huge
• 13:12
  investment. The sources point out that while
• 13:14
  Huawei's making progress may be aiming for 100
• 13:16
  ,000 apps this year, up from 15 ,000 last year,
• 13:20
  that's still tiny compared to the millions on
• 13:22
  Google Play or Apple's App Store. Right? Millions
• 13:24
  versus maybe a hundred thousand. That's a huge
• 13:26
  difference. It is. And crucially, running HarmonyOS
• 13:30
  Next means no Google Play Store out of the box
• 13:32
  and no native compatibility with all those existing
• 13:35
  Android apps people rely on. That's the major
• 13:37
  hurdle for users outside of China, especially.
• 13:40
  What else did the sources mention about the phone
• 13:42
  itself? Price, specs? Price is around a $140
• 13:45
  US equivalent in China. It uses Huawei's own
• 13:48
  Kirin 9020 chip, decent cameras, 50 megapixel
• 13:52
  main, plus ultrawide and telephoto. It actually
• 13:55
  has good water protection, IPX8 for a foldable,
• 13:58
  and it features their new AI assistant, Harmony
• 14:01
  Intelligence. But yeah, key point. Currently
• 14:03
  only sold in China. Okay, so. Only in China,
• 14:06
  unconventional design, and a brand new OS with
• 14:08
  a very limited app store compared to Android
• 14:10
  or iOS. Why should someone listening here, likely
• 14:13
  not in China, care about this? It's about the
• 14:15
  bigger picture, the global landscape. Even if
• 14:17
  you can't buy this specific phone, Huawei's serious
• 14:20
  attempt to build a viable third OS is significant.
• 14:23
  It shows a major player pushing hard against
• 14:25
  the Android OS duopoly. We should watch closely
• 14:27
  to see if HarmonyOS can actually attract enough
• 14:30
  developers and users to become a real global
• 14:33
  competitor over time. If they do succeed, even
• 14:36
  partially, it could eventually influence the
• 14:38
  choices and features available to all mobile
• 14:41
  users by injecting more competition to the OS
• 14:43
  market. It's a long game, but potentially impactful.
• 14:47
  So it's a sign of potential future shifts, even
• 14:50
  if it doesn't directly affect most of us today.
• 14:52
  Exactly. It's a major strategic move worth tracking.
• 14:55
  OK, so quite a range today. We dove into the
• 14:58
  critical network infrastructure, making AI possible
• 15:01
  thanks to companies like Broadcom and Marvell.
• 15:03
  We looked at Photoshop bringing serious power,
• 15:06
  including AI, to Android phones. And we examined
• 15:09
  Huawei's bold move with Harmony OS, trying to
• 15:12
  build a new mobile world. Yeah, three stories
• 15:14
  showing different facets of tech evolution from
• 15:17
  the foundational hardware to software accessibility
• 15:19
  to platform competition, all of it impacting
• 15:22
  or potentially impacting the technology we use
• 15:24
  every single day. It really makes you think.
• 15:27
  That Photoshop story, for example. with tools
• 15:30
  like generative fill becoming so easy to use
• 15:32
  on a phone. Does that change what it means to
• 15:35
  be creative or skilled in photo editing? Is AI
• 15:40
  kind of democratizing some of those high -end
• 15:42
  skills? That's a fantastic question to ponder.
• 15:45
  It certainly lowers the barrier for certain kinds
• 15:47
  of creation and manipulation. Where does that
• 15:50
  lead? It's something we'll definitely keep watching.
• 15:52
  Absolutely. Well, that's our deep dive for today.
• 15:54
  We are here to help here at Sunarful, so reach
• 15:56
  out on our website if you have any more questions.
• 16:01
  That's a wrap on today's top stories. Remember,
• 16:05
  tech doesn't have to be complicated, and we're
• 16:07
  here to help connect the dots. If you've got
• 16:09
  questions or want to learn more, visit us at
• 16:12
  snarful .com. Thanks for listening, and we'll
• 16:15
  catch you next time.