One of the casualties of this recession is Electronic
Design’s sister publication, Auto Electronics. Are
design engineers no longer interested in the subject
matter? That’s not the case, for sure. For an industry
that is suffering so mightily right now, enormous
innovation is occurring.
Like many defunct print publications, content lives
on and will continue to grow in cyberspace—on the
Auto Electronics Web site.
We plan to keep covering the evolution of this industry,
from the standpoint of auto electronics design,
via the Web site and a revitalized e-newsletter that is
scheduled to launch this fall.
STOP THE PRESSES
The final print edition was the May/June issue. Of
course, the articles that appeared in that issue are now
on the Web site, just like prior issues. In its cover story,
“Modeling Tomorrow’s Networks,” Contributing
Editor John Day echoed the familiar beat of engineers
working hard through the recession.
“As the automotive industry slump continues,
design engineers must balance conflicting needs
for differentiation and cost reduction, while they
learn to employ new technologies like FlexRay and
AUTOSAR. New modeling and simulation tools
should help ease the burden,” he writes.
New articles are being posted to the Auto Electronics
Web site on a regular basis, and this will continue.
Recent stories include contributed pieces from NEC
Electronics America, QNX Software Systems, and
Maxim Integrated Electronics.
In “Automotive Vision Systems Mix It Up With
SIMD-MIMD Processor Architectures,” NEC principal
technical application engineer Jens Eltze points
out that single-instruction multiple-data (SIMD) or
multiple-instruction multiple-data (MIMD) processor
architectures alone might not be able to handle
the rigors of vision system processing.
But Eltze also states that vision-based and imagerecognition
systems are likely to experience strong
growth over the coming years due to their cost advantages
and multifunction capabilities. So what’s an
engineer to do? See Eltze’s article for a compromise.
In “Design Challenges for Digital Instrument
Clusters,” Andy Gryc of QNX notes that digital
instrument clusters are poised to supersede analog
clusters in next-generation vehicles. He takes a stepby-
step approach in explaining what engineers will
need to do to make the changeover from analog to
digital. In fact, he outlines the skill set needed to produce
analog clusters and shows how some skills will
have to be discarded or transformed for the coming
generation of digital clusters.
“The software behind an analog cluster is fairly
simple. It doesn’t need an operating system (OS),
since all tasks can execute within a fixed duration in a
small, tight loop,” he writes. “To develop the software,
engineers need traditional embedded skills: setting
and reading bits for GPIOs, debouncing switches,
reading ADCs, receiving and sending CAN messages,
and performing other direct-to-hardware tasks.”
Digital clusters, Gryc points out, will demand a
real-time operating system (RTOS) as well as a graphics
library to draw gauges, indicators, text announcements,
and other components.
“SERDES Test Strategies To Minimize EMI/
EMC” from Tanja Hofner and John Guy of Maxim
explains that electromagentic interference (EMI) and
electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing is an
important part of design verification for SERDES
devices. As EMI and EMC must be considered early
in the design cycle to prevent needless revisions, the
article offers basic concepts and guidelines on preparing
a SERDES system for EMI/EMC testing.
NEWS AND MORE
Though the economy may be struggling to
rebound, especially in this sector, significant industry
announcements appear regularly in my e-mail inbox.
Our reports on these developments can be found
under the Auto Electronics News section of the Web
site, and they will be in the newsletters as well.
One recent Infineon Technologies announcement
focused on a single-chip low-dropout (LDO) voltage
regulator that simplifies the design of active antenna
systems for car radios and in-car infotainment systems.
The TLF 4277 has adjustable output voltage
to support most standard active antennas, including
FM/AM, Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB), and the
XM and Sirius satellite radio bands.
Finally, several editors will contribute to the blogs
on the site. You will probably see entries from the
technology editors of Electronic Design, like Bill Wong
and Don Tuite, as well as contributing editors Roger
Allan, Randy Frank, and John Day. John has been the
sole contributor to the blog to date, and he has done a
great job, but it should be fun to see new viewpoints.
For AE, print is gone; long live the Web. If you’re an
engineer working in the automotive space or simply
an enthusiast, you can still find lots of interesting
articles on the Auto Electronics Web site. If you’re not a
subscriber to the Auto Electronics e-newsletter, visit
the home page and click on “Subscribe to AE.”