2022 Outlook: Chip shortage continues and drives opportunities to tier 2 fabs

It won’t come as a surprise when I predict that the current chip shortage will continue to affect the industry throughout 2022. The shortage is there and it’s real. Most foundries are at or near maximum capacity and since consumer or OEM demand is not backing off, the supply shortage is set to continue throughout 2022, at least.

This won’t just affect when you get to upgrade your smartphones and tablets – the chip shortage is having a significant impact on the automotive market and that also is set to continue as the industry’s ‘chip needs’ expands.

Automotive systems may have accounted for a small percentage of chips manufactured by the tier 1 manufacturers (3-4% at TSMC for example, compared to close to 50% for consumer electronics) but the fact is the car industry’s needs are growing exponentially and inexorably.

The trends in vehicle electronics and systems – including the shift to electric vehicles in a race to meet global emissions targets – plus the move to a future of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) – all lead to an increased demand for sensors. Today, an ‘average’ car might have 100 sensors, that number is set to rocket as vehicles become more automated and as functional safety requirements in CAVs necessitate increased volumes of sensors.

Read the rest of EDACafe Industry Predictions for 2022 – Thalia – DA

The View Towards ’22

Based upon the events of the last two years, two adages can readily apply: “the only certainty is uncertainty” and “beyond this place there be dragons.” Looking towards 2022, predicting what the future holds for product development in general and EDA technology specifically requires some critical thinking. Add the current chip shortage to the mix and the picture becomes more complex.

Current and next-generation high frequency/high data rate products have very little latitude in terms of “wiggle room” using traditional materials and components. Very small structures such as microvias and solder joints, not addressed during design, can become single points of failure that can mean the difference between a working product or a failed one. The EDA toolsets used to design these features must have a high degree of granularity and accuracy and be able to simulate and predict product manufacturability, operability and reliability. The ability to mitigate these factors will also help satisfy customer needs, maintain competitive advantages and maximize product revenues.

Most importantly, the foregoing challenges create a mandate for rethinking traditional design approaches. For EDA toolsets, lessons borrowed from other industries such as AI and machine learning will play an expanding role. For product designers, the ability to simulate and predict downstream product development processes may well determine the success or failure of current and future products.

Read the rest of EDACafe Industry Predictions for 2022 – Avishtech

5 Key AI Predictions and Trends to Keep on Your Radar in 2022

By Stelios Diamantidis, Sr. Director, Synopsys AI Solutions, Office of the COO

From innovations in edge AI and computer vision to data modernization and specialized AI chips – with AI even designing some of those chips – there is no question that AI advancement has hit an all-time high in the past year. The global market value for AI chipsets is anticipated to grow to more than $70 billion by 2026, up $62 billion since 2019. This massive surge can be attributed to the swell of IoT devices with machine-learning capabilities and the evolution of smart cities.

As 2022 begins, so does a new era of technological innovation. With ongoing obstacles such as the global chip shortage, COVID-19 and supply chain challenges, the appetite for smart everything has put AI on all the big players’ wish lists.

Let’s dive into five key predictions on what we anticipate will usher in the next wave of AI development this year.

1. The Impact of AI in Chip Design Will Continue to Grow

With more workloads requiring advanced levels of AI processing to power intelligent functions, the need for dedicated chips that are energy-efficient and perform computations at higher speeds will make robust AI chip designs paramount. A new breed of design tools that learn from iterations and leverage data in chip design environments offer a leap forward in productivity and cost efficiency. The AI disruption will open new opportunities not only for the semiconductor leaders but also for companies that typically had smaller teams or more limited financial resources and weren’t previously seen as powerhouses of chip design to deliver exciting silicon solutions ― leveling the playing field, in a sense, and creating a perfect symmetry of companies leveraging AI in chip design across the global economy.

Designing the AI hardware of the future will require a revolution in chip design technology. In 2021, companies that dared to invest in the data center market witnessed significant gains and demonstrated impressive technical capabilities that increased the demand for dedicated AI chips, raising AI funds at an unprecedented pace. With GPUs continuing to be the dominant architecture for training in the data center market, we expect this growth to continue and see hyperscalers opting for next-generation AI-assisted design systems to massively scale exploration design workflows while automating less consequential decisions. Companies will start pivoting to the cloud for their chip design needs ― a victory for additional capacity, faster turnaround times, and high-quality application-optimized design.

Read the rest of EDACafe Industry Predictions for 2022 – Synopsys

In 2021, we witnessed an increase in the number of road fatalities in the US. Vehicles are getting safer, embedding more safety sensors, and yet, more people are losing their dear ones on the roads. In order to increase road safety, as many vehicles should be equipped with V2X, as early as possible.

Indeed, V2X deployment is continuing to move forward toward mass deployment. In 2021, V2X was added to the production programs of most OEMs, and the rest will soon follow.

Before Autotalks, Onn developed VLSI and communication systems and handled standardization and market development. Onn was working for an elite R&D unit in IDF, Texas Instruments, and Passave (acquired by PMC-Sierra).

Read the rest of EDACafe Industry Predictions for 2022 – Autotalks

Due to the importance to outperform in the electronic industry more companies are improving their leverage on the material management, Smart factory and Industry 4.0 are basic elements in order to achieve such objectives, based on this demand VCcount launches the XRHCount Inline. As it is fully integrated into the manufacturing processes, the system is fully automatic and can count small components on various types of packages around the clock within ten seconds per cycle.

The XRHCount Inline impresses due to the embedded high degree of automation. Loading and unloading is carried out by a conveyor belt, and the reel ID is automatically read and recorded by a scanner.

Based on the concept of autonomous operation, and taking into account that all manual processes were eliminated, it runs without an operator – eliminating labour in the process.
Read the rest of VCcount outlooks higher automation demand on the Electronic industry in 2022 – Visiconsult

“…and then you add as much memory as you can afford”, I heard the clerk tell the woman next to me. I was at a computer store looking for Christmas presents when I overheard a conversation between a customer discussing her soon to be laptop. I think this clerk gives advice that we have heard for a while, but going forward, it is going to be even more relevant and important.

Today, we take the digital equipment on our desk, pocket, arm or in the cloud for granted, it is there, all the time, connected, providing all the services we need and entertainment in the very best definition available.

So, why did this woman hesitate, to max out the memory? Cost, most certainly. We all know that memory is expensive. But, how come we only use a fraction of it… it so turns out that research has found out that up to 70% of the main memory content is redundant. Wouldn’t it make sense to find a way to put that redundant space to work?

Klas Moreau
CEO
ZeroPoint Technologies

Klas is a determined and results focused industry leader, with 25 years of progressive leadership experience in global enterprise environments. Optimistic and enthusiastic about what technology can achieve, he has gravitated to technology-centered companies. That interest has taken him to industries ranging from Telecom and Datacom to Computer games over to AI and cutting edge Integrated Circuit product innovations.

Read the rest of EDACafe Industry Predictions for 2022 – ZeroPoint Technologies

The Rise of Wearables for Health and Safety Applications

David Su, CEO, Atmosic Technologies

As businesses and venues have looked to re-open amidst the COVID-19 crisis, there has been a growing market demand for contact tracing devices and exposure notification systems. While smartphone manufacturers started to integrate contact tracing software and applications into their devices early on in the pandemic, the ongoing challenge of smartphone access, cost and connectivity remained. Some organizations and countries have turned to wearables for an efficient contact tracing system that is both low cost and easy to manage.

Wearables provide a solution for users to stay informed about potential exposure to the virus while addressing the cost and access challenges. Wearables also can track other types of valuable information, such as temperature. This is incredibly valuable for managed environments such as factories, warehouses, theme parks, entertainment venues, etc. If an individual’s temperature goes beyond a certain threshold, their company could suggest that they go to an onsite health clinic for further evaluation. Wearables can also be designed to withstand certain conditions, like high temperatures, and be tamper and tear resistant for continuous wear. Additionally, as global travel starts to increase, visitors entering a country could be required to be monitored in order to reduce exposure.

Read the rest of Atmosic Technologies Electronics Design Industry Predictions

Manny Marcano

With 2020 behind us, I think it’s safe to say that even the best-laid plans can change in an instant. 2020 changed our work environments and 2021 will continue to feel the effects of this. With engineers working in multiple environments, often transitioning between the office and working-from-home, reliable and consistent access to current data and content is going to be more important than ever. Companies who adapt to this new work structure and provide centralized content and a streamlined design process (eliminating sourcing from multiple locations) will usher in success by shortening time-to-market deadlines even with the most complex designs.

Varying work environments has also complicated the ability for engineers and teams to work together effectively, something that is vital with technology becoming smaller and denser. We will see the long-standing collaboration issues between electrical and mechanical addressed, and the two fields begin to tightly converge. With design processes being anything but linear, the ability for these two fields to collaborate effectively is becoming more and more essential to overall project success.

The need for companies to create digital twins are being accelerated with the growing complexity of designs and varying work environments. This makes it essential that digital information is part of a cohesive model and as much information as possible is provided to the various teams so they can collaborate efficiently.  This means focus on front-end implementation and correct-by-construction design methodology is now essential.

Read the rest of EMA Electronics Industry Predictions

Yoan Dupret

Last year, we talked about the fracturing of the old computing order and how no one can predict anymore the winning architectural or algorithmic solution for a given compute or communication problem – even within a two year event horizon. We used AI as a case in point – which turned out to be pretty accurate as we saw the emergence of companies with brand new architectures, and all very different, such as AnotherBrain, Blaize, Hailo or SiMA.ai, while some others already disappeared or pivoted their products.

We also talked about how sensors are becoming ubiquitous in our lives, the trend to customize merchant chips and the tendency toward highly heterogenous SoC architectures.

We concluded that this not only means more chips but also more changes in algorithms, architectures and interconnects which would lead to the increasing utilization of field reconfigurable device, such as the ones enabled by Menta embedded FPGA IP – in short ‘adaptive compute’ devices. This also turned out to be accurate.

What we did not predict though was the global sanity crisis of Covid-19. Despite this, several eFPGA IP providers announced design wins in 2020 and at Menta we did particularly well as we doubled our revenues – though we would have done much better without the virus.

Read the rest of Menta Predictions – Disrupting Adaptive Compute at The Edge

Shawn Prestridge, Lead FAE Engineer and US FAE Team Manager IAR Systems

2021 may be the most highly anticipated year in quite some time, and for many reasons. In the embedded space, the biggest challenge will be the continued pressure to improve quality yet still deliver faster, especially with the rapid growth of the IIoT, IoT, 5G, AI, and cloud/edge computing.

In today’s embedded development, there is an essential need for automated processes to ensure quality, and to run builds and tests continuously. More and more companies are bringing this to the next level through the practice of Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) in their Linux-based build environments, automating the release process and making it possible to deploy the application at any time. This is being driven by the unprecedented growth of the IoT, 5G, AI, and cloud/edge computing.

Embedded teams are completing software updates faster than ever, which can be challenging in embedded software, where a small error can render a system inoperable.  CI uses a robust tool set to inspect code quality and ensure it conforms to safe, reliable coding practices and then automatically subjects the code to a rigorous battery of tests designed by the QA engineers to ensure it performs as expected. This class of automation improved development practices across industries. Automated CI essentially forces developers to write code following best practices and as people find new and better ways to add to automated testing, it will lead to the use of local copies of code analysis that desk-checks code and before it goes into a formal build.  Developers will want to be sure their code is reliable before others see it in the continuous integration output.

Read the rest of IAR Systems Embedded Development Trends 2021