Flying cars; AMD, Xilinx deal; Nordic, Nokia IoT licensing; Rambus PCIe 6.0 IP.
China’s regulators are agreeing to AMD’s acquisition of Xilinx with the caveat that AMD must agree not to force tie-in sales Xilinx’s products with AMD products, according to Reuters. China’s State Administration for Market Regulation said the companies cannot discriminate against customers using other technology. Xilinx’s SEC 8-K form confirms that the two companies received clearance for the merger from the National Anti-Monopoly Policy Bureau of the State Administration for Market Regulation of the People’s Republic of China.
Pervasive computing, IoT and 5G
Nordic Semiconductor and Nokia are offering customers who buy Nordic IoT hardware the opportunity to acquire licenses to use Nokia’s cellular IoT patented technology. The companies say this arrangement will streamline the IoT design process, giving customers access to Nokia’s NB-IoT and LTE-M patents. An early innovator in mobile phones, Nokia has built a portfolio of standard essential patents (SEPs) for cellular communications, wireless LAN (WLAN), and multi-media technologies. Although it sold its own mobile and devices division to Microsoft in 2014, Nokia has the largest EPO/USPTO-granted 5G family portfolio, according to a study from IPLytics, “It’s a win-win for Nordic’s customers and Nokia, simplifying the SEP licensing process in the IoT space and making it easier for licensing agreements to be concluded amicably and efficiently. The move will support the future growth of cellular IoT and ensure that consumers benefit from an even greater range of connected products and services,” said Jenni Lukander, president of Nokia Technologies in a press release.
Ericsson launched its platform for multiple slices on 5G devices that will enable the devices to accept different network slices. Network slicing, one of the promised features of 5G, will make it possible communication service providers (CSPs) to slice their networks to offer secure, separate segments of services. Ericsson’s Dynamic Network Slice Selection, which is now part of its 5G Core portfolio, will make it possible for a device to use different network slices, such as personal slices for basic services via mobile broadband and gaming, versus work-related slices for high-security enterprise applications, all on the same device. “This enables our customers to provide differentiated 5G services to their enterprise and consumer customers, by enabling multiple tailored network slices on a single 5G device,” said Monica Zethzon, head of Solution Area Packet Core, in a press release. Ericsson has been working on the user equipment route selection policies (URSP), which will make traffic-steering on 5G networks possible.
Rambus is now offering IP for a PCIe 6.0 controller that can be used in ASICs and SoCs destined for data intensive use cases, such as data centers, HPC, automotive, aerospace, and AI/ML. Data rates for high-performance applications can hit up to 64 Gigatransfers per second (GT/s). The IP supports PAM4 signaling and fixed-sized FLITs, has automatic scaling of the data path, and includes an integrity and data encryption (IDE) engine.
Ansys says its 3D electromagnetic (EM) simulation software for high-frequency designs is helping handheld device manufacturer Wistron Corporation speed up the design of its 5G antennas. Testing 5G antennas is notoriously complex, so the simulation — Ansys HFSS — is helping automate the antenna power density analysis and optimize signal coverage.
Flying cars
The flying-car company KleinVision obtained a certificate of airworthiness in Slovakia for its flying car, the appropriately named AirCar. Before gaining the certificate from the Slovak Transport Authority, the flying car successfully completed over 200 takeoffs and landings and underwent 70 hours of flight testing compliant with European Aviation Safety Agency standards. Once on the ground, the vehicle can retract and stow its wings before going out on the open road.
Automotive
Keysight Technologies added tools for time sensitive networking (TSN) to its IxNetwork Ethernet test solution. The tools, which follow the Avnu Alliance base TSN test plan for IEEE 802.1AS-2020, will help developers make sure their chipsets and devices comply with Avnu Alliance rules. (TSNs are found in automotive and industrial uses.) Avnu Alliance is an industry organization started by Intel and Cisco to improve automotive and industrial networks, bringing IEEE standards to the networks, which now have more data to pass through and lower latency requirements. The organization has set up certification databases and lists test labs on its website. IEEE 8021 AS-2020 defines “the protocols, procedures, and managed objects for the transport of timing over local area networks.”
Foxconn (Hon Hai Technology Group) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) last week to co-develop an energy ecosystem that can support EVs in Indonesia. The MoU is with the Indonesian Ministry of Investment, IBC (Indonesia Battery Corporation), Indika Energy, and electric-scooter company Gogoro. The scope is broad — from manufacturing EVs and EV batteries, to energy storage and battery exchange and recycling infrastructure.
Infineon has a new 12-volt motor control kit with a some automotive ICs, a BLDC motor, and the most common motor control algorithms for prototyping an automotive auxiliary water pump or other applications that use 3-phase low-voltage BLDC motors. The MOTIX motor control kit includes a MOTIX TLE9879QXA40 and angle (XENSIV TLE5012B-E1000) and hall switch (XENSIV TLE4968-1L) sensor PCBs. The kit comes preassembled and has an easy set up.
Faraday Technology Corporation now has an ISO 26262 ASIL-D Ready certification from SGS-TÜV on its memory compilers. The compilers include SRAM and ROM built on UMC’s 55eFlash node, according to a press release. Faraday already offers GPIO fundamental elements compliant with ISO 26262 ASIL-D Ready at 55nm, MIPI PHY compliant with ASIL-B Ready at 40nm, and CAN controller for all nodes.
Companies, people
Keysight now has a licensing portal where consumers can set up and change their enterprise agreements and tool subscriptions, streamlining and automating the software license administration. The portal is part of the Keysight Software Manager system.
How green is green? The European Commission awarded a two-year pilot project that will define a common measurement for green digital efforts and look at specifically what the transition to green digital twins really means. The Global Enabling Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), European DIGITAL SME Alliance, DIGITALEUROPE, ETNO, and GSMA were named to the project, which is a European Parliament Pilot Project that the European Green Digital Coalition (EGDC) will coordinate. The EGDC is already pushing some of those goals through its membership. All member companies have to sign on to EGDC’s Declaration, which 76 companies active in Europe have signed already. Through the Declaration companies promise they will develop and deploy “green digital solutions with significant energy and material efficiency that achieve a net positive impact in a wide range of sectors.” Companies also pledge to work with “relevant organizations to develop standardized, credible and comparable assessment methodologies for the net impact of green digital solutions on the environment and climate in priority sectors such as energy, transport, manufacturing, agriculture and the building sector.” Workforce training and reducing carbon use are also requirements. The first progress reports will be available this year.
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