Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing

Automotive, mobility
DENSO Corporation and UMC’s Japanese subsidiary United Semiconductor Japan Co., Ltd. (USJC) are collaborating on power semiconductors production for the automotive market at USJC’s 300mm fab. USJC will install an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) line at its wafer fab.

Renesas Electronics uncorked an integrated automotive ECU Virtualization Platform for developers who want to integrate multiple applications into a single ECU (Electronic Control Unit). The platform combines Renesas’ RH850/U2x MCUs with ETAS’ RTA-HVR software, which provides a hypervisor for MCUs that support hardware virtualization. Developers can use new electrical-electronic (E/E) architectures in MCU-based zone ECUs, supporting multiple logical ECUs on one physical ECU. The RH850/U2x Zone-ECU Starter Kit shows different virtual machine configurations for exploring the impact of alternative VM switching mechanisms.

Horizon Robotics, which designs AI processors and algorithms for intelligent driving, is using PDF Solutions Exensio Platform to improve its yield and collect analytics data on its chip designs.

ams OSRAM is integrating Mixel’s MIPI IP into some of its Mira CMOS imaging sensors, which are used for eye tracking, gesture tracking, bar code scanning, robotic mobility, 3D Structured Light, 3D Active Stereo systems and 2D NIR imaging.

Pervasive computing
Arm expanded the options for IoT as part of its Total Solutions for IoT roadmap. Total Solutions for IoT is built around Arm Corstone, a pre-integrated, pre-verified IP subsystem. The company launched its Arm Total Solution for Cloud Native Edge Devices, which has Cortex-A and is based on Corstone-1000. It makes it possible to develop workloads for devices such as for smart wearables, gateways, and high-end smart cameras. It also launched its Total Solution for Voice Recognition, Arm Virtual Hardware, and the Arm Cortex-M85 processor, which is machine learning ready. Besides performance improvements and endpoint ML/DSP workload support, M85 incorporates Arm TrustZone enhanced security.

Infineon added a new member to the CIPOS Tiny Intelligent Power Module (IPM) family, suitable for home appliances, such as room air conditioners. The CIPOS Tiny IM323-L6G integrates a discrete power semiconductor and driver in one package and uses 600 V TRENCHSTOP IGBT RC-D2 switches and SOI gate driver technology.

The Global Certification Forum (GCF), an organization that manages the industry testing and certification standards for of mobile and IoT products, used Keysight’s S8705A RF/RRM DVT & Conformance and S8704A Protocol Conformance Toolsets to create a 5G NR frequency range 2 (FR2) test plan certification. The certification test plan validates compliance to 3GPP standards for RF performance and protocol validation of 5G new radio (NR) mmWave devices operating in standalone (SA) mode.

Keysight also launched a four-channel vector signal generator — the M9484C VXG vector signal generator — with frequency up to 54 GHz that offers up to 5 GHz of RF bandwidth and low phase noise. The signal generator can generate mmWave signals for testing 5G mobile communications, 6G research, satellite communications, and radar applications

Security
Synopsys is acquiring WhiteHat Security, an application security Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company, from NTT Security Corporation. The acquisition will add dynamic application security testing (DAST) technology to Synopsys’ Software Integrity Group portfolio of static analysis, interactive analysis, and software composition analysis. Synopsys will pay approximately $330 million in cash for WhiteHat Security, pending regulatory approval. The deal is expected to close in Synopsys’ fiscal Q3 2022.

European Commission’s Radio Equipment Directive (RED) articles 3.3 (d), (e), (f) are security, health, and privacy standards take effect August 1, 2024 in the EU. All RF-enabled equipment sold in the EU market will need to comply to the rules. Infineon recently said it is participating in the European Standardization Organizations (ESOs) efforts to develop the technical and compliance requirements. “We support the essential requirements in EU RED delegated articles as it introduces security, privacy and fraud-protection in all RF connected devices sold within the EU ‘single-market’ and consequently makes it safer to use these devices for European individuals and enterprises,” said Thomas Rosteck, president of the Connected Security Systems Division of Infineon in a press release, “EU GDPR (2018), the EU Cyber Security Act (2019), and now the EU RED — the continuous emergence of regulations underscores the growing importance of cybersecurity in today’s world.”

Intel put out a call for papers for its 2022 Intel Hardware Security Academic Award. Any full-time, tenured or tenure track (or equivalent) faculty member involved in research may submit security papers by June 5, 2022. The award recognizes advancements in solutions, tools, and methods to deliver more secure and trustworthy foundational technologies to the industry.

People, companies
Lam Research opened a new R&D center in the Jigok Industrial Complex in Korea’s K-semiconductor cluster. The Lam Research Korea Technology Center has a cleanroom and extra capacity for expansions.

Analog Devices’ Geoffrey Coram, a staff CAD engineer, won the Si2 (Silicon Integration Initiative) Pinnacle Award. He chairs three working groups within the Si2 Compact Model Coalition and developed and, among other achievements, he released an open-source tool for checking Verilog-A models for common errors and performance issues. The tool is known as the Verilog-A Model Pythonic Rule Enforcer, or VAMPyRE.

Electronic System Design Alliance (ESD Alliance) and the IEEE Council on Electronic Design Automation (CEDA) extended the nomination deadline for the Phil Kaufman Hall of Fame for Distinguished Contributions to Electronic System Design to Friday, May 27.

Read more news at Manufacturing, Test and Design, Low Power.

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