Responsibility And Automotive Security


I came across this excellent, thought-provoking white paper from NTT Security and felt that some of the insights were worth sharing. Some of our previous blogs have discussed the cost implications of automotive cybersecurity for vehicle manufacturers, and the potential implications for the driver and passengers of vehicles. But this paper got me thinking about another angle – responsibilit... » read more

DAC 2019 Was About More Than Just Chips


Behind all the noise of the vast array of slot machines, gambling tables and bars and the bright lights of the Las Vegas strip was the large gathering of the annual Design Automation Conference, which was back in the bustling city for the first time in just under 20 years. Following its success in San Francisco last year, and indeed where it will return next July (co-located with the SEMICON... » read more

Cyber Attacks Against Vehicles On The Rise


Who is worried about automotive security and safety? I, for one, most definitely am! I’ve written previously about how tackling this problem makes good business sense. But the more immersed I become in this topic, the more I feel personally concerned about the implications of this, and the snail’s-pace at which the market is responding to it. I’ve just read an Upstream Security repo... » read more

All Security Issues Are Safety Issues


Last month I spoke at the IQPC Safety and Security week event in Munich. It became clear to me that our semiconductor community is really paying attention to these issues now, not just to comply with standards, and not just because of the potential liability – but because it simply makes good business sense. The cost of recalling a single vehicle is estimated to be between $400 and $900 ... » read more

RISC-V At Embedded World


As we arrive back from a busy, and unusually warm, Embedded World 2019 and recall the many interesting discussions we had over the three-day show, one thing is most certainly clear: This is the Mobile World Congress (MWC) event for Nuremberg. Its many halls were jam-packed with technology from a wide variety of sectors but also with an array of application focal points. There was everything ... » read more

The Rapid Rise Of RISC-V


The first RISC-V Summit, which took place last month in Santa Clara, CA, appears to be a watershed for the RISC-V ecosystem. The technology is maturing and the ecosystem is growing fast – and that was reflected in the nature of the presentations and news announcements we saw. The accent has started to move to how the technology will be used in real life. UltraSoC’s announcement of a har... » read more

Beyond The RISC-V ISA


For chip architects and designers today, “the ISA” in RISC-V is a small consideration. The concern isn’t even choosing “the core.” Designers today are faced by a “whole system” problem—a problem of systemic complexity. That fact is implicit in the picture that I show people to explain the UltraSoC embedded analytics architecture. It shows a block-level representation of an So... » read more

Bugs With Long Tails Can Be Costly Pests


I don’t think Van Gogh was considering high performance computing or server architecture, but he made a lot of sense when he said "great things are done by a series of small things brought together." A series of very small things can, and do, create big things: that’s the fundamental premise of long-tail marketing: Amazon, for one has built a strong business from selling millions of niche i... » read more