Andrew Macleod

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Andrew Macleod is director of automotive marketing at Mentor, a Siemens Business. He has more than 15 years of experience in the automotive software and semiconductor industry, with expertise in new product development and introduction, product management and global strategy, including a focus on the Chinese auto industry. He earned a 1st class honors engineering degree from the University of Paisley in the UK, and lives in Austin, Texas.

Author's Latest Posts

In Automotive, A Move From Microcontrollers To Massively Complex SoCs
By Andrew Macleod - 06 Jun, 2019 - Comments: 1

Cars and custom, high-end chips. It’s a topic coming up more frequently these days. The most prominent example is Tesla’s FSD computer, described by Elon Musk as “the best chip in the world…objectively” during the company’s April Autonomy Day. When it comes to chips, Tesla is alone only when it comes to hyperbole, at least based on browsing job postings for big carmakers and supplie... » read more

Chip Design For The Age Of New Mobility
By Andrew Macleod - 07 Mar, 2019 - Comments: 0

In the new age of mobility, vehicles are valued more and more for their electronic features instead of mechanical specifications. As a result, companies that are able to own and optimize the design of these critical electronics will capture more of the available profit. This is bringing traditional automotive manufacturers into the electronics business, while simultaneously attracting tech comp... » read more

Scaling To Meet Engineering Challenges In Transportation
By Andrew Macleod - 10 Jan, 2019 - Comments: 0

If you’re working on anything related to self-driving cars, you’re likely pondering the tradeoff between what’s technically possible and socially feasible. Example: what do you do if the posted speed is 25mph while the local norms are to travel at least 30 mph? Obey the law and annoy the drivers around you? Or follow the herd and risk the ire of local law enforcement and officials who are... » read more

Will Cowboys Or Collaborators Shape The Self-Driving Future?
By Andrew Macleod - 06 Dec, 2018 - Comments: 0

You may have noticed the bloom is ever so slightly off the autonomous vehicle rose. This is likely due to some combination of a generalized malaise and growing cynicism directed at Silicon Valley in general (where of course much work on AVs continues apace) and a growing list of highly publicized self-driving incidents that surely make PR teams groan. Exhibit A from this week was the California... » read more

Autonomous Vehicles: IC Design Flow Walk Through
By Andrew Macleod - 04 Oct, 2018 - Comments: 0

Automotive applications, particularly those related to AI and computer vision, are a significant driver of the current semiconductor boom. Established companies are mostly thriving, it’s true, but perhaps more interesting are all the new faces in the game. As usual, Mentor CEO Wally Rhines is one of the great sense-makers of the all this activity. Wally has been making the rounds at variou... » read more

Smart Cities’ Head Start On The Mobility Future
By Andrew Macleod - 02 Aug, 2018 - Comments: 0

Even if autonomy is still mostly in the R&D, balky-science-project phase, vehicle connectivity is increasingly here today. And that’s good news since connected cars deliver a meaningful subset of the societal upside promised by their eventual fully autonomous future selves, especially when it comes to safety, traffic management and navigation. But beyond the dashboard, as the world become... » read more

Self-Driving Hits The Safety Reset Button
By Andrew Macleod - 09 Jul, 2018 - Comments: 0

All of a sudden the autonomous future is looking a bit more uncertain, which is somewhat surprising given what tech and auto boosters have been saying for years now — namely, that self-driving cars are “just around the corner.” (Google that phrase to see just how often they’ve been saying it. Even the starchy Economist trumpets this very meme.) The American Center for Mobility (ACM... » read more

The Coming Golden Age For Automotive E/E Design Services And Consulting
By Andrew Macleod - 03 May, 2018 - Comments: 0

By Andrew Macleod and Scott Majdecki The discipline of automotive E/E systems design is being transformed by trends like electrification and autonomous vehicles, which means there is a premium on methodologies like rapid platform (hardware/ software) prototyping, simulation and test, and electrical architecture optimization. Such methodologies hinge on advanced software design tools and the ... » read more

How To Sleep Easier If You Test Auto ICs For A Living
By Andrew Macleod - 07 Dec, 2017 - Comments: 0

Last month, I looked at the product definition process of automotive ICs, using the $7 billion microcontroller market as an illustration of design exploration to optimize performance, features, die size and product cost. Now I’d like to look at the back end of the process — the final IC testing that’s still critical no matter how sound the upfront work in defining a featuring set and aptl... » read more

Recipe For Automotive IC Design Success
By Andrew Macleod - 02 Nov, 2017 - Comments: 0

“Not a computer science project!” That’s how an automotive IC design manager I worked with once described IC design in a product definition meeting. I liked his viewpoint. What he meant was: This is a business, not an academic exercise or homework assignment. There are competitors, customers, and opportunity for success and failure. Despite the massive opportunity for the chip industry, d... » read more

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