ICYMI: Ep48 TI Buys SiLabs, Variscite expands SOMs, and Engineer Education
February 06, 2026
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Hello Embedded Professionals, Engineers, and Developers! Welcome to In Case You Missed it, the weekly news show all about Embedded technologies and solutions from Embedded Computing Design.
It’s Friday February 6, 2026, I’m Ken Briodagh, Editor in Chief of Embedded Computing Design and these are our top stories this week.
First up, big news in the embedded industry broke this week. Texas Instruments announced it is set to acquire Silicon Labs for about $7.5 billion. Nearly simultaneously, Siemens announced the acquisition of Canopus AI with the stated intention of offering semiconductor manufacturers the ability to “achieve new levels of precision and efficiency in wafer and mask inspection processes.” Put together with other semiconductor M&A news that has broken this year already, I am starting to think we might be looking at a shift in the shape of the semiconductor industry in 2026. Check out my column.
Our next story comes from Variscite. The company announced an expansion of its SOM portfolio that brings it into the Smart Mobility Architecture (SMARC) interface standard. Veriscite introduced a series of SoMs under this expansion, beginning with the NXP i.MX 8M Plus processor-powered VAR-SMARC-MX8M-PLUS delivering NXP’s 1.8GHz Quad Cortex-A53 with 800MHz Cortex-M7 real-time co-processor that combines AI/ML abilities and an advanced Image Signal Processor (ISP) vision system.
Finally, we’re featuring a column by our Assistant Managing Editor, Tiera Oliver. Tiera has written an excellent profile on a professor of engineering that’s focused on educating students on how to bridge the hardware-software divide. Marilyn Wolf is the Elmer E. Koch Professor of Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Tiera’s interview brings into focus the importance of practical, hands-on education in embedded engineering.
Your Embedded Computing Design team is excited to be returning to embedded world in Nuremburg Germany yet again and we will be covering miles to bring you even more content than ever. Check out our event guide for tips, tricks, and tactics for getting the most out of your participation.
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See you next week, and have a great weekend.
