EDACafe Editorial Industry Experts
Higher Performance COMs: COM-HPC is startingJanuary 4th, 2021 by Industry Experts
High performance – high core count – utilize it best with the RTS Hypervisor The global pandemic challenges all of us. Some industries are suffering while others experience an extra growth push. Digitalization is on the growth side. Growing data traffic and new application fields also push the use of embedded computers forward. The ever-growing demand for higher performance and lower power consumption is stronger than ever. The low power concepts are firmly in place, with these embedded applications utilizing COM Express Mini, Qseven and SMARC modules. For higher performance re quirements, COM Express Compact and Basic are in use. Until very recently, however, there was no equivalent in place for the very highest computing performance requirements. This gap is now filled with the new COM-HPC module specification. COM-HPC extends the possibilities towards highest performance. Not only does it offer more and faster interfaces, it also supports faster and more power-hungry processors while providing more space for higher memory capacities. COM-HPC Client modules support USB4 with Thunderbolt and DisplayPort 2.0 with high refresh rates and color depths to drive multiple 8k screens. Server designs can leverage up to 64 PCIe lanes supporting the upcoming PCIe Gen 5 speed with 32 Giga Transfers per second (GTps). Ethernet is extended to 8 lanes with 25 GBps each, which allows for 2x 100G Ethernet implementations with COM-HPC Server modules. Read the rest of Higher Performance COMs: COM-HPC is starting EDACafe Industry Predictions for 2020 – CeptonFebruary 3rd, 2020 by Neil Huntingdon
Read the rest of EDACafe Industry Predictions for 2020 – Cepton EDACafe Industry Predictions for 2020 – ImperasFebruary 3rd, 2020 by Kevin McDermott
The Lost Art of Microprocessor Verification Microprocessors have been a disruptive force within the electronics industry since the 1970’s, bringing compute resources to new levels of devices and breaking barriers as innovation based on the key specification of ISA (Instruction Set Architecture), which allows hardware and software to have a defined boundary for successful collaboration. Some well documented market segments solidified around an architecture and the proprietary alternatives were relegated to niche markets or the history books, but the open ISA of RISC‑V is poised to bring a new wave of flexibility with standard and custom extension that allow optimization for end applications. The engineering freedoms, which are now available to SoC developers and system designers, can address the challenges of domain specific devices in the use-cases when the one-size-fits-all approach is not optimal. But to paraphrase a popular Star Trek character, “you cannot break the laws of DV” – if you design it, then you must also complete the test plan before tape-out. Read the rest of EDACafe Industry Predictions for 2020 – Imperas EDACafe Industry Predictions for 2020 – Zuken USAJanuary 31st, 2020 by Bob Potock
The year 2020 kicks off a decade of transformation. Companies will move from a tool-centric design process to a model-centric design process–known as Digital Engineering. Digital Engineering is part of the larger Digital Transformation movement. Many companies have recently embarked on their own Digital Transformation journey with their sights set on improving efficiency and competitiveness. A recent IDC study showed that 90% of small- and medium-sized businesses are budgeting for the digital transformation, and 73% have already begun the process. According to the survey, the top goal for these companies making the digital transformation journey is to improve product development and design processes. Let me repeat that–“the top goal for these companies making the digital transformation journey is to improve product development and design processes”. EDACafe Industry Predictions for 2020 – congatecJanuary 30th, 2020 by Christian Eder
The edge is modular There are exciting times ahead for the edge. If analysts’ predictions are true, we will see a massive growth at a CAGR of 54.0%[i] in the edge computing market over the next few years. Micro data centers will be located close to the infrastructure to address real-time issues in nearly all embedded markets. The cry for massive edge computing performance is coming from OEMs in markets as varied as industrial, energy & utilities, healthcare, transportation & logistics as well as retail and smart buildings & cities. The embedded computing industry already serves all these markets with low-power, ruggedized platforms that offer long term availability for harsh environments. But until today, there was a gap in processing performance for the server class, which may also include AI. The next generation of rugged mid-range server processors will address this gap, and embedded computing vendors will integrate these new processors on embedded platforms, offering nearly the same, well-known benefits for OEMs as in the past. There will be only one difference: These platforms will have brand new server-grade functionalities, including all required RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, and Safety) features such as IPMI interfaces and functionalities for out-of-band management. It is obvious that existing Computer-on-Module standards can neither cater for these server-grade functionalities nor support the latest high-speed interfaces such as 25 GbE or PCIe Gen 4 and Gen 5. Read the rest of EDACafe Industry Predictions for 2020 – congatec EDACafe Industry Predictions for 2020 – IAR SystemsJanuary 29th, 2020 by Stefan Skarin
Flexibility as key enabler for success in 2020 Written by Stefan Skarin, CEO of IAR Systems With 2020 just started, we have exciting opportunities ahead of us. We also have challenges, both when it comes to meeting customer needs as well as a being a vendor in a changing industry landscape. What I think is a key enabler going forward is flexibility, both in our offerings to customers and in the way we collaborate in the embedded industry. During the last couple of years, one of the major trends in the embedded industry has been consolidations and changes in the ecosystem. Previous major players have become less important and new rising stars have been born. This has led to an uncertainty of what might come next, driving a need of new ways of collaborations for us as vendors. The industry is a bit more complex to describe and get an overview of. There are less “traditional” players in the market due to the consolidations. But with growing technologies such as RISC-V, security and cloud services entering embedded solutions, the ecosystem is also growing. I think we will see this accelerate further in 2020. With new collaborations, we are able to offer our customers flexibility in choosing solutions for their need. We need to show our customers that they can be this flexible. And at IAR Systems, we have already started this. Never before have we done so many integrations with other technologies as we have done the last years, and this will continue in 2020. EDACafe Industry Predictions for 2020 – AchronixJanuary 28th, 2020 by Bob Siller
Continued explosion of amount of data created causing increased development of FPGA-based hardware platforms optimized for data acceleration.
The industry has witnessed an explosion of data over the past decade with the amount of data expected to hit 175 zettabytes by 2025. The challenge ahead becomes trying to derive meaningful insights from the massive amount of unstructured and structured data. This has forced the development of many new AI hardware and software based solutions to process data in the most cost, power and time efficient manner. Addressing this challenge is much different from in the past where each generation of more powerful CPUs could keep up. Read the rest of EDACafe Industry Predictions for 2020 – Achronix EDACafe Industry Predictions for 2020 – GreenSoft Technology, Inc.January 27th, 2020 by Randy Flinders
2020 is ringing in a new decade of technological advancement. As governments focus more and more on environmental protection and the control of toxic chemicals, producers of electronic components and products will be facing an unprecedented expansion of substance control requirements. In July 2019, the EU Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive, which is applicable to most electronic products imported or sold within the EU, expanded its substance control list from six substances to ten for most categories of electrical equipment. These four new substances are phthalates commonly found in electronic products, forcing many material and component providers to redesign their offerings. Similar RoHS regulations in China and UAE have also recently enacted expansions to requirements, both in scope and technical requirements. As such, regulations such as EU RoHS will become an ongoing validation exercise, as opposed to how many companies approach the issue today – as a one-time certification effort. Read the rest of EDACafe Industry Predictions for 2020 – GreenSoft Technology, Inc. EDACafe Industrial Prediction for 2020 -Tabor ElectronicsJanuary 26th, 2020 by Shlomo Keisari
Global Signal Generator Market Overview by regions: Signal / Functions Generators and Arbitrary Waveform Generators are used for testing and research by producing all type of signals at wide range of speed and amplitude. Signal Generator are mainly used in Telecommunication, Aerospace & Defense, Research & Development, Automotive and ATE as well for servicing & repair of electronic systems. Asia Pacific, especially China and Australia, holds the largest market share in terms of revenue due to the major use of advanced technologies like Bluetooth and wireless services. Shift of production base from developed economies such as China and India due to low manufacturing cost are also expected to increase the market growth of Signal Generator in this region over the forecasted period. Arbitrary Wave Signal Generator segment for us is expected to grow in this region due to the emergence of digital modulation technology and the huge investments in the Physics & Quantum research. EDA Café Industry Predictions – MIPI Alliance / MIPI I3CJanuary 24th, 2020 by Ken Foust
With more widespread adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT)—including for industrial, medical and other applications—it is clear that smaller form factors and the need for speed and efficiency will continue to provide challenges to product developers and designers. Interface specifications from the MIPI Alliance have been engineered and refined through mobile’s 3G and 4G eras specifically to meet these sorts of challenges of the unfolding 5G world. Take MIPI I3C, for example. MIPI I3C was launched in 2017 to streamline sensor integration in the small, space-constrained form factors of IoT devices, as well as smartphones, wearables and other mobile-connected products. Read the rest of EDA Café Industry Predictions – MIPI Alliance / MIPI I3C |