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Arm_Factory_Provisioning_White_Paper_Final[2]

Since the introduction of its 9-disk helium-sealed nearline HDD (MG07) in late 2017, Toshiba’s nearline-class HDD exabyte shipments have nearly tripled. The remarkable growth in exabytes shipped is attributable to Toshiba’s time to market on leading-edge capacity nearline HDDs. In 2CQ ’19, helium-based nearline HDD exabytes surpassed that of air-based nearline HDDs, and this delta will become increasingly larger as time progresses.

During this same period, Toshiba’s total nearline average capacity has more than doubled. Moreover, the projected rise in higher-capacity nearline HDD volumes will fuel this projected upward momentum in average capacity through 2020 and beyond.

The success of the helium-based HDD designs has contributed to the steady rise in Toshiba’s overall market share. Based on TRENDFOCUS, Inc. preliminary 3CQ19 report, Toshiba has more than doubled its market share within three years, closing the gap on the competition. All of this have been accomplished during extremely challenging market conditions – a testament to Toshiba’s approach to product design and acceptance Toshiba’s product portfolio has received from major customers.

The result is that Toshiba is leading the charge in the high-capacity nearline HDD market. Hard disk drives have been and remain the most cost-effective random-access storage medium available in the market. At roughly 12 times less expensive than solid state memory (according to various publicly published reports), the cost competitive advantage will help Toshiba keep up the insatiable storage demand of the cloud datacenter companies.

 Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (“Toshiba”) has launched the “TC78B027FTG,” a three-phase brushless motor control pre-driver IC with Intelligent Phase Control (InPAC) technology that enables optimum operating efficiency in applications such as high-velocity server fans, blowers and pumps.

In recent years, advances in server capacity and performance require larger and higher velocity fans for cooling the excess heat generated by the equipment.

Similarly, small blowers, vacuums and pumps also operate with high-speed impellers that require high power capability. TC78B027FTG is a brushless motor controller with pre-driver that can drive a wide range of external MOSFETs to meet such challenges.

TC78B027FTG features Intelligent Phase Control (InPAC) and Closed Loop Speed Control technologies. InPAC offers high-efficiency drive by synchronizing the phases of the driving voltage and current, thereby delivering maximum real power to the loads. This operation is usually not possible without some kind of compensation, which generally requires significant motor characterizations upfront and operation adjustments in real time to achieve the optimum efficiency throughout the speed range. InPAC, on the other hand, is an automatic function that requires initialization during design and therefore minimizes adjustment burdens and speeds up the development time.

A closed loop speed control function regulates and maintains the motor rotational speed under dynamic power fluctuations and load variations, a valuable feature for mission-critical applications such as server fans and other cooling applications. Precise setting of a speed profile is done by the built-in non-volatile memory (NVM) in the TC78B027FTG which eliminates the need for an external MCU for a closed loop speed control.

TC78B027FTG solutions also simplify motor selections—TC78B027FTG requires only one Hall sensor input that can be used either with a single Hall sensor motor or the conventional 3 Hall sensors motors. The IC also employs either a Hall sensor analog or Hall IC digital signal for rotor position detection, which truly simplifies users’ motor selection tasks.

For low power applications, designers can also consider TC78B027FTG fully integrated driver version, TC78B025FTG, which covers 16V/3.5A applications.

Main features

• Intelligent phase control optimizes efficiency over a wide operating range.
  InPAC, a technology developed by Toshiba, realizes an automatically optimized high-efficiency drive in a wide range of rotational speeds. Adjustment burden is also reduced.
• Stable rotational speed under disturbances
  A closed loop speed control function regulates motor rotational speed fluctuations caused by changes in power supply voltage and load. An external MCU is not required because the IC has an internal NVM for speed profile setting.
• Flexible in various power applications with appropriate external FETs
  Various FETs can be used, and TC78B027FTG solutions cover a wide range of low-to-medium power applications.

Applications

Cooling fans for servers, blowers.

Main Specifications

TOKYO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation (“Toshiba”) today announced the launch of “TB67B000AHG,” a new three-phase brushless motor driver for home appliances such as air-conditioners, air-purifiers, dehumidifiers, and ceiling fans. The new driver is a high-voltage addition to the “TB67B000 series,” which realizes highly efficient brushless motor drive and noise reduction in a single package.

Demand is growing, particularly in emerging economies, for high-efficiency three-phase brushless fan motors that can reduce energy consumption and can manage fluctuations in power voltage. Such motors require higher-voltage PWM driver ICs to maintain high product reliability.

Toshiba’s newly developed 600V TB67B000AHG driver IC is pin-compatible with the current 500V TB67B000HG and can easily replace it. Toshiba is also developing the more compact version “TB67B000AFG” in a small 34-pin HSSOP ^[1] package which will be available in November 2019.

Main Features

• 600V rating boosts product reliability
  Ensures products with greater resilience to voltage fluctuations than the current 500V TB67B000HG. Pin compatibility realizes easy replacement of the current IC.
• Realizing sine-wave PWM drive with a rating of 600V/2A in a single package
  Sine-wave motor control IC and IGBT (rating of 600V/2A) are integrated in a single package. This reduces the size of mounting area and board layout, and contributes to overall system cost reduction.
• Low noise and low vibration
  Use of a sine-wave drive system with a smooth current waveform reduces noise, and achieves less vibration than motors with a rectangular wave drive system.

Applications
Home appliances such as air-conditioners and air-purifiers, dehumidifiers, ceiling fans, and other industrial equipment.

Main Specifications

[1]: Shrink Small Outline Package with Heat Sink

For more information about the new product and other line-up, please visit:
TB67B000AHG
https://toshiba.semicon-storage.com/info/lookup.jsp?pid=TB67B000AHG&lang=en
TB67B000HG
https://toshiba.semicon-storage.com/info/lookup.jsp?pid=TB67B000HG&lang=en
TB67B000FG
https://toshiba.semicon-storage.com/info/lookup.jsp?pid=TB67B000FG&lang=en

To check the availability of the new product at online distributors, please visit:
TB67B000AHG
https://toshiba.semicon-storage.com/ap-en/buy/stockcheck.TB67B000AHG.html
TB67B000HG
https://toshiba.semicon-storage.com/ap-en/buy/stockcheck.TB67B000HG.html
TB67B000FG
https://toshiba.semicon-storage.com/ap-en/buy/stockcheck.TB67B000FG.html

Intelligent Phase Control (InPAC) technology optimizes brushless motor performance by capitalizing the brushless motors’ efficiency to the maximum.

Brushless motors are used in many applications, powering a wide range of high-speed equipment ranging from home vacuum cleaners to industrial machinery to data center server cooling fans.

A major challenge facing designers is ensuring that the motors they select operate reliably and efficiently. To help achieve these goals, Toshiba has developed its new InPAC motor controller series.

Intelligent phase control
To meet a growing demand for improved energy efficiency and lower noise, equipment designers are increasingly turning to inverters to control brushless motors. With conventional technology, in order to obtain high-level efficiency, it’s necessary to adjust the phase, or lead angle, of the motor voltage and motor current for individual motors.

A lead angle is the angle of timing at which voltage is advanced to apply to the coil.

It takes some time to apply voltage to the coil until current increases to the maximum value. In a high-speed rotation, a rotor may pass through the next turn-on point before the magnetic drive reaches maximum power. In this case, the rotor power will not be the maximum. To avoid this situation and improve the drive efficiency, a rotor is advanced to a certain angle from the calculated angle. This advanced angle is called a lead angle. A lead angle varies depending on characteristics, rotational speeds, and load conditions of the brushless motors.

Achieving optimal efficiency over a wide range of rotational speeds—from almost zero rotations per minute (rpm) at start-up to high speeds of thousands rpm—requires many characterizations for phase adjustment and can usually optimize at a limited range. InPAC’s advantage lies in intelligent phase control, a technology that allows brushless motors to rotate efficiently at high speeds with uniform accuracy.

Toshiba’s approach marks a distinct departure from conventional motor controllers. With previous-generation technologies, it was necessary to adjust a phase difference between the voltage and current of a motor at several points in its operating rpm range. Toshiba’s Intelligent Phase Control (InPAC) technology eliminates this need, and speeds development, by automatically adjusting the phases of a motor’s voltage and current, thereby achieving the highest possible efficiency across the entire operating rpm range only through initialization. Also, Toshiba’s solution achieves flexible rotation speed control by hard logic without the microcontroller, thereby saving additional development efforts.

How it works
When a brushless motor is driven with a sine wave, changes in its rpm resulting from its impedance create a phase difference between its voltage and current, decreasing drive efficiency. To provide the phase adjustment necessary to improve efficiency, InPAC compares the relationship between the current phase (current information) and the voltage phase (Hall-effect signal) and provides feedback to the motor current control signal in order to adjust their phase relationship automatically, leading to higher efficiency.

InPAC instantly detects the motor current phase and feeds back information for auto lead angle control. In sensor-based motor applications, the Hall signal phase is automatically adjusted to match that of the motor drive current. High efficiency is achieved regardless of the motor’s rpm, load torque or power supply voltage. InPAC also helps reduce the number of external parts required for lead angle adjustment.

To achieve the highest possible efficiency with conventional motor control technology, it’s necessary to adjust a phase difference between the voltage and current of a motor at several points in its operating rpm range. InPAC does away with this requirement, enabling designers to automatically adjust motor voltage and current phases to achieve the highest possible efficiency across the entire operating rpm range only through initialization, reducing the development workload.

For example, at 3,000 rpm, InPAC reduces supply current by approximately 10%, compared with conventional fixed lead angle control.

Optimization and efficiency
To achieve optimal motor efficiency, the lead angle must be adjusted with real-world equipment, although it is controlled based on the information on rotor positions provided by Hall sensors. The lead angle must also be adjusted according to the motor’s constants, including rpm and several other factors, even when a motor controller/driver has an auto lead angle control function. Given these critical limitations, a need has emerged over the past several years for an improved control method that reduces designer burden.

InPAC addresses this issue by rapidly detecting the motor current phase and instantly feeding the information back for automatic lead angle control. When a motor application is equipped with a sensor, the phase of the Hall signal is automatically adjusted to match that of the motor drive current. High efficiency is achieved regardless of a motor’s rpm, load torque or power supply voltage. InPAC also helps reduce the number of external parts necessary for lead angle adjustment and eliminates the need for any programming related to a motor’s changing operating states.

The use of a sine wave drive system with a smooth current waveform also offers the benefit of generating less noise and vibration than motors with a rectangular wave drive system.

Requirements versions and specifications
InPAC devices are available in several versions, each developed to meet a specific design need. The TC78B016FTG is a fully integrated motor control driver rated 40V/3A maximum. This IC requires a power supply operating anywhere in the range of 6 to 36 volts and provides a sine wave drive. Designers can also take advantage of the low ON resistance of 0.24 ohms (total of high and low sides) typical, which reduces the device’s self-heating during operation, thereby allowing the IC to generally support 1.0-1.5A applications. Speed is controlled by a simple pulse width modulation (PWM) signal or an analog voltage input. Built-in protections include thermal shutdown, over-current protection and motor lock detection. The part is offered in a compact VQFN32 5x5mm2 package.

The TC78B041FNG and TC78B042FTG are flexible controller products that allow users to tailor the application power requirement and use the proper gate driver and MOSFET for the designs. The TC78B041FNG adopts a SSOP30 type package and the TC78B042FTG adopts a VQFN32 5x5mm2 package.

The TC78B027FTG is a controller with a gate driver where users can select the right MOSFETs for the applications. It also incorporates a one-Hall drive system that allows users to employ a less costly one-sensor brushless motor. The device is housed in a VQFN24 4x4mm2 package.

For more information
Toshiba has over 35 years of experience in the fabrication of motor drivers and offers an extensive portfolio of brushless motor drive controllers with InPAC technology, suitable for various needs. To evaluate your product plan for using a brushless motor incorporating InPAC, reference designs are available to download.

In this webinar we will provide tool requirements and design techniques that will help you on your path to designing your next-generation wireless product.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is not a new topic to many; however, the rapidly changing wireless technology used in IoT devices may be. Billions of new IoT devices will be coming online in the next few years, and 5G technologies will be the foundation for the design of devices like smartphones, tablets, laptops, and wearables. This presents new design challenges: What do I need to use for board materials? What type of antenna do I need to use? What are the requirements for PCB design? All these and many more are concerns you will need to start investigating and finding solutions to in order to successfully design your first- or next-generation wireless device.

You may be thinking PCB materials will be your biggest concern. Depending on the device you’re creating and communication protocol you will be using, the carrier frequency you’ll need to use could range from 6 GHz up to 80 GHz. This means that how you define your board stack-up, place components, route traces, and where you place vias will pose as much of a challenge as choosing materials if you want your design to work properly.

During this webinar, we will provide tool requirements and design techniques that will help you on your path to designing your next-generation wireless product.

What You Will Learn

• RF design practices for first-pass success
• Tools required to make the design process less painful
• Modern layout techniques for 5G wireless

Click HERE to View On-Demand Web Seminar!

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• New Arm Flexible Access empowers SoC design teams to experiment, evaluate and undertake full projects with a wide range of Arm IP
• Provides partners with unlimited design access for custom silicon designs and they pay only for what is used at production
• Expands silicon design opportunities for established Arm partners and new market entrants such as system providers, OEMs and start-ups.

Cambridge, UK – Arm announced today it is expanding the ways existing and new partners can access and license its technology for semiconductor design. Arm Flexible Access is a new engagement model enabling SoC design teams to initiate projects before they license IP and pay only for what they use at production. Through Arm Flexible Access, businesses will enable their design teams with more freedom to experiment, evaluate and innovate.

“Arm Flexible Access was created to address the opportunities presented by a world of one trillion securely connected devices,” said Rene Haas, president, Intellectual Property Group, Arm. “By converging unlimited design access with no up-front licensing commitment, we are empowering existing partners and new market players to address new growth opportunities in IoT, machine learning, self-driving cars and 5G.”

Several partners, including AlphaICs, Invecas and Nordic Semiconductor, have signed on to this new Arm engagement model and already have access to a wide range of IP products, support tools and training. Arm Flexible Access complements standard Arm licensing which will continue to be the best option for partners seeking access to Arm’s full product portfolio and most advanced IP. A detailed comparison of the latest Arm engagement models can be found here.

Typically, partners license individual components from Arm and pay a license fee upfront before they can access the technology. With Arm Flexible Access they pay a modest fee for immediate access to a broad portfolio of technology, then paying a license fee only when they commit to manufacturing, followed by royalties for each unit shipped. This portfolio includes all the essential Intellectual Property (IP) and tools needed for an SoC design, making it easier to evaluate or prototype with multiple IP blocks before committing to licenses.

IP available through Arm Flexible Access includes the majority of Arm-based processors within the Arm® Cortex®-A, -R and -M families. These CPUs accounted for 75 percent of all Cortex CPU licenses signed over the last two years. It also includes Arm TrustZone and CryptoCell security IP, select Mali GPUs, system IP alongside tools and models for SoC design and early software development. Access to Arm’s global support and training services are also included.

A full list of the Arm IP available through Arm Flexible Access can be found here.

You can read more about Arm Flexible Access in this blog from Dipti Vachani, senior vice president and general manager of Arm’s automotive and IoT business.

• Faster CAE Processes : A new immersed boundary method helps engineers spend less time modeling for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. Engineers can also now instantaneously compute new configurations for flexible hoses and pipes after a design configuration change.
• Open and Scalable Environment : Engineers can now use calculated vibrations from common third-party finite element (FE) solvers, ANSYS and Abaqus, and apply those vibrations as loading in a structural or vibro-acoustic solution in Simcenter 3D, which can lead to a better understanding of how vibrations will impact perceived sound by end-customers.
• Tied to the Digital Thread : A new enhanced interface between Simcenter 3D and Simcenter™ Testlab™ software helps engineers better collaborate with colleagues in the test group, which can keep analyses correlated with physical test results.  New capabilities available in Teamcenter Simulation help engineers quickly identify which simulations are impacted after a design change, which helps save time when working with large assemblies and projects.

Haipeng Jin from Telink Semiconductor (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Appointed to Bluetooth SIG Board of Directors

KIRKLAND, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, the Bluetooth® Special Interest Group (SIG) announced that Haipeng Jin, co-founder of Telink Semiconductor in Shanghai, joins the board of directors of the Bluetooth SIG as an Associate Member Director to serve a two-year term starting in July 2019. The Bluetooth SIG Board of Directors is responsible for the governance of the organization and plays a vital role in driving the expansion of Bluetooth technology to address the needs of a growing number of consumer and commercial markets.

“The addition of Haipeng Jin from Telink to the Bluetooth SIG Board of Directors is an honor and we look forward to Haipeng’s expertise and creativity,” said Mark Powell, executive director of the Bluetooth SIG. “With the rapid growth of Bluetooth to provide commercial and industrial solutions such as connected lighting, asset tracking, and access control, the expertise Telink provides will be beneficial as Bluetooth continues to add capabilities and enhance the technology to meet market demands.”

Haipeng Jin is the co-founder and engineering vice president of Telink Semiconductor, currently leading the daily operations of Telink’s research and development (R&D) and product team. An integral and important part of Telink’s success in diversified System-on-Chip (SoC) offerings, Haipeng brings years of experience in developing and commercializing innovative low power wireless IoT technologies. Haipeng has numerous patents in his name worldwide and is an expert in wireless communications from the physical layer to application layer.

With this appointment, the Bluetooth SIG board now consists of individuals from the following member companies: Apple, Bose, Ericsson, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, Nokia, Telink Semiconductor and Toshiba.

For information, visit the board of directors landing page on the Bluetooth site.

Lisle, IL – CTS Corporation (NYSE: CTS) has announced the release of the new VR Series family of panel potentiometers for use in a variety of applications in a wide variety of markets from industrial to medical to consumer products.  As equipment platforms continue to evolve, CTS continues to expand its portfolio of potentiometer products to offer customers options and value-added solutions.

The VR Series family of panel potentiometers offers a variety of sizes ranging from 9mm to 14mm packages.  All models are available with and without bushing, horizontal and vertical mount styles, various standard resistance values and a variety of tapers.  Rotational life ranges from 5,000 cycles to 30,000 cycles, and have a wide operating temperature range of -10°C to +70°C.  Select models offering the dual output option have excellent tracking performance at ±2dB.  Shaft length and trim options are available.  In addition, Series 12VR offers backlit illuminated shafts for those applications requiring an illuminated control in dim or dark spaces.  LEDs are available in single, dual and three-color options in a variety of colors. Applications can be found in many market segments including industrial, medical, communications, audio, and consumer.  A few of the applications include:

• Medical
  • Ultrasound Scanner
  • Portable Vitals Monitor
  • Portable EKG
• Communications
  • SW Radio
  • Base Stations
• Electronic Test Equipment
  • Oscilloscopes
  • Power Supplies
  • Frequency Generators
• Audio Equipment
  • Mixing Boards
  • Sound Processors
  • Guitar Effect Boxes
  • Instrument Amplifiers
• Consumer Appliances
  • Blenders
  • Toaster Ovens
  • Juicers
  • Food Processors

Custom modifications required to fit specific applications are available on request.  Please contact your local CTS Sales Representative for details.  Complete product listings and data sheets can be found on the CTS website at: https://www.ctscorp.com/products/controls.

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• The Valor New Product Introduction (NPI) release from Mentor completes an automated printed circuit board design-for-manufacturing flow, replacing traditional, manual error-prone processes.
• Design for manufacturing (DFM) rules’ set-up time can be reduced from weeks to days.
• Using the award-winning Valor NPI technology, critical design data is automatically extracted to derive PCB technology classifications for appropriate manufacturing process constraints.
• The new Xpedition DFM application, driven by Valor NPI, empowers PCB designers to benefit from best-in-class DFM software tools without having to learn another application, enabling true concurrent DFM.

Mentor, a Siemens business, today announced the release of the final phase of the Valor™ software NPI design-for-manufacturing (DFM) technology that automates printed circuit board (PCB) design reviews where the PCB technology and manufacturing processes are employed. This latest release completes the realization of the Valor intelligent, manufacturing process-driven DFM solution, adding assembly DFM checks to the new process flow.

This new technology was developed in response to the customers’ need for an easier way to get accurate, meaningful DFM analysis without having every user be a DFM expert. To accomplish this, Mentor began a program three years ago to re-architect the Valor DFM solution to: make it easier to set up and maintain DFM rules so that the results are relevant, simplify the execution of the DFM application, and integrate DFM into Mentor’s Xpedition™ software layout application so that designers are aware of manufacturing concerns during the concurrent design process.

“Having implemented Valor NPI 11.0 as a beta program participant, we are eagerly anticipating the production release,” commented Chris Smith, senior engineering services group manager at National Instruments. “The ability to incorporate DFM assembly analysis upstream in development should allow us insight on potential manufacturability issues before release. This will build on the first phase of our DFM upstream initiative where designers benefited from fabrication DFM analysis being run during design. The modular stages and integration with Xpedition Layout simplifies the results and allows us to scale the process to empower designers and engineers to access DFM results on demand.”

This new release provides easy set-up and maintenance of the DFM rules for PCB assembly. The Valor NPI release works with all major PCB layout tools:  Xpedition and PADS™ software suites, Cadence Allegro, Zuken Board Designer, and Altium products. The integrated Xpedition DFM offering is only available with Mentor’s Xpedition.

“We aim to help our customers accelerate innovation,” said Dan Hoz, general manager of Mentor’s Valor Division. “We already know that DFM analysis is a critical element in helping reduce time to market and aiding in first-time-right production, and with the latest release of Valor NPI, we are making this cutting-edge technology accessible to PCB designers without requiring prior knowledge of PCB manufacturing. Designers can focus on their task, knowing that their designs can make it to market faster, on budget, and at higher yield.”

Product Availability
The new Valor NPI release is now available. For additional product information visit:  www.mentor.com/npi.

(“Toshiba”) today announced that its Visconti^TM4 image recognition processor was a key component in the driver assistance systems of the Toyota Motor Corporation (“Toyota”) vehicles that recorded industry-leading scores in the 2018 Japan New Car Assessment Program (JNCAP), the government program that assesses the road safety of new vehicles. The Toyota Alphard/Vellfire was declared the winner of the Grand Prix Award for preventive safety performance, and the Toyota Crown and Corolla Sport were both evaluated as ASV^[1]+++, the highest level for advanced safety vehicles.

Advances in driver assistance systems are bringing autonomous vehicles ever closer, but also raising concerns for ensuring safe roads and reducing traffic accidents. Toshiba is contributing to a future of safe vehicles by channeling its know-how in deep neural networks and sensor and imaging technologies into the Visconti^TM series of image processor LSIs for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).

JNCAP was initiated by the Japanese government in 1995 to promote the safety of new cars launched in Japan by domestic and overseas makers. The program brings together results of vehicle safety tests carried out by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), and the National Agency for Automotive Safety and Victims’ Aid (NASVA). Tests cover preventive safety performance, collision safety performance, and pedestrian protection performance. The Preventive Safety Performance Assessment evaluates advanced safety technologies such as damage mitigation braking.

Toshiba supplies Visconti^TM4 to the Toyota vehicles as an integral part of DENSO Corporation’s Front-Camera-Based Active Safety System. The LSI’s ability to process luminance differences between objects and their backgrounds, realizing better detection of pedestrians at night and in low light conditions, helped the Toyota vehicles win high scores in assessment of collision avoidance braking for pedestrians. The Alphard/Vellfire integrating the system received a high score of 126 points and took the Grand Prix Award for preventive safety performance assessment, and all of the Toyota models integrating Visconti^TM4 were evaluated as ASV+++.

Toshiba continues to channel resources into Visconti^TM, and into other innovative automotive devices that will contribute to ADAS. The company is now developing Visconti^TM5, which will deliver advanced Deep Neural Network IP, and expects to start sample shipments in September this year.

Note
[1] ASV: Advanced Safety Vehicle

* Visconti^TM is a trademark of Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation.
* All other company names, product names and service names may be trademarks of their respective companies.

Arm Treasure Data report reveals nearly half of organizations could be sending the wrong marketing messages to their customers. For more information, read the report attached here.

https://blog.treasuredata.com/blog/2019/06/10/2019-state-of-the-customer-journey/

IRVINE, Calif. Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (“Toshiba”) has launched “TB67H450FNG,” the latest addition to its line-up of brushed DC motor driver ICs. The new product with a maximum rating of 50V/3.5A¹ drives motors with a wide range of operating voltage. It also offers a small HSOP8 surface mount package with a popular pin-assignment that enhances the product sourcing possibility. Mass production starts today.

The new IC can drive brushed motors with a power supply ranging from 4.5V to 44V. It supports wide range of applications that includes, USB powered, battery powered, and industrial 12-36V devices. TB67H450FNG also has 3.5A current driving capability that can be used in applications such as robot vacuum cleaners, refrigerators and other home appliances actuators, office equipment, ATM machines, and many others.

To meet demand for lower power consumption, Toshiba has also optimized the TB67H450FNG standby current consumption by newly developed power supply circuit, which allows the stop mode moving to the standby mode automatically and turns off VCC regulator for the internal circuit operation. That helps OA equipment and home appliances to cut energy consumption and improves the battery life of battery powered devices.

Housed in a small surface-mount type HSOP8 pin package, the IC achieves space saving and yet good heat dissipation through the package thermal pad design.

Key Features

• Wide range of operating voltages: from 4.5V to 44V for large-current drive devices
• Low standby current consumption: 1 μA (max) @VM=24V, Ta=25°C
• Small 8-pin surface mount package HSOP8 with a popular pin assignment and with bottom side E-pad to enhance thermal dissipation.

Applications

Industrial equipment, including OA equipment and banking terminals; home appliances, including robot vacuum cleaners; battery powered devices (electronic locks and small household robots); and devices using 5V USB power supplies.

For more information about the new product, please visit: https://toshiba.semicon-storage.com/us/product/linear/motordriver/detail.TB67H450FNG.html

Features  Specifications  Dimensions  Ordering Information  Packing List Features Four 288-pin DDR4 SDRAM Supported RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 function compatible with six ports of SATA 6Gb/s HDMI M.2 M Key PICMG 1.3 full-size CPU card LGA1151 Intel® Xeon® E3, 8th generation Core™ i7/i5/i3, Celeron® and Pentium® processor supported Dual-channel DDR4 2666MHz Support HDMI and internal DP display Intel® PCIe GbE with Intel® AMT 11.0 supported Support M.2 M key for storage (PCIe x4) Supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 function via SATA 6Gb/s Specifications Model SPCIE-C246 CPU LGA1151 socket supports Intel® Xeon® E3, 8th generation Core™ i7/i5/i3, Pentium® or Celeron® processor Chipset Intel® C246 Memory Four 288-pin 2666MHz dual-channel DDR4 SDRAM unbuffered DIMMs support up to 64GB ECC & non-ECC (C246) BIOS AMI UEFI BIOS Graphic Engine Intel® HD Graphics Gen 9 Engines with Low power 16 execution unit, supports DX2015, OpenGL 5.X and OpenCL2.x, ES 2.0 Display Output Dual display supported 1 x HDMI (up to 4096 x [email protected]) 1 x Internal DisplayPort (up to 4096 x [email protected]) Ethernet LAN1: Intel® I219LM PHY LAN2: Intel® I211-AT PCIe controller (Co-lay I210-AT) External I/O Interface 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5Gb/s) (Rear IO type A) 1 x USB 2.0 (Type A 180°) Internal I/O Interface 1 x KB/MS (1×6 pin) 1 x RS-422/485 (1×4 pin, P=2.0) 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5Gb/s) (2×10 pin) 3 x RS-232 (2×5 pin, P=2.54) 6 x SATA 6Gb/s (RAID 0/1/5/10 supported) 6 x USB 2.0 (2×4 pin, P=2.54) Audio Support 7.1 channel HD audio by IEI AC-KIT-892HD kit Front Panel 1 x Front panel (Power LED, HDD LED, Speaker, Power Button, Reset Button) LAN LED 2 x LAN LED (1×2 pin) TPM 1 x TPM (2×10 pin) SMBus 1 x SMBus (1×4 pin) I²C 1 x I²C (1×4 pin) Expansion 1 x M.2 M key 1 x PCIe x16 & 4 x PCIe x1 signal via golden finger 4 x PCI signal via golden finger Watchdog Timer Software programmable support 1~255 sec. system reset Digital I/O 8-bit digital I/O (2×5 pin) FAN Connector 1 x CPU smart fan (1×4 pin) 1 x System smart fan (1×3 pin) Power Supply AT/ATX power supply Support AT/ATX mode ErP/EuP Compliant Power Consumption [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] (4.0 GHz Intel® Core™ i7-8700K CPU with four 16 GB 2666 MHz DDR4 memory) Operating Temperature -20°C ~ 60°C Operating Humidity 5% ~ 95%, non-condensing Dimensions 338 mm x 126 mm Weight GW: 1000g / NW: 500g CE/FCC compliant Dimensions Ordering Information Part No. Description SPCIE-C246-R11 Full-size PICMG 1.3 CPU Card supports LGA1151 Intel® Xeon® E3, Core™ i7/i5/i3/ Pentium®/Celeron® CPU per Intel® C246, ECC & non-ECC DDR4, HDMI, DP, Dual Intel® PCIe GbE, M.2, USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5Gb/s), SATA 6Gb/s, HD Audio, iAMT and RoHS 19800-000075-RS PS/2 KB/MS cable with bracket, 220mm, P=2.0 32102-000100-200-RS SATA power cable, MOLEX 5264-4P to SATA15P AC-KIT-892HD-R10 7.1 channel HD Audio kit with Realtek ALC892 support dual audio streams CF-1150SA-R10 Special cooler kit for LGA1150, High-performance compatible, 95W CF-1150SB-R11 Special cooler kit for LGA1150, High-performance compatible, 65W CF-1150SC-R20 Special cooler kit for LGA1150, 1U chassis compatible, 65W CF-1150SE-R11 Special cooler kit for LGA1150, high-performance compatible, 95W CF-1150SF-R10 Special cooler kit for LGA1150, 1U chassis compatible, 54W SAIDE-KIT01-R10 SATA to IDE/CF Converter board Packing List 1 x SPCIE-C246 single board computer 1 x Mini jumper pack 1 x SATA cable 1 x QIG (Quick Installation Guide)

For more information about the new product, please visit: https://www.ieiworld.com/en/news/con_show.php?op=showone&cid=1070

[pdf-embedder url=”https://electrosource.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IoT-PCB-Design-mentorpaper_104447-2.pdf” title=”IoT PCB Design mentorpaper_104447″]

Establishing an effective PCB systems design validation process reduces design spins and increases product quality.

Increasing performance requirements coupled with a pressure to improve product quality are driving engineering teams to consider alternatives to their current validation approach. Best-practice design processes validate the digital twin (a model of your design) early and often to minimize re-spins and actually shorten the overall design cycle. This ‘shift-left’ approach enables design engineers and layout designers to validate within their native environment, minimizing the bottleneck waiting for specialist reviews, and freeing the specialists to resolve the remaining critical issues. This process allows engineering teams to better cope with increasing complexity and focus their efforts on product innovation.

This event will cover research on best-practice process strategies (as well as implications of avoiding them). Case studies will show how engineering teams have deployed an ‘optimal’ automated validation process to accelerate sign-off. Analysis technologies that could be deployed within any ECAD flow will be discussed, including multi-board schematic, signal and power integrity, analog/mixed signal, thermal, vibration and manufacturability.

Solutions Covered

• Automated multi-board schematic analysis – Full inspection of all schematic nets to increase design quality and reduce re-spins
• Rule based error identification enabling checks for potential issues early and often during the layout implementation. Quickly layout and routing issues that could lead to SI, PI, EMI and other problems
• Design to manufacturing optimization with comprehensive DFM analysis, incorporated into your PCB design process
• Signal integrity analysis (pre and post layout)
• Power integrity (DC and AC) analysis for correct implementation of the power distribution network
• 3D, broadband, full-wave electromagnetic field solver for SI, PI, and EMI
• Integrated testability analysis – Reduce overall cost of test by addressing testability considerations in schematic capture and layout
• Analog / mixed-signal simulation (inclusive of PCB material effects through automated parasitic extraction)
• Design exploration to automatically vary actual parameters in a design concept and identify high performing design options

For more information, visit mentor.com.

Mentor, a Siemens business, today announced that Shimadzu Corporation, a leading manufacturer of analytical instruments and medical equipment based in Kyoto, Japan, selected Mentor’s Xpedition® design flow software as the company standard. Shimadzu selected the Xpedition tool suite for the corporation’s entire electronic design process, from concept design to schematic design, and for their printed circuit board (PCB) design-through-manufacturing flow.

Shimadzu Corporation had been using a competitive tool suite but re-evaluated its needs and selected Mentor’s Xpedition suite of technologies, including Valor® NPI software and MSS suites, and Mentor’s HyperLynx® software for high-speed design analysis. Shimadzu selected Mentor’s Xpedition technologies for the following capabilities and advantages:

• Improved design quality and IP design reuse across Shimadzu divisions by leveraging shared data with the Xpedition EDM data management technology.
• Eliminating team-specific process customization and helping reduce rework risks to create strong design and manufacturing team collaboration, and to help realize optimized designs due to efficient integrations.
• Direct access to the verification functionality of Mentor’s HyperLynx tool, which is now integrated with Xpedition flow. The HyperLynx solution allows for improved design quality and early correction of electrical issues that are often difficult to detect during the design phase.

“We are committed to developing market-leading analytical instruments and medical equipment, and expecting by standardizing on Mentor’s Xpedition flow would allow us to greatly improve our design processes. In particular, collaboration with the manufacturing process is highly appreciated, and has strong support from our management,” said Taro Osumi, general manager, Corporate Product Design Center, Shimadzu Corporation. “The productivity gains using Mentor’s technologies will help us develop innovative and advanced technologies with the highest confidence.”

Shimadzu has adopted a broad range of Mentor products for its design flow, including tools for signal and power integrity analysis, schematic design analysis, FPGA design optimization, design rule checking, library and data management, and PCB manufacturing, as well as functional verification with Mentor’s Questa® software and ModelSim® software.

“As one of the industry’s leading PCB electronic design software companies, we are honored that Shimadzu has standardized on Mentor’s robust portfolio of proven technologies,” said A.J. Incorvaia, senior vice president, Mentor EDA Electronic Board Systems. “Our partnerships with leading customers such as Shimadzu validate our solutions, and our powerful technology can help them develop new and innovative products with time-to-market advantages and reduced risk.”

For more information about the Xpedition flow, visit the website: www.mentor.com/pcb/xpedition.com

Continuing to expand its functional verification footprint across high-growth markets and applications, Mentor, a Siemens business, today announced that Arm China has selected Mentor’s Questa™ Simulation with Power Aware verification solution to handle critical tasks in the development of next-generation, low-power microcontroller (MCU) cores.

Arm China selected the Mentor Questa solution after a thorough evaluation, during which Questa demonstrated smooth bring-up and delivered a 100 percent pass rate against all target designs.

“Mentor has been an Arm partner for years, and we are pleased to extend this collaboration to our design teams at Arm China,” said William Liu, vice president of Product Development, Arm China. “We are satisfied with the compatibility and performance of Questa in complex verification environments, and we look forward to leveraging Questa solutions to develop highly successful designs for a range of fast-growing markets.”

Engineered to reduce risks associated with validating complex FPGA and SoC designs, the Questa Advanced Simulator works together with Mentor’s Questa® Power Aware Simulation solution, helping customers to implement low power silicon designs by accurately modeling low power silicon behavior early in the design cycle. With Questa Power Aware Simulator, Arm China’s design teams can verify active power management functionality at the register-transfer level (RTL) stage, enabling the exploration of alternative approaches before implementation begins, to achieve the greatest power reduction at the least cost.

“Mentor’s Questa verification tools have established a long track record of helping the world’s foremost chip designers unleash innovation and get to market faster and with greater confidence,” said Ravi Subramanian, general manager and vice president of Mentor’s IC Verification Solutions. “Mentor is honored to add Arm China to our long and growing list of industry leaders who rely on Questa verification solutions to differentiate and win in highly competitive markets.”

Nothing beats the pleasant crackling and gentle warmth of a dancing wood-fueled flame. As you settle into your hearthside armchair at the end of a long day, the last thing you want to worry about is the amount of particulate matter being emitted by your wood-burning fireplace. Is the smoke rising from your chimney as clean as it should be?

Worry not, because wood-fueled appliance manufacturers like Stove Builder International (SBI) worry for you. SBI manufactures wood and pellet fueled fireplaces, stoves and furnaces for the international market. We spoke with Guillaume Thibodeau-Fortin, a mechanical engineer and designer for SBI, to talk about how the company uses computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software to ensure its products are as clean as possible.

Minimizing Particulate Matter

SBI’s range of solid-fuel burning appliances produce heat by burning either wood or pellets made of compressed organic matter. However, heat isn’t the only product of this reaction. The smoke from wood- and pellet-burning stoves and fireplaces contains gases like carbon dioxide and monoxide, as well as solid or liquid particulate matter, tiny particles just 2.5 to 10 microns in size.

Particulate matter is not particularly healthy to have in one’s lungs, so it won’t come as much of a surprise that there are regulations surrounding its emission. In the United States, particulate matter emissions are currently limited to no more than 4.5 grams per hour. However, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is tightening those restrictions to just 2.5 grams per hour in 2020.

To cope with the regulatory changes, SBI needed to revamp its considerable product line, and the company only had five years to do so. Though that sounds like plenty of time, as Thibodeau-Fortin explained, it could have been a close call.

“In the past, in order to do five fireboxes [the part of the fireplace or stove where the fire burns], it took probably five years. It was maybe three to four prototypes before the certification. Now we’re able to do one or two prototypes before being able to run a certification test,” he said.

So what changed? SBI turned to simulation to accelerate the design process. The company used Siemens’ FloEFD for Solid Edge, a CFD analysis tool integrated within its design software, to better analyze and optimize their designs.

Refining Design with FloEFD

One option to help reduce harmful emission in wood-burning products is to include a device called a catalytic combustor, which helps reduce the temperature necessary for gases to burn. However, according to Thibodeau-Fortin, catalytic combustors are fragile and difficult for end users to maintain, so SBI doesn’t use them. In order to reduce the particulate matter emissions of its appliances, SBI had no choice but to tweak its designs into compliance.

This tweaking was accomplished through the use of FloEFD. Though the CFD software doesn’t offer a direct method of determining the particulate matter emissions of a design, it can offer insight into emission quantity. Thibodeau-Fortin used data for wood gas flow to run a combustion simulation on SBI’s firebox designs. Though the simulations were intensive—10 hours of simulation for five minutes of real-time combustion—the analysis revealed the amount of residuals left in the chimney. The amount of residuals is an indicator of the amount of particulate matter emissions, with more residuals indicating more emissions.

With this feedback, Thibodeau-Fortin was able to tune the design in the direction of less residuals and, hence, less emissions.

“The combustion alters depending on how I tune my primary and secondary air intakes, the pilot and all those type of air intakes,” he said. “I looked at plenty of parameters in the flue pipe, and that’s how I compared a wood stove that was quite dirty to one that was pretty clean. I got closer and closer to what a clean stove should be. At the end, I could do maybe 20 or 30 modifications without having to weld anything. So it helped a lot on the prototyping.”

Since starting to use FloEFD to modify designs, SBI has certified five new fireboxes in line with the 2020 requirements, which encompass three models of wood stoves, two models of fireplaces and two models of pellet stoves. Only a few fireboxes remain to be certified to complete SBI’s product portfolio.

Integrated CFD Analysis

Siemens acquired FloEFD in 2016 with the company’s acquisition of Mentor Graphics, allowing for even tighter integration with Siemens’ CAD applications Solid Edge and NX. FloEFD is embedded directly within the application, meaning there’s no need to transfer CAD models into a standalone CFD solver. That said, FloEFD is available in a standalone version to those who need it.

The tight integration of FloEFD within CAD programs encourages engineers to frontload their CFD analysis. FloEFD wants users to take advantage of CFD early on in the design process, rather than sending a nearly finished model to a CFD analyst late in the game. This means CFD can take a guiding role in the design, as it did for SBI. To the same end, FloEFD is designed to be user friendly, accessible even to users lacking a PhD in turbulence modeling.

“It’s quite user-friendly software,” Thibodeau-Fortin said. “It’s made for a non-expert of CFD, and that helps a lot.”

For his own training, Thibodeau-Fortin went through the tutorials that come packaged with FloEFD. He had also taken a few CFD and finite element analysis (FEA) classes during his undergraduate degree, which gave him some familiarity with the process. However, he found little information on simulating combustion, which is what he needed to do for SBI. He was fortunate that a former professor of his happened to be working on combustion simulations and was able to guide Thibodeau-Fortin.

Naturally, there’s always more to learn. Thibodeau-Fortin plans to complete further training with a company specializing in combustion and heat transfer simulations. The additional training will help him tackle even more wood-burning fireplace designs, as SBI, pleased with the benefits of FloEFD, will continue to simulate its appliances for a more detailed understanding of their performance.

In the meantime, you can rest easy knowing that there’s a little less particulate matter floating around out there, thanks to FloEFD and Thibodeau-Fortin’s design efforts.

You can learn more about Solid Edge FloEFD on Siemens’ website.

Mentor, a Siemens business, today announced that DAIKIN, one of the world’s leading air conditioning manufacturers, selected Mentor’s Xpedition® printed circuit board (PCB) design flow software as their global design environment.

Although DAIKIN had an established PCB design process, the company needed to share CAD library and design data across its globally dispersed locations in order to increase design efficiency and quality. To address this need, the company evaluated and selected Mentor’s Xpedition flow based on its powerful integrated data management and collaboration capabilities. The Xpedition data management solution provides efficient design collaboration and project management within a single environment to reduce design cycle time and cost.

“We wanted a PCB design solution to improve our operational efficiency and productivity worldwide,” stated Masafumi Hashimoto, group leader, Device Technology Group, Air Conditioning Manufacturing Division, DAIKIN. “Mentor’s Xpedition platform had world-leading market share and numerous features to meet our needs. With cooperation from Mentor’s domestic development base, we can have a smooth transition from our existing CAD system to the new system. Mentor’s Xpedition solution creates a global data management system that is scalable, seamless and reliable, helping result in reduced design cycles with improved product quality.”

With cooling and heating products sold in over 150 countries, DAIKIN maintains development sites in multiple regions around the world. The company sought a solution that could be easily migrated from their existing CAD system, which lacked the ability to provide performance functions for global design development. By choosing Mentor’s Xpedition flow, DAIKIN expects to realize a concurrent design flow across multiple regions. In addition, applying a unified design data management solution is expected to enable web-based collaboration using shared libraries. Xpedition flow can also help eliminate manual processes and allow DAIKIN teams to implement customized functions, resulting in higher productivity, shortened product development cycles, and enhanced product designs.

“We strive to develop innovative technologies that provide our customers with a competitive advantage, and we are proud that DAIKIN selected our Xpedition solution to meet their specific needs, since their previous CAD tool was insufficient,” said A.J. Incorvaia, senior vice president, Mentor EDA Electronic Board Systems. “Adopting the Xpedition flow globally can help DAIKIN realize a solid return on investment, creating the potential for enhanced productivity, improved product design, and faster time-to-market.”

For more information about the Xpedition flow, visit the website: www.mentor.com/pcb/xpedition/

WIRRAL, England–(BUSINESS WIRE)–LDRA, software quality experts in the areas of functional safety, security, and standards compliance, has partnered with Siemens PLM Software to enhance traceability and validation for customers developing critical embedded systems leveraging Polarion ALM™ software. The LDRA tool suite integration with Polarion ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) provides a full lifecycle traceability and software quality solution for embedded markets with a deep dive into automated verification testing, and thus helps reduce the cost of compliance in safety- and security-critical embedded systems.

The Polarion™ portfolio is a leading market solution for enterprise software lifecycle management, including software development planning, requirements management, quality engineering, delivery and release management. It allows project managers and executives to create custom reports and use these simplified and automated reports to make decisions in real-time. The LDRA tool suite for software analysis and verification activities imports Polarion requirements and test cases with complete traceability links, and then exports test execution status and results to Polarion’s web-based interface.

“LDRA’s tool suite integration greatly complements our Polarion ALM offering by providing end-to-end traceability to test execution in support of regulated requirements based testing and comprehensive analysis of test coverage,” said Pascal Vera, Product Management Director at Siemens PLM Software. “Along with providing transparency into their overall software development process and improving customers’ operational efficiency, this bidirectional traceability helps simplify, automate, and reduce the cost of compliance with safety- and security-critical standards.”

Polarion ALM software focuses on cross-platform enterprise applications to enable effective product and application lifecycle management in a wide array of embedded markets ranging from automotive to medical to Internet of Things (IoT). Example industry standards supported through this integration with LDRA’s tool suite include DO-178B/C for avionics, ISO 26262 for automotive, IEC 62304 for medical, and EN 50128 for rail transportation.

“LDRA continues to work with industry leaders in Application Lifecycle Management to provide the best solution to our customers for lifecycle traceability, standards compliance, and software quality analysis and testing automation,” said Ian Hennell, Operations Director, LDRA. “The software integration with Siemens’ Polarion leverages LDRA’s automated static review and dynamic coverage analysis as well as automated test case generation, execution, and results capture. LDRA’s integration is unique in that it spans from traceability requirements through verification activities.”

Visit the LDRA stand (Hall 4-509) at Embedded World 2019, 26-28 February 2019 in Nürnberg, Germany, to learn more about LDRA tool suite’s comprehensive integration into Siemens’ Polarion ALM enterprise software at www.ldra.com/polarion.

Note: Polarion and Polarion ALM are trademarks or registered trademarks of Polarion Software AG.

Mentor delivers the most comprehensive Enterprise Verification Platform™ (EVP), delivering performance and productivity improvements ranging from 400X to 10,000X. Tightly integrated combining Questa® for high performance simulation, verification management and coverage closure, Portable Stimulus, Low-power, CDC & Formal Verification, Veloce® for hardware emulation and HW/SW system verification, Catapult® for High-Level Synthesis, PowerPro® for RTL Low-Power unified with the Visualizer™ debug environment.

News highlights:

• Arm introduces latest addition to the Arm Safety Ready program, a new “Automotive Enhanced” processor designed to help enable safe next generation driver experiences
• Optimized for 7nm: Cortex-A65AE is Arm’s first multithreaded processor with integrated safety for handling sensor data in autonomous and high throughput needs in IVI/cockpit systems
• Simultaneous multithreading optimized for high throughput workloads and offers best performance efficiency

According to recent data from AAA, 73% of American drivers are too afraid to ride in fully self-driving vehicles and 63% of US adults feel less safe sharing the road with self-driving vehicles while walking or cycling. Human acceptance of new advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and increasingly autonomous technologies will only happen if drivers and passengers feel safe relying on them.

Winning the trust of consumers is critical, and to deliver these trusted experiences carmakers need solutions that achieve the right balance of innovation and safety while being deployable, scalable and ready for mass production. In my regular conversations with leading OEMs and tier ones, it’s clear that a broad range of compute is required to meet the needs of tomorrow’s vehicles, and one size will not fit all when it comes to the compute powering these vehicles.

Earlier this year Arm demonstrated its commitment to accelerating the deployment of safe fully autonomous vehicles for OEMs and tier ones with the launch of our Safety Ready program and a dedicated range of Automotive Enhanced IP, including the Cortex-A76AE, which delivers the processing performance required for autonomous applications while changing the game with integrated safety. Today, to further expand our Automotive Enhanced IP portfolio, we are announcing the release of Arm Cortex-A65AE, formerly known as Helios-AE on our product roadmap.

Cortex-A65AE: First multithreaded processor with integrated safety

The Arm Cortex-A65AE (Automotive Enhanced) is the latest addition to Arm’s Automotive Enhanced portfolio of IP, designed for more efficient processing of the multiple streams of sensor data being generated in next generation vehicles, and to help enable innovative new driver experiences safely. It does this by delivering enhanced multithreading capability combined with integrated safety through our innovative Split-Lock technology.

In order to achieve higher levels of autonomy, there will be a large increase in the number of sensors monitoring the surroundings of the vehicle, including cameras, LiDAR and radar, resulting in a significant increase in throughput and compute requirements to safely process this data. Multiple sensor inputs allow cars to view their environment, perceive what is happening, plan possible paths ahead, and deliver commands to actuators on the determined path.

With so much data being collected at different points of the vehicle, high data throughput capability is a key part of the heterogeneous processing mix required to enable ADAS and autonomous applications. It’s also critical that safety is at the heart of these systems. The Cortex-A65AE is ideal for managing the high throughput requirement for gathering sensor data and can be used in lock-step mode connected to accelerators, such as ML or computer vision, to help process the data efficiently. But what’s most critical, is that it does this with a high level of safety capability.

Alongside the increase in sensor inputs, more autonomy and advancing driver aids will dramatically change the human automotive experience. As part of this transition, there will be many more screens in our cars delivering enhanced experiences. Drivers will be informed through augmented reality head-up-displays, alerts and improved maps. Passengers will be immersed by rich video entertainment delivered by many screens throughout the car, but trust, reliability and safety are all critical to the acceptance of these new cabin experiences. Sensors will not only be sensing out, but will be sensing in, monitoring drivers. They will be able to monitor eyelid movement to detect tiredness, body temperature, vital signs and behavioural patterns to personalise the in-car experience. These capabilities require high throughput, ML processing and a lot of heterogeneous compute.

To deliver rich, immersive in-vehicle experiences efficiently, a heterogeneous compute cluster is necessary. Cortex-A65AE is Arm’s first throughput focused application class core with Split-Lock. Together with Cortex-A76AE (also with Split-Lock), these cores enable the highest safety integrity level with leading performance and power efficiency.

The addition of the multithreaded Cortex-A65AE processor to the Arm automotive platform further cements Arm’s bumper-to-bumper automotive leadership, and the Arm software ecosystem is ready for Cortex-A65AE, with support from Arm Safety Ready developer tools and Linux patches already up-streamed.

Accelerating a safer path to fully-autonomous driving

Per year, 5.3 trillion miles are driven in cars and light vehicles depending on Arm processors. Looking ahead, the Arm automotive roadmap includes Hercules-AE optimized for 7nm in 2019 as well as future Cortex-R solutions. Arm is transforming what’s possible by extending our portfolio to deliver the broadest range of functional safety capable IP products in the industry. The entire platform is supported by the Arm Safety Ready program, drawing on our extensive experience in safety for the faster delivery of safer automotive solutions by OEMs, automotive tier ones and silicon partners.

For more information on our commitment to vehicle safety, please visit our Safety Ready page.

https://www.mentor.com/events/dvcon

Cooley: Cloud is hot this year clearly.  Dean this seems to be your year.  
           Dean you just announced a tool that helps get EDA flows into the
           cloud.  (ESNUG 582 #8)  Does that put you in trouble?
           I mean with Cadence going full hog into the cloud, too?

     Dean: No.

   Cooley: Ok, thanks.  (laughter)

     Dean: What we announced was IC Manage PeerCache.  Which is a high 
           performance, scale-out I/O solution.  So that you can get the
           I/O that you need to run the compute jobs in the cloud.  

           What that gives you is the ability to run your existing 
           workflows, your existing tools, and your existing designs using a
           cloud burst -- so you can expand into the cloud and run without 
           having to change your stuff.

           When you look at what Cadence is focused on, they're working on 
           getting the licensing model sorted out so that you can get 
           licenses to the tools in the cloud and get them on-demand.  And 
           they're working on making the tools available in the cloud, okay,
           so that you can get them, and they're compatible with the various
           cloud providers.

           But they're not doing a system like PeerCache which dynamically 
           determines which files are needed for which job and then quickly
           transmits them up to the cloud -- and only use the ones that are 
           needed, providing a massive peer-to-peer I/O system so that you
           can run ten thousand jobs in the cloud.

           It's a very different focus, and in fact, totally complementary. 
           So, we're kind of cheering Cadence, on because we want more stuff
           available in the cloud, so that more people will want to use
           PeerCache to get their existing workflows into the cloud.

           The customers want to move into the cloud for the cost savings, 
           the benefits; if you look at the investment that the cloud 
           providers have done in data centers and the amount of technology
           they have developed, their cost advantages and their scale far 
           surpasses what any single semiconductor company could possibly 
           ever do, because the scale is so huge.  

           We have no choice.  You have no choice, you're going to have to 
           use cloud-based systems for design to be competitive in the long
           run.  And so, we've got to figure out how to get there.

           But there's such a huge investment that the design teams have 
           made in their workflows.  I mean the workflows are like the DNA
           of the organization.  You can't change them.  There's so much 
           history and you're using old designs, and you're re-porting 
           designs, and you're using old stuff and new stuff and merging it.  

           It's complicated, and to just say 'Oh I'm going to flip it into 
           the cloud' when the cloud has no real shared file system doesn't
           really work.  You need some kind of shared file system to make it
           work.

           And that's what PeerCache provides.  It's a cool product that 
           solves a key problem for our customers.

   Cooley: Okay.

5G cellular telephony is rapidly approaching.  Industry watchers predict that mobile routers, home routers and other initial 5G products will be launched by the end of this year. It is expected that the first 5G-capable phones will start to appear early next year. AT&T has announced that it will launch 5G wireless service in 12 cities by the end of 2018, Verizon is bringing fixed 5G to homes in Sacramento, California, and four additional markets by year’s end and T-Mobile is aiming for a 2019 launch followed by nationwide 5G coverage in 2020.

5G infrastructure will address the speed, latency and bandwidth issues that restrain today’s 4G networks. The advantages of 5G are significant: it is intended to offer huge increases in data rates-in excess of 10GBps-extremely low latency, and uniform coverage over a wide area, as well as a thousand-fold increase in capacity.

5G will enable simultaneous ultra-high-speed wireless transmission (even in crowded environments) by opening new radio spectrum like millimeter wave (mmWave) bands over 20 GHz. The mmWave frequencies will first be utilized in Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) applications used by wireless carriers to provide Gbit FWA to residential customers. The next step will be using 5G mmWave to deliver Gbit mobile, such as live streaming of 4k video to smart devices and for the use of AR and VR applications.

In many respects, however, 5G will be a two-edged sword in that customer demand for new 5G mobile phones in 2019/20 is going to put additional strain on capacity within the electronic components supply network as components manufacturers and their distributors struggle to keep up with demand.

Here’s why: smartphones are the largest application market for multilayer ceramic chip capacitors (MLCCs) and at a time when major MLCC manufacturers are trying to increase production capacity to alleviating the current shortage, the dawning of the 5G era will rapidly increase the amount of MLCC s used. The average MLCC usage of 4G + (LTE-advanced) smartphones is estimated to be in the range of 550 to around 900, and it is predicted that each device in the 5G era will boost this number to more than 1,000.

To support the high data rates enabled by 5G systems will require mmW frequencies, namely, 24/26 GHz, 28 GHz/ and 37/39 GHz bands. In addition, active antenna ICs will be required to control gain, phase control and beam forming in the frequency bands.

Among the engineering challenges involved in using mmW frequencies are range limitations brought about by propagation losses; the higher the frequency the more the signal will degrade over distance. However recent advances in mmWave systems have turned some of the perceived disadvantages into system architecture enablers (think turning lemons into lemonade). For example, short transmission paths and increased propagation loss allow for spectrum re-use. And the established ability of mmWave in point to point communications to be tightly focused into beams allows signal strength to be directed exactly where it needs to go, reducing interference, and allowing multiple beams to be combined, resulting in increased range.

Deploying 5G on mmW frequencies presents great challenges to smartphone antenna and RF engineers. For example, to enable higher data rates 5G specifications mandate that handsets must support two uplink and four (4 x4 MIMO) downlink carriers in the bands above 1 GHz. This requires multiple antennas and independent RF pathways.

But as more antennas are packed into a smartphone, the average space that must be allotted to each antenna decreases. Making life even more difficult for the designer is the trend in smartphones to have a high screen to body ratio. Some of today’s 4G LTE phones achieve a 90% screen to body ratio. The gap in the bezel around the display is where the antennas reside. As the bezel shrinks, it squeezes antenna volume even further. As a result, a likely implementation is one where the antenna array is integrated into the same package containing the active transmitter and receiver circuits operating at the mmWave frequencies.

These compact electronically-steered antenna arrays will accommodate frequencies from hundreds of megahertz to tens of gigahertz and employ phased arrays, which have been used for many years in the aerospace and defense industries but are relatively new to the mass market world. New chips will support multiple radiating elements, and include gain and phase controls for analog RF beam steering.

Still another challenges that engineers now face is how to implement high-performance RF filtering in mmWave applications. There will be an increasing number of filters per device; the increase in RF paths within the device from multiple antennas and spectrum proliferation will require this larger number of filters. Unlike the power amplifier (PA), where a single device can be used for multiple frequency bands and technologies, a single filter will most likely be required for each individual frequency band.

RF filtering will be a vital technical point of a successful RF solution. One reason is that filters in the RF chain contribute to loss, which impacts Tx efficiency and will determine power-amplifier current draw as well as battery life. Maximizing PA efficiency on the uplink and receiver sensitivity on the downlink will require optimization of the entire RF chain.

Traditionally, passive RF/microwave components have been somewhat large, at least in package sizes to support the use of coaxial connectors. As the push toward 5G wireless networks requires the use of components in the mmWave frequency range, suppliers are preparing products that offer high performance and a high degree of flexibility, and perhaps even at lower cost.

Manufacturers of 5G-ready cables, connectors, filters and other components are now stepping up to the task ahead with some initial product scheduled to be revealed at Electronica in Munich, which opens as this is being written.

Highly expandable and integrated device will be fully AEC-Q100 qualified

TOKYO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation (“Toshiba”) has added “TC35681IFTG”, a new IC for automotive applications, to its line-up of ICs compliant with Bluetooth^® low energy (LE)^[1] core specification v5.0. The new device is suited to use in demanding automotive environments, as it delivers a wide operating temperature range, high RF transmission power and high RF reception sensitivity (a link budget of 113dB @125kbps at long range transmission). The mixed-signal TC35681IFTG contains both analog RF and baseband digital parts to provide a complete solution on a single chip.

In addition to the basic functions of Host Controller Interface (HCI) profile and GATT profile functions, TC35681IFTG adds the new functions defined by Bluetooth^® core specification 5.0^[2], including 2Mbps throughput, Long Range and Advertising Extension functions, stored in internal mask ROM. It also integrates a high gain power amplifier and realizes +8dBm for long distance communication.

When used in conjunction with an external non-volatile memory, the new IC becomes a fully-fledged application processor that temporarily loads applications and stores in internal RAM (76KB). It can also be combined with an external host processor.

The integration of 18 General Purpose IO (GPIO) lines and multiple communications options including SPI, I²C and a 921.6kbps, two-channel UART, gives TC35681IFTG the ability to form part of sophisticated systems. The GPIO lines offer access to a range of on-chip features including a wake-up interface, four-channel PWM interface and 5-channel AD converter. An on-chip DC-DC converter or LDO circuits adjust the external voltage supply to the required values on chip.

As it is designed to be compliant with AEC-Q100^[3], the low energy IC is primarily intended to be used in automotive applications. The wettable flank package simplifies automatic visual inspection needed to deliver the high levels of soldering quality required to withstand the vibration experienced in automotive applications.

Current applications include Remote Keyless Entry, On-Board Diagnostics to collect sensor data, Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems, and other contributors to improved vehicle comfort and safety.

Key Features

– Low power consumption: 

– 6.0mA (transmitter operation @3.0V, output power: 0dBm, 1Mbps mode)

– 6.5mA (transmitter operation @3.0V, output power: 0dBm, 2Mbps mode)

– 11.0mA (transmitter operation @3.0V, output power: 8dbm, 1Mbps mode)

– 11.5mA (transmitter operation @3.0V, output power: 8dBm, 2Mbps mode)

– 5.1mA (receiver operation @3.0V, 1Mbps mode)

– 5.5mA (receiver operation @3.0V, 2Mbps mode)

– 50nA in deep sleep (@3.0V)

– High receiver sensitivity: 

– 95.6dBm (1Mbps mode)

– 93.2dBm (2Mbps mode)

– 101.2dBm (500kbps mode (S=2))

– 105.2dBm (125kbps mode (S=8))

– Supports Bluetooth^® LE v5.0 central and peripheral devices

– Built-in GATT (Generic Attribute Profile)

– Supports servers and client functions defined by GATT

– Additional features as defined by Bluetooth^® LE v5.0^[2]

– 2Mbps

– Long Range (Coded PHY)

– Advertising Extension

– Supports automotive reliability

– Compliant with AEC-Q100^[3]

– Operation in wide temperature range

– Wettable flank package

– Applications

– Bluetooth^® low energy communication devices for automotive and industrial applications.

For more information about the new product, please visit:
https://toshiba.semicon-storage.com/info/lookup.jsp?pid=TC35681IFTG-002&region=apc&lang=en

For more information about the line-up of Bluetooth® wireless communication ICs, please visit:
https://toshiba.semicon-storage.com/ap-en/product/wireless-communication/bluetooth.html

Arm goes higher up the stack for device-to-data IoT security

Arm goes higher up the stack for device-to-data IoT security

Building on top of the Import Wizard for IBM DOORS released in Polarion 17.1 and to provide users with flexibility and choice, a brand new bi-directional synchronization connector is available to all DOORS 9.x users on Windows. Note, Polarion can be used on Linux, but must connect to an IBM DOORS client on Windows. The connector is part of core Polarion functionality. No additional software needs to be downloaded.

With this new connector, now IBM DOORS can easily co-exist with Polarion allowing IBM DOORS users to take advantage of all the great capabilities and features offered in a modern web ALM application. The new Polarion synchronization connector for DOORS supports many different use cases, workflows and supports a rich set of functionality. Perhaps you’re a DOORS user that wants to leverage ALM but still needs to maintain a legacy DOORS database for historical reasons. Perhaps you work with another team that still works in IBM DOORS, but you want to leverage the power of Polarion ALM? In either situation, the new Polarion synchronization connector for IBM DOORS can help you.

The new connector is designed for Polarion administrators to set up sync-pairs between DOORS modules and a Polarion live doc. The connector is highly customizable, so administrators simply decide what information should be synchronized between DOORS and Polarion (and vice-versa), how that information should be mapped, taking into consideration direction and priority. Once the sync-pair is set up, the administrator can decide to either run the sync manually or automate the process. This means, users can continue working in DOORS and Polarion as normal with no constraints, and in the background the connector keeps information synchronized. Administrators can set up as many sync pairs as they need for the DOORS modules they wish to synchronize with Polarion.

The connector is packed with capability supporting a wide range of different requirements definition styles in DOORS including custom attributes and enumerations.

The connector supports:

• Connection to multiple DOORS installations
• No limit on the number of DOORS modules you wish to synchronize.
• Simple DOORS requirements definitions
• Complex DOORS requirements definitions using custom attributes and enumerations allowing mapping to different work-item types.
• All requirements in the module respecting the hierarchy.
• All links between requirements in the same or different modules.
• Rich text and attachments, including OLE objects. These can be images, for example.
• Attributes and custom attributes.

Once a synchronization starts, administrators can view its progress and status in real time using the Polarion monitor. The connector provides detailed log files should administrators need to better understand the synchronization behavior.

Note: DOORS is a registered trademark of IBM.

Intruders are at the fence, and before you can react, your security is compromised. That is a scenario that Velocity company, Labforge, wants to prevent using their artificial intelligence situational awareness platform. They have now announced a partnership with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) to protect the physical security of personnel and equipment on Canadian soil. This high tech network of sensors uses AI to understand the objects they see and visually display their movements on a map.

News Highlights:

• A new suite of Arm® IP brings machine learning (ML) to edge devices

• With architectures built for high-performance and efficiency; Arm ML and Object Detection (OD) processors will deliver the best user experiences across the broadest range of applications
• The new products will enable trillions of ML operations per second on mobile devices

Cambridge, UK – February 13, 2018 – Arm today announced Project Trillium, a suite of Arm IP including new highly scalable processors that will deliver enhanced machine learning (ML) and neural network (NN) functionality. The current technologies are focused on the mobile market and will enable a new class of ML-equipped devices with advanced compute capabilities, including state-of-the-art object detection.

“The rapid acceleration of artificial intelligence into edge devices is placing increased requirements for innovation to address compute while maintaining a power efficient footprint. To meet this demand, Arm is announcing its new ML platform, Project Trillium,” said Rene Haas, president, IP Products Group, Arm. “New devices will require the high-performance ML and AI capabilities these new processors deliver. Combined with the high degree of flexibility and scalability that our platform provides, our partners can push the boundaries of what will be possible across a broad range of devices.”

ML technologies today tend to focus on specific device classes or the needs of individual sectors. Arm’s Project Trillium changes that by offering ultimate scalability. While the initial launch focuses on mobile processors, future Arm ML products will deliver the ability to move up or down the performance curve – from sensors and smart speakers, to mobile, home entertainment, and beyond.

Performance

Arm’s new ML and object detection processors not only provide a massive efficiency uplift from standalone CPUs, GPUs and accelerators, but they far exceed traditional programmable logic from DSPs.

The Arm ML processor is built from the ground-up, specifically for ML. It is based on the highly scalable Arm ML architecture and achieves the highest performance and efficiency for ML applications:

• For mobile computing, the processor delivers more than 4.6 trillion operations per second (TOPs) with a further uplift of 2x-4x in effective throughput in real-world uses through intelligent data management.
• Unmatched performance in thermal and cost-constrained environments with an efficiency of over three trillion operations per second per watt (TOPs/W). More details on the Arm ML processor are available on our website.

The Arm OD processor has been designed specifically to efficiently identify people and other objects with virtually unlimited objects per frame:

• Real-time detection with Full HD processing at 60 frames per second
• Up to 80x the performance of a traditional DSP, and a significant improvement in detection quality relative to previous Arm technologies. More details on the Arm OD processor are available on our website.

In combination, the Arm ML and OD processors perform even better, delivering a high-performance, power-efficient people detection and recognition solution. Users will enjoy high-resolution, real-time, detailed face recognition on their smart devices delivered in a battery-friendly way.

Arm NN software, when used alongside the Arm Compute Library and CMSIS-NN, is optimized for NNs and bridges the gap between NN frameworks such as TensorFlow, Caffe, and Android NN and the full range of Arm Cortex® CPUs, Arm Mali™ GPUs, and ML processors. Developers get the highest performance from ML applications by being able to fully-utilize underlying Arm hardware capabilities and performance. More details on Arm NN software are available on our website.

The new suite of Arm ML IP will be available for early preview in April of this year, with general availability in mid-2018.

Resources:

• Read our blog: Arm is changing machine learning experiences: Project Trillium
• Visit the Machine Learning Developer Portal
• CMSIS-NN on Github
• Learn about keyword spotting on Cortex-M processors

MBD or model based design is a popular approach in system engineering and software development circles. As engineers work with product requirements, they use model based design tools to better understand those requirements, often refining or even developing new requirements. In some cases, MBD is used for low level design, such as developing complex algorithms, understanding modal/ logical behaviors or designing the software architecture. As companies embark on a digital twin strategy, MBD plays an important role as often these models can be executed or simulated. Depending on the type of model, through simulation, engineers can validate early product requirements or even find potential pitfalls or bugs early on in the product development lifecycle when those issues costs less to resolve and fix. Even better, when products are actually connected to a network, through the use of the internet of things (IoT), engineers can use the products telematics and operational product data and feed this information back into engineering. Now these digital twin models can be used to either troubleshoot the product, drive improvements or provide the foundation to create new iterations of the product.

This all sounds very exciting, but what options are available to customers that are leveraging MBD and using Polarion? How does Polarion ALM work with MBD tools? Let’s explore the options in more detail.

Whether you using MBD for system engineering, software engineering or algorithm development, there are a wide range of Polarion integrations available to support MBD. Currently, Matlab Simulink, Sparx Enterprise Architect, IBM Rhapsody and Siemens own Teamcenter modeling are all available.

The integrations allow engineering teams working with models to ensure that their work is tightly coupled to the software engineering lifecycle being managed by Polarion. Modeler’s can create traceability links between the model artifacts and the product requirements, thus ensuring the requirements have appropriate coverage. Now when product requirements are either updated, deleted or changed inside of Polarion, engineers can quickly determine what impact this will have on the low level design – now represented by digital models. The opposite is also true, when the model might not be able to meet the design requirements, we can quickly determine what impact this will have on the total product requirements.

For some integrations, engineers can view the visual model representations inside of Polarion. In other cases, a hyperlink is provided allowing you to quickly navigate back to the modeling tool to view the model.

Modeling teams can also take advantage of Polarion ALMs comprehensive task and planning management ensuring that their modeling activities are kept to plan and within budget. Other Polarion features can also be leveraged by modeling teams such as Polarion extensive test management capabilities.

EA Artifacts viewed inside of Polarion ALM

Be sure to browse our Extensions Portal for yourself with hundreds of extensions for Polarion ALM that work with your existing toolchains. To learn more about Polarion ALM and how it can help to modernize your MBD toolchain through Collaboration, Traceability and Reuse contact your Polarion sales advisor or better yet Test Drive Polarion ALM Today!

Below are direct links to the MBD integrations currently available on the Polarion extension site:

• Siemens Teamcenter link
• Matlab Simulink link
• Sparx Enterprise Architect link
• IBM Rhapsody link
• Sparx Enterprise Architect (Willert Connector) link