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Automotive window voltage monitor has BIST for ADAS

Tue, Jun 15, 2021

Built-in self test (BIST) for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) is included in the MAX16137 analogue supervisor. Maxim Integrated claims it is an industry-first.

The supervisor reduces the size and complexity of ADAS in vehicles, says the company, with the single-window voltage monitor with BIST.

The window monitor IC tracks both under-voltage and over-voltage levels with one per cent accuracy. This protects the ADAS and allows designers to accelerate system-wide functional safety by providing advanced diagnostics and reset capabilities.

Voltage monitors play a key role in reporting the health of power supplies for ADAS in vehicles. These systems must include test circuits to ensure reliable operation. The MAX16137 delivers both diagnostic and BIST at the chip level to help designers achieve system-wide functional safety faster for ADAS and other autonomous driving applications, says Maxim.

The MAX16137 BIST features check the supervisor functionality without the need for external circuitry, which reduces design complexity. The MAX16137 also reduces solution size by 50 per cent compared to the closest competitive solution, Maxim claims. The supervisory IC can be designed into a variety of automotive systems such as infotainment, body electronics, power, electric vehicle power powertrain and IoT systems.

The MAX16137 is available via Maxim Integrated’s website and authorised distributors. The company also offers the MAX16137EVKIT# evaluation kit.

Maxim Integrated is an engineering company for engineers. It has a broad portfolio of high performance semiconductors, combined with tools and support; it, delivers essential analogue solutions including efficient power, precision measurement, reliable connectivity and robust protection along with intelligent processing. Designers in application areas such as automotive, communications, consumer, data centre, healthcare, industrial and IoT work with Maxim to quickly develop smaller, smarter and more secure designs.

http://www.maximintegrated.com

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Starter kit for AI vision systems is based on a SMARC CoM

Mon, Jun 14, 2021

For artificial intelligence (AI) accelerated intelligence embedded vision applications, congatec has announced the i.MX 8M Plus starter set based on a SMARC computer on module (CoM) with i.MX 8M Plus processor. The new processor from NXP has an integrated neural processing unit (NPU).

The i.MX 8M Plus processor delivers up to 2.3 Toperations per second (TOPS) performance for deep learning based AI. It can run inference engines and libraries such as Arm Neural Network (NN) and TensorFlow Lite. It also integrates seamlessly with Basler embedded vision software to give OEMs an application-ready embedded platform for the development of AI accelerated embedded vision systems.

The starter set contains the entire ecosystem developers need to instantly start designing applications for vision and AI integration, says congatec.

The SMARC 2.1 CoM conga-SMX8-Plus features four powerful Arm Cortex-A53 cores, one Arm Cortex-M72 controller and the NXP NPU to accelerate deep learning algorithms. It is also equipped with passive cooling.

The 3.5 inch carrier board conga-SMC1/SMARC-ARM directly connects the 13Mpixel Basler dart daA4200-30mci BCON for MIPI camera with an F1.8 f4mm lens via MIPI CSI-2.0 without any additional converter modules. As well as MIPI CSI-2.0, USB and GigE vision cameras are also supported.

congatec provides a bootable SD card with pre-configured boot loader, Yocto OS image, matching board support packages (BSPs), and processor-optimised Basler embedded vision software enabling immediate AI inference training on the basis of captured images and video sequences.

Typical applications range from price sensitive automated checkout terminals in retail environmetns to building safety, and from in-vehicle vision for navigation to surveillance systems in buses. They can also be used in industry, for example in human machine interfaces (HMIs) with vision based user identification and gesture based machine operation as well as vision supported robotics and industrial quality inspection systems.

The kit is designed to support the development of vision-based sytems. “A dedicated processing unit for neural algorithms that is supported by open source AI software solutions such as TensorFlow is an efficiency accelerator for many vision based systems,” said Martin Danzer, director product management at congatec. He added: ‟When all this is integrated as an application ready, hardware and software validated platform including Basler pylon Camera Software Suite, it puts developers on a fast track to designing NPU accelerated smart vision applications.”

The Basler pylon Camera Software Suite delivers a unified software development kit for BCON for MIPI, USB3 vision and GigE vision cameras, and enables camera access from source code, GUI or third party software. The high-performance pylon viewer allows for camera evaluation.

The congatec i.MX 8M Plus starter set for AI accelerated vision applications provides engineers instant access to AI-supported machine vision features such as triggering, individual image capture, and highly differentiated camera configuration options. There is also access to customised inference algorithms on the basis of the Arm NN and TensorFlow Lite ecosystem.

https://www.congatec.com

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Module’s RF operates over wide supply for Wi-Sun, IoT applications

Mon, Jun 14, 2021

High levels of integration are a distinguishing characteristics of the SKY66122-11 front end module, which has been released by Skyworks Solutions. The highly-integrated module is for Wi-Sun or the IoT as well as industrial, scientific, medical (ISM) applications.

The SKY66122-11 is designed for ease of use and flexibility with fully matched, 50 Ohm RF input and output, and digital controls compatible with 1.6 to 3.6V CMOS levels.

The RF blocks operate over a wide supply voltage range from 3.0 to 5.0V that allows the SKY66122-11 to be used in battery powered applications over a wide spectrum of the battery discharge curve and in the 863 to 928MHz frequency range

According to Skyworks, it is designed to enable greater range extension, providing more than two times the range of standalone SoCs. It is also claimed to have greater power delivery to antenna and low power consumption for optimal battery operation. It has been designed for IoT applications including end points and access points for smart grid and smart metering, smart city, industrial IoT sensors and surveillance. It can therefore be used in range extenders, smart meters, home appliances and smart thermostats.

The SKY66122-11 is packaged in a 36-pin, 6.0 x 6.0 x 0.9mm (nominal) multi-chip module (MCM), which allows for a highly manufacturable, low-cost solution, advises Skyworks. The package is certified MSL3, 260 degrees C per JEDEC J-Std-020.

There are three output options depending on transmission type. These are 30dBm or 25dBm, Wi-SUN orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) and an integrated low noise array (LNA) with 2.5dB noise figure (typical).

The modules includes TX and RX power limiters to maximise ruggedness in operation with an integrated power detector. To save power consumption, there is a sleep mode current of 1.0 microA (maximum).

Skyworks Solutions provides analogue semiconductors to empower the wireless networking revolution. Its semiconductor portfolio connects people, places and things within the aerospace, automotive, broadband, cellular infrastructure, connected home, industrial, medical, military, smartphone, tablet and wearable markets.

Skyworks has engineering, marketing, operations, sales and support facilities located throughout Asia, Europe and North America.

http://www.skyworksinc.com

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Xilinx claims world’s highest AI performance for Versal AI Edge chipset

Thu, Jun 10, 2021

Designed to enable AI innovation from the edge to the endpoint, the Versal AI Edge is Xilinx’s AI chipset which has four times the AI performance per watt than graphics processing units (GPUs) and 10x greater compute density than the Zynq Ultrascale+, says the company. The Versal AI Edge series is the world’s most scalable and adaptable portfolio for next-generation distributed intelligent systems, claims Xilinx.

The latest addition to Xilinx’s Versal ACAP portfolio of adaptive SoCs, the Versal AI Edge devices can be used for automated driving systems with the highest levels of functional safety (ASIL D). They can also be used for collaborative robotics, predictive factory and healthcare systems, and multi-mission aerospace and defence payloads, says Xilinx. The powerful AI engines have an enhanced memory hierarchy to deliver up to four times the machine learning (ML) compute performance per W compared with GPUs. They also have lower latency, continues Xilinx.

AI-enabled automated systems require high compute density that can accelerate whole applications from sensor to AI to real-time control. In addition to the increased compute density, enabling more intelligent autonomous systems, Versal AI Edge devices support multiple safety standards across automotive (ISO 26262), industrial (IEC 61508), and avionics (DO-254/178) markets.

The Versal AI Edge series takes the production-proven, 7nm Versal architecture and miniaturises it for AI compute at low latency, with power efficiency as low as 5W together with safety and security measures required in edge applications. The Versal AI Edge series matches the engine to the algorithm, with scalar engines for embedded compute, adaptable engines for sensor fusion and hardware adaptability, and intelligent engines for AI inference and advanced signal processing workloads ranging from beam forming and radar/lidar processing.

Connectivity blocks range from LPDDR-4266, 32Gbits per second transceivers to meet all the necessary protocols in edge applications, 40G multi-rate Ethernet, PCIe Gen4 with CCIX, and native MIPI support for vision sensors at up to 8Mpixel resolution, which is critical to Level-3 ADAS and above. The enhanced memory hierarchy which includes Accelerator RAM, makes the Versal AI Edge series suitable for a wider range of applications across numerous markets, according to Xilinx.

Versal AI Edge devices provide a design entry points for developers, including Vivado for hardware developers, the Vitis unified software platform for software developers, Vitis AI for data scientists, and complete software stacks for the platform’s target applications, including domain-specific operating systems, frameworks, and acceleration libraries.

Versal AI Edge series design documentation and support is available to early access customers, with shipments expected during the first half of 2022, and a roadmap for automotive- and defense-grade devices.

http://www.xilinx.com

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Automotive window voltage monitor has BIST for ADAS

Starter kit for AI vision systems is based on a SMARC CoM

Module’s RF operates over wide supply for Wi-Sun, IoT applications

Xilinx claims world’s highest AI performance for Versal AI Edge chipset

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