Automotive IC Shortage Drags On


The current automotive semiconductor shortages won’t end anytime soon. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, it wreaked havoc on the worldwide supply chain, but it especially caught automakers flat-footed. When the auto OEMs canceled chip orders during a roughly eight-week period of plant shutdowns, they later found their supplies of critical ICs had evaporated. To make it an ev... » read more

Startup Funding: April 2021


April showers brought mega fundraising rounds to the semiconductor industry. In China, a mobile chipset maker looking to go public won significant funding along with partnerships with major smartphone companies. In the US, AI hardware startups are drawing interest with unique processor architectures and business models. Plus, a major test and design services company drew new investment. This mo... » read more

Privacy Protection A Must For Driver Monitoring


Driver monitoring systems are so tied into a vehicle's architecture that soon the driver will not be able to opt out because the vehicle will only operate if the driver is detected and monitored. This is raising privacy concerns about whether enough security is in place for the data to remain private. At the very least, laws and regulations in every geography where the vehicle will operate a... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive/Mobility General Motors is working on a next version of Ultium battery chemistry and announced a joint development agreement with Singapore-based SolidEnergy Systems, a lithium metal battery startup founded by a graduate of MIT. The companies plan to open a Woburn, Massachusetts prototype production line by 2023. GM’s is attempting to lower the cost of its proprietary battery tech... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive/Mobility Chip makers in Taiwan will “do their best” to “squeeze out more chips” said Taiwan’s Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua after having lunch with representatives of TSMC, UMC, Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp, and Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., according to the Taipei Times. After the auto industry initially cut automotive chip orders bec... » 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

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive Self-driving car company Cruise now has driverless cars on the streets of San Francisco, Calif., reports the San Francisco Chronicle. Cruise, which is backed by General Motors, is testing five driverless cars in the urban — and very hilly — environment of San Francisco. Cruise is using an EV — the Chevy Bolt — as a test vehicle. At Level 4 driving, the cars will not have a w... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive, automation General Motors is planning a third electric-vehicle plant. The former Saturn factory will make first fully electric Cadillac, in the former Saturn assembly line. Tesla is allowing some customers to beta test its Full Self-Driving (FSD), according to The Verge. The company pushed the software update to some early access customers to do some real world beta test. Some o... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Synopsys announced an electronic and photonic co-design platform for photonic integrated circuit (PIC) design, layout implementation, and verification. The OptoCompiler provides schematic-driven layout and advanced photonic layout synthesis in the same platform. AI Rambus says it clocked 4.0 Gbps on its HBM2E memory interface (PHY and controller), which is a desirable speed for AI/ML traini... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


COVID-19, IoT Last week, the United States’ Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) announced it will not enforce penalties for certain U.S. HIPAA Rules violations involving COVID-19 testing sites. HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, protects privacy of health information. Lawyers are looking it over. "Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, providers are ... » read more

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