World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) is an organization of semiconductor companies created to collect market data. The members of WSTS also meet twice per year to develop forecasts for the semiconductor market. The “forecast by committee” approach of WSTS usually results in conservative forecasts. However, WSTS called… Read More
OEMs Lead the Way on Self Driving Tech
It’s never a good sign when car makers are called before Congress. It’s almost as bad as being asked to visit the President. But last week the meeting didn’t involve allegations or investigations. It was just an occasion for a friendly chat regarding “Self-Driving Cars: Road to Deployment.”
IEEE… Read More
New Protocol (NB- IoT) Requires New DSP IP and New Business Model
If we agree on the definition of IoT as a distributed set of services based on sensing, sharing and controlling through new nodes, we realize that these nodes are a big hardware opportunity. The chip makers and IP vendors have to create innovative SoC, delivering high performance at low cost and low energy. Moreover, the new systems… Read More
Notes from the Neural Edge
Cadence recently hosted a summit on embedded neural nets, the second in a series for them. This isn’t a Cadence pitch but it is noteworthy that Cadence is leading a discussion on a topic which is arguably the hottest in tech today, with this range and expertise of speakers (Stanford, Berkeley, ex-Baidu, Deepscale, Cadence… Read More
Verifying Design for In-Car Networks
Once upon a time the role of electricity in a car was pretty modest: spark plugs, alternator, lighting, some simple instrumentation and maybe heating, all supported by an equally simple wiring harness (my wife has a 1962 Morris Minor, so I know exactly what the whole wiring harness looks like). How times have changed. Now most or … Read More
The Nannification of Tesla
I can’t tell you how many times I have sat down with executives of large companies and startups who have tried to get me excited about geo-fencing. Geo-fencing is a clever little technology that can allow a device maker to restrict access to a device, service or content when that system roams beyond a particular zone of acceptable… Read More
From Tragedy to Triumph for Tesla
Tesla Motors has done it again. Dragged before the investigators of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Tesla was found faultless and its vehicles flawless in connection with the fatal Florida crash last year.… Read More
Mentor Safe Program Rounds Out Automotive Position
Mentor has an especially strong position in the automotive space given their broad span of embedded, SoC, mechanical and thermal and system design tools. Of course, these days demonstrating ISO 26262 compliance is mandatory for semiconductor and systems suppliers, so EDA vendors need to play their part to support those suppliers… Read More
Fed Panel Asks Today: Why Waymo?
The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) is holding the first meeting today of a new advisory committee focused, in its own words: “on automation across a number of modes.” The committee, made up of an array of experts from a variety of fields, is “to immediately begin work on some of the most pressing and… Read More
California Rules the Road
California’s influence on the global automotive industry remains intact at the start of 2017 in spite of the state’s strict licensing for autonomous vehicle testing on public roads. California managed to chase Uber away with that licensing requirement, but in the process the state has established a benchmark for… Read More
Podcast EP268: A Decade in the Chinese Semiconductor Industry: An American’s Story