Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing

Qualcomm to acquire Autotalks; IBM quantum security; SEMI wants wearable sensor ideas; GitHub push protection.

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Automotive, mobility

Qualcomm signed a definitive agreement to acquire fabless semiconductor company Autotalks, maker of automotive-qualified vehicle-to-everything (V2X) SoCs, processors, sensors, V2X RF transceivers, and other products for use in automatic braking and cooperative perception systems (where a vehicle can see what another vehicle is seeing). Autotalks’ V2X products are dual-mode and compatible with multiple V2X standards so they can be used globally. Qualcomm will add Autotalks’ dual-mode V2X products to its Snapdragon Digital Chassis portfolio.

Cruise, the self-driving car company backed by GM, with funding from Microsoft, and Walmart, will start its robotaxi service in Houston and Dallas, Texas. Cruise operates robotaxis in San Francisco; Austin, Texas; and Phoenix, Ariz.

Designing automated vehicles that can work safely and flawlessly is proofing trickier than ‘just a robotics’ problem. The cars keep crashing, for one thing. A lack of supervision and regulation is allowing unnecessary accidents with AVs. More strenuous processes are needed.

BOS Semiconductors will be using Arteris IP’s network-on-chip (NoC) system IP and SoC integration technology for its automotive chips. BOS is a fabless semiconductor company that designs high-performance, low-power SoCs focusing on autonomous driving, using Arm IP to build SoC. The main silicon products will be autonomous driving SOCs, HPCs, and gateway SOCs. BOS recently was added to the Korean Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ Innovation Sector Startup Package program of the Super-Gap Startup 1000+ Project. The program will give the company 600M Korean Won ($451K USD) over three years for product commercialization and up to 500M Korean Won ($376K USD) over two years for R&D. Hyundai Motor Group, provided seed funding. BOS Semiconductors was founded in 2022 and is based in South Korea, with headquarters in Pangyo, Korea, and an engineering R&D in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Semiconductor company Infineon and electronics manufacturer Foxconn (Hon Hai Technology Group) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to work together in a long-term partnership to jointly develop SiC technology in automotive high-power applications, such as traction inverters, onboard chargers, and DC-DC converters, for electric vehicles (EVs). The two companies will establish a system application center in Taiwan this year and leverage each other’s know-how in automotive. This center’s focus will be to optimize vehicle applications, including smart cabin applications, advanced driver assistance systems, and autonomous driving applications, while addressing electromobility applications, such as battery management systems and traction inverters. The collaboration covers a wide range of Infineon’s automotive products, including sensors, microcontrollers, power semiconductors, high-performance memories for specific applications, human machine interface and security solutions.

Applied Intuition and NI are working together on reliable test systems for advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) and autonomous driving (AD) validation for the automotive industry. Applied Intuition makes simulation and software tools to test ADAS and AD systems in a virtual environment. The company provides a secure, controlled environment for engineers to develop, test, and validate electronic control unit (ECU) algorithms and sensors. The two companies will reveal their solution at NI Connect 2023.

Reliability is key to automotive ICs that should last for many years. Pinpointing timing delays may help with reliability, but testing of digital logic for delay defects now requires transition fault patterns through highly crafted test vectors and testing early and often. The focus shifts to internal chip assessments of timing margin and changes who’s responsible for what.

Pervasive computing

Keysight is offering FiRa validation for teams to FiRa test their products ultra-wideband physical layer conformance. The FiRa Consortium gave the thumbs up on Keysight’s automated ultra-wideband (UWB) PHY Conformance Test Tool. FiRa, pronounced ‘fee-rah’, stands for ‘fine ranging.’ The devices use UWB, a short-range, low-energy wireless technology used in industrial IoT and smartphones for proximity and location-based services.

Fabless NAND flash controller maker Silicon Motion is using PDF Solutions’ Exensio fabless manufacturing analytics cloud for its big data analytics platform.

SEMI’s Nano-Bio Materials Consortium (NBMC) put out a RFP for proposals that will advance human performance through wearable transdermal, subcutaneous, and textile-based sensor tech. Selected projects will receive cash awards ranging from $500,000 to $1 million. The RFP is funded by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).

The U.S. Fire Administration announced a new core data set improvement for near real-time data analytics of an ongoing fire event mixed with existing government data sets. According to a press release, the new National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) will combine data from multiple federal data sets, computer-aided dispatch (CAD), and other authoritative live-data sources to inform community risks including vulnerable populations, the wildland urban interface, drought areas, and flood plains. The NFIRS has already existed but will now be hosted on the cloud. The U.S. Fire Administration is part of the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA).

Silicon Catalyst and Arm are in partnership to work on a Silicon Startups Contest. Silicon Catalyst will organize and administer the contest, which is directed toward early-stage entrepreneurial teams developing a system-on-chip (SoC) design using Arm processor IP.

Security

Synopsys’ Software Integrity Group is working with ReversingLabs to provide a comprehensive software supply chain risk management solution for software development and security teams. They are offering Synopsys’ open-source scanning through its Black Duck platform and ReversingLabs’ Software Supply Chain Security (SSCS) Platform.

IBM revealed its new IBM Quantum Safe technology, which is a platform of tools to safeguard governments’ and businesses’ data and fortify them against the threats of the quantum computing. The toolset has three main components: IBM Quantum Safe Explorer for scanning source and object code for cybersecurity issues and build a bill of materials; IBM Quantum Safe Advisor for creating dynamic or operational view of cryptographic inventory and analyzing cryptographic posture and compliance; and IBM Quantum Safe Remediator for testing and deploying quantum-safe remediation patterns. IBM also unveiled its IBM Quantum Safe Roadmap, to help clients through the process. The U.S. government has a mandate to adopt the quantum standard protections by 2025. Three of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) four quantum-resistant algorithms standards were developed by IBM and academic and industry collaborators.

GitHub announced that push protection is now available for private repositories with a GitHub Advanced Security (GHAS) license. Push protection prevents secret leaks.

Upcoming Events

  • ITF World 2023: Imec’s flagship event, May 16 – 17
  • Annual ESD Alliance Membership Meeting & CEO Outlook, May 18
  • International Memory Workshop, May 21 – 24
  • SEMICON Southeast Asia, May 23 – 25
  • Embedded Vision Summit, May 22 – 24
  • RISC-V Summit Europe, June 5 – 9
  • Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium-RFIC 2023, June 11 – 13
  • SEMICON China, June 29 – July 1
  • MIPI DevCon 2023: Mobile and Beyond, June 30
  • DAC 2023- Design Automation Conference, July 9 – 13
  • SEMICON West 2023, July 11 – 13
  • 2023 Flash Memory Conference & Expo, August 8 – 10
  • SPIE Optics + Photonics 2023, August 20 – 24
  • Hot Chips 2023, August 27 – 29
  • IEEE International System-on-Chip Conference (SOCC): SoCs/ SiPs for Edge Intelligence & Accelerated Computing, September 5 – 8

Security

  • IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, May 22 – 25
  • io Security Trainings and Conference USA 2023, May 30 – June 3
  • 32nd USENIX Security Symposium, August 9 – 11

See more events on our events page.

Further Reading:

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