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EMA Electronics Industry Predictions

 
February 4th, 2021 by Industry Experts

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.

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Menta Predictions – Disrupting Adaptive Compute at The Edge

 
February 2nd, 2021 by Industry Experts

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.

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IAR Systems Embedded Development Trends 2021

 
January 26th, 2021 by Industry Experts

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.

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KDPOF Electronics Industry Predictions

 
January 23rd, 2021 by Industry Experts

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.

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PRFI Predictions for 2021

 
January 22nd, 2021 by Industry Experts

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.
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Semtech Electronics Industry Predictions

 
January 21st, 2021 by Industry Experts

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.

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The Semiconductor Industry will Persevere in 2021

 
January 20th, 2021 by Industry Experts

Bob Smith Executive Director ESD Alliance, a SEMI Technology Community

2021 will bring plenty of change, as well as another year of uncertainty. Nonetheless, the semiconductor industry will persevere. As it did in 2020, it will show resiliency and resolve and a willingness to tackle technological challenges.

A look back on 2020 reinforces the industry’s widespread influence. Work from home and remote learning would not be possible without the efforts and technology brought forward by the semiconductor industry that linked us together. That goes also for design tools from the electronic system design community that enabled this advancement.

Moving into 2021, I expect the industry to roll out new products designed to increase seamless telecommunications and enhance home office productivity as we continue remote learning and living.

In-person networking events may be nixed again in favor of on-line virtual events. Now that industry organizations such as SEMI and the ESD Alliance have experience organizing virtual events, new and improved forms of continuing education, connecting and networking will emerge.

SEMI and the ESD Alliance’s commitment to global advocacy and workforce development remains. We strive to bring about more equity, diversity and inclusiveness through mentoring and retaining a diverse, innovative and skilled workforce.

2021 may be rockier than any of us want and change is inevitable. The semiconductor industry will thrive and endure as it did in 2020.

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Synopsys: 2021 Predictions for EDA Innovation

 
January 19th, 2021 by Industry Experts

As the leading supplier of electronic design automation (EDA) solutions, Synopsys provides chip designers with solutions and methodologies to address the dynamic challenges of hardware design. Looking at the year ahead, we see some trends in a few key application areas that will be interesting to track.

Artificial Intelligence Calls for Innovative Design Solutions

With the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) applications comes a need for more innovative hardware architectures. While these architectures are unprecedentedly complex and large, performance-per-watt remains critical for efficient operations. For this, our AI experts, Arun Venkatachar and Stelios Diamantidis, anticipate broader adoption of enhanced versions of existing tools. It’s time for existing tools to become more architecture-aware and feature new capabilities and approaches that dramatically accelerate implementation of new compute paradigms. For example, consider design implementation solutions that connect with the designer’s requirements at a higher level of abstraction to allow an accurate estimate of power, performance, and area (PPA) during the architectural exploration phase. Such solutions would be most beneficial if they follow a highly convergent path through to final signoff for manufacturing.

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Electronics Industry Predictions – Quicklogic

 
January 18th, 2021 by Industry Experts

25 Years ago, had I shared the prediction I am about to share now, I would have been laughed out of the conference room in any FPGA company. Not in a rude way, but with the sort of polite pat on the back you would give an intern who is just entering the real world from academia.

Schematic capture was the way ‘real engineers’ did FPGA design, inch thick data books outlined each and every detail of the logic and routing structures, and there was a sense of pride when someone completed a ‘boot camp’ on an FPGA vendor’s proprietary toolchain that often shipped on a stack of 3 1/2” floppy disks as long as a loaf of bread. We scanned newspaper ads for the latest Fry’s Electronics sales so that we could upgrade our desktop PC or Unix workstation with the fastest processor and largest amount of RAM available so that we could get our larger FPGA designs to place and route in less than a day.

Brian Faith, CEO, QuickLogic

Fast forward to today. We have come so far in many ways. For FPGA users, schematic design is a lost art, replaced long ago by languages such as Verilog and VHDL, and increasingly by languages like System C and Python. Data books are now merely electrons.

And yet in other ways we are still stuck in that time. Proprietary FPGA toolchains are the very definition of bloatware, still requiring very capable and expensive computers. Moreover, the deep experience an engineer has in using a proprietary toolchain appears to be a benefit, but that benefit is only an illusion – much like a mirrored room – one that appears to have endless capacity but is in fact very much constrained.

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Electronic Design Industry Predictions – Lanza techVentures

 
January 15th, 2021 by Industry Experts

Chiplets — Next Semi-Custom Design

In the early days of our industry, semiconductors were custom designed all the way through manufacturing, then and now considered heavy-duty deep silicon.

Next came semi-custom design and then silicon IP. We are now evolving from standard chips designed at a certain semiconductor node with a certain set of restraints to a more general design process to a more democratized design style.

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