Securing Offload Engines For A Robust Secure SoC System


Welcome to the Securing Offload Engines blog series where we will explore different approaches to security implementations and look at system examples involving Cadence Tensilica Xtensa Processors. In this blog, we will look at why it is important to build a robust secure SoC and introduce some of the common approaches to securing the offload engines. In subsequent posts, we will look at each o... » read more

Automotive Safety Island


The promise of autonomous vehicles is driving profound changes in the design and testing of automotive semiconductor parts. Automotive ICs, once deployed for simple functions like controlling windows, are now performing complex functions related to advanced driver-assist systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving applications. The processing power required results in very large and complex ICs that ... » read more

The Matter Standard: Implementing Improved Security And Connectivity For The Smart Home


The smart home continues to evolve in available functions and complexity as several different connectivity protocols from numerous suppliers target a variety of products for use in smart homes. However, many consumers (71% according to incontrol) acknowledge fear of their personal information being stolen while using smart home products. At the same time, ease of use for user-installed products... » read more

Problems In The Power Grid


The gap is widening between power availability and peak demand. Ritesh Tyagi, head of innovation and growth strategy at Infineon Technologies, talks about what needs to be done to fix the power grid, particularly as more cars are electrified and more electronic devices are mobile. While there currently is a surplus in power being generated on a macro level in the United States, for example, it�... » read more

Staying A Step Ahead Of Hackers With Continuous Verification


We’re all familiar with the apps on our phones and how often they get updated. Most of the time, these updates are done over the air quickly and easily. Other times, a completely new download of the software is required. But let’s take a look at the hardware platforms that the software runs on. What happens when the hardware needs to be upgraded? Today’s hardware platforms are expensive t... » read more

How To Improve Software? Start With The Hardware


By Travis Walton and Udi Maor Physicist Art Rosenfeld was working late at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab one night in 1973 when he noticed it. Despite an ongoing energy crisis, his colleagues routinely left their lights on after they left. Waste was one of the largest consumers of power in the state, he soon discovered: pilot lights consumed 10% of gas in homes. Switching from physics to ... » read more

Is There a Practical Test For Rowhammer Vulnerability?


Rowhammer is proving to be a difficult DRAM issue to fix. While efforts continue to mitigate or eliminate the effect, no solid solution has yet made it to volume production. In addition, more aggressive process nodes are expected to exacerbate the problem. In the absence of a fix, then, testing may be one way to give DRAM manufacturers and users some way to segregate devices that are more su... » read more

Making Lidar More Useful


Lidar, one of a trio of “vision” technologies slated for cars of the future, is improving both in terms of form and function. Willard Tu, director of automotive at Xilinx, talks with Semiconductor Engineering about different approaches and tradeoffs between cost, compute intensity and resolution, various range and field of view options, and why convolutional neural networks are so important... » read more

Big Changes Ahead For Connected Vehicles


Carmakers are reworking their electronic architectures so they can tap into a growing number of external services and internal options, similar to the way a data center taps into various services over its internal network. In the past, this has been largely confined to internal services such as on-board Internet connectivity, and external traffic routing and music. The current vision is to g... » read more

Securing ADAS At The Chip Level


The advent of ADAS, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, is making a dramatic impact on new vehicles. It provides many helpful functions such as automotive night vision, forward collision warnings, collision avoidance, and lane departure warnings. In order to operate, ADAS requires the computerization of most of the functions of the vehicle. This results in from 50 to over 100 electronic control... » read more

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