USB will carry 4K video with new connector design

USB Type-C

USB Type-C

Could a USB connector support 4K high definition video? This is what the industry intends and a new look USB connector is likely to start appearing in PCs, TVs and mobiles over the next year.

The Type-C connector, as it is called, is expected to take over from the micro USB as the standard connector for multi-gigabit USB 3.0 interfaces.

What do USB Type-C connectors offer over the Type-A and Type-B USB connectors we are all so familiar with?

It will support the 10Gbit/s data rates which will make it a practical alternative to today’s HDMI connectors on your television.

The connector’s 32-pins can be configured to support higher speed video data standards such DisplayPort, MHL, and Thunderbolt. This is referred to as “alternate mode” Type-C.

Significantly, the Type-C connector in alt mode will support 4K video as defined in the USB 3.1 standard.

USB has made its name by being a power connector as well as a data interface. The new connector extends the power capabilities. The maximum power rating is 100W.

But it also supports bi-directional power flow to allow a device to either source or sink power.

It also supports simultaneous power and data transfer.

Type-C connectors also offer scalable power ranging from 5.0V at 0.5A for handheld devices up to 20V at 5.0A for fast charge.

The big change to the mechanical design of the Type-C connector is its reversible plug orientation and cable direction.

Type-C needs new USB transceivers, filters and interface devices and the first ICs are appearing on the market.

One of the first Type-C controller/driver packages comes from NXP Semiconductors, and others are likely to follow very soon.

The important Type-C devices are: the USB3 re-drivers, ESD protection and filtering devices, USB PD PHY, authentication, load switches and high speed switches.

The PC and mobile industry, including Apple, seems to think the redesign of the USB connector interface is necessary and worthwhile to support the growing hunger for high speed data transfers to mobile devices.

 

 

 

 

Richard Wilson

Water repellent coating improves capacitor reliability

Murata water shedding capacitor before

Murata has developed a water-repellent coating that it claims will increase the reliability of multi-layer ceramic capacitors.

At issue is condensation – not just between the PCB and he capacitor, but on any capacitor surface that can gather condensation.

When water wets the surface of the capacitor – top diagram – electromigration of electrode metals can occur which can eventually grow into a short circuit between the capacitor electrodes.

Murata water shedding capacitor afterWith the anti-wetting coating, which is permemantly applied, water droplets can not bridge from electrode to electrode and the scope for electromigration is significantly reduced – middle diagram.

Murata water shedding capacitor

Diagram shows the ceramic die, electrodes, and coating

“This capacitor has applications particularly in navigation systems, body control electronic control units [ECUs], air conditioner ECUs, meter ECUs and engine ECUs,” said Murata.

Sample shipments have begun and mass production is scheduled within a year.

steve bush

ARM buys Sansa hardware-based security technology

Car-hacking demonstrations have recently shown the vulnerability of mobile connections to hackers

Car-hacking demonstrations have recently shown the vulnerability of mobile connections to hackers

ARM has bought the five year-old Israeli security firm Sansa which has a hardware solution for mobile connectivity.

The price is thought to be somewhere around $90 million.

Sansa, which was called Discretix until last October, has had $37 million of venture capital money and is backed by both Sequoia and Accel, among others.

Car-hacking demonstrations have recently shown the vulnerability of mobile connections to hackers. Software solutions are widely seen as only temporary because hackers find their way round them. Sansa’s approach is via hardware which physically isolates sensitive operations from the apps processor.

“Any connected device could be a target for a malicious attack so we must embed security at every potential attack point,” says ARM’s CTO Mike Muller. “Protection against hackers works best when it is multi-layered, so we are extending our security technology capability into hardware subsystems and trusted software. This means our partners will be able to license a comprehensive security suite from a single source.”

“Sansa has a hardware subsystem that adds additional isolation of security operations from the main application processor,” says ARM. “this is complemented by software components operating on top of trusted execution environments to perform security-sensitive operations.”

Sansa says its technology is in devices sold in quantities on 150 million units a year.

According to ARM, the deal complements the ARM security portfolio, including ARM TrustZone technology and SecurCore processor IP.

See also: What is… a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE)

 

david manners

Mouser ships Intel Compute Stick

Intel Compute Stick

Intel Compute Stick

Mouser is shipping the Intel Compute Stick with Ubuntu Linux which enables any screen with an HDMI interface to become a fully functional personal computer.

The stick has pre-installed Ubuntu 14.04 LTS OS.

It has a 64-bit 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z3735F Quad-Core processor with 2 MB cache, integrated Intel HD graphics, and multi-channel digital audio.

It plugs into any display that has an HDMI 1.4a interface. Networking is achieved with onboard IEEE 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, and peripheral connectivity is available through the Bluetooth 4.0 and USB 2.0 interfaces.

Once plugged into a display’s HDMI port, the user powers the Compute Stick with a wall adapter. A status LED indicates the device is powered while both graphics and audio is provided through the HDMI port. The device can be controlled through a wireless keyboard and mouse.

The stick has 8GBytes of eMMC Flash for user file storage and 1GByte of RAM. An Intel Compute Stick running Microsoft Windows 8.1 is also available from Mouser Electronics. Flash user storage is expandable for both versions through a microSDXC slot on the side of the device.

david manners

Antenova adds Sinica for 1559MHz-1609MHz satellite bands

05aug15antenovaAntenova, the Hatfield antenna specialist, has launched an embedded GNSS antenna, named ‘Sinica’, which operates on the 1559MHz–1609MHz satellite bands.

Sinica is suitable for all positioning applications on the 1559MHz-1609MHz bands, the company says. It operates with all of the public satellite constellations – GPS, GLONASS, Baidou and Gallileo – which means it can provide accurate positioning combined with global coverage.

The Sinica antenna is created from FR4 materials and new dielectric constant laminate substrates. According to the company it uses a new approach to antenna design, which has enabled the company to create an antenna with the high performance of a ceramic patch antenna, in a low profile part that can be placed neatly within a small printed circuit board.

Sinica is designed for devices that need accurate positioning or tracking globally, which means it is suitable to use in drones, network devices and wearable electronics, or any other portable device or tracking application.

Antenova’s product designers recently introduced the concept of ‘design for integration’ (DFI), which considers how the antenna will operate when it is embedded with a manufacturer’s product. Antenova’s antennas are used within a customer’s design, so they are designed to provide RF performance from within the device, and to make the integration of the RF elements easier for the designer.

The antennas are supplied on tape-and-reel.

david manners

K computer claims super computer crown

K computerHaving fallen from the peak of the Top 500 list of super computers a few years ago, Japan’s K computer is back up there again, this time on the Graph 500 supercomputer ranking.

Graph 500 is a relatively new benchmark, from 2010, which seeks to measure supercomputers on data-intensive loads rather than simple speed, “with the goal of improving computing involving complex data problems in areas such as cybersecurity, medical informatics, data enrichment, social networks, symbolic networks, and modeling neuronal circuits in the brain”, said Fujitsi, builder of K computer.

A collaboration between RIKEN, the Tokyo Institute of Technology, University College Dublin, Kyushu University, and Fujitsu got the computer its top place – announced this month at the international conference on high-performance computing (ISC2015) in Frankfurt.

The Tokyo Institute of Technology and RIKEN used 82,944 of K computer’s 88,128 compute nodes (663552 SPARC64 cores) to solve a breadth-first search of a graph of 1 trillion nodes and 16 trillion edges in 0.45s, scoring 38,621 gigaTEPS.

Sequoia at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory scored of 23,751 gigaTEPS, and Mira at the Argonne National Laboratory scored 14,982.

“In June last year we took the top spot with K computer, but we dropped to second place in the rankings of November that year,” said K computer scientist Koji Ueno. “In response, we identified problems in the performance of our previous implementation and developed a new algorithm that allowed us to make some important improvements.”

Key to K Computer’s high through put is its ‘6-dimensional mesh/torus‘ internal network.

steve bush

Will car makers become internet companies?

MG_81991-960x4251Connected vehicles will create a new business opportunity proving the internet-based mobile services to the driver.

Car manufacturers will soon be competing against technology companies to provide the online services to connected cars.

Autonomous connected vehicles are seen as the first major market for so-called internet of things (IoT).

This will be an important market for IC and hardware system suppliers. But arguably the biggest market opportunity will be in the provision v of online services that support the IoT devices in the car.

Car manufacturers see this as their domain and they want a major slice of the business. But to do this they will have to compete with IT firms and partner with software suppliers.

According to chip supplier NXP:

“The race to win the future mobility services business has begun. It is wide open on how automakers will fare versus the technology companies.”

Existing automotive technologies and business models that have worked for the car industry for a century are not so well suited to a changing car market with autonomous vehicles and IoT-connected cars.

“So will technology companies like Uber win this race by adopting new and successful business models?” asks NXP.

In order to address the connected vehicle opportunity it will be necessary to form cross-industry groups. This will combine car makers with electronics firms and software services suppliers.

No single sector will be able to capitalise on this market, due to its diversity and the range of technologies required.

Putting electronics management systems in cars was only the beginning. Connecting vehicles to the internet will add a far greater level of complexity to the automotive business model.

According to NXP, the convergence of personal and public transportation markets, will force car manufacturers to make “a leap of faith and fundamentally transform their value chain”.

NXP believes car makers will find themselves fighting on two major battlefronts.

Their core activity will be designing new forms of autonomous connected vehicles, but to be successful in the connected vehicles market they will need to develop and sell internet based services.

Whether they are successful in doing this will determine they business growth in the years ahead.

 

Richard Wilson

Chips at risk from bad voltages, says Mentor

voltage-806f401d-b106-4dee-9afe-615e54afca16Electrical reliability and protection from electrostatic discharge (ESD) has become more important to IC designers as on-chip geometries shrink and device complex increases.

ESD is not a new phenomenon in chip design but its importance to IC designers has increased in recent years.

The main factors for this are:

·         Smaller on chip geometries for wiring as well as feature size.

·         Multiple power islands on the one chip

·         Designing in third-party silicon IP

“The big risk designers have is from allowing inappropriate voltages being applied to different parts of the circuit on the same die,” says Carey Robertson, product marketing director at Mentor Graphics.

Chip reliability is also enforced by industry standards such as the ISO26262 automotive device certification.

This puts greater pressure on the chip designer to check for issue such as electrical overstress, over-heating and latch-up at all stages of the design.

“This means designers must ensure the longevity of devices especially if they are being designed into applications such as automotive or medical,” says Robertson.

So what does the designer need to think about?

·         Current density limits for specific areas of the die

·         Identifying power islands within the design

·         Pad spacing

·         Bond wire widths

·         Resistance matching

Foundries have their own reliability check. For example TSMC will give designers an ESD/latch-up design kit with as many as 60 design rule checks for 28nm devices and below.

For many designers this could be a new task for them, and the EDA firms have now introduced tools which can automate the process to a great extent.

Mentor’s tool for performing ESD and multiple power domain checks is called Calibre PERC.

According to Robertson, geometrical and electrical verification requirements must be described by a topological view rather than single device/pin to net relation.

“The tool can give a topological view incorporating many layout-related parameters as well as circuitry-dependent checks,” says Robertson.

According to Robertson, there will be an inevitable increase in the design cycle runtime, but he says this can be typically “a matter of hours”.

Designers will have to budget for this, because this is a world where customers are increasingly looking for device longevity as well as performance and low cost.

 

Richard Wilson

M2M connections increasing, but don’t call it IoT

M2M1The market for M2M cellular modules and wireless terminals is predicted to grow dramatically over the next three years.

By the end of 2019 the market for cellular M2M modules is expected to reach $2.2bn, according to a new report by Beecham Research.

The numbers of modules and wireless terminal is predicted to more than double in the same period.

Despite the move to 3G and 4G and talk of 5G, Beecham Research says that 2G modules will continue to provide for the majority of new M2M connected devices for the next few years.

“This is particularly the case in Europe where there are no plans to end 2G services. But while 2G module shipments will continue to increase in volume over the period, as a percentage of total shipments they will decline from almost 80% in 2014 to just 50% by 2019,” said the Beecham Research report.

The most common applications for cellular M2M connections are likely to be in smart meters, security alarms, medical devices, parking meters and connected cars systems.

“The increasing sophistication of M2M applications is driving the need for higher speeds, including real time video in security and connected car markets and the addition of service layers on telematics applications such as job scheduling and mobile payment systems,” says David Parker, senior analyst at Beecham Research and author of the report.

“There are a number of potentially disruptive factors in the market including the timing, pricing and acceptance of new technologies like LTE-M and the rise of alternative methods of connecting objects such as mesh networks, low power wide area (LPWA) and satellite.”

M2M wireless terminal sales are expected to more than double in revenue terms in the period to 2019.

These products are much more diverse and can cost from $150 up to $2,000 for complex multi-radio gateways.

 

Richard Wilson

M2M connections increasing, but don’t call it IoT

M2M1The market for M2M cellular modules and wireless terminals is predicted to grow dramatically over the next three years.

By the end of 2019 the market for cellular M2M modules is expected to reach $2.2bn, according to a new report by Beecham Research.

The numbers of modules and wireless terminal is predicted to more than double in the same period.

Despite the move to 3G and 4G and talk of 5G, Beecham Research says that 2G modules will continue to provide for the majority of new M2M connected devices for the next few years.

“This is particularly the case in Europe where there are no plans to end 2G services. But while 2G module shipments will continue to increase in volume over the period, as a percentage of total shipments they will decline from almost 80% in 2014 to just 50% by 2019,” said the Beecham Research report.

The most common applications for cellular M2M connections are likely to be in smart meters, security alarms, medical devices, parking meters and connected cars systems.

“The increasing sophistication of M2M applications is driving the need for higher speeds, including real time video in security and connected car markets and the addition of service layers on telematics applications such as job scheduling and mobile payment systems,” says David Parker, senior analyst at Beecham Research and author of the report.

“There are a number of potentially disruptive factors in the market including the timing, pricing and acceptance of new technologies like LTE-M and the rise of alternative methods of connecting objects such as mesh networks, low power wide area (LPWA) and satellite.”

M2M wireless terminal sales are expected to more than double in revenue terms in the period to 2019.

These products are much more diverse and can cost from $150 up to $2,000 for complex multi-radio gateways.

 

Richard Wilson