Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing

Pervasive computing — IoT, edge, cloud, data center, and back
LG Electronics says it is closing its mobile business unit to focus on growth areas such as electric vehicle components, connected devices, smart homes, robotics, artificial intelligence and business-to-business solutions, as well as platforms and services. The company will continue to update some premium phones after it leaves the market in July.

Intel launched its 3rd generation of the Xeon Scalable x86 data center processor that is aimed at data center, cloud, hybrid cloud, networking, and edge applications. The processor, code named Ice Lake, has Intel’s AI accelerator DL Boost, additional security and 5G features, and Intel’s Optane memory. Intel says it has shipped over 200K chips so far.

proteanTecs is now a community member of the Open Compute Project (OCP), which got its start from Facebook’s efforts to get the industry together to solve some problems in data center technology. “We are working closely with hyperscalers, semiconductor companies, and system integrators to rapidly increase scalability in the cloud,” said Uzi Baruch, CSO at proteanTecs. “Joining the OCP will allow us to better tailor our roadmap to industry needs and provide our expertise for next-generation infrastructure.”

Also, proteanTecs introduced its field monitoring of chips that are in situ in electronics devices. The monitoring uses the company’s UCT (Universal Chip Telemetry), which is embedded in chips, and delivers data on the chip’s operation. UCT will first operate in-field in data center environments. Data center operators will have access to the data — which includes manufacturing data along with the in-field health data — but the automotive and communications are also intended as markets for in-field UCT. “Enabling data centers to transition to a predictive strategy will allow them to maximize dollar per GHz, detect early failures, optimize compute performance, and provide instantaneous visibility into hardware faults,” said Baruch.

AMD and Xilinx stockholders voted to approve the proposals for AMD’s acquisition of Xilinx. The deal will bring together AMD’s CPUs, GPUs, with Xilinx’s FPGAs and Adaptive SoCs. Xilinx invented the FPGA — the field programmable gate array — in 1984. With regulatory approvals still ahead, the companies both expect the deal will close nearer the end of 2021.

Cadence optimized its digital 20.1 full flow for Samsung Foundry’s advanced-process technologies down to 4nm. “With the ongoing innovation in hyperscale computing and autonomous driving, there is ever-increasing demand for HPC capacity,” said Sangyun Kim, vice president of the Foundry Design Technology Team, at Samsung Electronics in a press release. “By combining the latest Samsung Foundry advanced-process nodes with the Cadence 20.1 digital full flow, our customers can achieve their design goals quickly and efficiently.”

Synopsys announced its HAPS-100 prototyping system, part of the Synopsys Verification Continuum Platform. The prototyping system adds debug improvements with additional speeds to the software development and system validation turnaround times, with 20-50 MHz for complex SoCs and up to 500 MHz for interface IP. Synopsys says the speed increase and debug were necessary in various markets, including automotive.

Security
Up for public review is the Security Annotation for Electronic Design Integration (SA-EDI) Draft Standard 1.0, a standard for IP hardware and software security managed by the IP Security Assurance Working Group of the Accellera Systems Initiative (Accellera). The standard is intended to produce ways for securing IP that have a low-overhead, are non-disruptive, and are scalable. The public review is up through May 21, 2021. Download the draft standard here.

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) urged the U.S. government to take more action to shore up the semiconductor supply chains, in support of U.S. president’s recent Executive Order.

Siemens announced a software as a service (SaaS) design tool for PCB (printed circuit board) design signoffs that can quickly check the design for manufacturability (DFM) of a design with manufacturers to help the teams avoid costly mistakes. Called PCBflow, the software is an extension of the Siemens’ Xcelerator portfolio.

People, companies
ROHM Semiconductor Europe appointed Wolfram Harnack as the company’s new President.

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