Setting Standards For The Chip Industry


For all the advances in semiconductor design, and the astonishing scales on which the industry now works, when it comes to standards committee meetings, not much has changed. Advice from a 91-year-old retired engineer can sound surprisingly like advice from those active today. Standards were then, and continue to be, a mix of technical compromises and corporate politics, as well as passionate a... » read more

Automotive Complexity, Supply Chain Strength Demands Tech Collaboration


The automotive supply chain is becoming more complex and collaborative, changing longstanding relationships between automakers and their suppliers in ways that would have seemed unimaginable even a couple of years ago. Rather than just developing parts for a tightly defined specification, suppliers are taking an increasingly active role in determining how various technologies are combined, w... » read more

AI Transformer Models Enable Machine Vision Object Detection


The object detection required for machine vision applications such as autonomous driving, smart manufacturing, and surveillance applications depends on AI modeling. The goal now is to improve the models and simplify their development. Over the years, many AI models have been introduced, including YOLO, Faster R-CNN, Mask R-CNN, RetinaNet, and others, to detect images or video signals, interp... » read more

Creating IP In The Shadow Of ISO 26262


On many levels, designing IP for the automotive sector is similar to targeting aerospace or medical devices — human lives are at risk if something goes wrong, and the list of regulations is significant. In practice, it can turn an interesting chip design project into a complex and often frustrating checklist exercise. In the case of ISO 26262, that includes a 12-part standard for automotiv... » read more

Multiple Hurdles In The Race To 6G


The rollout of 6G will open the door to significant changes and possibilities, but whether this technology lives up to the hype will require massive collaborative efforts, huge investments in infrastructure, and solving some problems for which there are no precedents. Multiple companies are already working on 6G technology, aiming for a maximum download speed of one terabit per second (Tb/s)... » read more

Wi-Fi 7 Moves Forward, Adding Yet Another Protocol


The latest generation Wi-Fi protocol brings better speeds and data handling, but it does little to bridge various communications technologies. That, in turn, makes it more difficult and more expensive to design chips because they must integrate and support multiple wireless technologies, including different versions of the same technology. Wireless communications technologies are often victi... » read more

Confusion Grows Over Sensor Fusion In Autos


A key strategy for fully autonomous vehicles is the ability to fuse together inputs from multiple sensors, which is essential for making safe and secure decisions, but it's turning out to be much harder than first imagined. There are multiple problems that need to be solved, including how to partition, prioritize, and ultimately combine different types of data, and how to architect the proce... » read more

Solving The Last-Mile Delivery Problem


Retailers are deploying robots to cut costs and improve efficiency, opening new opportunities for chipmakers as well as a host of new challenges. Key to this strategy are autonomous roadside delivery robots (ARDRs). Retailers have been facing razor-thin profit margins for years and have turned their sights to increasing operational efficiency to stay competitive. Solving the last-mile delive... » read more

Curbing Automotive Cybersecurity Attacks


The relentless cyberattacks on the automotive sector are not limited to vehicles and have an impact on the entire automotive supply chain, so the pressure is on the automotive ecosystem to understand the necessary standards and regulations for vehicles and components. While the process of attaining compliance adds additional effort, in the long run, the increase in cybersecurity will save the a... » read more

Why Auto Ecosystem Relationships Are Changing


The automotive industry is in the midst of rapid change on many fronts. OEMs are exploring new functions and features to add to their vehicles, including chiplets, electrification, autonomous features, as well as new vehicle architectures that will determine how vehicles are going to be designed from the foundation up. But all of this is dependent on the relationships between all of the ecosyst... » read more

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