Apple’s spatial computer; clean hydrogen strategy; V2X collaboration; power electronics for EVs; solid-state battery improvements; power and performance cost of security; CISA’s new vulnerabilities; AI hardware funding.
Apple uncorked its spatial computer, the Vision Pro, and a new operating system, the visionOS. The “infinite screen real estate” basically untethers the screen from the box, allowing users to work in multiple windows with no space limits. While the device garnered mixed reviews, largely based upon its $3,500 price tag, the implications of mixed-reality computing are potentially significant for the tech industry.
Fig 1: Apple Vision Pro. Source: Apple
Apple also noted that it completed the Mac transition to Apple silicon from Intel-based chips.
The Biden administration uncorked a National Clean Hydrogen Strategy, outlining ways to accelerate the production, processing, delivery, storage, and use of clean hydrogen. Commercial-scale hydrogen could help achieve long-term decarbonization objectives as it produces low or zero carbon emissions.
Meanwhile, Toyota, Hino, Daimler, and Mitsubishi signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at achieving carbon neutrality, sharing resources to develop hydrogen cars and other technologies, including CASE (Connected/Autonomous & Automated/Shared/Electric). The agreement also formalizes the merger of Hino and Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC).
Infineon Technologies and Autotalks are collaborating on next-generation V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything) applications. V2X lets vehicles communicate with each other and their surroundings to improve road safety. Infineon’s automotive-grade HYPERRAM 3.0 memory supports Autotalks’ SECTON3 V2X and TEKTON3 reference designs for a fully-integrated V2X SoC.
Fig. 2: Automotive-grade HYPERRAM 3.0 memory. Source: Infineon
Electric vehicles require a diverse set of semiconductor technologies, including automotive-grade ICs for battery management and drive train controls, and the ICs and SoCs to manage charging stations along roads and highways. Many of those are based on SiC and GaN, which pose inspection and test challenges.
Improving battery performance is a key step toward encouraging more people to buy an EV, and scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have found a simple way to achieve this goal. In standard practice, tiny air pockets often block the flow of ions between electrodes when the batteries charge or operate. The new approach creates a material that is almost 1,000 times more conductive. “It’s the same material,” said ORNL lead researcher Marm Dixit. “You’re just changing how you make it, while improving the battery performance on a number of fronts.”
In China, prices of battery-grade lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide soared, but the price of li-ion batteries didn’t increase, owing to falling prices for contributing materials. The price of EV square ternary cells dropped 9%, energy storage cell prices dropped 12.6%, and consumer battery cell prices fell by 11.5%.
Direct lithium extraction (DLE) is a new streamlined process that increases efficiency and decreases the negative externalities of brine mining. DLE could produce battery-grade lithium carbonate or hydroxide in just a few hours and save the trip to a separate processing facility, making it cheaper and easier to produce batteries for EVs.
Samsung announced that its latest automotive processor, the Exynos Auto V920, has been selected to power Hyundai Motor Company’s next-generation in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems, which are expected to roll out by 2025.
For much of the chip industry, concerns about security are relatively new, but the requirement for protecting semiconductor devices is becoming pervasive. However, adding too much protection has a cost. It’s likely to be slower and may consume more power than a device that isn’t as well protected.
Practically unbreakable cybersecurity systems require balancing cost and risk. So even if you could create a system that is “literally” unbreakable, the cost would likely be so high that no one could afford it.
CISA made several announcements this week:
Renesas announced the successful completion of its acquisition of Panthronics, a fabless semiconductor company specializing in high-performance wireless products.
Companies developing AI hardware attracted funding from a range of sources in May.
Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a diagnostic device that can tell the difference between influenza and COVID-19. With his team, Ray Chen, professor of computing and electrical energy, built the “lab-on-a-chip” testing technology on a CMOS-compatible photonic chip-based platform. It features a “y”-shaped, double-layered microfluidic chip. The platform can test several samples at once and the aim is to provide more accurate testing solutions and make it easier for people who can’t get to a medical center. In the future, the device may be able to test dozens of illnesses, including other coronaviruses and even some types of cancer.
DARPA chose teams to support its In the Moment program, which aims to support military personnel in challenging situations, such as medical triage, through the use of trusted algorithmic decision-making. Four teams will focus on different technical areas. The teams are Raytheon BBN Technologies and Soar Technology; Kitware and Parallax; CACI International; and the University of Maryland Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security and the Institute for Defense Analyses.
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