Q: Over the last year, what’s the biggest trend you’ve seen affect your field of engineering?
By Martin Croome, VP of business development, GreenWaves Technologies
We’re starting to see the emergence of significant interest in open source semiconductors. At GreenWaves Technologies, we see this trend driven by two major industry events:
- The tailing-off of power/performance benefits in new semiconductor designs predominantly driven by Moore’s law effects means that it is becoming increasingly necessary to optimize system on chip (SoC)/processor architecture for specific application domains.
- The growing industry support for the RISC-V ISA means that the tools supporting it, the Foundation for acceptance of any processor architecture, are maturing fast.
RISC-V and our core upstream open source project PULP drive GreenWaves’ ability to bring innovative, new solutions to market embedding inference based on artificial intelligence (AI) into battery operated sensors with use of capital efficiencies that were hitherto not possible for fabless semiconductor start-ups.
We believe that this is the most significant business model shift in the semiconductor industry since Arm enabled companies to develop SoCs based on common processor cores.
By Kevin McDermott, VP marketing, Imperas Software
The industry is always trying to move toward a greater level of abstraction, especially in the area of complex software/ hardware development and verification. This need historically has fueled the IP industry, as well as virtual platforms. We have seen increasing complexity, and the need for security, drive developers to implement high-level, high performance simulation as a critical part of their methodology.
By Art Swift, VP marketing & business development, Esperanto Technologies; vice chair, RISC-V Foundation Marketing Committee
Over the last year, there has been an explosion of innovation in the chip industry. Personally, I have not seen this level of excitement and innovation since the mid-90s, when the RISC processor revolution was in full swing.
During the 90s, Sun Microsystems, Digital Equipment, MIPS Computer Systems, and Arm (and its many partners) were attempting to disrupt the status quo in the computer and chip industries by building (and licensing) new RISC processor architectures. Semiconductor IP licensing soon boomed, and the fabless semiconductor industry was soon in full swing with dozens—if not hundreds—of new companies founded. Shortly after, the dotcom boom and mobile revolution fueled the next wave of innovation in chip and processor architectures.
This time around, the innovation is again the result of huge market disruptions—artificial intelligence (AI) and the advent of open standard Instruction Set Architectures (ISAs) such as RISC-V. These disruptions have each spurred an avalanche of funding for new companies, each focused on out innovating each other to establish a beachhead in the $50 billion AI chip market and the 50 billion unit Internet of Things (IoT) market of the near future. There have been $100 million or more in new chip-related VC investments, and once again, dozens of new companies have spawned. It’s not just the new markets in AI and IoT that are driving this capital influx, but it’s also the disruption of the now status quo processor IP licensing model by the free and open RISC-V standard. RISC-V was launched out of academia just a few years ago, and is already seeing incredible industry adoption, changing the underlying business model for the chip industry and creating a viable new business model for chipsets.
By Senthil Kumar, engineering manager, appliances, TE Connectivity
Aluminization and miniaturization are the most significant trends in motor industry, where magnet wire interconnect products are used extensively.
As the price of copper fluctuates and rises, motor manufacturers move toward aluminum wires that are typically offered at a lower, more stable price. Aluminum also offers a weight advantage to customers, when compared to copper. However, size-to-weight ratio is a concern that engineers must address.
Miniaturization is becoming more of a requirement than a trend. With every appliance or device becoming smaller and smarter, it reduces the real estate for connectors, terminals, and sensors. Thus, achieving similar performance, or sometimes superior performance, within smaller space without defying contact physics becomes a challenge for the connector industry.
By Paul Dobbins, CTO, telent Technology Services
The most talked about topics are still Cloud Computing technology and the Internet of Things (IoT), which have dominated the industry for a few years now. By integrating the Cloud into design solutions, our engineers can keep ahead of the curve, increasing productivity and efficiency by using software that can be scaled to meet the varying demands of a business.
Whilst it has been more hype than substance in the past, IoT-enabled, cloud-based remote monitoring solutions are now bringing benefits to end customers. This is something telent has embraced in our Asset Management group, understanding the importance of driving real-time monitoring. Enabling interfaces to both legacy assets and modern ICT infrastructure with state-of-the-art monitoring systems, we have implemented communication solutions that are supported with monitoring, management, and maintenance services, typically improving first time fix rates, and predicting and preventing faults in order to minimize service disruption and the costs typically seen where an engineer is required to attend.
By Arun Vemuri, general manager, body electronics & lighting, Texas Instruments
Comfort and convenience features continue to expand in cars. Premium vehicles are offering more features such as electronic tinting of sunroof glass, and gesture control for adjusting side mirror position and audio volume. Premium vehicles are also adding soft-close features and obstacle-detection sensors, which gently shuts the car doors and prevents the door from opening too wide and causing damage. Further, drivers can use a cellphone app to unlock the car door and start the car engine or electric motor is making inroads into premium vehicles. Premium vehicles are seeing high-resolution headlights that allow for adapting the headlight beam shape to help drivers safely navigate on dark roadways. In the meantime, features that have existed in premium vehicles are now becoming standard in mid- and entry-level vehicles. Power windows, power seats, heated and cooled seats, power side mirrors, and passive-entry and passive-start key fobs are becoming available in more vehicles. LED headlights and rear lights are rapidly expanding in vehicles allowing for enhanced visibility for drivers and enabling unique vehicle designs for car manufacturers. Dual-zone climate control that includes temperature and humidity controls are also being made available in mid-level cars.
By Harsha Nanduri, sr. marketing engineer, Microchip’s Development Systems BU
I’ve seen an increased focus on highly efficient devices or designs. The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) coupled with devices that are not only stationary and dependent on indoor networks, but devices that are always powered on, mobile and connected to wide area networks, has driven the need for highly efficient devices. Engineers are now challenged to find innovative solutions for devices to utilize minimal power with increased performance.
By Ramanuja Konreddy, sr. product marketing engineer, Microchip’s 32-bit Microcontroller BU
IoT is the biggest trend I noticed in the past year. High performance computing in smaller packages, pervasive connectivity and low power consumption are the factors that are driving IoT.
By David Paloian, academic program manager, Microchip Technology
The shrinking of the design/development cycle. This has led to new tools, methodologies, and platforms for prototyping, and new models for software reuse and distribution.
Q: What is the major obstacle you expect to encounter in your industry in the next few years?
By Martin Croome, VP of business development, GreenWaves Technologies
While open source brings major benefits, it also brings challenges. Open source brings together a diverse group of volunteers for a common cause: researchers, scientists, hardware and software developers, IP providers, as well as architects and visionaries. Bringing many more contributors with diverse agendas into a project translates into more risk and perhaps conflicting vision for its future direction. We expect that there will be some turmoil as companies adapt to a collaborative development model, very different to a purchased ‘IP bricks’ model.
GreenWaves’ expects that this will bring challenges in applying best practices in design and test to projects that, if brought to market, represent major levels of financial risk for the company doing so.
Open source software and hardware projects have proved that this goal is reachable (with some hiccups along the way) and ultimately have shown that open source can produce quality levels that exceed closed source projects.
By John Borrego, director of operations, IEE
The biggest obstacle that we expect to encounter, and have been encountering, is the increasing amount of lead times for single electronic components, such as multi-layer ceramic capacitors. The exponential growth for consumer electronics has left a void for component manufacturers that has been difficult to fill. Electronic components that are used on printed circuit board assemblies, like that of ceramic capacitors have seen the demand surge to unprecedented levels. What used to be a readily available, commercial-off-the-shelf item, now has a lead time in excess of 18 weeks. Even with manufacturers’ increasing capital expenditures to meet future demand, there will still be a deficiency of components available, especially for small- to mid-sized electronic manufacturers. Minimum orders will increase and lead times will extend further with the exception of large manufacturers who can afford to lock down big quantities.
High production volumes for smartphones and electric vehicles will further drain the stock, limiting the capacity for new electronic manufacturers to stay competitive among the burgeoning market. The result will be a somewhat less competitive landscape with larger companies being seated at the ends of the table, while smaller manufacturers are forced to assimilate or find themselves unable to stay relevant as the costs to their customer increases to meet the demand. In-order to combat this, small- to mid-sized electronics manufacturers should focus on their core product lines and increase production efficiency through elegant design. Accurate material planning could help alleviate the lead time impact with products, but it must be driven by effective leadership within the organization. Material resource planning and improved sales forecasting will be instrumental toward planning an effective strategy to offset the rising lead times. Electronic manufacturers should be wary of this growing issue and plan accordingly. If not, they will see their on-time delivery and lead times’ increase to unmanageable levels.
By Kevin McDermott, VP marketing, Imperas Software
Our lives, worldwide, have changed incredibly over the past 30 years, driven largely by innovation in electronics. But now, “Moore’s Law” has broken down when applied strictly to hardware. There is hope, however! As much of the value in electronics has shifted to software, the challenge is to achieve Moore’s Law type productivity and value in software, by applying the same techniques that solved hardware complexity: simulation at an increasingly high level.
By Art Swift, VP marketing & business development, Esperanto Technologies; vice chair, RISC-V Foundation Marketing Committee
The creation and growth of these new markets will create a new set of winners and losers in the chip and processor world. Unfortunately, not all of these startups will survive, and much of the venture capital will be lost along the way. However, that’s what venture capital is about—creating the next huge winner while other companies might fade away due to their execution, vision or market understanding. Ultimately, we, as consumers of technology, will derive incredible benefits from this new era of silicon innovation.
By Senthil Kumar, engineering manager, appliances, TE Connectivity
While miniaturization presents a tough space challenge relative to contact physics, aluminum wires present more challenges since they are more ductile and are susceptible to variation. Inconsistency among wire manufacturers on wire specifications, and the wires themselves, poses a major obstacle to aluminization. With more and more customers eyeing the advantages offered by aluminum, there are more risks related to the variations and greater potential for non-robust solutions.
By Paul Dobbins, CTO, telent Technology Services
The skills gap—the struggle to find the resources and the expertise to fill engineering roles, which often require a specialist skill set, particularly as everything is now converging on IP based infrastructure. This has been particularly difficult in the transportation sector. With major projects currently being planned across the U.K., such as HS2, Crossrail, and the Heathrow expansion, transport bosses have struggled to entice young people into engineering in order to fill the skills gaps.
At telent, we make a conscious effort to do regular capability reviews, to ensure that our people have the skills that they need to do the job. Attracting new talent is always top of the agenda for us too, with our apprenticeship schemes offering those fresh out of school a chance to be an immediate part of a project team, getting hands on learning on the job, with the bonus of gaining a qualification in the relevant engineering field. There is also often a gap between what employers want and what capabilities graduates come out of university with—a tailored graduate scheme like telent’s tackles this head on, teaching young people from day one how to work with the sharp end of technology for our customers.
By Arun Vemuri, general manager, body electronics & lighting, Texas Instruments
As cars continue their journey toward electrification, the goal of increasing the driving range implies that most of the energy stored in batteries has to be reserved for use by the traction motor. Furthermore, with the advent of advanced driver assist features, some of the stored battery energy will be used by systems such as adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, and autonomous driving. This means that the energy available for comfort and convenience features could be limited, which in turn, limits the features implemented in cars. For example, some cars only have power driver seat while the passenger seat is still manual. This power seat configuration is to limit the stored energy in the battery for comfort and convenience features.
By Harsha Nanduri, sr. marketing engineer, Microchip’s Development Systems BU
Development tools break down barriers by reducing time-to-market of R&D concepts for both makers and engineers. These flexible and rapid prototyping boards have given rise to a slew of embedded solutions that have a tighter integration of hardware and software. In the future, a multi-disciplinary approach to engineering becomes essential to help sustain this trend as more products are developed. Currently, a major obstacle is a shortage of talent, specifically the diverse set of skills ranging from hardware development, software, security, and marketing.
By Ramanuja Konreddy, sr. product marketing engineer, Microchip’s 32-bit Microcontroller BU
As devices are connecting to the internet at a rapid pace, there is an increased risk of security vulnerabilities. Implementing security in the deeply embedded designs and IoT nodes will be a challenge that we may face over the next few years.
By David Paloian, academic program manager, Microchip Technology
Many companies are using rapid prototyping to prove concepts and gain support for new projects. However, in most cases, these prototypes need to be redesigned for production. The increased emphasis on time-to-market will require new development approaches to overcome this obstacle.