Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing

Edge, cloud, data center
Synopsys launched its USB4 IP and tools, already with a successful tapeout of a USB4 PHY test chip on 5nm advanced FinFET process. The Designware USB4 IP’s throughput is up to 20 or 40 Gbps, which Synopsys says is the bandwidth needed for high-performance edge AI, storage, PC, and tablet SoC designs. Also, Samsung Foundry certified Synopsys’ Design Compiler NXT for 5/4nm finFET process technologies.

Baikal Electronics used Synopsys’s Fusion Design Platform and DesignWare IP for its Baikal-M processor-based SoC on 28nm process. The processor has eight 64-bit Arm processors and an eight-core Arm GPU and is suitable for a variety of markets, including microservers and embedded systems.

TSMC has certified Cadence’s update to its digital, signoff, and custom/analog tools. The tools now have DRM and SPICE certification on TSMC’s N6 and N5 process technologies. A physical optimization and timing signoff closures have been certified for TSMC’s strategic HPC and mobile platforms. Cadence’s Genus Synthesis Solution and its latest predictive iSpatial technology is enabled for these process technologies for both mobile and hyperscale designs.

Europe’s cloud platform similar to AWS is called Gaia-X — just a concept now, but this week more details became public, such as when will it launch: 2021.

New York University (NYU), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Rice University will receive an AMD-powered, high-performance computing system from AMD’s HPC Fund for COVID-19 research. Called Penguin on Demand (POD) cluster, the HPC system is designed by the AI solutions firm Penguin Computing to help researchers who need access to supercomputing clusters. Databank is donating data center space and NVIDIA, Gigabyte, among others, have contributed.

Supermicro wants to open a second server assembly site in United States, according to Reuters

ZTE and China Mobile have launched a 5G medical edge cloud platform in China. The cloud uses 5G slicing to share the network capacity privately and edge computing technologies.

IoT, IIoT,
New IoT IP from Imagination Technologies is based on the latest IEEE 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 standard and can be used with low-power, battery-operated applications for IoT, wearables and hearables. The IMG iEW400 integrate RF and baseband and is based on Imagination’s Ensigma Wi-Fi technology.

AI, machine learning
AI vision processor company Ambarella is now using Cadence’s Clarity 3D Solver to simulate and find defects in its AI vision processors, some of which are used in automotive ADAS and autonomous driving. The solver uses distributed multiprocessing technology to diagnose electromagnetic (EM) issues. With the aid of 32 CPUs,  the solver took 29 hours to process the case via 202 ports running at 48 bits through a LPDDR4 interface, according to a press release.

Automotive, mobility
China’s car market is picking up says, and so is demand for automotive passive components says DigiTimes.

Optical sensor company ams announced two new rotary position sensors for high-speed electric motors used in power steering, braking and active damper control. The AS5147U and the AS5247U also have self-diagnostics built in. The AS5247U is a dual stacked-die, which covers redundancy requirements for ASIL D.

ROHM Semiconductor, which specializes in SiC power semiconductors, is in a development partnership with powertrain business of Continental, Vitesco Technologies to enable Vitesco to use SiC components in its power electronics for electric vehicles.

The MIPI Alliance announced completion of development on MIPI A-PHY v1.0SM, an industry-standard long-reach serializer-deserializer (SerDes) physical layer for automotive applications. The specification is now in review and MIPI Alliance says it will adopted within 90 days.

Robotics
In a two-year study, researchers at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, New York and SAGA Robotics in Norway developed and tested the first commercial robotic units that autonomously kill mildew found on grapes using UV light, applied at night when the pathogens are the most susceptible.

5G
The number of announced 5G devices keeps rising, according to the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) June report. The count is over 296 devices announced by the end of May with 112 commercially available. Out of the total announced, 119 are phones, 77 of which are available now.

Data, data, data
National Instruments has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the data analytics company OptimalPlus, which will boost NI’s ability to offer analytics in test. Meanwhile, embedded analytics company UltraSoC announced a USB system that teams can use to access to system-level analytics at cycle zero, when the rest of the chip may have failed. Without using probes and without opening the chassis, the USB can be also used to optimize and debug at speeds of 10Gbps.

COVID-19
USB chips used in peripherals, such as microphones and cameras, are temporarily in tight supply as people hunker down and stay at home, reports DigiTimes. United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) and Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS) reportedly are seeing an uptick in orders, but the rise in demand may not have a long term effect on pricing.

Conversely, a lower demand for automotive power semiconductors and supply and logistics issues for uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) used in data centers are both connected to COVID-19, according to analyst reports from OMDIA. A 2.4 percent decline is UPS is for single-phase UPS products, not three-phase, which will remain at 2019 levels.

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