Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing

Pervasive computing — IoT, edge, cloud, data center, and back
The IoT designer Deed designed a screenless health monitor, worn on the wrist, that uses IoT (Internet of Things) building blocks from Infineon Technologies. The Get bracelet interprets hand gestures for making payments, picking up phone calls, turning up or down audio, while it also takes health data and biometrics. The system uses bone conduction to detect pre-defined hand gestures through a sensor fusion IMU 9-Axis (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer).  Deed is based in Turin, Italy.

The University of Texas has launched a 6G research center with the help from AT&T, Qualcomm, Nvidia, Samsung, and InterDigital. The center, called 6G@UT, will be located at Austin campus. “Researchers from the companies will work alongside UT faculty members and students to develop wireless-specific machine learning algorithms, advanced sensing technologies, and core networking innovations that will be the backbone of 6G,” according to a press release. A 6G center has existed for several years at the University of California Santa Barbara. Working with UCSB, Samsung Electronics demonstrated the 6G Terahertz (THz) wireless communication prototype.

Qeexo, responsible for an automated tinyML model maker for machine learning on the edge, is now supporting STMicroelectronics’ machine-learning core (MLC) sensors through Qeexo AutoML The ST MLC sensors have algorithms built in to crunch some of the data on the sensor rather then sending all of it to a processor.

Automotive, transportation
Automotive manufacturer Stellantis will invest €30 billion ($35.51 billion) in creating electric versions of its 14 brands through 2025. Stellantis, the company formed from the merger of Fiat Chrysler and PSA, expects low emission vehicles (LEVs) will be 70 percent of its sales in Europe and over 40 percent in the United States by 2030. The company will source batteries from five planned battery factories in Europe and North America. The cars will have ranges of 500-800 km/300-500 miles and fast charging (32 km/20 miles per minute).

Aerospace
China has sent three orbital missions up into space in four days.

Billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos are heading into space this week and next. Branson will go up in the spaceplane VSS Unity (Virgin Galactic) on July 11, and Bezos launches on July 20, in New Shepard capsule (Blue Origin).

Aldec added a RISC-V-based Microchip PolarFire SoC FPGA to its TySOM family of embedded prototyping platforms. Aldec’s TySOM embedded prototyping boards are used for the rapid development of applications that include automotive (and ADAS, in particular), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), embedded vision, embedded-HPC (including edge-processing), IoT, IIoT and industrial automation.

People, companies
Rambus completed its acquisition of AnalogX, which brings CXL IP and PCIe 5.0 and 32G Multi-protocol PHYs with SerDes technology specifically built for ultra-low power and very low latency.

The Silicon Integration Initiative (Si2) announced the election of its board of directors for 2021-2022. Click here to see board members.

Read the most recent Automotive, Security, & Pervasive Computing newsletter. Check out job, event, and webinar Boards: Find industry jobs and upcoming conferences and webinars all in one place on Semiconductor Engineering. Knowledge Center: Boost your semiconductor industry knowledge. Videos: See the latest Semiconductor Engineering videos.