Will People Pay More?


Smart devices can do many things. Some of them are useful, some are questionable, and some are just plain ridiculous. But the real issue for semiconductor and system companies isn't whether people will use them. It's whether they will work long enough and well enough to warrant the extra cost. The reality is that very few people use all of the features in any device, or even within a single ... » read more

Making Cars Smarter


The fuel injection control unit has come a long way since 1983 when Ford Motor Co. first included a 16-bit Intel microcontroller-based fuel injection system in its 4-cylinder Escort. Today, some high end vehicles contain more than 100 microprocessors, which is mind boggling in comparison to that Escort that contained just one. To be sure, the automotive industry is a unique animal. Compared ... » read more

Things You Can Control While Sleeping


Because the IoE is just a rather vague and fluid concept right now, it is easy for just about anyone to define all or part of it in almost any fashion they desire. But some things do have a basis. For example, if you take a look at the consumer trends, as has been the case for years, you can glimpse what is happening in various segments throughout the IoE and, to some degree, where they are hea... » read more

Drive, Fix, Park


Autonomous cars are coming. So are cars that can fix themselves. And this is just the beginning. The idea of a connected car is all about making data available, both within the car and with the external world. Car manufacturers will be able to improve automobile quality by getting real-time data from individual vehicles and providing corrective updates when problems are identified. In additi... » read more

The Week In Review: Design/IoT


Imec and Cadence completed the first tapeout of a 5nm test chip. Using a processor design, the companies taped out a set of designs using EUV lithography as well as Self-Aligned Quadruple Patterning for 193i lithography, where metal pitches were scaled from the nominal 32nm pitch down to 24nm to push the limit of patterning. Tools Synopsys folded in recent acquisition Atrenta's testabilit... » read more

The Challenge Of Updating Cars


News stories about automotive hacking are becoming more common, and so is the concern about how to curb this problem. Security has become a new layer of system design complexity, and it's being taken increasingly seriously in a market that until very recently largely ignored it. That attitude is changing rapidly though, particularly with the advent of autonomous and connected vehicles. Secu... » read more

ISO 26262: Top 3 Reasons For Hardware Implementation Of Functional Safety


I’ve written articles before about ISO 26262 Certification because many SoC design teams are challenged by the barriers they have to overcome to achieve automotive functional safety, especially if they previously enjoyed success in mobility or computing but now want to shift attention to the growing array of electronics used in transportation such as automated driver assistance systems (ADAS)... » read more

Blog Review: Sept. 23


From the International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt, NXP's Birgit Ahlborn brings us a discussion with on the challenges to building trust in connected cars and intelligent transport systems, and what is needed to ensure security in a world of connected mobility. From the world's largest aircraft to terahertz wireless to the launch of a partially reusable orbital rocket, innovation is in the... » read more

Making Cars Better


The automotive industry, with its double-digit growth, is a very attractive market for equipment manufacturers. This growth is explained not only by the increasing number of cars produced for the Asia market, but also by the shift of basic customer expectations for things such as more hybrid and electrical vehicles, more sophisticated infotainment requirements, and more high-end features. O... » read more

Embedded Vision Becoming Ubiquitous


Embedded vision is becoming a topic of heated conversation thanks to the emergence of neural networks and their ability to make computer systems learn by example. Neural networks are a very different kind of processing element compared to the other kind of processors we have in the IP arsenal today in that they are not programmed in the same manner. They do not have a stream of instructions... » read more

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