IoT Breakfast Panel at DAC

Tuesday morning at DAC I enjoyed a free breakfast courtesy of Synopsysand GLOBALFOUNDRIESwhere I learned more about the emerging market of IoT, and what it means to semiconductor, EDA and IP vendors. Panelists included: Semico Research, HP, Synopsys, GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Broadcom. Notes Jim Feldhen, Semico Research – the growth of IoT markets Lighting, LED lights powered by Ethernet, survailence, security), the connected home, 23 billion residential appliances in 10 years Automotive, consumer, wearables, Smart Home, Industrial, Enterrprise, Smart energy, Medical Low barriers to IoT entry, however no overall or unified management. Factors to help IoT become real reduced cost of sensors low power embedded processing interoperability security Waste management – now installed in Niece, France, etc. Sensors in the cans, cloud connected, garbage can is full, pick up when needed, saves time and energy. Terry O’Shea – HP. IoT market segmentation with dozens of uses. Systems integration is the key to success. It’s not about the devices so much, there’s also: client, aggregator, network operator, service enabler, service integrator, service provider, reseller, customer, end user. – sensors that are always on take the most power, not the controller so much. We need low power sensors. WHo is going to change the batteries on all of these IoT devices? – Edge card example: RF Sensing, it replaced license plates in Brazil. Operate for 5 years on a coin battery, be secure, fitted into 42 million cars. Gas stations had readers so that gas company could offer coupons for loyal usage. IoT is real. VK Raman – Broadcom. Only 5.6 billion phones in a few years, however 30 billion IoT devices, so big change is coming. Broadcom chips are pervasive in 99.98% of all data traffic today. Applications are – connected home, wearables, cars, industrial. Needs are: addressable, secure, scalable, easy and reliable. WICED – wireless connected standard from Broadcom is being used. Bluetooth also used for IoT devices, because it’s simpler than WiFi, especially on the move. – ecosystem needs: Development kits, turn-key mfr devices, open SDK environment, partners. Devices are simple, but the ecosystem is complex. Auto possibilities – wake up sleepy drivers, or having medical conditions. Lots of pieces in place now – WICED, WiFi, NFC, digital watermarks, ARM processors, 5G WiFi, scan codes, microcells, GPS, Bluetooth. John Koeter – Synopsys. An EDA and IP perspective. Smart Blanket for a toddler, monitor heart rate and breathing. Connected slippers with sensors for elderly that may fall down, and send out an alert to family members. – Established process nodes suit IoT quite well, 180nm sensors, 90nm embedded Flash for machine–to-machine applications. Cost effective is important for IoT. – Synopsys has processor cores (ARC), memories and libraries, subsystem IP, interface, analog and NVM IP. A sensor IP subsystem requires more than an 8 bit processor because of the data rates and sensor count. This reference design consumes just 4uW/MHz. Synopsys has worked with GLOBALFOUNDRIES on 180nm-55nm, smaller. Subi Kengeri – GLOBALFOUNDRIES. Collaborative innovation is the new business model between vendors. IoT has: shorter time to market, apps driving the foundry, designs must be optimized, mems plus standard interfaces. With this fragmented environment, how do we develop standards? SOme 3,000 startups on wearables and healthcare underway today. R&D collaboration on semi technology. Design eco-system, working with EDA and IP vendors. Process nodes up to 180nm all work in IoT devices, a wide range required (high voltage, RF, BCD, OTP, Flash, EEPROM). Can one company control end-to-end of IoT? No, it must be an open and collaborative environment. Samsung and GLOFLO collaborate at 14nm. Ed Sperling – who makes money on these 10’s of billion devices? A: Storing the data and evaluating the data, they make the money. Security companies like ADT will make the money to manage your security. A: Customers are the beneficiaries. A: Semiconductor industry should also benefit from new sales. At $350B the semi industry could be squeezed to make new profits. A: With 3,000 IoT start-ups, most will fail. Customers want all their devices to interoperate, not a single vendor with proprietary approach. Profits will go to those that interoperate. Q: EDA typically gets 2% of the overall Semiconductor budget, will that ever change? A: Yes, we hope that EDA will grow along with semi business. A: Yes, the IP providers are positioned for growth. We need concurrent IP development to meet short design cycles. A: FD-SOI is quite good for RF device performance. Q: How safe is our data with an IoT device? A: Security certification is really required for safety. A: The NEST thermostat turns on when you pass by it, but it still isn’t that smart yet to know who is in each room and requires heating and cooling. Where are the remote sensors to make the NEST smarter? A: I don’t want my device spying on me, so I want my behavior secret. Q: What about your pacemaker or Tesla car, or insulin pump security? A: Encrypted data is essential, so that comes from the silicon IP you buy. Q: How does mobile connect with IoT? A: From silicon technology it used to be CPUs driving the fab, with mobile the technology requirements are very different than CPU. IoT will change the fab requirements. A: Mobile devices are the hub, then the IoT devices connect to mobile or WiFi. A: Mobile and IoT are closely linked and mutual. Q: How much an issue is Power for IoT? A: We want wearable batteries to last at least 3 weeks, but where is my charger? A: Brazil license battery lasts 5 years, then the user has to re-license and get a new battery. A: A consumer wants to always wear the device, never charge, so how about energy harvesting to power an IoT device. A: IoT is mostly on all the time, so standby power can be quite high. A: Try and get the most out of the silicon for power savings. Q: Do we need regulations compliance? In the EU there are stronger regulations. A: That’s a huge issue, the systems integrator plays a big role in compliance. A: It may take a decade to figure put the requlations compliance. Q: What do you want the IoT to become? I want it to help me make better decisions. What level of security are consumers expecting? A: It really depends on the app. For financial IoT there is the highest security requirement, zero tolerance to invasion. A: Freescale put together a reference design called OneBox with Oracle, so expect to see more cooperation for secure apps and devices. Summary IoT is growing like mobile computing, just much faster.