Here is my list of electronics industry trends and predictions for 2016:
There was a huge set of mega mergers in electronics industry announced in 2015. In 2016 we will see less mergers and how well the existing mergers went. Not all of the major acquisitions will succeed. Probably the the biggest challenge in these mega-mergers is “creating merging cultures or–better yet–creating new ones”.
Makers and open hardware will boost innovation in 2016. Open source has worked well in the software community, and it is coming more to hardware side. Maker culture encourages people be creators of technology rather than just consumers of it. A combination of the maker movement and robotics is preparing children for a future in which innovation and creativity will be more important than ever: robotics is an effective way for children as young as four years old to get experience in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics as well as programming and computer science. The maker movement is inspiring children to tinker-to-learn. Popular DIY electronics platforms include Arduino, Lego Mindstorms, Raspberry Pi, Phiro and LittleBits. Some of those DIY electronics platforms like Arduino and Raspberry Pi are finding their ways into commercial products for example in 3D printing, industrial automation and Internet of Things application fields.
Open source processors core gains more traction in 2016. RISC-V is on the march as an open source alternative to ARM and Mips. Fifteen sponsors, including a handful of high tech giants, are queuing up to be the first members of its new trade group for RISC-V. Currently RISC-V runs Linux and NetBSD, but not Android, Windows or any major embedded RTOSes. Support for other operating systems is expected in 2016. For other open source processor designs, take a look at OpenCores.org, the world’s largest site/community for development of hardware IP cores as open source.
GaN will be more widely used and talked about in 2016. Gallium nitride (GaN) is a binary III/V direct bandgap semiconductor commonly used in bright light-emitting diodes since the 1990s. It has special properties for applications in optoelectronic, high-power and high-frequency devices. You will see more GaN power electronics components because GaN – in comparison to the best silicon alternative – will enable higher power density through the ability to switch at high frequencies. You can get GaN devices for example from GaN Systems, Infineon, Macom, and Texas Instruments. The emergence of GaN as the next leap forward in power transistors gives new life to Moore’s Law in power.
Power electronics is becoming more digital and connected in 2016. Software-defined power brings to bear critical need in modern power systems. Digital Power was the beginning of software-defined power using a microcontroller or a DSP. Software-defined power takes this to another level. Connectivity is the key to success for software-defined power and the PMBus will enable the efficient communication and connection between all power devices in computer systems. It seems that power architectures to become software defined, which will take advantage of digital power adaptability and introduce software control to manage the power continuously as operating conditions change. For example adaptive voltage scaling (AVS) is supported by the AVSBus is contained in the newest PMBus standard V 1.3. The use of power-optimization software algorithms and the concept of the Software Defined Power Architecture (SDPA) are all being seen as part of a brave new future for advanced board-power management.
Nanowires and new forms of memory like RRAM (resistive random access memory) and spintronics are also being researched, and could help scale down chips. Many “exotic” memory technologies are in the lab, and some are even in shipping product: Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM), Resistive RAM (ReRAM), Magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM), Nano-RAM (NRAM).
Nanotube research has been ongoing since 1991, but there has been long road to get practical nanotube transistor. It seems that we almost have the necessary parts of the puzzle in 2016. In 2015 IBM reported a successful auto-alligment method for placing them across the source and drain. Texas Instruments is now capable of growing wafer scale graphene and the Chinese have taken the lead in developing both graphene and nanotubes according to Lux Research.
While nanotubes provide the fastest channel material available today, III-V materials like gallium arsenide (GaAs) and indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) are all being explored by IBM, Intel, Imec and Samsung as transistor channels on silicon substrates. Dozen of researchers worldwide are experimenting with black phosphorus as an alternative to nanotubes and graphene for the next generation of semiconductors. Black phosphorus has the advantage of having a bandgap and works well alongside silicon photonics device. 3-Molybdenum disulphide MoS2 is also a contender for the next generation of semiconductors, due to its novel stacking properties.
Graphene has many fantastic properties and there has been new finding in it. I think it would be a good idea to follow development around magnetized graphene. Researchers make graphene magnetic, clearing the way for faster everything. I don’t expect practical products in 2016, but maybe something in next few years.
Optical communications is integrating deep into chips finally. There are many new contenders on the horizon for the true “next-generation” of optical communications with promising technologies in development in labs and research departments around the world. Silicon photonics is the study and application of photonic systems which use silicon as an optical medium. Silicon photonic devices can be made using existing semiconductor fabrication. Now we start to have technology to build optoelectronic microprocessors built using existing chip manufacturing. Engineers demo first processor that uses light for ultrafast communications. Optical communication could also potentially reduce chips’ power consumption on inter-chip-links and enable easily longer very fast links between ICs where needed. Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), which may enable engineers to exceed the properties of silicon in terms of energy efficiency and speed, moving researchers toward 2D on-chip optoelectronics for high-performance applications in optical communications and computing. To build practical systems with those ICs, we need to figure out how make easily fiber-to-chip coupling or how to manufacture practical optical printed circuit board (O-PCB).
Look development at self-directed assembly.Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and IBM have discovered a trenching capability that could be harnessed for building devices through self-directed assembly. The capability could potentially be used to integrate lasers, sensors, wave guides and other optical components into so called “lab-on-a-chip” devices.
Smaller chip geometries are come to mainstream in 2016. Chip advancements and cost savings slowed down with the current 14-nanometer process, which is used to make its latest PC, server and mobile chips. Other manufacturers are catching to 14 nm and beyond. GlobalFoundries start producing a central processing chip as well as a graphics processing chip using 14nm technology. After a lapse, Intel looks to catch up with Moore’s Law again with with upcoming 10-nanometer and 7-nm processes. Samsung revealed that it will soon begin production of a 10nm FinFET node, and that the chip will be in full production by the end of 2016. This is expected to be at around the same time as rival TSMC. TSMC 10nm process will require triple patterning. For mass marker products it seems that 10nm node, is still at least a year away. Intel delayed plans for 10nm processors while TSMC is stepping on the gas, hoping to attract business from the likes of Apple. The first Intel 10-nm chips, code-named Cannonlake, will ship in 2017.
Looks like Moore’s Law has some life in it yet, though for IBM creating a 7nm chip required exotic techniques and materials. IBM Research showed in 2015 a 7nm chip will hold 20 billion transistors manufactured by perfecting EUV lithography and using silicon-germanium channels for its finned field-effect transistors (FinFETs). Also Intel revealed that the end of the road for Silicon is nearing as alternative materials will be required for the 7nm node and beyond. Scaling Silicon transistors down has become increasingly difficult and expensive and at around 7nm it will prove to be downright impossible. IBM development partner Samsung is in a race to catch up with Intel by 2018 when the first 7nm products are expected. Expect Silicon Alternatives Coming By 2020. One very promising short-term Silicon alternative is III-V semiconductor based on two compounds: Indium gallium arsenide ( InGaAs ) and indium phosphide (InP). Intel’s future mobile chips may have some components based on gallium nitride (GaN), which is also an exotic III-V material.
Silicon and traditional technologies continue to be still pushed forward in 2016 successfully. It seems that the extension of 193nm immersion to 7nm and beyond is possible, yet it would require octuple patterning and other steps that would increase production costs. IBM Research earlier this year beat Intel to the 7nm node by perfecting EUV lithography and using silicon-germanium channels for its finned field-effect transistors (FinFETs). Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world’s largest foundry, said it has started work on a 5nm process to push ahead its most advanced technology. TSMC’s initial development work at 5nm may be yet another indication that EUV has been set back as an eventual replacement for immersion lithography.
It seems that 2016 could be the year for mass-adoption of 3D ICs and 3D memory. For over a decade, the terms 3D ICs and 3D memory have been used to refer to various technologies. 2016 could see some real advances and traction in the field as some truly 3D products are already shipping and more are promised to come soon. The most popular 3D category is that of 3D NAND flash memory: Samsung, Toshiba, Sandisk, Intel and Micron have all announced or started shipping flash that uses 3D silicon structure (we are currently seeing 128Gb-384Gb parts). Micron’s Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC) uses stacked DRAM die and through-silicon vias (TSVs) to create a high-bandwidth RAM subsystem with an abstracted interface (think DRAM with PCIe). Intel and Micron have announced production of a 3D crosspoint architecture high-endurance (1,000× NAND flash) nonvolatile memory.
The success of Apple’s portable computers, smartphones and tablets will lead to the fact that the company will buy as much as 25 per cent of world production of mobile DRAMs in 2016. In 2015 Apple bought 16.5 per cent of mobile DRAM.
After COP21 climate change summit reaches deal in Paris environmental compliance 2016 will become stronger business driver. Increasingly, electronics OEMs are realizing that environmental compliance goes beyond being a good corporate citizen. On the agenda for these businesses: climate change, water safety, waste management, and environmental compliance. Keep in mindenvironmental compliance requirements that include the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive, Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive 2002/95/EC (RoHS 1), and Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH). It’s a legal situation: If you do not comply with regulatory aspects of business, you are out of business. Some companies are leading the parade toward environmental compliance or learning as they go.
Connectivity is proliferating everything from cars to homes, realigning diverse markets. It needs to be done easily for user, reliably, efficiently and securely.It is being reported that communications technologies are responsible for about 2-4% of all of carbon footprint generated by human activity. The needs for communications and faster speeds is increasing in this every day more and more connected world – penetration of smart devices there was a tremendous increase in the amount of mobile data traffic from 2010 to 2014.Wi-Fi has become so ubiquitous in homes in so many parts of the world that you can now really start tapping into that by having additional devices. When IoT is forecasted to be 50 billion connections by 2020, with the current technologies this would increase power consumption considerably. The coming explosion of the Internet of Things (IoT) will also need more efficient data centers that will be taxed to their limits.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is enabling increased automation on the factory floor and throughout the supply chain, 3D printing is changing how we think about making components, and the cloud and big data are enabling new applications that provide an end-to-end view from the factory floor to the retail store. With all of these technological options converging, it will be hard for CIOs, IT executives, and manufacturing leaders keep up. IoT will also be hard for R&D.Internet of Things (IoT) designs mesh together several design domains in order to successfully develop a product. Individually, these design domains are challenging. Bringing them all together to create an IoT product can place extreme pressure on design teams. It’s still pretty darn tedious to get all these things connected, and there’s all these standards battles coming on. The rise of the Internet of Things and Web services is driving new design principles as Web services from companies such as Amazon, Facebook and Uber are setting new standards for user experiences. Designers should think about building their products so they can learn more about their users and be flexible in creating new ways to satisfy them – but in such way that the user’s don’t feel that they are spied on what they do.
Subthreshold Transistors and MCUs will be hot in 2016 because Internet of Things will be hot in 2016 and it needs very low power chips. The technology is not new as cheap digital watches use FETs operating in the subthreshold region, but decades digital designers have ignored this operating region, because FETs are hard to characterize there. Now subthreshold has invaded the embedded space thanks to Ambiq’s new Apollo MCU. PsiKick Inc. has designed a proof-of-concept wireless sensor node system-chip using conventional EDA tools and a 130nm mixed-signal CMOS that operates with sub-threshold voltages and opening up the prospect of self-powering Internet of Things (IoT) systems. I expect also other sub-threshold designs to emerge. ARM Holdings plc (Cambridge, England) is also working at sub- and near-threshold operation of ICs. TSMC has developed a series of processes characterized down to near threshold voltages (ULP family for ultra low power are processes). Intel will focus on its IoT strategy and next-generation low voltage mobile processors.
FPGAs in various forms are coming to be more widely use use in 2016 in many applications. They are not no longer limited to high-end aerospace, defense, and high-end industrial applications. There are different ways people use FPGA. Barrier of entry to FPGA development have lowered so that even home makers can use easily FPGAs with cheap FPGA development boards, free tools and open IP cores. There was already lots of interest in 2015 for using FPGA for accelerating computations as the next step after GPU. Intel bought Altera in 2015 and plans in 2016 to begin selling products with a Xeon chip and an Altera FPGA in a single package – possibly available in early 2016. Examples of applications that would be well-suited for use of ARM-based FPGAs, including industrial robots, pumps for medical devices, electric motor controllers, imaging systems, and machine vision systems. Examples of ARM-based FPGAs are such as Xilinx’s Zynq-7000 and Altera’s Cyclone V intertwine. Some Internet of Things (IoT) application could start to test ARM-based field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology, enabling the hardware to be adaptable to market and consumer demands – software updates on such systems become hardware updates. Other potential benefits would be design re-use, code portability, and security.
The trend towards module consolidation is applicable in many industries as the complexity of communication, data rates, data exchanges and networks increases. Consolidating ECU in vehicles is has already been big trend for several years, but the concept in applicable to many markets including medical, industrial and aerospace.
It seems to be that AXIe nears the tipping point in 2016. AXIe is a modular instrument standard similar to PXI in many respects, but utilizing a larger board format that allows higher power instruments and greater rack density. It relies chiefly on the same PCI Express fabric for data communication as PXI. AXIe-1 is the uber high end modular standard and there is also compatible AXIe-0 that aims at being a low cost alternative. Popular measurement standard AXIe, IVI, LXI, PXI, and VXI have two things in common: They each manage standards for the test and measurement industry, and each of those standards is ruled by a private consortium. Why is this? Right or wrong, it comes down to speed of execution.
These days, a hardware emulator is a stylish, sleek box with fewer cables to manage. The “Big Three” EDA vendors offer hardware emulators in their product portfolios, each with a distinct architecture to give development teams more options. For some offerings emulation has become a datacenter resource through a transaction-based emulation mode or acceleration mode.
LED lighting is expected to become more intelligent, more beautiful, more affordable in 2016. Everyone agrees that the market for LED lighting will continue to enjoy dramatic year-on-year growth for at least the next few years. LED Lighting Market to Reach US$30.5 Billion in 2016 and Professional Lighting Markets to See Explosive Growth. Some companies will win on this growth, but there are also losers. Due currency fluctuations and price slide in 2015, end market demands in different countries have been much lower than expected, so smaller LED companies are facing financial loss pressures. The history of the solar industry to get a good sense of some of the challenges the LED industry will face. Next bankruptcy wave in the LED industry is possible. The LED incandescent replacement bulb market represents only a portion of a much larger market but, in many ways, it is the cutting edge of the industry, currently dealing with many of the challenges other market segments will have to face a few years from now. IoT features are coming to LED lighting, but it seem that one can only hope for interoperability
Other electronics trends articles to look:
Hot technologies: Looking ahead to 2016 (EDN)
CES Unveiled NY: What consumer electronics will 2016 bring?
Analysts Predict CES 2016 Trends
LEDinside: Top 10 LED Market Trends in 2016
961 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT is all about two-dollar processors with fifty cents worth of memory wrapped around a lot of power- and penny-pinching software and services. IoT will seep digital technology slowly into many former analog markets, but they will not lead to a single, big gold mine and certainly not to the next PC, smartphone or tablet.
Source:
8 Predictions for 2016
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1328577&
Tomi Engdahl says:
Expect Unexpected Innovation in IP Development
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1328524&
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Verge:
What to expect at CES 2016: virtual reality demos, smart home products, wearables, drones, and more — Here’s what to expect at CES 2016 next week — It’s officially a new year, which means that once we’ve shaken off the grogginess of a cheap alcohol-induced hangover …
Here’s what to expect at CES 2016 this week
Cars, TVs, and wearables will all be on full display
http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/1/10695954/what-to-expect-ces-2016
Tomi Engdahl says:
Measuring Tiny Magnetic Fields With an Intelligent Quantum Sensor
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/biomedical/devices/measuring-tiny-magnetic-fields-with-an-intelligent-quantum-sensor
We know that electrons have spin. And researchers think that the spin of single electrons trapped in nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond might be used to store qubits in future quantum computers. They’ll use light and microwave pulses to control the electron’s spin—either up or down—read it out. However, because spin is a quantum property, as soon as any measurement is made in order to determine the strength of the magnetic field, the spin switches from superposition into either one of the two possible spin states. But by repeating the measurement multiple times and looking at the distribution of up and down spins, it is possible to estimate the magnetic field strength using statistics.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CMOS-Based Neural Probes Tackle Single Neurons
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328592&
At last IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting 2015, nanoelectronics research center imec, KU Leuven, and Neuro-Electronics Research Flanders (NERF, set up by VIB/KU Leuven and imec) presented a set of silicon neural probes that combine 12 monolithically integrated optrodes using a CMOS compatible process.
The probes enable the optical stimulation and electronic detection of individual neurons, based on optogenetics techniques. They pave the way to a greater understanding of the brain and towards novel treatments for brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, autism, and epilepsy.
Currently available devices for recording neural activity to study the functioning of the brain typically have a limited number of electrical channels.
The new probes combine electronics and photonics to perform extremely sensitive measurements.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Full RTOS free for startups, students, and makers
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/embedded-insights/4441115/Full-RTOS-free-for-startups–students–and-makers?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160104&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160104&elq=a5bc84a887dd459fa8d2655dbca76cf6&elqCampaignId=26331&elqaid=30091&elqat=1&elqTrackId=d9b5bfe42ef0474e8d3a70cc2a8154ff
If you’re a student, a hobbyist with ambitions for productizing your embedded creation, or part of a budget-strapped startup beginning active development of an embedded design, there’s a present you might not have known you got for Christmas. (It was actually announced in November.) Micrium is making its popular μC/OS-III RTOS and IoT protocol stacks available free of charge while you’re getting established. You won’t need to pay a licensing fee unless or until your company exceeds $100k in revenue or $1M in funding. Students and educators at accredited institutions get an even better deal.
Free access to software and tools is not a new concept, but Micrium has added a few new wrinkles. Instead of being a time- or capacity-limited version of the RTOS and tools, Micrium is making its regular commercial version of μC/OS-III available. Along with the RTOS, the associated TCP/IP, USB Host, USB Device, and ModBus stacks as well as the file system are also being made freely available. Even more, they come with complete documentation, video training, and space-available access to live training seminars. Micrium is even including its μC Probe tool for access into system memory during run-time.
Tomi Engdahl says:
AMD to nibble the ankles of Nvidia this summer with 14nm FinFET GPUs
Look at me, we’re still here, we’re still going, still making chips, still relevant
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/04/amd_polaris_14nm/
AMD says it will ship graphics chips using its next-generation “Polaris” architecture from mid-2016. Crucially, these processors will use 14nm FinFETs, which means they should have better performance-per-watt figures than today’s 28nm GPUs.
Let’s be clear: today’s announcement is timed to catch the hype building around the CES 2016 conference – the annual tech circle-jerk held in Las Vegas – so don’t expect a whole lot of actual detail right now.
What we do know is that Polaris is AMD’s 4th generation Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture, and it will apparently support HDMI 2.0a, DisplayPort 1.3, and 4K H.265 encoding and decoding at 60 frames per second. We assume AMD is going to use GlobalFoundries as its fab. The tech will appear in Radeon products that PC makers are testing out right now, we’re told.
A goal of the Polaris design is to fit “console caliber” graphics into thin notebooks and displays
Tomi Engdahl says:
Be Alert for Power-Related Conventional Wisdom
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=30&doc_id=1328574&
It’s a good idea to step back and check those baseline component and design assumptions because there are many legitimate exceptions to mainstream thinking, even in standard designs.
Engineering choices are often initially dictated by conventional wisdom—after all, who has time to examine every assumption, given the pressures of time-to-market and product margins? This is true in all niches of design, including the vital and very vibrant power-related sector. While we make basic assumptions as a starting point in the design process, it can lead to decisions based on widely held ideas which are perhaps no longer entirely valid, and thus may unnecessarily constrain design options.
Here’s one example: I really like low-dropout regulators (LDOs). They do so much, solve so many local power-rail problems, are so easy to use, come in so many varieties that you can almost always find one that meets your requirements, and many of them are available from multiple sources. What’s not to like? Further, they are inherently low-noise DC sources, a very critical parameter in some situation. Billions are used every year, often “dropped in” close to a load to solve a local regulation issue after the initial power-distribution approach falls short.
If you step back and look closely at the low-noise objective compared to what’s available in both switching regulators and LDOs, you may find a switcher with noise that is low enough to meet the specifics of your design situation. Keep in mind that IC vendors recognize that switchers can be noisy, so they have developed using clever topologies and designs to bring that noise down.
Sometimes, a reverse of the conventional wisdom of the switcher versus LDO story also needs to be examined.
If efficiency is a goal – as it often is – the natural reaction is to think automatically “switching regulator” rather than LDO, since the LDOs are almost always less efficient that a well-designed switcher with comparable output.
But the choice may also depend on duty cycle and turn-on/off issues rather than innovative, improved component design.
There are similar stories with power-related components and configurations which are often but not always true, with regard to sense resistors, grounding, high-side versus low-side, sensing and sense resistors, four-wire remote-output sensing, fuses and circuit protection, among other design situations.
Tomi Engdahl says:
8 Predictions for 2016
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1328577&
Tomi Engdahl says:
China Is Chip Market’s Only Growth Region
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328601&
The three-month average of global chip sales for November 2015 declined by 3.0 percent compared with the figure for the same month a year before, according to numbers from World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) as reported by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).
Regionally the all the regions showed year-on-year decreases of sales with the exception of China (growth of 5.3 percent). Japan and Europe continue to be the poorest performing regions, partly due to currency exchange rate weakness.
Tomi Engdahl says:
New GPAK5 Tiny Mixed-Signal FPGA Features ASM & I2C
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1328618&
The new GPAK5′s asynchronous state machine (ASM) block is equivalent to having a simple microcontroller (MCU) running approximately 100 lines of code.
In March 2015, Silego introduced its GPAK4 family (see Teeny-Tiny GPAK4 mixed-signal FPGAs for embedded systems).
Teeny-Tiny GPAK4 mixed-signal FPGAs for embedded systems
http://www.embedded.com/electronics-blogs/max-unleashed-and-unfettered/4439031/Teeny-Tiny-GPAK4-mixed-signal-FPGAs-for-embedded-systems
The vast majority of the embedded designers I know typically create MCU-based systems — they rarely even consider using a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA).
Now, I think just about every embedded designer has at least heard of FPGAs. They understand that these devices can be configured to perform different tasks, and they may also know that FPGA designers typically use languages like Verilog and VHDL to capture their designs, but that’s about it — they don’t actually know how these devices perform their magic, and they don’t really understand how the design in Verilog or VHDL is “compiled” into the FPGA.
One important thing to note here is that not all FPGAs are created equal. At one end of the spectrum we have humongous devices from Xilinx and Altera that can contain multiple processor cores and the equivalent of multiple millions of ASIC gates. Then we have some very tasty and affordable mid-range devices from companies like Lattice Semiconductor. And we also have some very interesting PSoC (Programmable SoC) devices from Cypress Semiconductor that contain a 32-bit processor core along with programmable analog fabric and programmable digital fabric.
All of these devices are capable of extraordinary things, yet embedded designers still tend to steer clear of them.
I think of these GPAK chips as super-small mixed-signal FPGAs that you can literally design and program in just a few minutes, and that cost only a few cents each. GPAK mixed-signal FPGAs allow you to replace a number of off-the-shelf “glue” chips and gather their functionality into a single low-cost device. In addition to minimizing the component count and reducing costs, this shrinks board size and reduces power consumption.
The most recent addition to the GPAK family is the GPAK4, and the first member of this fourth generation is the SLG46620V. Presented in a 20-pin STQFN package (2.0 x 3.0 x 0.55mm with an 0.4mm pitch) and supporting a supply voltage of 1.8V to 5.0V, this little rascal boasts 18 general-purpose input/outputs (GPIOs), 6 analog comparators ACMPs, 3 digital comparators/pulse-width modulators DCMPs/PWMs, 2 digital-to-analog converters (DACs), 25 lookup tables (LUTs), and a variety of counter, delay, and flip-flop macrocells.
In the case of the GPAK5, the I2C block can be used to reconfigure the contents of the RAM after power-up. This capability can be used for something as simple as “tweaking” analog comparator threshold values and modifying time delay settings, all the way to fully reconfiguring the entire device
Now, Silego’s target markets typically involve large-volume production runs. Having said this, for only $59 for the development kit with SLG46620V sample devices, I personally can see myself using these little beauties in my hobby projects and prototypes.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fairchild’s Board Backs Bid From Chinese Firms
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328605&
Fairchild Semiconductor International Inc. said Tuesday (Jan. 5) its board of directors has determined that a revised unsolicited acquisition bid from China Resources Microelectronics Ltd. and Hua Capital Management Co. Ltd. is superior to the buyout offer it previously accepted from ON Semiconductor Corp.
Fairchild said it remains subject to the merger agreement with ON Semi. But the board’s determination paves the way for Fairchild to engage in discussions with the Chinese firms in order to further consider the proposal, the company said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
2015 chip market battered by everything bar earthquakes and nuclear war
And that could change soon….
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/07/2015_chip_market_figures/
Worldwide semiconductor sales slid last year, as chipmakers were hit by sliding currencies, slumping PC shipments, and supply gluts in key markets.
Gartner’s just published take on the 2015 semiconductor market shows overall revenues slipping 1.9 per cent to $333.7bn. Just to really rub it in, this compares to 2014’s 7.9 per cent growth.
What caused the slump? Pretty much every excuse that has whacked semiconductor sales over the last 25 years could be deployed in 2015, bar earthquake and nuclear war – though these might well hit Q1 2016 the way things are going in Korea right now.
As it was, Gartner research director Sergis Mushell, said a strengthening dollar “significantly impacted the total semiconductor market in 2015.” This pushed prices of components and finished products in local currencies, prompting buyers to delay purchases or buy cheaper products.
Overall, that weakness in key device markets meant only optoelectronics, non-optical sensors, analogue and ASIC saw revenue growth, compared to 2014 where all sectors showed growth. That same weakness in PC demand hit Intel, which saw overall revenues slip 1.2 per cent to $51.7bn. Nevertheless, it maintained its top spot in the industry, and actually increased its market share by half a percentage point to 15.5 per cent.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amazon Now Sells Own ARM chips
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328624&
Annapurna Labs Inc., a subsidiary of Internet shopping channel Amazon.com, has announced the availability of its Alpine range of ARM-based chips and subsystems aimed at home use Wi-Fi routers and Network-Attached Storage devices.
The Alpine product line, based on up to four ARMv7 and ARMv8 processor cores, supports the home deployment of applications and services, including media management, IoT management, surveillance and 4K/UHD television streaming, the company said.
There are already Home gateway, Wi-Fi router, and NAS product designs based on Alpine chips available from multiple equipment vendors including Netgear, QNAP Systems and Synology.
Tomi Engdahl says:
MediaTek Delivers Chip Series for Wearables, Smart Home Apps
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328623&
MediaTek unveiled three systems-on-chip at the ongoing Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2016. The SoCs are designed for wearable devices, smart home applications and Ultra-HD (4K) Blu-ray players
The MT2523 series, which is dedicated to smart watches and other wearables, is a system-in-package (SiP) that enables GPS, dual-mode Bluetooth Low Energy and a MIPI-supported high-resolution mobile screen, according to the company. It boasts of long battery life, high-quality display technology and small printed circuit board area that is 41 per cent smaller than competitors’ solutions.
The SiP features a microcontroller unit that allows wearables to last up to one week with a single charge. It also has 2D capabilities of true colour, per pixel alpha channel and anti-aliasing fonts, as well as 1bit index colour to save memory and computing power.
MediaTek’s MT2523, powered by ARM Cortex M4 processor, will be available to device makers by the second half of 2016.
The MT7697 SoC, meanwhile, offers low-power integration of such applications as home appliances, home automation, smart gadgets, Internet of Things (IoT) bridges and cloud connectivity. It features DB Wi-Fi, BLE, CM4 and RAM. It also includes a power amplifier with TX Power-up to 10dBm. The SoC’s BLE, when used on iOS devices, supports up to 160B of maximum transmission units.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wall Street Journal:
Amazon’s Annapurna Labs to sell its own “Alpine” line of ARM-based chips to other device manufacturers
Amazon Enters Semiconductor Business With Its Own Branded Chips
Amazon’s Annapurna Labs targets customers designing home equipment
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/amazon-enters-semiconductor-business-with-its-own-branded-chips-1452124921-lMyQjAxMTE2NDAwNzgwODcxWj
A secretive Amazon.com Inc. unit broke its silence Wednesday about plans to market computer chips and related components to other companies.
Annapurna Labs, an Israeli company purchased by Amazon last year that is now based in Silicon Valley, said it is targeting customers designing home equipment like Wi-Fi routers, data storage gear and media-streaming devices.
Some of its technology is already available in commercial products, Annapurna said. It cited manufacturers that include Asustek Computer Inc., Netgear Inc. and Synology Inc.
Annapurna said its products include chips based on technology licensed by ARM Holdings PLC
Annapurna said it was trying to address the issue that many home devices are severely limited in computing and networking power. Its Alpine chips, the company said, pack up to four processors and multiple kinds of networking technology to boost the performance of its customers’ products.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is there an optical rectenna in your future?
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/power-points/4441134/Is-there-an-optical-rectenna-in-your-future-?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160106&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160106&elq=f8c66897d0044d579bd7709b33e0c65a&elqCampaignId=26359&elqaid=30131&elqat=1&elqTrackId=52cdec249e4446a1be799a06630dccd5
When we think of solar-based energy, we usually associate it with electricity-generating solar cells; solar-based heating systems using a working fluid; solid-state thermoelectric-based conversion; or perhaps a solar-concentrator which liquefies some salt-based compound for storage
Now there’s a new entrant in the photon-to-electron race: an optical rectifying antenna, or rectenna. This highly experimental device, discussed here, was developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology (better known as “Georgia Tech”). It captures and rectifies photons to produce electricity directly; they claim this the first time this has been done.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Six technologies that can change your life in 2016
http://www.eeweb.com/news/six-technologies-that-can-change-your-life-in-2016
A number of core technologies that were first realized as viable engineering components last year will break into consumer products in 2016.
1. Medical sensors
Six technologies that can change your life in 2016
Posted Jan 07th 2016
By Richard Comerford, Senior Technical Editor, Electronic Products
A number of core technologies that were first realized as viable engineering components last year will break into consumer products in 2016. As technologists and marketers meet in Las Vegas this week for the annual Consumer Electronics Show, we preview six advanced technologies that we expect to see on store shelves in the coming year, and what they’ll mean to you as an end user.
1. Medical sensors
2. Handheld wireless voice control
3. Faster-acting handheld devices
4. Better back-up power
5. Smart workplaces
6. Virtual reality/augmented reality
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bidirectional ESD Protection Diodes
http://www.eeweb.com/news/bidirectional-esd-protection-diodes
Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. rolled out two new bidirectional single-line ESD protection diodes in the compact SOD-323 package. Measuring only 1.95 mm by 1.5 mm with a low 0.95 mm profile, the space-saving Vishay Semiconductors VLIN1626-02G and VLIN2626-02G offer low capacitance and leakage current for the protection of automotive data lines against transient voltage signals.
For LIN bus applications, the diodes released today provide transient protection for one data line as per IEC 61000 4 2 at ± 30 kV (air and contact discharge). The AEC-Q101-qualified devices feature low load capacitance of 15.5 pF typical and 18 pF maximum, low maximum leakage current of < 0.05 μA, and working voltages of -16 V / +26.5 V or ± 26 V. The protection diodes are lead (Pb)-free and RoHS-compliant.
Tomi Engdahl says:
TI, Analog Devices Reportedly Abandon Pursuit of Maxim
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328654&
1|8|2016 SAN FRANCISCO—Chip makers Texas Instruments Inc. and Analog Devices Inc. (ADI) have each abandoned attempts to acquire rival Maxim Integrated Products Inc. …
The report, which cites unnamed sources said to be familiar with the negotiations, said Maxim was not intent on selling, but would have considered any offers that included a large premium over the company’s market capitalization, which stood at more than $10 billion at the start of trading Friday (Jan. 8).
Bloomberg originally reported in October that both TI and ADI separately approached Maxim to discuss potential mergers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tech Tour of Metal Gate I/O Transistors
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1328639&
No one talks about the workhorse of the metal gate CMOS transistors — the input/output (I/O) transistor. TechInsights thinks they are worth a look.
Much has been written about metal gate CMOS transistors for low-voltage applications such as processors and system on chip (SoC) devices. But these devices are connected to the outside world and require input/output (I/O) transistors that support higher bias voltages. Little is said about input/output (I/O) transistors. We at TechInsights think that they are worth a look.
We begin with a polysilicon gate I/O transistor, in this case from a 28nm node MediaTek part fabbed by TSMC (Figure 1). The I/O transistor has a fairly long gate length (160nm) that is typical of I/O transistors. This long gate length reduces the magnitude of the lateral electric field in the channel region beneath the gate. We care about this lateral field as it gives rise to hot carrier injection of electrons (NMOS) or holes (PMOS) from the channel into the gate dielectric that can degrade the transistor’s electrical performance.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Will Apple Drive Analog ICs?
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1328657&
Analog expert Stephan Ohr turns his oscilloscope on the possible impact Apple could have with its new fab in San Jose.
No one outside Apple knows what the iPhone giant will do with the 70,000-square foot analog production line it recently purchased from Maxim. But Apple’s extraordinary ability to get semiconductor suppliers to develop new devices for them — in fact, its ability to swallow entire companies without even belching — suggests Apple could influence the analog market for years to come. So it’s worth asking what Apple is currently doing in analog, what improvements would help them and how many of those improvements are manufacturing related.
We know the North First Street facility includes chip manufacturing equipment from Applied Materials, Hitachi, Novellus, and ASML. The fab will produce roughly 7,000 eight-inch wafers a month at geometries from 0.6-micron down to 90nm. Note: The sweet spot for analog manufacturing is still in the 0.35- to 0.18-micron range.
We also know that Apple has been buying an estimated $2-$2.5 billion a year in analog parts for its phones and tablets. The bulk of these parts include custom-made power management ICs (PMICs), less-custom audio codecs and a variety of sensors including motion sensors and touch-sensitive screens. If we were placing bets on which of the three part types Apple will tweak in the new facility, power management looks like the low-hanging fruit. No matter how cleverly crafted, the analog parts can turn into multi-sourced commodities. But shrinking power management functions remains a challenge.
With its Haswell-generation processors, for instance, Intel attempted to integrate power management functions onto the CPU.
In the case of mobile devices, the PMICs are custom-configured for each phone or tablet, and — depending on the feature set of the phone, can be quite complicated. There are as many 26 or 28 separate devices on one chip, including two or three 300mA switch-mode regulators, 22 or 24 low-drop out regulators (LDOs), a lithium-Ion battery charge monitor controller, and several LED backlight drivers. Apple uses Dialog Semiconductor as the supplier for these parts.
It takes a lot of hard work, rather than any special tricks, to do this integration
The BiCMOS or BCD processes used to implant power transistors on a CMOS substrates are now well-known — even among the Asia-based foundries that needed to unlearn memory manufacturing to serve analog clients. The power transistor implants buffer the power sources (batteries or AC adapters) from the CMOS control logic fabricated in 0.18- or 0.13-micron CMOS. We bet money that the fabrication facility Apple acquires from Maxim includes a transistor implant mechanism.
Analysts are speculating that the new fab will support advanced sensor prototyping. Apple spends about $750 million on motion sensors each year. They include footstep counters that support location-based services, tracking your movements with navigation aids and ad servers.
While Apple has likely worked its sensor vendors pretty hard, especially on pricing, I’m not aware of any recent breakthroughs in the underlying technology.
We suspect there may be other sensor challenges the company is looking at. For example, Apple might be interested in research on the high-resolution gas and chemical sensors using spectrometry or other wavelength sensing semiconductors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SoC FPGAs Fuel Next Generation IoT, Data Center and Comms
http://www.techonline.com/electrical-engineers/education-training/tech-papers/4440830/Linley-analyst-whitepaper–SoC-FPGAs-Fuel-Next-Generation-IoT–Data-Center-and-Comms?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20160108&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20160108&elq=e23d16704d6f403a86c67ee9d9a7a0eb&elqCampaignId=26403&elqaid=30181&elqat=1&elqTrackId=39dcb295460f4f53ab17d15d0b405116
This white paper describes how the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing and “big data” are changing the landscape of computing and how SoC FPGAs help meet the requirements of this rapidly changing environment. Escalating semiconductor development costs are forcing consolidation among traditional processor, DSP and ASSP vendors, leaving fewer implementation choices for system makers. Altera’s SoC FPGAs help meet requirements of this environment with customizable products for a wide variety of applications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Free Core, Some Assembly Required
RISC-V rallies engineers for open hardware
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328620&
It’s early days for RISC-V — an open specification seen as a Linux of microprocessors. On its long to-do list, engineers still need to define basic pieces of the instruction set architecture including its memory model, how it will speak to the external world of I/Os and how to debug it.
Many of the about 150 developers who signed up for the third RISC-V workshop volunteered to start a handful of working groups to address the most pressing issues in fundamental areas including security, virtualization and compliance. Proponents said the effort has taken the vanguard of the open source hardware movement, attracting leaders of earlier OpenCore and OpenRISC efforts.
The LowRISC project at the University of Cambridge is attracting interest as the likely first source of real development hardware. The team which includes members of the Raspberry Pi project hopes to have first silicon this year and plans to make development boards available in 2017, likely for $50-100.
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Year’s deal: MSP432 LaunchPad™ Development Kit for $4.32!
https://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/b/msp430blog/archive/2016/01/01/new-year-s-deal-msp432-launchpad-for-4-32
To get your New Year started off right, MSP developers can now test out the ultra-low-power and high performance MSP432 LaunchPad Development Kit for only $4.32 with the TI Store coupon code 432@432.
That’s right, only $4.32, marked down from the regular price of $12.99.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Investments will shrink again this year
Semiconductor companies are investing in new production technology this year to $ 59.4 billion. According to Gartner, the total is 4.7 percent less than last year. Investment now will decrease for the second year in a row.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3819:investoinnit-kutistuvat-tanakin-vuonna&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
It’s fair to say that COM Express boards have a sure lock on future success.
Meanwhile the case for a two-board solution-COM module and baseboard-only gets stronger as complete system electronics are possible on a single baseboard. That doesn’t mean other, larger solutions-like slot-card boards or stackable solutions like PC/104-are going away any time soon. But the mindshare COM Express can gain for military applications will keep increasing.
A comparison between COM Express and PC/104-including PC/104 family specifications like PCI-104-Express and so on-is a natural one particularly since both are target space- and weight-constrained applications. The double-sided connectors of PC/104 are hard to justify unless there’s some reason for a stacked solution because they are more costly than single-sided connectors used by COM Express. Another advantage of COM Express is that it lets users handle transitions from legacy connectors and offers native interface support for modern-day I/O interfaces. On top of offering more PCI Express and USB ports than PC/104-Express modules, additional connecters can be added for LAN, SATA, video, audio, USB and PCI Express, delivering maximum I/O flexibility to meet specific application requirements. And because signals don’t have to pass through multiple connectors, the signal integrity remains intact.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Product-level architectural validation is the missing link of design flow
http://www.edn.com/design/pc-board/4441059/Product-level-architectural-validation-is-the-missing-link-of-design-flow?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_pcbdesigncenter_20160111&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_pcbdesigncenter_20160111&elq=4d753527411e4f728f9fd049ebeaad9d&elqCampaignId=26409&elqaid=30200&elqat=1&elqTrackId=d8272fcaf76e4ec3bc0dafeae86ed5cd
Product-level architectural validation bridges the procedural gap between the marketing requirements definition and detailed design work. During this high-level phase, critical decisions are made that affect the product’s functionality, size, cost, and other key parameters. These decisions include the number and shape of the boards, size and shape of the enclosure, size of the display, number and location of connectors, battery configuration, radio frequency (RF) planning, block reuse, etc.
But the standard authoring tools used today do not support design exploration and productive trade-off discussions required for design optimization. Most design processes leap from marketing requirements to detailed design without architecture validation. Changing key design elements during the detailed design process is expensive and often causes the product to miss its delivery date. The odds of product success can be significantly increased when a multi-domain design team optimizes the product architecture in the early stages of the design process to fully support the product requirements. The architectural validation process is needed to bridge product requirements with detailed design to deliver a cost- and functionality-optimized product.
A new generation of design exploration and validation systems addresses this challenge by enabling key product decisions to be evaluated collaboratively. Contributors can provide ideas and feedback in the early stages of the design process and evaluate the impact of these suggestions on the design. During the architectural validation phase, the logical aspect of the electronic system is defined using functional blocks and schematics.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Make sense of high-frequency test methods
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/designcon-central-/4441102/Make-sense-of-high-frequency-test-methods
Digital signals are fundamentally electromagnetic waves added together. The higher the data rate required, the higher the frequency of the waves required to generate the signals. Once the signal leaves the chip, there are a myriad of factors that act to degrade the quality of the signal as it propagates. The “field” of signal integrity is focused on minimizing these factors. It is often overlooked that one of the factors that has to be considered is a “field.” That is, the electromagnetic field generated in the dielectric as the signals propagate.
The market for circuit board materials consists of “Rigid”, “RF/Microwave”, and “Flex” where each type has separate standards. In general, only RF/Microwave materials require any sort of characterization of properties like relative permittivity (Er) and Loss Tangent (tan d) at frequencies above 1 GHz. In addition, the characterization required for RF/Microwave materials is in a narrow band of frequencies around 10 GHz since this is where most radar systems operate which consume these materials. For high speed digital, the existing standards are insufficient since there is a dire need to standardize measurement methods for Er and tan d over a wide band of frequencies. Ideally this would be done over a frequency range of “DC to Light,” but for practical considerations the immediate need of evaluating methods at frequencies higher than 10 GHz is an area of focus.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home> Community > Blogs > DesignCon Blog
How to prevent capacitor failures
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/designcon-central-/4441154/How-to-prevent-capacitor-failures?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_pcbdesigncenter_20160111&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_pcbdesigncenter_20160111&elq=4d753527411e4f728f9fd049ebeaad9d&elqCampaignId=26409&elqaid=30200&elqat=1&elqTrackId=29e9b32fe2294bcb959b32c5ab3b4f72
Have you ever owned audio equipment or other electronic products that quit working after several years? Have you ever had one of your designs return from manufacturing test or customer usage due to power delivery issues? Many such failures are due to failure of capacitors in the power delivery network (PDN). It is well known capacitor behavior varies with bias voltage, temperature and product age. If you wish for the electronic products you buy and design to operate properly they should be designed with consideration for these unavoidable effects. Component manufacturers should understand and document these effects for designers and EDA tools should readily apply them in simulations.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mini displacement sensors need little room
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4441176/Mini-displacement-sensors-need-little-room?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20160111&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20160111&elq=84a438d5be2844d7a874203ae7d25b79&elqCampaignId=26447&elqaid=30235&elqat=1&elqTrackId=9a9f2eebc4e340eabd05a3624e49bf42
IZAL series inductive displacement sensors from German manufacturer Inelta fit into highly confined spaces for use in medical, industrial, test and measurement, and military applications. The 4-mm diameter housing of the sensors is barely larger than a matchstick, while the interior packs a powerful differential transformer measuring system with a core and coils.
The contactless, wear-free LVDT sensors offer displacement and position detection with a linearity tolerance of ±0.50% (optionally ±0.25%) and measurement ranges of 1 mm, 2.5 mm, and 5 mm.
http://www.inelta.de/fileadmin/user_upload/daten/Datenblaetter/weg/inelta-datenblatt_lvdt-izal_3277.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Accurate AMI Analysis – Whose Responsibility Is It?
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/designcon-central-/4441153/Accurate-AMI-Analysis—Whose-Responsibility-Is-It–?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160107&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20160107&elq=12f7a3e53a614a4eb2d1c192fff96c7e&elqCampaignId=26384&elqaid=30159&elqat=1&elqTrackId=dd443a225dfe4255abef200a9042ca96
AMI (algorithmic modeling interface) is a hot topic at DesignCon. As availability and usage of AMI models and simulators continues to increase, more and more design decisions are guided by AMI analysis. Yet how meaningful – or, more specifically, how accurate – are the results from such analysis?
In any discussion about simulation accuracy, the old adage applies: “garbage in, garbage out”. As such, one focus of the panel is AMI model quality. Are models being developed correctly? And, are they correlated to silicon when it becomes available? While we might be inclined to place the burden of model quality entirely on the silicon vendor (model maker), the systems designer and EDA vendor must also work towards model quality. Specifically, EDA vendors are including automated AMI model checking and validation, just as they have done for S-parameter and legacy IBIS models.
This panel augments the increasing interest in and number of papers on AMI, and continues the discussion from last year’s AMI panel when experts from all facets of the modeling and simulation challenge focused on the question: “Can we use AMI analysis to predict meaningful BERs?”
Tomi Engdahl says:
What engineering firms can expect in 2016
http://www.csemag.com/single-article/what-engineering-firms-can-expect-in-2016/9e854d49ba7573bd8e74ae42913f79d1.html
Looking back at 2015 offers many opportunities for engineering firms in 2016. Here are eight trends we think you should be keeping an eye on and the messages to take away for your business.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Infrared is dead, long live Bluetooth
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/rowe-s-and-columns/4441177/Infrared-is-dead–long-live-Bluetooth
Twenty years ago this month, Test & Measurement World published an article (PDF) on testing infrared communications that conform to the IrDA protocol standard. At the time, it was seen as a wireless replacement for RS-232, though it’s now capable of speeds comparable to low-speed USB. While infrared is still going strong in remote controls for consumer electronics, at least one test-equipment maker is phasing it out, replacing it with Bluetooth.
Infrared also suffers here because it’s a line-of-sight technology as where Bluetooth isn’t, making it much more convenient to use that infrared.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Beware this integration nightmare
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/embedded-basics/4441188/Beware-this-integration-nightmare
Embedded software has come a long way in last 15 years let alone the last 40. While there are still many areas that developers and teams can improve in, firmware has for the most part moved away from single module monolithic programs with goto statements sprinkled everywhere. Code bases have become more organized and they are starting to take the shape of general purpose and object oriented software. Despite these advances, however, firmware integration may still be one of the biggest challenges facing software engineers today.
Most engineers attempt to reuse what has already been invented. If a library module exists, why rewrite it? Simply integrate it into the code base and have one less feature to worry about.
The problem is that the assumption many developers make — that libraries or open source code follow interface and software design similar to their own code — can be very far from the truth. Rather than speeding up development, then, integrating existing components could have the exact opposite effect and lengthen the development cycle instead.
Unfortunately, I recently encountered such a circumstance while developing a bootloader.
The ability to update a microcontroller’s firmware in the field through a bootloader is a common and often critical feature of an embedded system.
Writing a bootloader for a new device has become, for me, extremely fast and efficient — exactly what a developer would want in a common system feature.
But not this time.
As with all development nightmares, it all started with a simple request: integrate the client’s OS and use their serial driver and protocol to speed up development. Normally the code space of a bootloader should be minimized but in this case code size wasn’t a primary factor. So, the request appeared to be no big deal.
Nothing could have been further from the truth.
The development effort started off being perfect. By leveraging existing templates and process, the effort jumped out ahead of schedule and was moving along at an amazing pace. Then we put the OS and serial driver into place and they seemed functional. The next step was to integrate the bootloader serial protocols with the existing serial driver. That is where the first integration issues arose.
In order to preserve the customer’s existing protocol — because it was, of course, a “must have” — the serial driver now had to be modified.
The integration of each bootloader feature ended up requiring a minor code change, but one that in turn resulted in an unexpected behavior or bug that had to be carefully tracked and resolved. Eventually the two code bases were integrated, but it took nearly two weeks longer than originally anticipated and generated more issues than one might wish to recall.
On the surface, the use of an off-the-shelf or open-source code base can bring a developer the anticipation of a stress free and shorter development cycle. But beware. Embedded software development that uses outside contributions is riddled with assumptions based on incomplete information and unfounded expectations about the quality and design of the received software and hardware. The result is that while most such development efforts at first seem trivial, the devil and the delays will be found in the details.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Room Temperature Metallic Glue
http://mesoglue.com/
MesoGlue, LLC develops technologies that utilize nanostructured metals. We have produced the first glue made of metal that sets at room temperature.
Device Attachment
http://mesoglue.com/index.php/device-attachment/
Using MesoGlue surface mount devices can be attached to a printed circuit board without using solder. This offers a number of significant advantages.
There is no risk of heat damage to components
The complexity of the soldering process is eliminated
Components are are merely pressed on to attach
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Samsung strikes deal to produce Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 processor — Samsung announced today that it’s begun mass production of chips using the 2nd generation of its 14nm process, the technology that will power both the company’s own Exynos 8 Octa processor and that of a major rival: Qualcomm.
Samsung strikes deal to produce Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 processor
http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/13/10765024/samsung-manufacturing-qualcomm-snapdragon-820-chip
Samsung announced today that it’s begun mass production of chips using the 2nd generation of its 14nm process, the technology that will power both the company’s own Exynos 8 Octa processor and that of a major rival: Qualcomm. The Snapdragon 820 will be manufactured by Samsung, using the new 14nm LPP process, and is likely to be used by multiple flagship devices available in the first half of 2016.
The news comes after a challenging 2015 for Qualcomm, who saw its Snapdragon 810 processor fall short of the company’s reputation for class-leading performance in the Android space. Samsung, meanwhile, moved away from Qualcomm chips in earnest for its 2015 high-end lineup and turned in excellent results from its Exynos processors. Samsung’s foundry business shouldn’t be confused with the company’s phone business or the chips it designs itself — it’s very much for hire, and most prominently has been Apple’s long-term partner in iPhone chip manufacturing.
At least some models of the Galaxy S7 are rumored to use the Snapdragon 820,
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microchip’s Proposal To Acquire Atmel
http://hackaday.com/2016/01/13/microchips-proposal-to-acquire-atmel/
A proposal from Microchip to acquire Atmel has been deemed a ‘superior proposal’ by Atmel’s board of directors (PDF). This is the first step in the acquisition of a merger between Microchip and Atmel, both leading semiconductor companies that have had a tremendous impact in the electronics industry.
Microchip is a leading manufacturer of microcontrollers, most famously the PIC series of micros that can be found in any and every type of electronic device. Atmel, likewise, also has a large portfolio of microcontrollers and memory devices that are found in every type of electronic device. Engineers, hackers, and electronic hobbyists are frequently sided with Microchip’s PIC line or Atmel’s AVR line of microcontrollers. It’s the closest thing we have to a holy war in electronics.
Last September, Dialog acquired announced plans to acquire Atmel for $4.6 Billion. Today’s news of a possible acquisition of Atmel by Microchip follows even larger mergers such as NXP and Freescale, Intel and Altera, Avago and Broadcom, On Semiconductor and Fairchild, and TI and Maxim.
While the deal is not done, the money is on the table, and Atmel’s board is apparently interested.
http://www.microchip.com/investor/Pressrelease/MCHP%20Announces%20Proposal%20to%20Acquire%20ATML%20Deemed%20a%20Superior%20Proposal%20by%20ATML%20BOD.011316.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nanotech Makes Safer Lithium Batteries
http://hackaday.com/2016/01/13/nanotech-makes-safer-lithium-batteries/
Lithium-ion batteries typically contain two electrodes and an electrolyte. Shorting or overcharging the battery makes it generate heat. If the temperature reaches about 300 degrees Fahrenheit (150 degrees Celsius), the electrolyte can catch fire and explode.
There have been several attempts to make safer lithium-ion cells, but often these safety measures render them unusable after overheating. Stanford University researchers have a new method to protect from overheating cells that uses–what else–nanotechnology graphene. The trick is a thin film of polyethylene that contains tiny nickel spikes coated with graphene
New Stanford battery shuts down at high temperatures and restarts when it cools
https://news.stanford.edu/news/2016/january/safe-battery-toggle-011116.html
Stanford researchers have invented a lithium-ion battery that turns on and off depending on the temperature. The new technology could prevent battery fires that have plagued laptops, hoverboards and other electronic devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Four copter created with a 3D printer
Printing three-dimensional structure is already commonplace. American Voxel8 is bringing 3D printer, which can create even four helicopters including the internal wiring.
Voxel8 company Developer’s Kit 3D Printer enables the production of prototypes of three-dimensional electronic devices thermoplastics and silver ink with simultaneous printing. A single material that has been going on for a long time, but the latest craze is at the same time made more material printing.
The company can be printed silver ink and cured at room temperature, and it is 5000 times more conductive than lead pastes and filaments, which are currently used in such manufacture. Voxel8 the materials can be printed three-dimensional antennas, connectors and converters in ways that were previously impossible.
Printer technology made possible a resolution of 200 microns and a conductor strip width of 250 microns. The company developed a silver ink resistivity is without heat treatment record 5.00 x 10 -7 Ω-m. Print Solution is based on a Harvard University research printed materials.
Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/01/13/nelikopteri-syntyy-3d-tulostimella/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Oscilloscope Highlights at Embedded World 2016
http://www.eeweb.com/news/oscilloscope-highlights-at-embedded-world-2016
At embedded world 2016, Rohde & Schwarz will again showcase its ever expanding oscilloscope portfolio. At the Rohde & Schwarz booth, visitors can get a first-hand look at the new R&S Scope Rider, the first handheld oscilloscope to offer the functionality and user experience of a state-of-the-art lab oscilloscope.
One of the highlights at embedded world 2016 in Nuremberg will be the new R&S Scope Rider, the first portable oscilloscope for mobile use with the functionality of a lab instrument. The R&S Scope Rider packs five test instruments into a compact format: a lab oscilloscope, logic analyzer, protocol analyzer, data logger and digital multimeter. Its robust design makes it perfect for mobile installation and maintenance work. The fully insulated instrument meets measurement category CAT IV requirements and can be used to perform measurements at the source of low-voltage installations up to 600 V.
Additional trade show highlights include the new entry-level R&S HMO1202 mixed signal oscilloscope that offers outstanding performance at an exceptional price
Tomi Engdahl says:
8-Channel Waveform Playback
http://www.eeweb.com/news/8-channel-waveform-playback
The Highland Technology model P350 “Wayback Machine” is a compact Ethernet-based waveform playback unit designed specifically for aerospace simulation testing. It provides eight analog outputs that can be used independently or synchronously. In Playback mode, any P350 channel can store and play multi-gigabyte user waveform files, with flexible playback rates, summing, filtering, scaling/offset, and phase/timeshift provisions. Any channel can also operate in Wavetable mode, playing repetitive standard or arbitrary waveforms.
Two analog inputs and two random noise generators are available for modulation or summing. Programming features allow accurate, glitch-free, low-jitter simulation of complex waveforms as might be generated by sensors on jet engines or other complex machines.
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEWeb Tech Lab – ZMDI’s ZSSC3218
http://www.eeweb.com/company-blog/zmdi/eeweb-tech-lab-zmdis-zssc3218/
today we have ZMDI’s ZSSC3218 sensor signalconditioner IC. The ZSSC3218 is designed to be used in sensor modules and is provided in dieform so it can be placed with a MEMS sensor, and possibly other ICs, in a stacked chipconfiguration, leading to a smaller total solution footprint. This smart watch uses the ZSSC3218integrated with a thermopile sensor in this package.
The ZSSC3218 is designed for use with either bridge sensors or absolute voltage sensors. Thesignal from the sensor is passed through the multiplexer to the programmable gain amplifier,with a linear gain range of 6.6 to 216, to optimize the signal level for conversion. The amplifiedsignal is sent to the ADC, which can be set from 12 to 18 bits, with a conversion rate of 285samples per second at 18 bits, or 500 samples per second at 16-bit resolution.
The converteddata is then passed to an integrated 26-bit DSP core, which can do offset drift and first andsecond order gain and temperature compensation.
Fully compensated data is output digitally on the SPI or I2C bus
Tomi Engdahl says:
CMOS Integrated circuit for AS-I networks
http://www.eeweb.com/design-library/cmos-integrated-circuit-for-as-i-networks/
The SAP5 EVALUATION BOARD V2.0 is an evaluation board for SAP5 universal actuator sensor interface IC. The SAP5 is a new generation CMOS integrated circuit for AS-I networks. The low level field bus AS-I (Actuator Sensor Interface) was designed for easy, safe and cost effective interconnection of sensors, actuators and switches. It transports both power and data over the same two wire unshielded cable.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Get the Best Out of Your Prototype Service
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1328668&
Following these practices will yield top performance and optimum results out of your prototype service.
As a contract manufacturer we see a wide variety of PCB designs and companies across a broad range of industries. And in every one of those sectors, our clients run up against a persistent problem: the inability to find support for their prototyping needs.
Indeed, prototyping is an under-served market for our clients (we are in the low- to mid-volume, high-mix market). Of course it’s important to have prototypes made, but it’s equally important that they be made by someone who can provide great service and meaningful design for manufacturing (DFM) feedback. That is, by someone who can analyze and document the challenges that a design may face in production.
Preparation is Key
How you prepare your design for prototyping will make all the difference in the end result.
Ensure Kit Quality
If you are consigning parts to your CM, ensure high-quality kits. We often encounter consigned kits that are simply not well prepared for manufacturing
Communicate, Communicate
One of the problematic aspects of prototype manufacturing is related to the early design’s often flexible nature. Manufacturing is “where the rubber meets the road”, and if your CM quotes on a prototype, but then the design changes a few times before it gets sent to them, of course they’ll need to review and adjust. For this reason, the single most influential factor in the success of your prototype will be communication. When your CM is in the know, it can work with you to minimize the impact on schedule and cost as much as possible.
Tomi Engdahl says:
PC Shipments Fall For 4th Straight Year
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328672
Global PC shipments declined again in 2015, the fourth consecutive year of contraction in what has traditionally been the most important market for the semiconductor industry, according to market research firms.
Just 276.2 million PC units shipped in 2015, the first time since 2008 that the PC market did not break the 300 million unit mark, according to International Data Corp. (IDC). It was the fourth consecutive year of declining shipments for PCs.
”Most PC users have delayed an upgrade, but can only maintain this for so long before facing security and performance issues,”
http://www.eetimes.com/messages.asp?piddl_msgthreadid=48699&piddl_msgid=354736#msg_354736
That is old news.
HangLai 1/13/2016 12:30:03 PM
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One should not just consider desktop PC, server and laptop alone, if IDC were to sum up all the computing devices, the total sum is at least 5% higher than the year before. Thus the chip industry, such as memories, CPU and other APU, micro-controller are still in a growth mode. PC sale # is old news, has far less important factor to the world economy.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chip Forecasts, Drivers Diverge
2016 predictions span -3 to +4 percent
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328665&
Forecasts of semiconductor revenues in 2016 and what’s likely to drive them longer term vary widely among analysts. China will be key factor but one nearly impossible to predict, they agreed at an annual event for chip executives here.
Bill McClean of IC Insights is currently the bull, predicting four percent revenue growth in 2016. Handel Jones of International Business Strategies (IBS) is the bear, forecasting a 1.5% decline that could slide to a negative three percent when he updates his crystal ball at the end of the month. In the middle, Gartner expects 1.9% growth.
Jones thinks memory chip prices and smartphone sales could continue their slides. Apple, for example, might sell just 48 million iPhones in the year, not 52 million currently forecasted, he said.
Meanwhile fabs are having trouble yielding high-end 14/16nm chips, Jones said. Only Apple and Samsung are shipping chips made in the FinFET processes, leaving foundries with 50,000 wafers/month in unused leading-edge capacity, he estimated. Nevertheless, he projects chip revenues could go on a single-digit rise starting in 2017.
NAND flash is “a rare bright spot” with an 8.7% compound growth rate through 2019 and an increasing amount of sales in vertical NAND chips sold in solid-state drives, Johnson said.
Growth is even faster in chips for the Internet of Things. But IoT will make up less than $30 billion in semiconductor sales by 2019, about 7.2% of the chip market, given average selling prices of a couple dollars per chip.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Qualcomm, TDK in US$3 billion joint venture to bake radio chipsets
Mobezilla bulks up on tech from baseband to antenna
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/14/qualcomm_tdk_in_us3_billion_joint_venture/
Qualcomm is going to sling around US$1.2 billion into a joint venture with TDK to build radio chipsets.
According to Bloomberg and Reuters, the new outfit will be called RF360.
TDK’s contribution to the roughly $3 billion business will be patents, manufacturing assets and design capabilities. The operation will be based in Singapore.
The move is a shift for blueprint-scribbler Qualcomm, which today gets most of its revenue from licensing its technology to others.
That strategy is under attack by monopoly regulators in the US, Asia and Europe because of the licensing model Qualcomm uses. Bulking up its capacity to bake its own silicon could give Qualcomm an alternative path if it has to abandon per-phone licensing.
Qualcomm’s will hold 51 per cent of RF360, and has an option to acquire TDK’s 49 per cent stake (held by subsidiary EPCOS) in the future.
TDK’s big contribution to RF360 will be RF filters.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DACs offer integrated EEPROM option
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4441164/DACs-offer-integrated-EEPROM-option?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160114&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160114&elq=c6b0e310100242fb81f7a412e9bf3c16&elqCampaignId=26511&elqaid=30316&elqat=1&elqTrackId=e15d3a5b7ec04f5d9fe371fd6eaef9e1
MCP48FEBXX 8-bit, 10-bit, and 12-bit DACs from Microchip provide integrated EEPROM, which enables them to save DAC settings at power-down. For applications that do not require integrated memory, Microchip also offers the MCP48FVBXX family of low-cost alternatives. All of the single-channel and dual-channel converters include an SPI-compatible serial interface and come in 10-pin MSOP packages.
With their integrated EEPROM, the MCP48FEBXX series of converters restores DAC settings at power-up and reduces microcontroller overhead, while various shutdown modes reduce current consumption for power-critical applications.
http://www.microchip.com/pagehandler/en-us/promo/dacwithspiinterface/home.html#utm_medium=Press-Release&utm_term=MCP48FXBXX_PR_12-2-15&utm_content=MSLD&utm_campaign=DACs
Tomi Engdahl says:
Global approach to timing margins and constraint definition for SoC design, Part 1
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4441105/Global-approach-to-timing-margins-and-constraint-definition-for-SoC-design–Part-1?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160114&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20160114&elq=c6b0e310100242fb81f7a412e9bf3c16&elqCampaignId=26511&elqaid=30316&elqat=1&elqTrackId=09c0b3292b5f441991e9209eb58de323
With the latest deep sub-micron technologies, System on Chip (SoC) design is becoming more and more troublesome due to
Increasing size of design
Increasing complexity of system
Increasing complexity of work environment
Each of aforementioned items introduces challenges, especially for what regards the definition and management of design margins, which are the extra-pessimism added in the implementation cycle in order to guarantee that the device, once out of fab, fully covers the design specification.