Category Archives: Technology

AAEON Releases PICO-PTH4, the World’s Smallest Intel Core Ultra Series 3-Powered Board

The PICO-PTH4 offers up to up to 180 TOPS of AI performance, an industrial-grade I/O, and both Windows® 11 and Ubuntu support.

Taipei, Taiwan, Nov 05: Leading embedded computing platform provider AAEON (Stock Code: 6579) has announced the release of the PICO-PTH4, the world’s first Pico-ITX single-board computer equipped with the new Intel® Core™ Ultra Series 3 Processor platform (formerly Panther Lake).

The board comes with a selection of 25W CPUs, with the standout being the 16-core, 16-thread Intel® Core™ Ultra X7 Processor 358H, which offers a total of 180 platform TOPS through its combination of an integrated Intel® Arc™ B390 GPU, CPU, and NPU. Alongside this, the board comes with up to 32GB of LPDDR5X system memory (up to 7,467 MT/s) and an M.2 2280 M-Key offering PCIe Gen 5 for NVMe storage. 

Despite its ultra-compact 100mm x 72mm Pico-ITX form factor, the PICO-PTH4 retains the key features required by space-constrained robotics and intelligent automation applications while delivering the AI performance needed to run edge AI workloads without an external GPU. The board offers dual 2.5GbE ports, one of which provides Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) support, for high-speed networking. Meanwhile, the board’s two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports grant camera and sensor connectivity.  

For intelligent industrial automation applications, the PICO-PTH4 has a robust internal I/O, including a 20-pin COM header with two BIOS-configurable RS-232/422/485 interfaces, a 4-bit GPIO, and a 5-pin header offering a choice of SMBus, I2C, and timed GPIO functions. 

For expansion, the PICO-PTH4 forgoes the SATA slot typically found on AAEON’s Pico-ITX boards, instead providing an M.2 2280 M-Key (PCIe Gen 5 x4) as well as an FPC connector with a PCIe Gen 3 x4 interface. Further expansion for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth is available through an M.2 2230 E-Key slot (PCIe Gen 4).

AAEON has indicated that the PICO-PTH4 is designed to meet the demands of modern industrial environments, particularly space-constrained robotics and intelligent automation applications. Illustrating this is the board’s robust design, which features a -20°C to 70°C operating temperature range and the option of either a 2-pin phoenix or lockable DC jack power connector.

The PICO-PTH4 is now in mass production and available for order via both the AAEON eShop and through its website contact form. .

JFrog Closes the Shadow AI Blind Spot, Unveils AI-SEC to Control Every AI Agent, Skill, and Model, from the Developer to Production

New Local Shadow AI Detection and Bring Your Own LLM Key scanning gives security teams oversight of AI assets that pipeline and registry controls never reach

SUNNYVALE, Calif. and BARCELONA, Spain – swampUP Europe 2026 – Nov 04 – JFrog, Ltd. (Nasdaq: FROG), the Liquid Software company and creators of the JFrog Software Supply Chain Platform, the system of record for trusted software artifacts, binaries, and AI assets, today announced advancements in JFrog AI Security, bringing AI asset detection, scanning and policy enforcement together in a single solution for the AI-Driven Software Supply Chain. JFrog is building upon its current Shadow AI Detection capabilities, extending to the developer endpoint. Local Shadow AI Detection surfaces AI assets running directly on developer machines, where pipeline and registry controls don’t reach. JFrog is also introducing New AI Asset Scanning with Bring Your Own LLM Key (BYOK), which lets customers scan skills, coding agent plugins, and APM packages using their own LLM instance, so they can vet this layer of the AI supply chain on infrastructure they control.

“Developers are already running AI agents organizations can’t see. JFrog AI Security brings them under control,” said Shlomi Ben Haim, Co-Founder and CEO, JFrog. “Until now, the conversation around AI agents has focused on what they can build vs. what they can break or who answers for it when that happens. The question is no longer whether agents will touch your supply chain – it’s whether you can prove what they touched. Our customers live in a zero-trust world and can’t trust AI agents or developers using AI blindly. JFrog brings detection, scanning, and policy enforcement for the AI-powered software supply chain into one solution.”

Attackers Moved from Code to Instructions

The JFrog 2026 Software Supply Chain Security State of the Union report tracked malicious AI agent skills, identifying 969 carrying high-impact payloads, alongside 495 malicious AI models on Hugging Face. Existing AppSec tools were built to catch vulnerable code. Agent skills, plugins, and APM packages ship something different: plain-English instructions that an agent reads and acts on.

JFrog’s AI Security bridges that gap with three capabilities: Local Shadow AI Detection, which inventories the AI assets in use; AI Asset Scanning, which reads the intent of models, skills, plugins, and APM packages; and JFrog Agent Guard, which enforces policy at the point an agent reaches for any of them. Together, they give security and developer teams a single source of truth for AI assets.

Shadow AI Detection Now Extends to the Developer Endpoint

Security teams increasingly need to know which AI assets are in use and who introduced them. Developers install skills, plugins, MCP servers, hooks, and other agentic assets through Git, Slack, marketplaces, and zip files, often outside the security teams’ review. Each of these assets runs with the developer’s own permissions and credentials, and it is not always clear what was installed, who installed it, or whether anyone approved it – which becomes increasingly problematic in an environment that is becoming more and more compliance driven.

JFrog’s new Local Shadow AI Detection extends visibility to developers’ machines by:

Detecting assets as they land: Deployed through the JFrog Agent Plugin on the developer workstation via mobile device management (MDM) or agent harness settings, it finds skills, plugins, and MCP servers, regardless of which repository or marketplace they came from.

Scanning on the local device: Deterministic scanning runs on the workstation itself, and only metadata and a risk assessment go back to the JFrog Platform.
Creating a baseline: Every asset is cross-referenced against source data in the JFrog Platform to understand what is approved for use, enabling security teams to move forward with confidence.
With JFrog AI Security, platform engineering and security teams finally have comprehensive visibility and policy enforcement through a single system of record.

AI Asset Scanning with BYOK

The new AI Asset Scanning Bring Your Own LLM Key (BYOK) capabilities use semantic scanning with the customer’s own private LLM account helping customers to:

Keep control of their data: Prompts and skills go directly from the JFrog Platform to the customer’s model endpoint, with nothing routed through a JFrog-hosted gateway.

Leveraging existing LLM contracts: Customers using their own key can scan and be billed through their own provider, leveraging existing investments. For JFrog’s self-hosted customers, BYOK is the only way to run AI Asset Scanning.

“Security teams need visibility that starts at the developer’s machine – before an asset ever reaches a coding agent or shared through Artifactory. Regulated customers need scanning that points at their own models,” said Yuval Fernbach, Vice President & CTO, JFrog AI Security. “Local Shadow AI Detection and AI Asset Scanner address both needs in a single solution: JFrog AI Security.”

JFrog AI Security, including Local Shadow AI Detection and AI Asset Scanning, is available now to JFrog Unified Security and Ultimate Security customers. Initial releases of JFrog AI Asset Scanning BYOK supports: Anthropic’s Opus 4.8, OpenAI’s GPT 5.6 Sol, and Google’s Gemini 3.1 Pro. To learn more about Local Shadow AI Detection, visit https://jfrog.com/ai-security/ or check out this product demo.

AVer’s AI-Powered Solutions for Healthcare and Pro AV Win at the Taiwan Excellence Awards 2027

Taipei, Taiwan – Nov 03: AVer Information Inc., an award-winning provider of AI audio-video solutions, proudly announces that two AVer submissions were recognized at the Taiwan Excellence Awards 2027. The winning entries are the Medical Grade PTZ Camera MD331UI and the AI Video + Voice Tracking Solution, comprising the TR322 and MT500. Spanning healthcare and professional AV, these solutions reflect AVer’s ongoing focus on AI-driven design for seamless telehealth, hybrid learning, and hybrid events.

“We are honored to receive the Taiwan Excellence Award once again,” says David Kuo, President of AVer. “We believe meaningful innovation starts with understanding what users need for an optimized user experience. Whether caregivers are monitoring patients remotely or presenters are speaking to in-person and online audiences, our AI audio-video solutions fit naturally into their workflow, so they can focus on what matters. This recognition reflects the strength of AVer’s design and engineering in Taiwan, and we will continue to bring Taiwan’s innovation and technological excellence to the global stage.”

The MD331UI is an IR-enabled medical-grade PTZ camera built to optimize virtual rounding and patient care. Its AI features include patient fall and bed-exit detection, facial and eye tracking, and mosaic privacy masking, while AI noise suppression ensures clear 2-way communication between doctor and patient, even in complex medical environments.

The AI Video + Voice Tracking Solution pairs the TR322 dual lens auto tracking camera with the MT500 to deliver automated, professional grade video for lecture halls, multipurpose rooms, and training facilities, purpose-built for divisible and combined room setups.

The Taiwan Excellence Award, widely known as the “Oscars of Taiwan Industries,” received thousands of product entries this year. Over the course of three months, more than a hundred international industry experts carried out rigorous evaluations, assessing each product’s R&D, Design, Quality, and Marketing to identify outstanding Taiwan-made products with innovative value and global competitiveness. AVer’s success with two winning entries reflects its long-term commitment to pioneering research and development and to driving industry growth through creativity.

New OhMD Outcomes Turns Healthcare Organizations’ Goals Into Automated Patient Workflows

BURLINGTON, VT, 11.3.2026 – OhMD, a voice and text AI company built for healthcare organizations, today announced the launch of OhMD Outcomes, designed around the results healthcare organizations want to achieve rather than the individual features they have to assemble to get there.

Instead of asking healthcare systems to piece together messaging, automation, and patient engagement tools, OhMD Outcomes starts from the goal. Organizations describe the objective in plain language, and OhMD builds the voice and text AI agents and workflow automations to achieve it. If an organization wants to reduce the care gaps in annual wellness visits, OhMD Outcomes identifies the patients who are due, reaches them by text or voice, helps them book a visit, follows up with those who don’t respond, and tracks how many gaps are closing, so the team can see whether the workflow is working and adjust it.

Many voice AI tools answer patient calls, but when they can’t resolve the issue, the patient goes back into the queue. OhMD’s voice and text AI agents are embedded in the EHR and other systems healthcare teams already use, giving staff a view of every patient touchpoint at the time of care. When a conversation needs a person, a staff member picks up where the AI left off.

“Healthcare organizations don’t wake up wanting more software. They wake up wanting their A/R under control and their wellness visits scheduled,” said Ethan Bechtel, CEO and Co-Founder of OhMD. “For years the industry has sold them features and left them to figure out the rest. OhMD Outcomes flips that. Because it sees every patient touchpoint, you tell it the result you need, and the workflows and AI agents are built around it.”

OhMD Outcomes sits on top of OhMD’s existing products, so current customers gain outcome-level structure without replacing what they already use.

What happens next?

Beta access opens in mid-November 2026 and will soon be available to OhMD’s large network of existing healthcare organizations. To learn more about the software, book a demo with the OhMD team at https://www.ohmd.com/demo.

LinearB launches Agentic Studio to give enterprise engineering leaders and coding agents the context to ship better software faster

Boston, Massachusetts – Nov 03; LinearB, a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Developer Productivity Insight Platforms, today launched Agentic Studio, a key part of the next generation of developer productivity platforms.

Historically, productivity platforms gave engineering leaders metrics. LinearB now turns everything happening across software delivery into context that people and agents can consume and act on. Engineering leaders ask questions in plain language and get answers and next steps. They define the context surface with role-based access built in, and AI assistants help extend that context and build metrics, artifacts and dashboards. Coding agents receive that context, so they understand their task and environment better and make smarter decisions.

Acting on that context matters more than ever. LinearB’s 2026 AI benchmarks, covering 2.7 million pull requests across more than 250 organizations, show that developers who use AI most heavily nearly doubled their merged pull requests year over year. Yet the software factory faces new problems. In LinearB’s 2026 Software Engineering Benchmarks Report, AI-assisted pull requests were 2.6 times larger than unassisted ones at the 75th percentile, and agent pull requests waited more than five times longer for review.

“Context is the new king,” said Ori Keren, CEO and co-founder of LinearB. “We realized we hold a knowledge graph that nobody else has of everything happening across the software delivery lifecycle, and that’s exactly what agents and teams need to deliver high quality software, faster. So we rebuilt LinearB around it.”

LinearB’s effort skill, now in early access, matches a coding agent’s effort to the task. It gauges a change’s business relevance, complexity and risk using the code quality in the area, recent service incidents and ownership history. Low risk changes use less effort and fewer tokens. Complex, risky or high priority changes get more effort and careful, tested edits. More skills are on the way, focused on accelerating downstream stages of the software factory, such as review and merge.

Kraken used LinearB’s MCP server with AI to find what was really slowing its code reviews. The answer wasn’t large changes. It was time zones and reviewer availability. Kraken cut review time at the 90th percentile by more than half in four months. “That’s the structural shift,” said Nik Sudan, engineering operations lead at Kraken. “It moves leaders from anecdote-driven to evidence-driven.”

The Agentic Studio is available now to all LinearB customers. Agent skills are available in early access.

 Why it matters now

Engineering leaders have more data than ever and less time to use it. Boards and CFOs now ask whether AI spend is paying off, and a dashboard full of numbers doesn’t answer that. At the same time, coding agents write more of the code, and they start every task knowing nothing about the codebase’s history.

Productivity platforms have always been good at measuring. The next step is turning what they measure into action. That means answers for the people running engineering, and context for the agents doing more of the work.

 What LinearB does

LinearB collects data from across the software delivery lifecycle and makes it usable. It normalizes data from different Git and project management systems into one model, matches each engineer’s identities across tools, and links every change from ticket to release. It adds AI attribution and industry benchmarks, so leaders can tell whether a number is good or bad.

The engineering context layer delivers that knowledge to people and to agents.

Engineering leaders ask questions in plain language, like where delivery is stuck, how their developers are doing and whether AI is paying off. Instead of reading a chart, they get an answer and a next step. They can build their own metrics and pull the same context into AI tools like Claude through MCP.

Coding agents get the same context through MCP and agent skills. The first skill, now in early access, matches an agent’s effort to the task. It checks how complex and risky a change is, using the code’s rework rate, recent incidents and ownership history. Simple, low risk changes use less effort and fewer tokens. Complex or risky changes get more effort and careful, tested edits, which raises quality where it matters most. The skill works with any coding agent, and leaders can see how often agents were routed to low, medium and high effort.

The platform is built for the enterprise, with role based access and guardrails on what agents can do.

 Journey and milestones

LinearB started by giving engineering leaders visibility into how their teams deliver software. Years of integration work across the software delivery lifecycle gave it one of the largest datasets on how engineering teams work. Its 2026 Software Engineering Benchmarks Report drew on more than 8.1 million pull requests from 4,800 engineering teams in 42 countries. As AI coding tools spread, LinearB added AI attribution and connected to more of the tools teams use.

In 2026, Gartner named LinearB a Leader in its first Magic Quadrant for Developer Productivity Insight Platforms, for both its ability to execute and its completeness of vision. Early customer response to the context layer is strong. The AI assistant and MCP access show the highest user retention of any features LinearB has released.

 “These are exciting times to rethink our role in the software ecosystem,” said Ori Keren. “Everyone else is focused on writing code. We realized we hold a knowledge graph of everything happening across the software delivery lifecycle, and that’s exactly what developers and agents need. So we rebuilt LinearB around it. We don’t build the software factory. We instrument it, so leaders know what to do next and agents make smarter decisions on every change.”

 “For years, engineering leaders told us the same thing. Metrics are useful, but they don’t tell you what to do,” added Dan Lines, co-founder and COO of LinearB. “A dashboard says your cycle time is two days. So what? Now a leader can ask what to improve in their engineering organization and get a clear answer. And when that same context goes to coding agents, the platform isn’t just reporting anymore. It’s acting.”

 Market trends

LinearB’s 2026 AI benchmarks, built from 2.7 million pull requests and 83,000 developers across 253 engineering organizations between February and May 2026, show why measuring AI isn’t enough on its own. The teams pulling ahead are the ones acting on what they learn.

• Heavy AI users are pulling away. The typical developer who uses AI on at least 75% of coding days merged 96% more pull requests per week than a year earlier. The typical developer using no AI merged 3.6% fewer.
• Adoption is shallower than the hype suggests. Even at elite organizations, AI assists only 54% of pull requests.
• Agents still need people. At the 90th percentile, autonomous agents open 4.7% of pull requests. At elite organizations, 79% of agent pull requests merge within 30 days, compared with 92% of human only pull requests. At fair organizations, agent yield drops to 37%. The likely reason is ownership. When no developer owns an agent’s pull request, it often never merges.
• AI code review is the fastest win. Pull requests with an AI review merge at the highest rate of any type and lift yield by up to five percentage points.
• AI costs are climbing fast at the top. Token spend at the 90th percentile reached $35.20 per developer per coding day, up nearly 75% in three months, while the median barely moved.

Engineering leaders already use LinearB to answer the questions their boards are asking about AI. “I use LinearB data and charts directly in my board decks, because my board is specifically asking questions about our use of AI and what our ROI is,” said Ken Ringdahl, CTO of Emburse.

 Forward-looking vision

The effort skill is the first in a library of agent skills. Each one turns LinearB’s context into an action an agent or a leader can take. Next, LinearB will focus on helping teams merge and govern AI generated code safely, and on cutting what engineering organizations spend on AI. The goal is the one productivity platforms have always promised, helping teams deliver better software faster. LinearB now does it by giving people answers and giving agents the context to act.

AAEON to Showcase the Next Wave of Edge AI Applications at Smart City Expo 2026

Booth C163 will host five live demonstrations featuring the technologies shaping the future of smart cities.

Taipei, Taiwan – Oct 30:  AAEON (Stock Code: 6579), an industry-leading provider of edge AI solutions, today announced it will host five live demonstrations at Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, illustrating how its platforms can support smarter mobility, urban safety, agentic workflow automation, and interactive robotics. Built on NVIDIA Jetson, AAEON’s demonstrations will highlight a range of AI applications, from real-time video analytics and emergency detection to on-device AI agents and human-machine interaction

Venue: Fira de Barcelona, Spain

Date: 3 – 5 November, 2026

Booth: Hall 3, Booth C163

The show, which now enters its 15th year, allows leaders from global companies, governments and organizations to converge and share how new technologies can be leveraged to improve urban living.

In keeping with the exhibition’s theme, AAEON’s booth will illustrate how its NVIDIA-accelerated AI systems can enable real-world smart city applications, in collaboration with leading software and hardware vendors from the global ecosystem.

AAEON’s first live demonstration will feature the MAXER-5000 AI inference server, powered by NVIDIA Jetson T5000 module. The platform will run a spatial workflow agent from ANIWEAVE powered by Avalanche Computing’s compliance-ready agentic AI software platform, which leverages resources from a number of open model families to bring secure, policy-governed edge AI operation to internal network environments.

The BOXER-8652AI, compact fanless embedded AI system accelerated by NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX, will also be on display in the form of an AI video analytics solution featuring the Isarsoft Perception software platform. This demonstration will provide real-time traffic insights at the edge for the purposes of supporting smarter and safer urban mobility.

The NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano-powered BOXER-8621AI will be on-site as part of a USB camera-based object detection solution. This will incorporate device identity and AI model security software from SandGrain, USB camera-based object detection in drone vision using Network Optix Meta and Ultralytics YOLO, remote management from Balena, and runtime protection from Exein.

AAEON will also reveal a new bespoke rugged tablet, the RTC-1210-Orin NX, which will showcase the in-field potential of technologies such as Pollen Robotics’ Reachy Mini, a companion robot agent designed to enable human-machine interaction.

AAEON’s final live demonstration will show the BOXER-8640AI, powered by NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin, as part of an emergency detection and response system. Equipped with A.I Tech’s suite of over 20 applications and protocols, this will demonstrate how AI-driven video analytics can be used to expedite the detection risks in urban environments, such as poor road and weather conditions.

At booth C163, visitors will also find a showcase area with upcoming products from AAEON’s roadmap featuring technologies accelerated by both NVIDIA Jetson Orin and NVIDIA Jetson Thor modules.

The Vodia PBX Now Supports Grok

BOSTON: Oct 29 – Vodia Networks, Inc., a provider of unified cloud communications solutions to enterprises, contact centers, and managed service providers (MSPs), is pleased to announce the industry-standard Vodia PBX now supports Grok.

What is Grok and what does it do?

In 2023 Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, released Grok, an AI chatbot. Like other AI chatbots, it provides direct responses to user queries, but with what are described as “direct, rebellious and unfiltered” replies, with a “personality” far more informal and less filtered than standard bots.

Much like other chatbots, Grok answers questions, assists with coding, comes up with ideas, creates images, writes emails, and enables voice chat; it also integrates with Google Drive. As with most AI-enabled platforms. It is accessible via a browser or app; the basic version is available without a subscription.

In January of this year xAI released Grok Imagine, which can create high-quality images, accurate text and logos, and portraits. It includes a sketchpad feature, though users can simply upload images. Grok has integrated with X since November 2023 – it pulls information from posts and answers questions.

Grok setup in the Vodia PBX

 Unlike the Vodia PBX OpenAI integration, there is no dedicated Grok trunk type in the Vodia PBX. The Grok SIP path is configured as a generic SIP gateway trunk pointed at xAI’s SIP ingress, combined with a phone number registered against an xAI account via the API.

Users need to log into the xAI Cloud Console and create an API key, for number registration below and inside the Voice Agents script. xAI doesn’t provision numbers – users must register a number under origin: “byo_trunk”, and xAI matches inbound SIP against it. The number doesn’t need to be dialable on the PSTN — it’s only used between your PBX and xAI, but it must be a well-formed E.164 number, since xAI validates the format. 

Voice agents AI transfer

 Vodia JavaScript Voice Agents capabilities enable a basic Voice Agents script that uses xAI’s Grok Speech to Speech API. As with the OpenAI example, the audio (RTP) is established through a SIP call to xAI, while call control and function calls are handled over a WebSocket bound to the same call by the unique call_id xAI delivers in its webhook.

As with the Grok setup, users must register their phone numbers with xAI, configure the webhook and SIP authentication, and then set up the generic SIP trunk and dialplan on Vodia.

Vodia continues to refine and strengthen V70 so it supports the integrations Vodia PBX users need to build peerless business communication ecosystems.

Watlow Brings Integrated Thermal Intelligence to SEMICON Europa 2026

Munich, Germany | Oct 29 — Watlow will showcase a new generation of integrated thermal technologies for semiconductor manufacturing at SEMICON Europa 2026. At Hall B1, Booth 612, visitors can explore how advanced heating, sensing, control and thermal data can improve process precision, equipment uptime and energy performance across wafer processing, tool-level heating and subfab applications. Watlow specialists will be available throughout the event to discuss new tool designs, existing equipment upgrades, thermal uniformity, subfab reliability and data-driven maintenance strategies.

From wafer-level precision to subfab intelligence

As semiconductor geometries shrink and process windows tighten, thermal performance has a direct impact on uniformity, repeatability, yield and tool availability. Watlow’s 2026 exhibit will show how thermal components and controls can be engineered as a coordinated system rather than treated as isolated devices.

At wafer level, a ceramic pedestal heater with POWERGLIDE multi-zone control will demonstrate precise, independently tuneable thermal zones for demanding deposition and etch processes. ULTRAMIC ceramic heaters, zone-heater technologies, FTH and FLUENT in-line heating will extend the discussion to applications requiring rapid response, compact integration and repeatable heat delivery.

For subfab environments, the ASSURANT SF display with an ASTRO demonstration unit will highlight approaches to thermal management in process gas delivery and abatement applications, where reliability, contamination control and maintainability are critical. The PowerNode smart control module will demonstrate how temperature and power control can be combined with electrical and thermal monitoring to simplify diagnostics and support stable process performance.

Turning thermal data into actionable insight

Watlow will also contribute to the SEMICON Europa technical programme. Mark Joyner, Sales Executive Expert, Semiconductor, will present “Hidden Costs, Visible Gains: How Sub-Fab Thermal Intelligence Drives Uptime, Energy Savings, and Sustainable Operations”, featuring Watlow’s THERMALWATCH technology, at the Fab Management Forum at the Fab Management Forum on Wednesday, 11 November at 14.25.

By analysing thermal and electrical behaviour, data-driven monitoring can help fabs identify abnormal conditions earlier, prioritise maintenance and move from reactive troubleshooting toward more predictive decision-making. The objective is practical: protect uptime, simplify root-cause analysis and make better use of the data already generated by thermal systems.

Meet the semiconductor thermal experts

SEMICON Europa gives OEMs, fab operators and engineering teams the opportunity to bring specific thermal challenges to Watlow specialists. Discussions at the booth can range from new equipment design and thermal uniformity to retrofits, controls integration, subfab reliability and strategies for using thermal data to support predictive maintenance.

Spiro brings electric motorcycles and battery-swapping technology to Ghana, expanding its pan-African footprint

KIGALI, RWANDA | Oct 29- Spiro, Africa’s largest electric mobility company, is expanding its footprint in Ghana with the introduction of the Ekon 450 M1 V3 electric motorcycle and its battery-swapping solution. Combining electric two-wheelers with access to charged batteries, Spiro aims to make everyday transport more affordable and practical for riders while supporting Ghana’s transition towards sustainable mobility.

For commercial riders and delivery fleets, fuel expenses and time spent off the road directly affect daily earnings. Spiro’s integrated offering addresses both challenges: riders can exchange a depleted battery for a charged one at a Spiro battery-swapping station in just two minutes, while potentially saving up to USD 2 per day in operating costs compared with conventional petrol-powered motorcycles.

Designed to meet the everyday mobility needs of African riders, the Ekon 450 M1 V3 offers an alternative to petrol-powered motorcycles. Supported by Spiro’s battery–swapping technology, it allows riders to get back on the road without waiting for their motorcycle to recharge.

Auroasish Choudhuri Managing Director Central and West Africa, commented: “Our entry into Ghana is an important step in strengthening Spiro’s presence in West Africa. Our focus is on building a local ecosystem that riders can rely on, combining electric motorcycles with convenient access to battery swapping. By working closely with local partners and listening to riders’ needs, we aim to support the long-term adoption of electric mobility in Ghana.”

Kaushik Burman, CEO Mobility of Spiro said: “Ghana represents a major opportunity for electric mobility, with a rapidly growing two-wheeler market and increasing demand from commercial riders and delivery fleets. By bringing the Ekon 450 M1 V3 together with our battery-swapping solution, we are addressing two key barriers to adoption: operating costs and access to charging infrastructure. Our ambition is to build a strong foundation for electric mobility to scale across Ghana.”

To support its rollout, Spiro is engaging with prospective customers through test rides, product demonstrations and live demonstrations of its battery–swapping technology across Greater Accra. These activities give riders the opportunity to experience the Ekon 450 M1 V3 and understand how battery swapping can fit into their daily routines.

Mr Maxwell Dodd, Managing Director of Spiro Ghana, said: “For riders in Ghana, the value of electric mobility lies in what it can deliver every day: lower operating costs, less downtime and more time on the road. Through the Ekon 450 M1 V3 and our battery-swapping solution, we want to make those benefits accessible and support riders as they make the transition to electric motorcycles.”

Ghana forms part of Spiro’s wider expansion across Africa. Building on its recent USD 270 million equity funding round and an additional USD 18 million in debt financing from the Africa Go Green Fund, the company is scaling its electric mobility ecosystem with the ambition of establishing a presence in 20 African markets. Spiro is also preparing to enter new countries, including Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

HighPoint Launches Gen5 AI Upgrade Solutions: Bringing Blackwell GPU Compute and Gen5 Storage to Edge Infrastructure

Technical dedicated Solutions Page Enables x86 Edge Infrastructure to Run 600W Blackwell Accelerators and Gen5 Storage at Full 64 GB/s Line Rate Without Full Platform Refreshes.

FREMONT, CA — October 2026 — HighPoint Technologies, Inc., a pioneer in high-performance PCIe switching architectures and NVMe storage connectivity, has unveiled its new portfolio of Gen5 AI Upgrade Solutions. Engineered for systems integrators and AI infrastructure professionals, the new dedicated landing page details deployment architectures for adding NVIDIA Blackwell RTX 6000 Pro GPUs and high-density Gen5 NVMe arrays to existing x86 Intel and AMD systems via autonomous hardware-level P2P switching fabric.

Overcoming the Physical and Bus Bottlenecks of Edge AI

As large language models, multimodal vision pipelines, and real-time inference expand into decentralized edge environments, engineering teams face critical infrastructure roadblocks:

The Gen4 Replacement Dilemma: Swapping out entire server backbones for native Gen5 hardware demands significant capital expenditure and introduces extensive project delays driven by persistent market supply constraints for enterprise Gen5 CPUs and DDR5 memory.

The Physical Edge Barrier: Compact 1U/2U server chassis and short-depth edge enclosures often face severe slot limitations, insufficient onboard power, and thermal constraints that physically prevent housing 600W active-cooled GPUs internally.

HighPoint’s Gen5 AI Upgrade Solutions resolve both challenges at the silicon layer, unlocking native NVIDIA GPUDirect P2P and GPUDirect Storage (GDS) compatibility across x86 Intel and AMD platforms. Powered by an integrated 48-lane Broadcom PCIe Gen5 switch and PCI-SIG CopprLink connectivity, these solutions establish a localized, autonomous downstream sub-fabric. High-throughput AI workloads execute via hardware-level Peer-to-Peer (P2P) DMA at full line-rate (up to 64 GB/s bi-directional)—transferring data directly between local NVMe storage, edge accelerators, and GPUs while completely bypassing the host CPU, system RAM, and host motherboard bus.

“Edge AI architects are caught between two bad options: replace entire server fleets prematurely, or sacrifice GPU performance due to host bus bottlenecks,” said May Hwang, Marketing Director at HighPoint Technologies. “Our Gen5 AI Upgrade Solutions offers an immediate third path. By combining dedicated 64 GB/s CopprLink cabling with our autonomous 48-lane switching fabric, system builders can integrate Blackwell-class compute and Gen5 storage into their existing x86 Intel and AMD edge footprints at full line rate.”

Three Targeted Architectural Deployment Models

The newly launched solution details three modular hardware deployment blueprints tailored to real-world edge environments:

1. Disaggregated External Compute: Couples the Rocket 7634D/7638D/1638E host adapter with the RocketStor 8631D-1300W enclosure over dedicated CopprLink™ CDFP x16 cabling, offloading 1300W of power and active cooling outside 1U/2U servers to run 600W Blackwell GPUs at continuous peak boost clocks.

2. Vertical / Cascading PCIe Expansion: Bridges the Rocket 1600A Series to secondary adapters like the Rocket 1528D via high-density MCIO connections, multiplying a single host x16 slot into an expansive hierarchy supporting 8+ NVMe drives alongside edge GPUs and NPU accelerators without chassis overhauls.

3. Horizontal Direct PCIe Expansion: Connects GPUs and Gen5 NVMe scratch pools directly to a single-tier crossbar matrix (such as the Rocket 7638D), delivering zero-hop, ultra-low latency (~100–150 ns) for live inference, token caching, and prompt fine-tuning.