eInfochips

Introduction In the early days, vehicle makers used single wires to connect the switches and actuators like wipers, speedometers, and lights. In present-day vehicles, communication network complexity has increased manifold due to the need for Advance Driver Assistance Functions (ADAS), data transfer, safety, security, and compliance requirements. Automotive protocols/interfaces in the form of CAN, LIN, FlexRay, and Automotive Ethernet have been designed to support high-rate data transfer between a multitude of sensors and actuators. Central Gateway Module The communication/data transfer between all the automotive protocols and the communication/data transfer between the vehicle and the cloud has to be managed by a central authority. This is where the central gateway functionality comes into the picture. A central gateway is a hub that interconnects and transfers data across the many different networks found in vehicles in a secure, reliable, and dependable manner. It is supposed to pro...

According to Allied Market Research, the worldwide wireless charging market was valued at $6.51 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach $40.24 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 22.2 percent between 2020 and 2027. Advantages of Wireless Charging Technology Wireless charging is a dependable, convenient, and a secure method of powering and charging electrical equipment. It is gaining momentum in the healthcare, automotive, aerospace, and the consumer goods production industries. Types and working of Wireless Charging Technology There are three types of wireless charging technology: Radio Charging This type of charging technology uses a combination of tiny batteries and consumes very little electricity. This technology is commonly used with wireless keyboards, wireless mouse, medical equipment, hearing aids, watches, music players, and other devices. To send and receive wireless signals, these gadgets use radio frequency waves. In this technique, the transmitter is linked to a socket ...

With the sudden surge in demand for electric vehicles, the EV automakers are focusing on long-range battery vehicles and investing in enhancing the  EV charging infrastructure . One of the prime concerns of EV users is the range of their vehicles. This range anxiety among customers cannot be compensated by larger EV batteries or a more extended range of their vehicle alone; the charging infrastructure needs to be addressed as well. EV charging solution providers are focusing on providing more innovative and reliable e-mobility charging solutions that help create a digital space linking vehicles, buildings, and utilities. Electric vehicles require compact EV charging solutions that ensure faster and on-demand charging and robust connectivity to support electric vehicles’ current and future needs. Know More@ https://www.einfochips.com/blog/an-overview-of-electric-vehicle-charging-station-infrastructure/

Regularization in the context of machine learning refers to a collection of strategies that help the machine learn more than solely memorize. In the simplest sense, ‘ regularization’  indicates a set of techniques that regularizes learning from features for traditional algorithms or neurons in the case of neural network algorithms. Regularization is one of the major & most important concepts of machine learning. Regularization in machine learning prevents the model from overfitting. It basically reduces or regularizes the coefficient of features towards zero. As mentioned above,  regularization in machine learning  refers to a set of techniques that help the machine to learn more than just memorize. Before we explore the concept of regularization in detail, let’s discuss what the terms ‘learning’ and ‘memorizing’ mean from the perspective of machine learning. Know More@ https://www.einfochips.com/blog/regularization-make-your-machine-learning-algorithms-learn-not...

The role of electronic systems in the automotive industry is continuously expanding. As the number of electronic functions increases, so do the number of  ECUs  in the vehicle. This increase in ECUs and electronic functions results in the associated software becoming more complex and expansive. According to Markets and Markets, the global automotive software market is projected to grow to USD 37 billion by 2025, from USD 16.9 billion in 2020, at a CAGR of 16.9%. Statistics show that software plays a vital role in various vehicle functions, and this role is expected to proliferate in the future. As a mission-critical industry, the  automotive development process  must adhere to regulatory standards such as ISO 26262 and  ASPICE  to minimize the risk of failure. Following standard development procedures can have a positive outcome on the success of automotive functions and software. V-Model is one of the widely used software development processes in the autom...

Object localization  is one of the image recognition tasks along with image classification and object detection. Though object detection and object localization are sometimes used interchangeably, they are not the same. Similarly, image classification and image localization are also two distinct concepts. Different Object recognition tasks Image classification  is a task where an image is classified into one or multiple classes based on the task. Input:  an image Output:  one or multiple class(es) Image/Object localization  is a regression problem where the output is x and y coordinates around the object of interest to draw bounding boxes. Input:  an image Output:  “x”, “y”, height, and width numbers around an object of interest Know More@  https://www.einfochips.com/blog/understanding-object-localization-with-deep-learning/

Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence function that provides the system with the ability to learn from data without being programmed explicitly. Machine learning is basically a mathematical and probabilistic model which requires tons of computations. It is very trivial for humans to do those tasks, but computational machines can perform similar tasks very easily. Consumer hardware may not be able to do extensive computations very quickly as a model may require to calculate and update millions of parameters in run-time for a single iterative model like deep neural networks. Thus, there is a scope for the hardware which works well with extensive calculation. But before we dive deep into hardware for ML, let’s understand machine learning flow. There are four steps for preparing a machine learning model: Preprocessing input data Training the deep learning model Storing the trained deep learning model Deployment of the model Among all these, training the machine learning m...

A medical device design that adds value to end users and simultaneously captures profitable market share is really a tough job. Is it because healthcare is a life-critical segment? Or is it because it involves complex procedures? Apparently, both. In addition, it needs to be aligned with healthcare regulatory requirements, and solution specifications and should deliver functionalities to satisfy end-user needs. Hence, it seeks a holistic approach to designing a medical device rather than being an isolated part of the complete process. It requires precision in every stage — ­­­­­­right from product ideation to compliance, designing, testing, and marketing of the product. Why is Medical Device Design Important? The  design and development of a medical device  is the most crucial phase for its success. A loosely-defined and designed medical device cannot comply with the regulatory needs and make it to market. Know More@ https://www.einfochips.com/blog/medical-device-design-g...

Look around, how many gadgets or appliances do you see? Five? Ten? Fifty? Maybe even more. Devices and gadgets have become ubiquitous and we have started to rely on them heavily, may it be for work or for assistance in our chores. However, do you know what those devices rely on to accompany us with our tasks? Hardware and firmware. What is important for these devices to function properly is trouble-free hardware components and firmware that ensures the device performs its designated tasks. While hardware design and development is the first phase in creating our devices, the firmware is what ensures the proper functioning of the hardware components. More often than not, our devices are running multiple programs at a time, which will eventually degrade the system performance and will slow the pace of operations. The obvious solution that people consider in such cases is to replace the old, worn-out hardware with new parts. The other and the better way out is to update the firmware that t...

Typically, we see a 4X increase in memory size every 3 years to cater to the needs of new-generation IoT devices. Deep submicron devices contain a large number of memories which demands lower area and fast access time, hence, an automated testing strategy for such semiconductor engineering designs is required to reduce ATE (Automatic Test Equipment) time and cost. Memory faults behave differently than classical Stuck-At faults. Therefore, the fault models are different in memories (due to their array structure) than in the standard logic design. Also, during memory tests, apart from fault detection and localization, self-repair of faulty cells through redundant cells is also implemented. It is also a challenge to test memories from the system design level as it requires test logic to multiplex and route memory pins to external pins. To test the memories functionally or via ATPG (Automatic Test Pattern Generation)requires very large external pattern sets for acceptable test coverage due...

Automotive trends like autonomous driving, v2x connectivity, OTA updates, predictive maintenance, and many other innovative features are based on in-vehicle software functions. For all these functions to work seamlessly and to cater to real-time in-vehicle functionalities, each ECU must work efficiently. Modern-day high-end vehicles have up to 100 ECUs, which communicate with each other via CAN bus, CAN FD, or Ethernet network to support complex vehicular functions. Earlier, ECU software used by OEMs were on different platforms. There was no standard software architecture that was being used by tier 1 suppliers and their vendors to design the ECU software for OEMs. So, whenever any OEM wishes to switch to a new tier 1 supplier or vice-versa, the transition was very difficult. The new supplier used to face enormous challenges in understanding the existing software architecture, hardware platforms, and standards used in ECU software development. Thus, it was nearly impossible for a new s...

Today, ASIC design flow is a very mature process in silicon turnkey design. The ASIC design flow and its various steps in VLSI engineering that we describe below are based on best practices and proven methodologies in ASIC chip designs. This blog attempts to explain different steps in the  ASIC design flow , starting from ASIC design concept and moving from specifications to benefits. Why to adopt the ASIC design flow? Know More@  https://www.einfochips.com/blog/asic-design-flow-in-vlsi-engineering-services-a-quick-guide/

The entire automotive industry is moving towards developing innovative technologies to enable better connectivity solutions, improve vehicle safety, and enhance in-vehicle user experience. One of the key technologies, which works as a focal point of all the modern automotive systems and integrates their functions to be controlled and monitored from one central unit, is “ In-Vehicle Infotainment System ”. A Modern Solution for Your Car Modern in-vehicle infotainment systems connect with all the smart automotive technologies like ADAS systems, V2X connectivity solutions, telematics devices, smartphones, sensors, etc., and integrate them with each other to provide a great driving experience. Modern in-vehicle systems are truly adding a luxurious touch to vehicles and offering an interactive experience to the driver. Besides playing your favorite song tracks or watching relaxing YouTube videos, you can now also get real-time traffic updates and call/text your loved ones without doing anyth...

  For all of us who think Drones are things in sci-fiction or war movies used for spying on enemy territory, we would be surprised to know that Drones are being used for many civil/ commercial applications today and beyond the pizza delivery application that has re brought lot of interest in Drones lately. Some of them, though in the initial proof of concept phase, have been successfully able to prove that this technology is commercially and technically viable. Our imagination is our limit to visualize the applications of drones and how they can help multiple industries improve their efficiencies. There has been a lot of growing interest in Drones and related technologies over the last few years and this trend seems to be growing. The Venture Capital funding received by Drone related start-ups in the US is around $40 M in 2013 and most of these funds are related to hardware. Know More@ https://www.einfochips.com/blog/designing-drones-for-the-future/#:~:text=For%20this%20p...