In his classic book “Unsafe at Any Speed”, Ralph Nader assailed the auto industry and their approach to styling and cost efficiency at the expense of safety during the 1960s. He squared up on perceived defects in the Chevrolet Corvair, but extended his view to wider issues such as tire inflation ratings favoring passenger comfort… Read More
Take a drive on the IoT with V2V
What platform has become the most sophisticated and intimate personal electronic environment ever? The car. To paraphrase a famous automotive company’s top executive, car companies are transforming the car into a powerful smartphone that allows drivers to carry around, customize, and interact with their digital world. Automotive… Read More
Seen at DAC! Self-Driving Cars –Victory Lap or Pile-Up?
It is axiomatic that the DAC vendor community would love to serve the exciting and expanding automotive market; and the auto community would love to continue to increase their value through innovative software/ hardware solutions, which will one day lead to the self-driving car. But how do we team to lap the track?
Jim Hogan set … Read More
Google Robot Cars are Coming!
Paul McLellan and I attended the 2014 Embedded Vision Summit in Silicon Valley this week. The most interesting session for me was on the new Google car that was announced earlier in the week. But first, to set the stage, let’s look at a new study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that shows motor vehicle… Read More
180nm still a big deal
When I was reading the recent Daniel Payne article “Designing Change Into Semiconductor Techonomics” with commentary on a recent presentation from Aart de Geus of Synopsys, one chart jumped out at me: the most popular process node for new design starts today is 180nm.
Upon mentioning that to a few of my IoT counterparts, they quickly… Read More
ISO 26262 driving away from mobile SoCs
Connected cars may be starting to resemble overgrown phones in many ways, but there are critical differences now leading processor teams in a different direction away from the ubiquitous mobile SoC architecture – in turn causing designers to reevaluate interconnect strategies.
The modern car has evolved into a microcontroller… Read More
Curved touchscreens
CES 2014 was the modern technology equivalent of the voyage of Ferdinand Magellan, proving beyond any shadow of doubt displays no longer can be thought of as only flat. While the massive curved 105-inch TVs shown by LG and Samsung drew many gawkers, the implications of curved touch displays are even wider.… Read More
Raised on radio: RPUs target autos and wearables
We’ve become familiar with Imagination Technologies as a leading provider of IP for mobile GPUs, and within the last year the acquisition of the MIPS architecture has established them further in NPU and SoC circles. Their latest move targets an IP solution more in line with their heritage.
Imagination, way before becoming famous… Read More
10 years, 100,000 miles, or <1 DPM
Auto makers have historically been accused of things like planned obsolescence – redesigning parts to make repairs painfully or even prohibitively expensive – and the “warranty time-bomb”, where major systems seem to fail about a week after the warranty expires. Optimists would chalk both those up to relentless innovation,… Read More
The Auto Industry Speaks @ Renesas DevCon
This year’s Renesas DevCon in Orange County, CA kicked off yesterday with an impressive lineup of speakers, record attendance, and an increased focus on automotive.
“TheAuto Industry Speaks,” an Expert Panel organized by Martin Bakerof Renesas, featured:
- Yoichi Yano, RenesasExecutive VP and Member of the Board, who early
TSMC Unveils the World’s Most Advanced Logic Technology at IEDM