Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing

Security
A new certification program for hardware verification engineers from Edaptive Computing Inc (ECI) and OneSpin Solutions promises to help companies meet IC integrity standards for SoC designs for 5G, IoT, AI, automotive, industrial, defense, and avionics. These designs are often complex, with a variety of elements, such as programmable logic and different cores. The OneSpin Formal Verification Certification Program uses OneSpin’s Design Verification 360 tools to teach three levels — beginner, intermediate, and advanced — to apply formal verification techniques.

Researchers from Guardicore found vulnerabilities in the Comcast XR11 remote, which uses the longer-range RF signals making it easier to push firmware to and has firmware vulnerabilities that accepted unencrypted messages between the remote and set-top box, according to SecurityWeek.

Automotive
Self-driving car company Waymo opened a robo-taxi business in Phoenix, Ariz., that is fully driverless. Waymo One riders can ride first and, after a few weeks, Waymo will open it up to the general public through an app.

Amazon unveiled its new electric delivery van built by electric truck, SUV startup Rivian. Amazon is ordering 100,000 vans, 10,000 of which are supposed to be delivered by 2022, with the rest by 2030.

Marvell unveiled an automotive Gigabit Ethernet PHY with MACsec security.

Adding an automotive business group, proteanTecs, has hired Gal Carmel, formerly Samsung’s Smart Machines CTO — which included Samsung’s ADAS/AV tech — and Mobileye, to run the group as executive vice president and general manager. The company, a deep-data analyzer for the semiconductor manufacturing and in-field electronics, is also opening a new office in Hsinchu, Taiwan to expand to Asia-Pacific region.

Pervasive computing
IBM is spinning off its IT infrastructure services unit so it can concentrate on hybrid cloud business, effectively splitting the company in two. The new company is yet to be named.

Cadence announced its GDDR6 IP is silicon-proven on TSMC N6 and N7 and soon to be N5. The memory can be used in hyperscale computing, automotive, 5G communications and consumer applications. Micron collaborated with Cadence and TSMC on the work. Cadence also released IP for DDR5 and LPDDR5 DRAM memory standards on TSMC N5 process for data center, storage, artificial intelligence/machine learning, and hyperscale computing. The multi-standard IP includes PHY, controller, and verification IP for advanced-process chips connecting to multiple memory types.

For server and end points that may need SoCs with high-bandwidth connections for Arm-based multi-processor core designs, Synopsys’ DesignWare CXL IP now supports Arm’s AMBA CXS protocol.

Maxim Integrated is now selling a low-power neural-network accelerator chip, the MAX78000, for inferencing on the edge and battery-powered IoT devices.

People & Companies
Imagination Technologies has named Simon Beresford-Wylie as its next chief executive officer.

Videos of the week
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