Make Your SoC Upgradable Like A Tesla


I’ve always been a fan of Tesla. Not for the quick acceleration, nice lines, great handling or leading the world away from the using the internal combustion engine. I’m a big fan because they plan products not just for use today, but for the future. In the not too distant past, in order to get the latest automotive technology, you’d have to buy a new car. With Tesla, you don’t have to. ... » read more

The Silicon Carbide Race Begins


The growing adoption of silicon carbide (SiC) for a variety of automotive chips has reached the tipping point where most chipmakers now consider it a relatively safe bet, setting off a scramble to stake a claim and push this wide-bandgap technology into the mainstream. SiC holds great promise for a number of automotive applications, particularly for battery electric vehicles. It can extend d... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi registered its electric vehicle (EV) business (Xiaomi EV) with an initial investment of RMB $10 billion (USD$1.5B). Xiaomi plans to invest USD $10 billion in Xiaomi EV over 10 years, under the leadership of Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi.  Currently, Xiaomi EV has approximately 300 employees. Xiaomi also acquired autonomous driving technology company... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive The chip shortage continues to affect automotive OEMs around the world. Ford is cutting production of its F-150 pickup truck. It is not just passenger car production that is affected. The transportation industry will see chip shortages with 5+ month lead times through the end of 2021, according to ABI Research. Some of the shortages will be in telematics chips, due to high demand wh... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Security Infineon Technologies is coordinating a group of twelve partners, including researchers, electronics industry, and end users, who are working to find and fix IoT security flaws. The research project, called “Design methods and hardware/software co-verification for the unique identifiability of electronic components” falls under VE-VIDES, which is part of the Trustworthy Electronic... » read more

Designing Chips In A ‘Lawless’ Industry


The guideposts for designing chips are disappearing or becoming less relevant. While engineers today have many more options for customizing a design, they have little direction about what works best for specific applications or what the return on investment will be for those efforts. For chip architects, this is proving to be an embarrassment of riches. However, that design freedom comes wit... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Pervasive computing — IoT, edge, cloud, data center, and back Xilinx introduced its Versal AI Edge series of adaptive SoCs, or adaptive compute acceleration platforms (ACAPs), that can be manage AI-ML workloads in edge applications. The chip is designed for flexible, low latency, edge applications where algorithms may need updating. The software programmable chips have an AI Engine-ML featur... » read more

The Good And Bad Of Auto IC Updates


Keeping automobiles updated enough to avoid problems is becoming increasingly difficult as more complex electronics are added into vehicles, and as the lifetimes of those devices are extended to a decade or more. Modern vehicles are full of electronics. In fact, the value of electronic devices used in modern vehicles is expected to double in the next 10 years, growing to $469 billion by 2030... » read more

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

Week In Review: Manufacturing, Test


Government policy Semiconductor companies as well hardware and software vendors have announced the formation of the Semiconductors in America Coalition (SIAC). The group called on congressional leaders to appropriate $50 billion for U.S. manufacturing incentives and research initiatives. SIAC’s mission is to advance federal policies that promote semiconductor manufacturing and research in th... » read more

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