San Francisco, CA. The International Microwave Symposium officially concluded with a closing plenary address Thursday evening. Dr. Amarpal Khanna, IMS 2016 general chair, thanked the IMS community, noting that the event brought more than 10,000 people to San Francisco, including 3,000 technical attendees. He added that 635 companies exhibited at the show.
Dr. James Truchard, president and CEO of National Instruments, then delivered a talk discussing software’s role in next-generation 5G RF and microwave systems.
He shared that when he began his career five decades ago, analog was king. Analog is still a very important part of RF microwave systems, with significant Moore’s Law headroom for analog processes. But, Truchard said, software has come a long way since his early work on analog beamformers and, in 1976, his co-founding of National Instruments. “It’s now very much center stage,” he said. “It’s how we make wireless communications systems work.”
He then traced technology evolution from vacuum tubes through transistors and ICs and now on to software—whose performance is enabled by Moore’s Law and the ever faster processors and related integrated circuits on which the software runs. The result is a convergence of devices such as smart mobile phones and the IoT, with the convergence linking physical sensors and actuators and the wireless world. In addition, he said, the connected car is a tremendous innovation, noting he had to get a new Tesla to get the radar sensors he wanted. (The downside is the need to replace your car every two years along with your phone.)
The challenge is to reach important milestones in the way test needs to be done. “I believe software will play a key role,” he said.
He added that 5G will be a key technology of the IoT, offering the promise not only of high-speed data rates and low power but also the low latency required for control applications.
“The concept of the platform will play a significant role in test and design in general,” he said, where millions of applications can run on one platform. “We at NI have hundreds of thousands of measurement apps all built around a common set of software and a common set of hardware.”
He proposed a hybrid approach with multiple models of computation to support quick prototyping and design. What’s needed, he explained, is a common platform for the entire design cycle—from algorithm engineering to end-device production test.
A common platform, he emphasized, will make it possible for us to add value and speed up time to market—while for example, making sure the brakes will come on when the radar sensor detects a pedestrian walking in front of the car. He concluded that the goal is to “…make the next generation of technology work the way we want it to work.”
See related article, “NI chief talks instrumentation evolution at Autotestcon.”
