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

Carlos Pardo, CEO and Co-founder, KDPOF

Integrated Optical Solutions for In-vehicle Networking

In automotive, electric mobility and autonomous driving are the key development paths providing innovative possibilities. In parallel, they bring along major challenges for in-vehicle connectivity. Especially applications such as battery management systems, camera and sensor links, fast Ethernet links and smart antenna links demand for solutions that are reliable, robust, low-weight and low-effective at the same time.

Consequently, the trend goes towards optical Ethernet networks with integrated solutions. Implementing several functions – for example transceiver IC, photodiode and LED into one Fiber Optic Transceiver device functioning as single optical port – significantly reduces cost and footprint for automotive Ethernet. The decreased number of parts also lowers the effort in testing and qualification, thus substantially decreasing the overall expense. Further advantages are easy implementation, no margin stacking between links in the supply chain and supply chain simplification.

Read the rest of KDPOF Electronics Industry Predictions

By Liam Devlin, CEO, PRFI

GaAs and GaN Power Amplifier (PA) ICs will see increased adoption in mmWave 5G base stations. The cell sizes in urban mmWave 5G will be small. This is in part due to the need to provide very high data rate services to multiple users in a dense environment, but is also a feature of the limited non-line-of-sight propagation capabilities of mmWave signals. Si technology can provide a lower cost and is better suited to higher levels of integration, but cannot reach the RF power levels that GaAs and GaN technologies can offer. While many base station developers would like to use Si technology throughout, the higher RF power levels offered by GaAs and GaN are likely to be necessary to offer a robust system. With the increased density of mmWave cells, reducing power consumption will be a major consideration, and technologies such as Doherty will increasingly be favored to improve PA efficiency.

There will be significant growth in the use of Ku- and Ka-band satcomms for global broadband access. There are a number of broadband satcomms systems in these bands that are either in operation or under development. In addition to Space X’s much-publicized Starlink system, Inmarsat’s Global Xpress system is already operational and the recent bail-out of OneWeb by the UK government and Bharti Global means they can complete their planned global broadband satellite internet service. Other companies offering broadband access via satellite include Viasat in the US and Eutelsat in Europe. The links from these broadband satellites back to the ground stations—and also between satellites–also use mmWave links. Emerging High-Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS) such as those being deployed or developed by Loon, HAPSmobile and Stratospheric Platforms, utilize mmWave links as well, and we expect all of these applications to accelerate the demand for MMICs at higher frequencies.
Read the rest of PRFI Predictions for 2021

Marc Pegulu, Vice President Wireless LoRa and IoT at Semtech

As we look toward the year ahead, IoT shows promise in continuing to enable a more connected world – whether that be in our homes, offices, neighborhoods or cities.  While everyone is relying on enhanced connection these days, the development and evolvement of IoT will result in a rise in use cases, further showcasing the importance of the technology. The following are IoT predictions for 2021:

Smarter Homes: The changes and adjustments we’ve made throughout 2020 to make our lives more comfortable has brought to the forefront just how much we need technology – to work, to learn and to stay connected to one another. 2021 will continue to bring even more developments aimed at this goal. Smart home device consumption will rise as individuals continue to work and learn from their homes. With increased usage, we’ll see more demand for IoT solutions that offer immediate insight into the home’s efficiency as homeowners look to reduce costs associated with energy, water, and gas consumption. More homeowners will begin to implement sensors for motion tracking, door lock management, garage door monitoring, gas/water valve use, pipe leak detection, and electrical outlet monitoring.

Read the rest of Semtech Electronics Industry Predictions