In the march to more capable, faster, smaller, and lower power systems, Moore’s Law gave software a free ride for over 30 years or so purely on semiconductor process evolution. Compute hardware delivered improved performance/area/power metrics every year, allowing software to expand in complexity and deliver more capability… Read More
Autonomy Lost without Nvidia
Five years ago Uber nearly singlehandedly wiped out the prospect of a self-driving car industry with the inept management of its autonomous vehicle testing in Phoenix which led to a fatal crash. The massive misstep instantly vaporized tens of billions of dollars of Uber’s market cap and sent the company’s robotaxi development… Read More
Automotive Lone Bright Spot
Automotive appears to be about the only bright spot in the semiconductor market for 2023. Forecasts for the overall semiconductor market range from a decline of 4% to a decline of 20%. Semiconductor companies generally have bleak outlooks for the start of 2023, citing excess inventories ad weak end market demand. The chart below… Read More
Mercedes, VW Caught in TikTok Blok
Thirteen years ago, General Motors announced the introduction of a voice-enabled integration of Facebook in its cars. The announcement reflected the irresistible urge to please consumers and lead the market.
Today, multiple car makers are introducing games, streaming video, and social media apps, the most prominent of which… Read More
AAA Hypes Self-Driving Car Fears
The AAA (U.S. auto club) must have AGHD (attention-getting deficit disorder). The headline from the organization’s latest research is: “Fear of Self-Driving Cars is on the Rise.” That should straighten things out, right?
The survey was conducted across a representative sample of U.S. households, according to the reported… Read More
IoT in Distress at MWC 2023
The talk of the table – or at least my end of the table – at the annual Cybersecurity Dinner – hosted by Copper Horse Ltd. – was the dismal state of IoT. Millions of devices are being connected – but no one is making money.
Of course that isn’t absolutely accurate. There are organizations that are able to make money in IoT,… Read More
Modern Automotive Electronics System Design Challenges and Solutions
Over the last decade, automobiles have been morphing from stand-alone mechanical objects to highly connected systems with ever-increasing usage of electronics. Semiconductor supply disruptions (OEM factory shutdowns) caused by the recent situation with Covid and the political tensions and China have demonstrated the… Read More
Maintaining Vehicles of the Future Using Deep Data Analytics
So much has changed over the recent couple of decades in what constitutes an automobile. Gone are the days when it was essentially an electro-mechanical product, used for just personal transportation. Over the years, it has evolved to adding in-cabin infotainment, tele and data communications, driving assistance, all the way… Read More
Safe Driving: FSD vs. V2X
When it comes to competing with Elon Musk’s Tesla the automotive industry is, in many ways, its own worst enemy. For more than two decades the auto industry – in the U.S. and E.U. – has struggled to bring vehicle-to-vehicle communication technology to market – first as dedicated short range communications… Read More
ASIL B Certification on an Industry-Class Root of Trust IP
I have always been curious about how Austemper-based safety methodologies (from Siemens EDA) compares with conventional safety flows. Siemens EDA together with Rambus recently released a white paper on getting a root of trust IP to ASIL B certification. This provides a revealing insight beyond the basics of fault simulation… Read More
Application-Specific Lithography: Sense Amplifier and Sub-Wordline Driver Metal Patterning in DRAM