By Florian ‘Flo’ Wohlrab,  CEO, OpenHW Group

Florian Wohlrab

Industrial grade, proven Open Source RISC-V CPU IP

By Emmanuel de Suremain, Marketing and Communication Manager, IC’Alps

2024 is already a very promising year for IC’Alps. After opening a second design center in Toulouse – France and becoming TSMC DCA partner, our design house is ready to take on any challenging ASIC project for our customer’s innovation.

We have especially prepared to contribute to the major evolutions we feel are occurring in the healthcare market. Secondly, we are witnessing an increasing demand for intelligence and autonomy ever closer to the sensors (the world is analog). Finally, our focus in 2024 will be to answer a growing need for security, safety/reliability-related requests around the way we design custom chips at IC’Alps.

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By Kelly Cardone, Director of Marketing and Customer Experience, AIM Solder

Kelly Cardone

It’s no secret that the past few years have presented unusual challenges and opportunities across the electronics industry. At AIM, we reflect on the “pandemic years” as a period where our resilience was tested and our adaptability and strategic acumen shone through, positioning us to emerge stronger. After effectively navigating the volatile terrain of supply chain challenges and fluctuating interest rates, our journey has not only enabled us to remain competitive but also to deliver profitability and value to our customers.

As we enter 2024, the stage is now set for a year of stability and remarkable growth. With over ten manufacturing sites globally, AIM is well-placed to meet the evolving needs of the international electronics market. Strategic hires, promotions, and partnerships in 2023 are set to bolster our presence, ensuring that AIM Solder maintains a dynamic and influential role in the industry.

Emerging Industry Trends

Consumer behavior and market trends of 2024 are expected to gravitate towards quality and reliability. Amidst the normalization of global supply chains, customers will prioritize products that offer consistency and longevity. We also anticipate significant advancements in environmentally friendly solder materials, driven by the industry’s growing commitment to sustainability. These innovations will not only enhance product performance but also contribute to a greener manufacturing process.

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By Jacek Hanke, CEO, Digital Core Design

Pioneering the Path Ahead: Digital Core Design’s CEO Forecasts Industry Trends for 2024

Jacek Hanke

As we stand on the brink of 2024, the landscape of our industry is on the verge of unprecedented transformation. This year holds special significance for Digital Core Design (DCD) as we celebrate our 25th anniversary – a quarter-century of actively shaping the IT market since our inception in 1999.

At the core of our industry lies the pulse of technological advancements, and 2024 promises a symphony of breakthroughs. A notable paradigm shift is imminent, poised to redefine connectivity on multiple levels. The evolution of RISC-V technology, in particular, is set to bring forth new and powerful solutions. DCD plans to capitalize on this by launching advanced 32-bit and 64-bit RISC-V CPUs with accompanying peripherals, empowering companies to construct more robust and innovative systems.

Safety and security, integral aspects of technological progress, will run parallel to our new product offerings. Noteworthy is our CAN XL IP Core, which, equipped with Functional Safety Functions, provides a comprehensive solution, especially in the automotive sector. As we focus on safety, the importance of security becomes apparent. From our perspective, deeply embedded hardware security, exemplified by DCD’s CryptOne cryptographic system, is becoming a necessity in new designs, given the increasing threats at the lowest integration level.

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By Lauro Rizzatti,  Business Advisor at VSORA

Technological Innovations in 2024

Lauro Rizzatti

The semiconductor industry closed 2023 on a high note as the U.S. CHIPS Act brought renewed attention to our importance and product introductions from startups and established players buoyed our confidence.

Technological innovations will continue into 2024 along the same trends line much as they did last year more or less. Despite a drop in overall semiconductor revenues of about 10%, top billing for 2023 tech innovation from semiconductor industry followers would have to be OpenAI, Generative AI and ChatGPT, as we witnessed enormous interest in GenAI once ChatGPT took center stage. Following closely behind would have to be the accelerated adoption of RISC-V and the embracing of chiplets for the promise of bending the Moore’s Law curve. The incoming year will also see renewed interest in autonomous driving (AD) at Level 4 where vehicles can operate in self-driving mode and in fully autonomous vehicles at Level 5 that no longer require human attention behind a steering wheel. In fact, steering wheels will not be a standard feature.

Beside a projected increase of global semiconductor sales in the ballpark of 17%, 2024 will usher in some challenges. Notwithstanding the drawbacks of massive computational power and outsize energy consumption, GenAI will continue to revolutionize all sectors driven by human behaviors in every industry from commerce, agriculture and finance to medicine, pharmacy and entertainment, and its adoption will expand exponentially.

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By Donna Moore, CEO and chairwoman, LoRa Alliance^®

Market Confidence in LoRaWAN^® Is Flourishing

Donna Moore

 Looking back on 2023, it was truly the year that LoRaWAN matured. The LoRaWAN standard itself is supported by the strongest LPWAN device ecosystem, the strongest supplier ecosystem, and the strongest certification program. Ultimately, this drives market confidence in LoRaWAN deployments and boosts the global IoT sector as a whole.

In my travels this year to a variety of IoT and vertical market events, I observed how end customers are learning about other companies’ successful LoRaWAN deployments, which allows them to recognize the value of LoRaWAN because they personally can witness these successful outcomes. Real-world examples help the market understand the issues LoRaWAN can solve, its ease of deployment, and its strong ROI––quickly. Experiencing these real-world deployments is accelerating decision-making globally and driving global LoRaWAN adoption.

This energy and excitement that has continued to build this year will drive LoRaWAN and IoT forward in 2024. Digital transformation will continue to grow, and this is where IoT will shine. Smart utilities, smart buildings, and smart cities will remain a key focus for the LoRa Alliance in the coming year, as these markets are ideally suited to LoRaWAN’s strengths: long range, low power, ability to transmit through metal and concrete, easy integration with legacy or other wireless technologies, and more.

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By Sanjeev Kumar, Co-Founder & Mentor of Logic Fruit Technologies

Sanjeev Kumar

Indian Prowess Soars – Predicting Aerospace and Defense Industry Dominance on the Global Stage: 2024 Outlook

In last few years we observed a notable surge in product demand within the Aerospace and Defense (A&D) sector. In the aerospace industry, we witnessed domestic commercial aviation revenue passenger kilometers surpassing prepandemic levels in most nations.

The growth in air travel led to a substantial increase in demand for new aircraft and aftermarket goods and services. Within the US defense industry, I noticed that fresh geopolitical challenges and a strong emphasis on modernizing the armed forces contributed to robust demand, especially for armaments and next-generation capabilities.

Looking ahead to 2024, it is clear that there will continue to be a significant need for A&D goods and services. Additionally, as geopolitical unrest intensifies, I predict a further rise in product demand within the defense industry.

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Tony Pialis

Vertical customization will save AI hardware’s limits.

• With the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, 2023 was the “year of AI,” spurring companies of all sizes and industries to dive headfirst into the AI race. With that came an exponential need for hardware to support this data-intensive technology more efficiently and cost-effectively. Microsoft, AWS, and even the developer of ChatGPT, OpenAI, are actively developing or have announced they are looking into developing their own custom silicon solutions to support their AI applications. In 2024, we will continue to see hyperscalers and enterprise companies who are working with AI at scale develop their own AI-focused custom silicon chips to support their AI applications.
  • The only effective way for companies to bring their custom designs to market fast and without creating a globally splintered ecosystem is through the use of chiplet-based designs, utilizing standards such as Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe), as companies search for the most advanced and compatible chiplet designs for their existing hardware products. We will also see a rise in inference-focused chips to support the growing need for rapid inference as more users worldwide start to utilize AI applications.

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