Alliance Memory combines NAND flash and eMMC controller in FPGA package

Compliant With JEDEC eMMC v5.1, the ASFC16G31M-51BIN integrates NAND flash memory with an eMMC controller and flash transition layer (FTL) management software in a single 11.5 mm by 13 mm 153-ball FBGA package. The 16Gbyte industrial grade device is available from Alliance Memory.

The device for solid-state storage in consumer, industrial, and networking applications features boot operation, replay protected memory block (RPMB), device health report, field firmware updates, power-off notification, enhanced strobe features for faster and more reliable operation, write levelling, high-priority interrupt (HPI), secure trim / erase and high-speed HS200 and HS400 modes. The ASFC16G31M-51BIN is also backwards-compatible with eMMC v4.5 and v5.0. 

The eMMC can be used in smart watches, tablets, digital TVs, set-top boxes, VR and AR headsets, digital cameras, CCTV, surveillance, automation, PoS systems and emerging embedded applications. According to Alliance Memory, the ASFC16G31M-51BIN simplifies designs for fast and easy system integration in these products, speeding up product development and time to market. It also saves valuable space by eliminating the need for an external controller. The FTL software provides high reliability and stable performance with wear levelling and bad block management, the company added. 

The ASFC16G31M-51BIN operates over an industrial temperature range of -40 to +85 degrees C and offers programmable bus widths of x1, x4, and x8. The device’s NAND memory with internal LDO can be powered with a single 3V supply voltage, while the controller can be powered by 1.8 or 3V dual supply voltages. 

Samples of the eMMC are available now. Production quantities are available with lead times of 8 to 10 weeks. 

David Bagby, Alliance Memory’s president and CEO confirmed that eMMCs are a new focus product for the company. “We are making a significant investment in this product portfolio, and with further, higher-density additions we’ll be launching in Q3 2023, Alliance Memory is set to become one of the leading providers of eMMC technology,” he predicted. 

http://www.alliancememory.com 

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Integrated, low power, single-chip LCOS panel fits into AR/XR/MR glasses

The OP03011 liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) panel integrates the array and frame buffer into an ultra-compact single-chip solution that is lightweight and low-power for smart glasses

The OP03011 is a single chip, 648p LCoS panel for next generation augmented reality (AR), extended reality (XR) and mixed reality (MR) glasses and head-mounted displays. The LCOS panel features 3.8 micron pixels in what is claimed to be one of the world’s smallest 0.14-inch optical formats. The low power, lightweight design is intended for next-generation glasses that can be worn 24/7, said Omnivision.

The growing interest in AR glasses has led OEMs to design more functionality into slim, fashionable designs that consume very little power and are lightweight, allowing them to be worn for long periods. The OP03011 is designed in a compact format for applications requiring a smaller field of view and lower resolution, making it well suited for some of the sleekest, most innovatively designed AR glasses, said Devang Patel, marketing director for the IoT and emerging segment, Omnivision. “The OP03011 supports applications of next-generation smart glasses, like displaying notifications in the user’s field of view and access to GPS for maps and directions directly from the glasses, so the user never needs to pull out their smartphone,” he said.

The OP03011 features 648 x 648 resolution at 120Hz and comes in a small FPCA package. It supports a single-lane MIPI-DSI interface. 

Samples are available now, and the OP03011 will be in mass production in Q4 of 2023.

Omnivision is a fabless semiconductor company that develops advanced digital imaging, analogue and touch and display solutions for multiple applications and industries, including mobile phones, security and surveillance, automotive, computing, medical, and emerging applications. 

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Synopsys and Arm push on with next-gen mobile SoC designs

Synopsys combines EDA and IP with Arm’s Total Compute Solutions at Computex Taipei. The AI-enhanced design collaboration tackles mobile chip designs on advanced nodes down to 2nm. At the show, Synopsys announced Synopsys.ai full-stack AI-driven EDA suite, Synopsys Interface and Security IP and Synopsys Silicon Lifecycle Management PVT IP have been optimised for the highest levels of performance and power for Arm’s latest compute platform

These advancements continue the decades of collaboration between the two companies to accelerate customers’ delivery of Arm-based SoCs for smartphones and VR / AR applications.

Shankar Krishnamoorthy, general manager of Synopsys EDA group, commented: “Collaborating with Arm to optimise our EDA and IP solutions enables mutual customers to tackle some of the toughest multi-die system integration challenges from design, IP integration and verification to software development. The addition of the Synopsys.ai EDA suite starts a new phase, where co-operative keystone companies, like Synopsys and Arm, align expertise to help mutual customers turbo-charge the delivery of their Arm-based SoC designs.”

Arm announced its Total Compute Solutions 2023 (TCS23) platform at the show in Taipei. “The new TCS23 platform delivers a suite of segment-specific technology, designed with the system in mind, so that our customers can tap into the compute performance required for the next generation of visual computing experiences,” said Chris Bergey, senior vice president and general manager, client line of business, at Arm.

For TCS23, the Synopsys.ai full-stack AI-driven EDA suite leverages the power of AI from system architecture through manufacturing to optimise power, performance and area (PPA) and enhance time to market, said the company.

The Synopsys Verification family accelerates architecture exploration, software development and verification throughput for Arm SoCs containing Arm Cortex-X4, Cortex-A720 and Cortex-A520 CPUs and Immortalis-G720 and Mali-G720 GPUs. 

Early adopters of TCS23 are using Synopsys virtual prototypes with Arm Fast Models, Synopsys hardware-assisted verification and verification IP for the latest Arm AMBA interconnect to deliver SoCs to market faster.

Synopsys Interface and Security IP for PCI Express 6.0 with Integrity and Data Encryption (IDE), CXL 3.0 with IDE, DDR5 with Inline Memory Encryption (IME) and UCIe, are all optimised for performance with Arm-specific features and for pre-silicon interoperability with Arm cores to minimise risk and to accelerate time to market.

The Synopsys Silicon Lifecycle Management Family PVT monitor IP can be integrated into Arm cores to monitor chip health from development to the field to measure and optimise performance.

Synopsys Fusion QuickStart Implementation Kits (QIKs) are tuned to extract maximum entitlement from the latest five, four and 3nm process technologies. They provide the most efficient path to realising optimally scaled compute architectures for the most demanding end-user applications, said the company.

Synopsys QIKs include implementation scripts and reference guides that enable early adopters of the newest Armv9.2 cores to accelerate time to market and achieve their demanding performance per Watt targets. These QIKs are available today by request through the Arm support hub or from Synopsys SolvNet.

Synopsys also incorporates the latest Arm Fast Models for virtual prototypes and delivers verification IP for the latest Arm AMBA interconnect, emulation and prototyping hardware to accelerate hardware-software bring-up and power and performance validation, resulting in shorter time to market.

Synopsys IP for PCI Express 6.0 with IDE, CXL 3.0 with IDE, DDR5 with IME and UCIe are available now.

http://www.synopsys.com 

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HD image sensor enables AI face recognition in thin bezel computers

The OV02E 1080p high definition (HD) image sensor has staggered high dynamic range (HDR) and can operate with AI chips to bring always-on ID recognition to notebooks and tablets with thin bezels. The 1/7.3 inch format sensor can be combined with the AI devices to sense human presence in always on, low power mode, to extend the battery life in thse portable devices.

“Our new OV02E is a single-die solution that meets the computing industry’s need for high video quality and low bill of materials (BOM) cost,” said Akeem Chen, product marketing manager, Omnivision. HDR address backlighting issues, for example in video calls where the poor quality backlighting can reduce image quality. “Now, with staggered HDR support, troublesome backlighting during a videoconference call is no longer an issue,” he added.

The sensors new features, such as the low power mode with AI functionality have been added in response to some of the trending features demanded by consumers in 2023 and 2024 laptop models, said Chen.

The OV02E is compact, and suitable for devices with a screen-to-body ratio of less than 3mm Y size, such as tablets and wearable devices. It has a 1.12 micron backside illuminated (BSI) pixel based on Omnivision’s proprietary PureCel Plus architecture for advanced pixel sensitivity and quantum efficiency. The sensor features 2Mpixel, full HD 1080p video at 60 frames per second and supports multiple camera synchronisation for machine vision and IoT applications which require depth detection. The OV02E sensor’s always-on capability has a low power state that works with the mobile industry processor interface (MIPI) and serial peripheral interface (SPI).

Samples of the OV02E are available now, and it will be in mass production in Q4 2023. 

Omnivision is a fabless semiconductor company which develops advanced digital imaging, analogue and touch and display solutions for multiple applications and industries, including mobile phones, security and surveillance, automotive, computing, medical and emerging applications. 

http://www.ovt.com

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