Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing

Automotive & transportation
Chip shortages continue to affect automotive production lines and the bottom line of automotive OEMs. Jaguar Land Rover and Daimler this week saidthey will reduce因为生产芯片供应问题。其他汽车companies have or are planning to temporarily shut down production lines. Renault, GM, Ford, Fiat Chrysler (now Stellantis), Volkswagen, Nissan, and Honda have all reported some shutdowns or slowdowns. The shortages are also now affecting the medium and heavy commercial vehicle (MHCV) sector, reports I.H.S. Markit in ablog.

SEMIand the think tankCenter for Automotive Research (CAR)plan to work togetheron the automotive supply chain issues. The two organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) this week. Through the MOU, the organizations want to connect microelectronics manufacturing and design stakeholders with the automotive and mobility ecosystems through programs and events that advance both industries.

节奏debutedtwo DSP IP cores for embedded vision and AI in high-end mobile and multi-camera automotive applications (the Tensilica Vision Q8 DSP) and for IoT, AR/VR glasses, and smart home devices (Tensilica Vision P1 DSP). The Tensilica Vision Q8 DSP can be used in automotive camera systems.

Security
The IoT cybersecurity business will reach US$16.8 billion by 2026, when 23.6 billion devices will be connected — triple the amount connected today, said analyst firmABI Researchin ablog. Because of the fractured nature of IoT market, the IoT security business is still in its infancy. Security can’t always be a priority in some market segments. For example, functional safety products require constant availability, which makes security difficult if not impossible. In those cases, although aware of the security issues, OEMs have to design for “always available” first. Other “OEMs and vendors often choose to accept the risk, rather than remediate it during a Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA), while many others choose not to do a CBA at all,” said ABI Research. Opportunities in IoT security are strong in the next few years, predicts the analyst firm.

A general-purpose 32-bit microcontroller (MCU) fromRenesashas achievedCryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP)Level 3 certification under the FIPS 140-2 security standard. FIPS 140 is aNational Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)standard, but the certification program is a joint effort between NIST and theCanadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS). FIPS 140-2 certification is required by governments, financial institutions, for secure transactions. Renesas’ CMVP-certified RX65N MCU has a Trusted Secure IP (TSIP) module. The TSIP includes an encryption engine with AES, SHA, RSA, and ECC support, a true random number generator (TRNG), and an encrypted key management mechanism, according to apress release. The RX65N MCU is intended for use in human machine interface of industrial and IoT systems. Other Renesas RX chips also have the TSIP.

A new, open IoT standard protocolfrom FIDO Alliance puts more security in the process of connecting an IoT device to the cloud. The FIDO Device Onboard (FDO) protocol FDO uses an “untrusted installer” approach. The installer has no access to sensitive infrastructure/access control information to add a device to a network.

Pervasive computing — IoT, edge, cloud, data center, and back
Samsung Foundrycertified节奏’s Pegasus Verification System for 5nm and 7nm process technologies and now offers a process design kit (PDK). The system is designed designers achieve sign-off for a variety of markets, including mobile and hyperscale.

Synopsysintroduced new design tools for hyper-convergent ICs for memory, AI, automotive, and 5G applications. ThePrimeSim Continuumis a unified workflow for circuit simulation technologies, which should speed up the creation and signoff of hyper-convergent designs in SoCs. The continuum concept offers PrimeSim SPICE, PrimeSim Pro, PrimeSim HSPICE, and PrimeSimXA simulation engines. These engines are available through the PrimeWave design environment. The increased parasitics, process variability, and reduced margins at advanced process nodes may be easier to reckon with by using a unified workflow of sign-off quality simulation engines tuned for analog, mixed-signal, RF, custom digital memory designs. PrimeSim Continuum uses next-generation SPICE and FastSPICE architectures and heterogenous computing to optimize the use of CPU and GPU resources. Also announced was a library system calledPrimeLibthat streamlines the process of creating characterization and validation libraries for signoff.

TSMCcertifiedSiemens’ Aprisa place-and-route tool on TSMC’s N6 process. Siemen’s acquired Aprisa from Avatar Integrated Systems in August 2020.

Xilinxintroducedits Kria Portfolio of adaptive system-on-modules (SOMs) for AI applications at the edge. The modules are production-ready small form-factor embedded boards.

Codasip’shastwo new FPGA Evaluation Platforms for evaluating Codasip RISC-V IP. The Platforms are designed to target Digilent boards based onXilinxArtix-7 and Kintex-7 FPGAs.

People, companies
Vic Kulkarni, former vice president of strategy atAnsys’Semiconductor Business Unit,has joinedtheSilicon Integration Initiative(Si2)as chief strategy officer. Kulkarni retired from Ansys in March 2021.

Job, Event and Webinar Boards: Findindustry jobsand183新利 andwebinarsall in one place on Semiconductor Engineering. Knowledge Center: Boost yoursemiconductor industry knowledge. Videos: See the latest Semiconductor Engineering视频.