The ZF Group and Infineon Technologies AG have jointly developed and implemented AI algorithms for the development and control of vehicle software as part of the EEmotion project. The AI algorithms developed in the project, proven in a test vehicle, control and optimize all actuators during automated driving according to... Read more →

Silicon Mobility, an Intel company and a provider of automotive semiconductor and software control solutions, announced the OLEA U310 Field Programmable Control Unit (FPCU) as part of its next generation of OLEA FPCU Series. The new OLEA U310 consolidates the functionalities of multiple traditional microcontrollers into a single system on... Read more →

Honda Motor and IBM have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) outlining their intent to collaborate on the long-term joint research and development of next-generation computing technologies needed to overcome challenges related to processing capability, power consumption, and design complexity for the realization of the software-defined vehicles (SDV) of the... Read more →

The US Department of Commerce and Samsung Electronics (Samsung) have signed a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms (PMT) to provide up to $6.4 billion in direct funding under the CHIPS and Science Act. Samsung—the only semiconductor company that is a leader in both advanced memory and advanced logic technologies—is expected... Read more →

The US Department of Commerce and TSMC Arizona Corporation (TSMC Arizona), a subsidiary of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC), have signed a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms (PMT) to provide up to $6.6 billion in direct funding under the CHIPS and Science Act. This proposed funding would support TSMC’s... Read more →

Toshiba Electronics Europe Gmb launched a motor control driver IC that implements a gate driver and a CPU core together with a comprehensive set of features and capabilities for driving three-phase brushless DC (BLDC) motors and permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM) more efficiently. With a focus on performance, flexibility and... Read more →

Global 300mm fab equipment spending for front-end facilities is forecast to reach a record US$137 billion in 2027 after topping US$100 billion for the first time by 2025 on the strength of the memory market recovery and strong demand for high-performance computing and automotive applications, according to SEMI’s quarterly 300mm... Read more →

NVIDIA announced that leading companies across the transportation sector have adopted the NVIDIA DRIVE Thor centralized car computer to power their next-generation consumer and commercial fleets—from new energy vehicles and trucks to robotaxis, robobuses and last-mile autonomous delivery vehicles. DRIVE Thor is an in-vehicle computing platform architected for generative AI... Read more →

NVIDIA announced that TSMC and Synopsys are going into production with NVIDIA’s computational lithography platform to accelerate manufacturing and push the limits of physics for the next generation of advanced semiconductor chips. TSMC, the world’s leading foundry, and Synopsys, the leader in silicon to systems design solutions, have integrated NVIDIA... Read more →

Arteris, a provider of system IP which accelerates system-on-chip (SoC) creation, announced the first deliverables of its ongoing partnership with Arm to speed up automotive electronics innovation based on the latest generation of Arm Automotive Enhanced (AE) technologies. The collaboration integrates Armv9-based Cortex processors with Arteris system IP to enable... Read more →

Infineon Technologies AG and GlobalFoundries announced a new multi-year agreement on the supply of Infineon’s AURIX TC3x 40 nanometer automotive microcontrollers as well as power management and connectivity solutions. The additional capacity will contribute to secure Infineon’s business growth from 2024 through 2030. Infineon and GF have been partnering since... Read more →

Twelve companies in Japan from the automotive, electrical component and semiconductor sectors, have established the Advanced SoC Research for Automotive (ASRA) on to conduct research and develop high-performance digital semiconductors (System on Chip, SoC) for use in automobiles. ASRA will research and develop SoCs for automobiles using chiplet technology to... Read more →

Israel-based Arbe Robotics Ltd. has released the production version of its radar processor, which is used for OEM development projects and B-Sample radars with the production functionality of Arbe Tier-1s. Arbe’s radar processor complements the company’s production chipset portfolio which already includes production RF chips. Arbe’s patented processor chip integrates... Read more →

At its annual Technology Summit this week, GlobalFoundries (GF) announced advancements for two of its technology platforms that will support the growing demand for the technologies needed for autonomous, connected and electrified vehicles. The 40ESF3 AutoPro175 technology will be part of GF’s existing AutoPro platform, which provides GF’s automotive customers... Read more →

Horizon Robotics, a leading provider of energy-efficient computing solutions for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) in consumer vehicles, has formed a strategic partnership with Aptiv PLC and its subsidiary Wind River in China. (Aptiv acquired Wind River in 2022.) Aptiv is a global technology company focused on making mobility safer,... Read more →

TSMC, Robert Bosch GmbH, Infineon Technologies AG, and NXP Semiconductors N.V. plan to invest jointly ina joint venture—European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ESMC) GmbH, in Dresden, Germany—to provide advanced semiconductor manufacturing services. ESMC marks a significant step towards construction of a 300 mm fab to support the future capacity needs of... Read more →

Stellantis N.V. and Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) announced the creation of SiliconAuto, a 50/50 joint venture dedicated to designing and selling a family of state-of-the-art semiconductors to supply the automotive industry, including Stellantis, starting in 2026. The joint venture is the product of a December 2021 agreement between Stellantis... Read more →

General Motors (GM) and GlobalFoundries (GF) have entered a strategic, long-term agreement establishing a dedicated capacity corridor exclusively for GM’s chip supply. Through this first-of-its-kind agreement, GF will manufacture for GM’s key chip suppliers at GF’s advanced semiconductor facility in upstate New York bringing a critical process to the US.... Read more →

Sony Honda Mobility Inc. (SHM)—the new joint venture between Sony and Honda targeting high-value-added electric vehicles (EVs) and mobility services (earlier post)—announced its new brand AFEELA, and unveiled a prototype vehicle at CES 2023. SHM will develop the production model based on this prototype. Pre-orders are planned to begin in... Read more →

At CES 2023, Continental and Ambarella, an edge AI semiconductor company, announced a strategic partnership to develop scalable, end-to-end hardware and software solutions based on artificial intelligence (AI), for assisted and automated driving (AD), on the way to autonomous mobility. The strategic collaboration builds on Continental’s announcement in November to... Read more →

At CES 2023, ZF anniunced a new multi-domain capable edition of the ZF ProAI (earlier post) high-performance computer. One device can support domain-based ADAS, infotainment or chassis functions on separate boards. This includes system-on-chip configurations from multiple suppliers. It is even capable of hosting multiple operating systems in parallel, e.g.,... Read more →

NVIDIA and Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn), the world’s largest technology manufacturer, used CES 2023 as the venue to announce a strategic partnership to develop automated and autonomous vehicle platforms. As part of the agreement, Foxconn will be a tier-one manufacturer, producing electronic control units (ECUs) based on NVIDIA DRIVE... Read more →

The worldwide semiconductor industry is projected to invest more than $500 billion in 84 volume chipmaking facilities starting construction from 2021 to 2023, with segments including automotive and high-performance computing (HPC) fueling the spending increases, SEMI announced in its latest quarterly World Fab Forecast report. The projected growth in global... Read more →

NXP Semiconductors has introduced the new S32K39 series of automotive microcontrollers (MCUs) optimized for electric vehicle (EV) control applications. The modern S32K39 MCUs offer high-speed and high-resolution control for increased power efficiency to extend driving range and provide a smoother EV driving experience. The S32K39 MCUs include networking, security and... Read more →

In the future, Continental will offer Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) solutions based on the CV3 artificial intelligence (AI) system-on-chip (SoC) family from semiconductor company Ambarella. The high-performance, power-efficient and scalable SoC portfolio, which is built for ADAS applications, complements Continental’s solutions for assisted driving and further advances vehicle automation.... Read more →

Toyota Motor will join seven other leading Japanese companies—Sony Group, NEC, Toyota supplier Denso, NTT, chipmaker Kioxia Holdings, SoftBank and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Grou—in working with the Japanese government in a new next-generation semiconductor venture named Rapidus. The companies are investing a combined ¥7.3 billion (US$52.2 billion) and the government... Read more →

Toyota and Google Cloud announced an expanded partnership that brings together Toyota and Lexus next-generation audio multimedia systems and Google Cloud’s AI-based speech services. Customers can now experience the first results of the partnership in the latest generation Toyota Audio Multimedia and Lexus Interface infotainment systems, including in 2023 models... Read more →

The Autonomous Vehicle Computing Consortium (AVCC), a global group of automotive and technology industry leaders cooperating on expediting the delivery of automated and assisted driving compute solutions, and SEMI announced an alliance to drive autonomous vehicle innovation. Per the terms of the agreement, leadership and members of the two organizations... Read more →

VinFast, Vietnam’s first global EV maker, and Renesas Electronics Corporation are expanding their collaboration agreement to include automotive technology development of electric vehicles (EVs) and delivery of system components. As part of the newly expanded agreement, Renesas will provide a broader range of products to VinFast, which will include SoCs,... Read more →

NVIDIA introduced NVIDIA DRIVE Thor, its next-generation centralized computer for safe and secure autonomous vehicles. DRIVE Thor, which achieves up to 2,000 teraflops of performance, unifies intelligent functions—including automated and assisted driving, parking, driver and occupant monitoring, digital instrument cluster, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) and rear-seat entertainment—into a single architecture for... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Group hsa invested in BOS (Best Of Silicon) Semiconductors, a fabless startup based in Korea that designs system-on-chip (SoC) solutions. With a Custom Automotive SOC as a foundation, BOS is planning product lines that will span all areas of automotive SOC including autonomous driving, Gateway, and HPC (Mega-MCU).... Read more →

Silicon’s properties as a semiconductor are far from ideal. Athough silicon lets electrons whizz through its structure easily, it is much less accommodating to “holes”—electrons’ positively charged counterparts—and harnessing both is important for some kinds of chips. Furthermore, silicon is not very good at conducting heat, which is why overheating... Read more →

NXP Semiconductors signed a memorandum of understanding with Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) jointly to develop platforms for a new generation of smart connected vehicles. Hon Hai (Foxconn), the world’s largest electronics manufacturer and a leading technology solution provider, will leverage NXP’s portfolio of automotive technologies and its longstanding expertise... Read more →

CARIAD, the software unit of Volkswagen Group, and STMicroelectronics will shortly launch the joint development of an automotive system-on-chip (SoC). Together, CARIAD and ST are developing tailored hardware for connectivity, energy management, and over-the-air updates making vehicles fully software-defined, secure, and future-proof. The planned cooperation targets the new generation of... Read more →

SEMI Taiwan launched the SEMI Auto IC Master, a comprehensive guide to automotive semiconductor and component providers in Taiwan. Designed to enable closer collaboration among carmakers, automobile Tier 1 suppliers and Taiwan’s semiconductor IDM and fabless companies, the guide promises to help automakers better adapt production capacity to semiconductor supply... Read more →

NXP Semiconductors N.V. announced two new processor families that extend the benefits of NXP’s S32 automotive platform with safe, high-performance real-time processing. The S32Z and S32E processor families help enable the automotive industry to accelerate the integration of diverse real-time applications for domain and zonal control, safety processing and vehicle... Read more →

CARIAD, the Volkswagen Group’s software company, will look to Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. to supply system-on-chips (SoCs) for CARIAD’s software platform designed to enable assisted and automated driving functions up to Level 4. The SoCs from Qualcomm Technologies’ Snapdragon Ride Platform portfolio will be an important hardware component in CARIAD’s standardized... Read more →

Semiconductor manufacturers worldwide are on track to boost 200mm fab capacity by 1.2 million wafers, or 21%, from the start of 2020 to the end of 2024 to hit a record high of 6.9 million wafers per month, according to SEMI’s 200mm Fab Outlook Report. After climbing to $5.3 billion... Read more →

NVIDIA has started production of its NVIDIA DRIVE Orin autonomous vehicle computer, showcased new automakers adopting the NVIDIA DRIVE platform, and unveiled the next generation of its NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion architecture. The company also announced that its automotive pipeline has increased to more than $11 billion over the next six... Read more →

STMicroelectronics has introduced new automotive microcontrollers (MCUs) optimized for electric vehicles and centralized (domain and zonal) electronic architectures. They enable EVs to become more affordable, drive further, and charge faster. In current EVs, high-efficiency SiC-based (silicon carbide) power modules enable the greatest driving range and faster charging. However, trypical automotive... Read more →

The US Department of Commerce released the results from the Risks in the Semiconductor Supply Chain Request for Information (RFI) issued in Sept. 2021. Key findings from the report provided data-driven information about the depths of the semiconductor shortage. The RFI showed that median inventory held by chips consumers (including... Read more →

Toshiba Electronics Europe GmbH has launched a new normally open (NO) 1-Form-A photorelay that is intended for use in a multitude of battery- and hybrid-electric vehicle applications including within the battery management system (BMS), ground fault detection and identifying faults with mechanical relays. The new TLX9160T consists of an infrared... Read more →

Intel announced plans for an initial investment of more than $20 billion in the construction of two new leading-edge chip factories in Ohio. The investment will help boost production to meet the surging demand for advanced semiconductors, powering a new generation of innovative products from Intel and serving the needs... Read more →

Toshiba Electronics Europe GmbH has launched a new Ethernet bridge IC—the TC9563XBG—intended for use in automotive zonal-architecture, infotainment, telematics or gateways as well as industrial equipment. The new bridge IC incorporates two 10 Gbps Ethernet Media Access Controller (MAC) supporting a number of interfaces including USXGMII, XFI, SGMII, and RGMII.... Read more →

GM’s next-generation hands-free driver assist system, Ultra Cruise, will be powered by a scalable compute architecture featuring system-on-chips developed by Qualcomm Technologies. GM will be the first company to use the Qualcomm Technologies’ Snapdragon Ride Platform for advanced driver assistance technology, which features an industry-leading 5-nanometer Snapdragon SA8540P SoC and... Read more →

Ambarella, an AI vision silicon company, announced its new Artificial Intelligence Image Signal Processor (AISP). Ambarella’s new AI-based ISP architecture uses neural networks to augment the image processing done by the hardware ISP integrated into its SoCs. This approach enables color imaging with low light at very low lux levels... Read more →

At CES, NXP Semiconductors announced the IW612, the industry’s first secure tri-radio device to support the Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 and 802.15.4 (low-rate wireless personal area networks (LR-WPANs)) protocols. Part of NXP’s new family of tri-radio products, the new device enables seamless, secure connectivity for smart home, automotive and industrial... Read more →

NXP Semiconductors, a leading automotive semiconductor company, has announced a strategic partnership with Foxconn Industrial Internet (FII), a subsidiary of Hon Hai, to transform the car into the ultimate edge device. NXP will provide FII with its comprehensive portfolio of automotive technologies. The initial phase of the joint project will... Read more →

Global sales of total semiconductor manufacturing equipment by original equipment manufacturers are forecast to reach a new high of $103 billion in 2021, surging 44.7% from the previous industry record of $71 billion in 2020, SEMI announced in its Year-End Total Semiconductor Equipment Forecast – OEM Perspective. The growth is... Read more →

The BMW Group is exploring new ways of working with suppliers and, in the case of strategically important components, becoming more closely involved in the supplier network. To secure semiconductor supplies for the long term, the company has concluded a direct supply assurance agreement with high-tech microchip developer INOVA Semiconductors... Read more →