Week in Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive and Mobility Search engine giant Baidu said Monday it is the first company to secure permits to operate robotaxis in China without a human safety driver. Baidu’s Apollo and Toyota-backed Pony.ai already operate robotaxis with backup drivers in Beijing. Also this week, smartphone maker Xiaomi said it is running autonomous driving tests on 140 vehicles in China. Xiaomi announced it ... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


An effort to fund U.S. science and technology initiatives with at least $100 billion is getting a thumbs up from the SIA (Semiconductor Industry Association). The Endless Frontier Act —  a bipartisan, bicameral bill introduced on Thursday in the U.S. House of Representatives — will invest money into semiconductor research and development and other related fields such as material science, q... » read more

Week In Review: IoT, Security, Auto


Internet of Things SiFive is bringing RISC-V to IoT makers and university developers through the RISC-V-based SiFive Learn Initiative, an open-source learning package that can be used to create a low-cost RISC-V hardware compatible with AWS IoT Core. The development platform SiFive Learn Inventor has a software package and education enablement course. It includes: The programmable SiFive Lear... » read more

Creating A Roadmap For Hardware Security


The U.S. Department of Defense and private industry consortiums are developing comprehensive and cohesive cybersecurity plans that will serve as blueprints for military, industrial and commercial systems. What is particularly noteworthy in all of these efforts is the focus on semiconductors. While software can be patched, vulnerabilities such as Spectre, Meltdown and Foreshadow need to be de... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Sept. 6


DARPA ALD The University of Colorado at Boulder has developed an atomic layer deposition (ALD) technology that can be performed at room temperatures. The technology, dubbed electron-enhanced ALD (EE-ALD), has been developed as part of the Local Control of Materials Synthesis (LoCo) program at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The LoCo program is developing tech... » read more