Top Tech Highlights: ZTE Returns, Git v2, JDK10, Amazon R&D, Facebook AI Chip

ZTE Can Resume Operations

U.S. officials confirmed that an agreement allows ZTE to restart business after paying a large fine, appointing U.S. compliance officers, and restructuring its management, leading the U.S. Commerce Department to lift the ban on ZTE purchasing American products.

Git Protocol v2 Upgrade

Google announced the Git protocol version 2, which improves efficiency by adding server‑side reference filtering, easier extension of new features, and simplified client HTTP handling. In tests, fetching a single branch from a repository with 500 k references was three times faster and reduced data transfer to one‑eighth of the previous amount.

The main changes are:

Server‑side reference filtering

Enhanced extensibility for new features (e.g., declaring desired refs)

Simplified client HTTP processing

Google has already deployed the new protocol in Google Source and Cloud Source repositories.

JDK10 New Features

Oracle released Java Development Kit 10 and announced that JDK 11 will arrive in September 2018, introducing several new features while removing CORBA, Java EE (now Jakarta EE), and JavaFX modules. JDK 11 will be a long‑term support release with updates through September 2023 and extended support until 2026.

Global Enterprise R&D Spending Rankings – Amazon Leads

Bloomberg’s 2017 ranking shows Amazon topping global corporate R&D investment with $22.6 billion, outpacing Alphabet by $6 billion and doubling its 2016 spend. Chinese firms like Alibaba, despite comparable market value, rank far lower in R&D spending.

Facebook Begins Developing Its Own AI Chip

Facebook’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun revealed at the Viva Tech summit that the company is designing a custom AI chip to handle real‑time video analysis and moderation, citing the inefficiency of traditional methods and the growing demand for low‑power, high‑performance hardware.

The chip aims to reduce computational load and power consumption for tasks such as live video filtering, with Facebook confident in its hardware development capabilities. Similar initiatives are underway at ByteDance for short‑video processing.

Editor: Fei Hua Zhu Yue