embedded news week: ITS World Congress, chiplets and podcast

Here’s our weekly snapshot of some of the embedded news that has come through our inbox, covering products, funding, events and people news.

One of the perks of our roles as editors at embedded.com and the wider Aspencore Media publications is that we get to hear first-hand from senior executives, product managers and engineering teams about some of the new products and technologies for electronics and embedded systems development. You can hear some of those conversations in my latest podcast, embedded edge with Nitin, in which I talk to ADLINK Technology, automotive HMI design firm Conjure, and batteryless IoT sensors firm EnOcean. Watch out for the next episode being published shortly when I’ll be having a chat with the CEO of SoC design service firm Sondrel.

This week, I spoke to Cadence about their new Integrity 3D-IC platform for heterogenous multi-chiplet system design, and NeuroBlade’s CEO on their $83 million funding round to take their compute-in-memory chip to market. You can also read about Synopsys’ new HBM3 IP solution, including controller, PHY, and verification IP for 2.5D multi-die package systems.

Next week is the ITS World Congress in Hamburg, a conference focused on smart mobility, so ahead of that I chatted to NXP Semiconductors’ CTO Lars Reger. Reger is always fascinating to listen to, especially when he articulates his vision of smart living and seamless experiences enabled by connected technologies – such as the self-parking car in a parking lot, using V2X technologies. In Hamburg next week, NXP and partners will present V2X-enabled prototypes, including a smart V2X-enabled e-bike prototype from premium manufacturer Riese & Müller.

News & Products

onsemi announced the availability of a new 1/1.7 inch 8.3 MP CMOS digital image sensor with rolling shutter and embedded high dynamic range (eHDR) technology. The AR0821CS meets the diverse needs of commercial, consumer and industrial applications by providing superior image quality in challenging lighting conditions. These applications include scanners/readers, machine vision cameras, high-end drones, dashboard cameras, and smart building surveillance/security systems. The AR0821CS delivers 4K video with 8.3 MP resolution at 60 fps while consuming very low power. Alongside onsemi development resources, the AR0821CS has been designed into Basler’s dart family of area scan camera modules, which offers the latest machine vision technology in a small format.

Renesas Electronics Corporation announced its commitment to meet the ISO/SAE 21434 road vehicles cybersecurity engineering international standard for its automotive MCUs and SoC solutions effective with new developments from January 2022. This is part of the company’s commitment to implement robust automotive cybersecurity management systems (CSMS) as part of the new UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) regulation UN R155. This reaffirms to OEMs and Tier1 suppliers that Renesas will continue to meet its CSMS responsibilities. All future Renesas automotive MCUs and SoCs will sequentially follow the ISO/SAE 21434 standard with development starting from January 2022. This includes the company’s 16-bit RL78 and 32-bit RH850 MCUs and Renesas’ popular R-Car SoC Family.

u-blox said that its ZED-F9T global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver module is being used in Facebook’s open-source time card for timing infrastructure. Easy access to nanosecond-level timing accuracy opens new avenues in industry segments that rely on highly synchronized signals, such as 5G network base stations that require tighter synchronization than those of previous generations. As power distribution networks become more complex to accommodate a growing share of decentralized renewable energy, they are becoming more reliant on reliable and accurate timing solutions.

Semtech announced a collaboration with Sindcon (Singapore) IoT Technology, a provider of low power wide area network (LPWAN) IoT metering solutions, to bring smart consumption monitoring of energy and water at the Singapore Zoo alongside Electrique Energie & Metering. By integrating Semtech’s LoRa devices and the LoRaWAN standard into the Sindcon water and energy meters, Sindcon was able to deploy 1,000+ devices in strategic locations throughout the three parks within Singapore Zoo to transmit real-time metering data every 15 minutes. The power efficiency of LoRa devices meant Sindcon was able to reduce the cost of power cabling, reducing the cost and complexity of deployment.

Resonant has expanded its multi-year commercial partnership with RF filter manufacturer, Murata Manufacturing Co., a strategic investor in Resonant, for development of 5G XBAR RF filters. Resonant delivers RF front-end filter IP using its WaveX software tools platform, and said its customers shipped 17.5 million RF filters using its technology in the second quarter of 2021. George B. Holmes, chairman and CEO of Resonant, said, “Murata continues to be an excellent strategic partner to leverage our XBAR technology, specifically developed to meet the exacting demands of the wide bandwidth, high frequency RF market required by next generation wireless networks.”

Kontron has expanded its KBox A-series with the KBox A-150-WKL Box PC for delivering high computing performance with low power consumption. The new Box PC features a wide range of interfaces and numerous expansion options for use in fieldbus environments and process control as well as for industrial firewalls and many other embedded applications. The KBox A-150-WKL can be easily integrated into industrial environments by means of a DIN rail mounting option. It has been specially designed for IoT gateway applications in industrial environments. The built-in 3.5″ SBC combines powerful SoC processor technology, a compact design and extensive connectivity.

Funding, emerging startups

NeuroBlade, the compute-in-memory startup, has secured $83 million to help market its data analytics accelerator based on its XRAM computational memory chip. The Series B funding round takes NeuroBlade’s total funding to $110 million since being established in 2018. The Israel-based startup has developed a data analytics architecture that eliminates major data movement bottlenecks by integrating data processing functions in-memory. While its focus so far has been on developing the architecture enabling the chip, the company also will deliver a data analytics tool dubbed Xiphos, billed as a system-level appliance.

Silicon Catalyst portfolio company SigmaSense, which focuses on touch sensing technology, closed a $24 million series B funding round to expand its reach in the touch and HMI (human machine interface) markets. As part of the capital raise, the company appointed long-time semiconductor veteran and startup investor Aurelio Fernandez to its board. Fernandez helped establish Broadcom as its first VP of worldwide sales, and prior to that he held sales roles at Exar Corporation, IC Works, VLSI Technology and Intel.

People

NI has appointed Thomas Benjamin as executive vice president, chief technology officer and head of product analytics. He will lead NI’s development of software-driven business models for the test and measurement market, while driving technology innovation. The CTO role will also look at new growth opportunities, including areas tied to data, product analytics, and enterprise software. Benjamin’s previous roles have been with SAP Ariba, General Electric, Emirates Group, Visa, Walmart, and Oracle.

Events

The Linley Fall Processor Conference 2021 willtake place on 20-21 October 2021 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Santa Clara, CA. As expected, there’ll be plenty of talk about edge AI, plus high-performance processing, IoT, sensors plus VC perspectives on emerging tech. Details here.

The 58^th DAC (Design Automation Conference) is takes place both physically in San Francisco and virtually between 5-10 December 2021. Keynote speakers include Jeff Dean of Google Research and Google Health, Bill Dally of Nvidia, and Missy Cummings of Duke University. For the first, DAC attendees will also have access to SEMICON West and the RISC-V Summit. Details here.

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