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Volkswagen and NXP begin on the road to V2X

Wed, Oct 30, 2019

NXP Semiconductors is rolling out its RoadLink V2X (vehicle to everything) communication system in the new Volkswagen Golf. The eighth generation Golf is the first volume European car model equipped with V2X, reports NXP.

V2X can prevent accidents by allowing cars to communicate with each other, independent of car brands and without the support of cellular infrastructure.

Dr. Johannes Neft, head of vehicle body development at Volkswagen, said:“The introduction of V2X, together with traffic infrastructure providers and other vehicle manufacturers, is a major milestone in [safety].”

Torsten Lehman, senior vice president and general manager of Driver Assistance and Infotainment at NXP, added: “After proving our technology in more than one million test days globally, we are pleased that our RoadLINK technology, developed in cooperation with Cohda Wireless, was chosen to enable new levels of safety in Europe’s most popular car model, the new Golf.”

Wi-Fi-based V2X is a mature technology has been tested for more than 10 years. Wi-Fi is available independently of paid cellular services and other developing cellular-based technologies can be added to Wi-Fi-based V2X .

Wi-Fi-based V2X is robust, has low latency and real-time communication – regardless of any car brands, advocates NXP. It enables awareness and communication between cars, road infrastructure like traffic lights or street signs, and other road users such as cyclists and pedestrians.

The technology is collaborative, allowing it to “tap into” surrounding sensor data from mutually equipped cars to warn of hazards and prevent accidents. V2X complements other ADAS sensing technologies such as radar, lidar and cameras.

It helps vehicles to “see” more than a mile ahead and around corners to provide early warning of obstacles, hazards, and road conditions and has the ability to “see” through objects, delivering more information than that obtained through line of sight only, continues NXP. Its sensing capabilities are unaffected by poor weather conditions.

NXP claims to offer the only 5.9 GHz V2X system solution proven in volume production today.

NXP and Volkswagen have collaborated for standardisation of V2X communication that addresses cybersecurity and privacy protection.

http://www.nxp.com

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Development kit for smart TVs is Alexa Voice Service-qualified

Wed, Oct 30, 2019

The VocalFusion 2-mic dev kit for Alexa Voice Services for smart TVs and set-top boxes has been qualified by Amazon, XMOS has announced.

The development kit is based on the XMOS XVF3510 voice processor. Its acoustic algorithms create far-field voice control for smart, remote operation of smart TVs and set-top boxes.

XMOS operates in the voice-processing, edge-AI and the IoT space, with silicon architecture and differentiated software for voice-enabled solutions to a variety of AIoT applications.

http://www.xmos.com

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dSpace simulation environment supports autonomous vehicle development

Tue, Oct 29, 2019

Autonomous vehicles rely on sensors to detect their surroundings correctly. The validation of camera, lidar, and radar sensors are critical in this task. dSpace offers developers high-performance simulation environments with which the sensor systems can be validated simply in hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulations, virtually in model-in-the-loop (MIL) simulations, or cloud-based in software-in-the-loop (SIL) simulations.

dSpace Sensor Simulation offers its users models for the sensor environment in library menus. These models can be used to create 3D environments that allow for inserting road users, traffic signs, or roadside structures into the environment of the autonomous vehicle. The menus also let the users access a material database that contains more than 1,300 objects and 170 pre-defined materials. The users can also add more objects and materials. The software provides sensor models for radar, lidar and camera sensors as well as suitable models for testing perception, fusion, and application logics.

The simulation environment enables an easy and flexible integration of customer-specific sensor front ends, hardware components and driving algorithms. According to dSpace, this makes the scenarios more realistic and the sensors adaptable to the individual use case.

“Sensor Simulation from dSPACE offers a complete simulation environment for accelerating the development process for autonomous driving,” says Christopher Wiegand, product manager at dSpace.    

Sensor Simulation supports the reuse of models and test scenarios on various platforms. Tests that the developer creates and uses on the PC can be executed on a HIL or SIL simulator or in the cloud. This allows for simple scaling letting the developer perform numerous tests in a short period of time.

It runs on high-performance PC hardware platforms. For maximum performance, dSpace offers the Sensor Simulation PC equipped with a high-performance graphics processing unit on which the complex, highly accurate sensor models can be executed.

dSpace will demonstrate how the sensor systems can be tested in various scenarios at the dSpace World Conference in Munich, Germany (19 and 20 November).

https://www.dspace.com

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Renesas adds IP to include 7nm process and Ethernet TSN

Mon, Oct 28, 2019

Additional IP now available from Renesas Electronics includes a 7nm process ternary content addressable memory (TCAM) and standard Ethernet time sensitive networking (TSN) IP.

Customers will have access to IPs such as advanced 7nm (nanometer) SRAM and TCAM, and leading-edge standard Ethernet time-sensitive networking (TSN) IP, says the company, which is also working on providing a system IP which includes processing in memory (PIM) for use as an artificial intelligence (AI) accelerator. Customers can use these IPs to jump start semiconductor device development projects, such as the development of next-generation AI chips or ASICs for 5G networks.

Customers developing custom chips can leverage the IP in the subsystem, or those using FPGA devices can use it to speed up software development while they focus resources on specialty areas to reduce development time. Customers who prefer to use existing software assets can take advantage of Renesas IP assets to achieve more efficient system development by reducing the resources required to develop, verify and evaluate software and boards.

“Model-based design enables a development process in which IP models can be easily shared across the supply chain, giving customers the ability to identify system issues before implementation,” said Paul Barnard, director, Product Marketing at MathWorks. “To do this, Renesas provides customers with models of their IP in Simulink, as well as tools that extend Simulink to support the deployment of algorithms from models to Renesas microprocessors with verification support using processor-in-the-loop (PIL) technology.” He believes the partnership with Renesas will benefit mutual customers working on sectors as varied as automotive, robotics and industrial technologies.

To support customers’ semiconductor development efforts, Renesas has also established a network of partner companies to support users. This network includes design houses that perform contract semiconductor design and technology partners who will provide software and middleware tools. The network will accelerate users’ technology innovations and product development efforts by lowering the barriers to entry for semiconductor device and FPGA development. Renesas can also introduce experienced users to model-based design development environments.

The Renesas IP license portfolio has been available since September 2018, offering access to more than 40 licenses, including CPU cores, timer IP for motor applications, USB cores, and SRAM.

Renesas aims to exceed IP sales annual market growth rate of 10 per cent, and will expand the provision of IP and support system while creating new, and expanding old, IP markets.

http://www.renesas.com

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