IoT

Winbond exploits HyperRAM for AIoT

Thu, Oct 31, 2019

The artificial intelligence of things (AIoT) will consist of  automotive electronics, industrial 4.0, and smart home applications, new IoT edge devices and human-machine interface devices, all of which will require new functionality in terms of size, power consumption, and performance.  New microcontrollers are being developed to meet these demands with higher performance and lower power consumption and with new RAM options to improve that of the existing SDRAM and pSRAM available.

HyperRAM supports the HyperBus interface and Winbond Electronics offers 32, 64 and 128Mbit devices. Hans Liao, technology manager of DRAMs at Winbond, explained that the computing power, data processing and image display functions of traditional MCUs are limited and that the new IoT devices often have touch panel as image control interface, or require stronger edge computing functions for image processing and speech recognition, requiring higher performance, lower power microcontrollers.

Winbond’s 64Mbit HyperRAM consumes 90 microW at 1.8V, which is about half of a DRAM of the same capacity, claims the company. The power consumption of HyperRAM is only 45 microW at 1.8V in hybrid sleep mode – as opposed to the standby mode of an SDRAM. A low power SDRAM has a larger form factor than HyperRAM, says Winbond.

In addition, HyperRAM has only 13 signal pins, which can greatly simplify the PCB layout design.  It also means that when designing end products, developers can use microcontrollers with more pin-out for other purposes or use microcontrollers with fewer pins for cost-effectiveness.

Simplifying control interface is another feature of HyperRAM.  Based on pSRAM architecture, HyperRAM is a self-refresh RAM.  It can automatically return to standby mode. This means system memory is easier to use, and the development of firmware and drivers is also simplified, says Winbond.

Winbond’s HyperRAM is based on a 38nm process node, which will continue to move toward 25nm, confirms Winbond.

Winbond’s entry to the HyperRAM camp makes it the third supplier, in addition to Cypress and ISSI. Its 32Mbit device has entered mass production, the 64 and 128Mbit are expected to enter mass production in 4Q19 and 1Q20 respectively.  Products of 24BGA (automotive grade), 49BGA and KGD are available.  The size of 24BGA is 6.0 x 8.0mm2, while the 49BGA is only 4.0 x 4.0mm2, which targets the consumer wearable market.

http://www.Winbond.com

> Read More

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

> Read More

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

> Read More

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

> Read More

About Smart Cities

This news story is brought to you by smartcitieselectronics.com, the specialist site dedicated to delivering information about what’s new in the Smart City Electronics industry, with daily news updates, new products and industry news. To stay up-to-date, register to receive our weekly newsletters and keep yourself informed on the latest technology news and new products from around the globe. Simply click this link to register here: Smart Cities Registration