Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive/Mobility Autonomous car company Waymo is making a point of not calling itself a self-driving car company because the company said in a blog to do so would be a dangerously misleading. Waymo says it will instead call its technology ‘fully autonomous driving technology.’ “Unfortunately, we see that some automakers use the term ‘self-driving’ in an inaccurate way, giving cons... » read more

Pressure-induced Anderson-Mott transition in elemental tellurium


Oliveira, J.F., Fontes, M.B., Moutinho, M. et al. Pressure-induced Anderson-Mott transition in elemental tellurium. Commun Mater 2, 1 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43246-020-00110-1 Abstract: "Elemental tellurium is a small band-gap semiconductor, which is always p-doped due to the natural occurrence of vacancies. Its chiral non-centrosymmetric structure, characterized by helical chains ... » read more

Car Industry Changing Under The Hood


After an initial burst of autonomous activity, the automotive ecosystem regrouped, re-evaluated its goals, and is now ready to begin deploying new technologies made possible by modern development approaches and forward-looking vehicle architectures. The pandemic hurt vehicle sales in 2020, but it also gave the OEMs a chance to catch their breath. Panic over announcements from other carmakers... » read more

Washington Sets IoT Cybersecurity Standards


On December 4th, 2020, the “IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2020” became law. The bipartisan legislation sets a minimum security standard for IoT devices that the US government procures. In an increasingly rare act of bipartisanship, the bill was “passed by unanimous consent” in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, demonstrating the importance of IoT security. The l... » read more

The Impact Of 5G On Silicon Design


5G, the next-generation of mobile broadband, is driving tremendous increases in data throughput for mobile applications by introducing carrier aggregation, massive MIMO, advanced modulation, and high bandwidth channels in the mmWave spectrum. However, 5G and its governing body, 3GPP, has very high expectations to expand its capabilities well beyond the mobile market, and move into many new area... » read more

Managing Device Certificates Is Becoming Harder


As the number of devices connected to the Internet balloons, certificate management is becoming more complex, more essential, and significantly harder to keep track of. There are many different certificates for many different purposes, not to mention certificates that are unique to each device. And the lifetimes of those certificates may vary, making it even tougher to keep operating certifi... » read more

EV Electrical System Development With Generative Design


Automotive electrical and electronic (E/E) systems are becoming more complex, making the task of designing today’s cars much more difficult. Infotainment, comfort and convenience features, and even safety- and mission-critical systems such as steering and throttle control are accomplished through electrically powered computers, actuators, and sensors. Electric vehicles (EVs) will only incr... » read more

Security Breaches And The Defensive Mindset


Over the Christmas break, the biggest security breach ever came to light. It is assumed to be instigated by a foreign entity. The breach is known mostly as SolarWinds. SolarWinds produces network management software called Orion that is used by...well, almost everyone. The attackers inserted a backdoor into an Orion software update. You know how the operating system on your PC or Mac gets autom... » read more

Enabling “Triple Vision” – LiDAR Technology For Safe Driving


Cars are becoming safer, thanks to Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) features such as automatic emergency braking (AEB) and driver monitoring systems. These features are becoming ever more sophisticated, making automated driving robust. For instance, AEB began with merely watching cars in front. Now, it detects pedestrians, weaving traffic, cyclists, and objects in the road. Realizin... » read more

Electronics Supply-Chain Trust Standards Emerge


Creative new ideas for electronics supply-chain trust are in rich supply, whether securing identity, protecting logistics, or establishing provenance. But underlying these efforts are wide-ranging standards in development from a broad set of organizations. Today, no one-stop-shop for supply-chain standards exists. Instead, there is huge fragmentation. It can be difficult to identify all of t... » read more

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