Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing

Security
Synopsys’ Software Integrity Group published the results of a security survey that looked at the ways organizations across industries are handling their software security initiatives and how to improve them. The Building Security In Maturity Model (BSIMM) version 11 (BSIMM11 Study) describes the work of 8,457 software security pros. FinTech — the technology that “follows the money” — has been added to the data pool in its own vertical.  More software teams are putting their software security teams in the technology group under the CTO, rather than the IT group/CISO. Companies are automating more security tasks in the software implementation flow. “BSIMM provides unique, data-driven insight to understanding and comparing the relative strengths and weaknesses of software security initiatives across a variety of industries,” according to a press release.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued proteanTecs a U.S. patent for its high bandwidth memory (HBM) Agent used for signal quality and reliability monitoring. The Agent is installed in ICs to pull data and give visibility into the chip’s vital signs. proteanTecs says these Agents are a deep-data solution for 2.5D packaging.

IoT
Nvidia made a deal with Softbank to purchase Arm for $40 billion.

Imagination Technologies and Packetcraft formed a partnership to create a way to add Bluetooth Low Energy audio using the new Low Complexity Communication Codec (LC3) onto an system on chip (SoC). The hardware will be Imagination’s iEB110 hardware and software will be Packetcraft’s host stack. The iEB110 is IP has RF and baseband, controller software, and BLE v5.2 host stack. Applications are broadcast audio, high quality multi-stream audio, and hearing aid support.

Siemens Smart Infrastructure launched a workplace digital contact-tracing app with social-distancing space planning. The app works with Siemens’ real-time location services capability and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) identification badges. The movements and proximity of employees, each assigned a BLE ID badge, are tracked and recorded and can be viewed by authorized personnel. This tracking enables a company to go back and ID who came in close contact with person who is later found to have the SARS-CoV2 virus and has COVID-19.

VITEC licensed Arteris IP’s FlexNoC interconnect IP for VITEC’s high res video encoder, decoders.

Automotive
U.S. vehicle charging network ChargePoint Inc. may go public through a reverse merger with Switchback Energy Acquisition Corp, according to Automotive News.

The joint venture between Russia’s Internet company Yandex NV and ride hailing service Uber Technologies Inc. will spin off its self-driving car unit into a separate company called Yandex Self-Driving Group BV. Yandex will have majority control over the business, according to Bloomberg.

MIPI Alliance published MIPI A-PHY v1.0, a long-reach SerDes physical layer interface targeted for automotive applications such as ADAS and IVI.

Quantum computing,
The 180-member, U.S.-based Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C) named its steering committee members are Boeing, ColdQuanta, Google, IBM, QC Ware, Zapata Computing, U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Department of Energy. NIST started the consortium in 2018 with the goal of supporting the U.S. supply chain for quantum computing.

FormFactor created probes that can test devices working at cryogenic temperatures, as low as 4 kelvin, environments found in supercomputing and quantum computers. The cryogenic probe collection can be used in on-wafer testing for DC (DCP Series Probes), high frequency RF (|Z|, Multi-|Z| and T-Wave Probes), and optical applications (LWP Series).

Military/aerospace
Boeing’s trouble 737 Max may soon fly passengers, according to a story in the Seattle Times. Some people still question whether the plane is safe. U.S. consumer and political activist Ralph Nadar for one, whose niece died on the Ethiopian plane, said the plane even in its updated form, “remains a Band-Aid” to disguise “a physical aerodynamic design flaw,” according to the Seattle Times.

Upcoming
SEMI’s FLEX 2021 event is calling for abstracts on flexible, hybrid and printed electronics innovations. The deadline is September 30, 2020 to submit an abstract.

Videos of the week
Challenges At 3/2nm
New structures, processes and yield/performance issues.

AI Inference Acceleration
Understanding what’s important for making tradeoffs.

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