This week’s embedded news features Siemens at Nissan EV plant, Arm suing Qualcomm, a first bio-inspired directional MEMS microphone, memory connectivity platform for CXL, and more.
A selection of news from the world of embedded, this week featuring, Arm, Astera Labs, Imagination Technologies, Lynx Software Technologies, Nissan, NXP Semiconductors, Qualcomm, Realtek Semiconductor, Siemens, Skyworks Solutions, Soundskrit, STMicroelectronics, and u-blox.
Audio technology company Soundskrit announced what it claims is the world’s first bio-inspired directional MEMS microphone for current and future consumer electronics devices, the SKR0400. It leverages a new transducer design for maximum audio performance, and taps into proprietary software that optimizes the audio experience for a wide range of devices and use cases in any environment. With a highly directional pickup pattern, the SKR0400 significantly reduces background noise and reverberation, isolating a user’s voice with high-fidelity. The low noise directional MEMS microphone eliminates the need for large omnidirectional microphone arrays. With minimal signal processing it enables a breadth of features from noise and echo reduction, true stereo recording for highly immersive audio content, and voice tracking.
Astera Labs said its Leo memory connectivity platform supporting Compute Express Link (CXL) 1.1 and 2.0 has begun pre-production sampling for customers and strategic partners to enable secure, reliable and high-performance memory expansion and pooling for cloud servers. This milestone follows the successful end-to-end interoperability testing of the Leo smart memory controllers with industry-leading CPU/GPU platforms and DRAM memory modules over a variety of real-world workloads. “Our Leo memory connectivity platform for CXL 1.1 and 2.0 is purpose-built to overcome processor memory bandwidth bottlenecks and capacity limitations in accelerated and intelligent infrastructure,” said Jitendra Mohan, CEO, Astera Labs.
Siemens has announced it has worked with Nissan to digitalize and electrify its production lines for the new all-electric crossover Nissan Ariya at the company’s plant in Tochigi, Japan. “The successful launch of the new production lines is a milestone in the collaboration of the two companies,” said Cedrik Neike, member of the managing board of Siemens AG. “Climate change and stringent environmental regulations are powerful drivers for the development of electrified powertrains. We will bring in all of our cutting-edge technologies to this collaboration to enable a highly flexible, efficient and sustainable automotive production.” The cooperation draws on Siemens’ portfolio of IoT-enabled hardware, software and digital services – the open digital business platform Siemens Xcelerator.
NXP Semiconductors has introduced an automotive secure element (SE) for smart key fobs, the NCJ37x. The automotive qualified secure microcontroller features advanced cryptographic accelerators and physical built-in electrical attack resistance for various security-critical automotive applications such as smart access key fobs, Qi 1.3 authentication or car-to-cloud communication. The device supports protocols from the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC) and its passive NFC ISO 14443-4 interface and highly-secure design approach addresses the needs of next-generation smart fobs combining ultra-wideband (UWB), Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), and passive near field communication (NFC) technologies.
STMicroelectronics has unveiled new microcontrollers (MCUs) targeting electrified drivetrains and domain-oriented, over-the-air updateable systems that form the basis of emerging electric vehicles (EVs). As these vehicles generate, process, and transfer large data flows, ST’s new Stellar P automotive MCUs claim to be the industry’s first qualifiable devices for model year 2024 vehicles to integrate the new CAN-XL in-car communication standard, a technology enabling vehicle platforms to handle growing data flows so the car can operate at peak performance. Manufactured in ST’s own wafer fabs using power-efficient 28nm FD-SOI technology, the Stellar P6 embeds up to 20 Mbytes of phase change (non-volatile) memory (PCM). The MCUs contain up to six Arm Cortex R52 processor cores, some operating in lockstep and some in split-lock mode to provide failsafe redundancy.
Realtek Semiconductor has launched what it claims is the world’s first 4K UHD set-top box SoC (RTD1319D) that supports the latest video compression standard – versatile video coding (VVC/H.266). Support is also provided for GPU with 10-bit graphics, multiple conditional access systems (CAS), and HDMI 2.1a. The VVC video decoding technology offers much improved compression performance over a wide range of set-top box applications. The RTD1319D is a dedicated set-top box SoC that meets far-field voice, secure encryption/decryption, and high-speed Wi-Fi network requirements. It improves the user experience and enables the set-top box to play a key and creative role in the home media center.
Skyworks Solutions has launched a new portfolio of network synchronization solutions, which includes the Si551x and Si540x families of NetSync clock integrated circuit devices and Skyworks’ AccuTime IEEE 1588 software. Each product family is engineered to meet the requirements of mobile operators and equipment vendors for 5G fronthaul networks. The company said its new clock ICs are ideal companions to its system-on-a-chip solutions, including its RFSoC DFE and Versal platforms targeted at 5G RRU, beamforming fronthaul and vDU. The AccuTime software runs on its in-built ARM processor subsystem and utilizes on-chip IP allowing customers to have an integrated synchronization solution.
Arm this week filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm for its continued use Nuvia’s Arm license after Qualcomm’s acquisition of Nuvia. In a statement, Arm said it is seeking “specific performance of the contractual obligation to destroy certain Nuvia designs, an injunction against trademark infringement as well as fair compensation for the trademark infringement.” The statement adds, “Because Qualcomm attempted to transfer Nuvia licenses without Arm’s consent, a standard restriction under Arm’s license agreements, Nuvia’s licenses terminated in March 2022. Before and after that date, Arm made multiple good faith efforts to seek a resolution. In contrast, Qualcomm has breached the terms of the Arm license agreement by continuing development under the terminated licenses.”
u-blox announced the expansion of its PointPerfect global navigation satellite system (GNSS) augmentation service to the South Korean market. It is the first PPP-RTK (precise point positioning, real-time kinematic) high precision positioning solution enabling a broad range of applications to be officially commercialized in the country. The service is accessible via Thingstream, the u-blox IoT service delivery platform, an enterprise-grade cloud interface proven to support billions of messages. The PointPerfect service enables the fast-growing demand for high precision GNSS solutions including autonomous vehicles such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), service robots, machinery automation, micro mobility, and other advanced navigation applications.
Imagination Technologies has appointed Michael Trzupek as chief financial officer and member of the company’s executive management board, who will be based in Seattle (Washington, U.S.). The company said this should also be seen as a commitment to the important U.S. market, this being the latest in a series of appointments reinforcing Imagination’s commitment and capability in the U.S. which includes new senior sales and customer support roles. Trzupek joins from Core Scientific where he served as CFO. Previously, he has held a range of management positions at companies including Intel and Microsoft.
Lynx Software Technologies has appointed Amanda Blum as chief financial officer, who joins from Green Hills Software. She will oversee finance, accounting and other administrative support functions and report into CEO Tim Reed. Prior to Green Hills, Blum held several senior financial and accounting positions at Sientra, Inc., a publicly traded medical device company, where her responsibilities spanned accounting, financial planning and analysis, SEC reporting and tax, while also participating in strategic M&A activities.
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