As the global economy gets tighter, international companies look to each other to develop the next wave of technological innovation. For example, Nemoptic and Seiko Instruments will examine e-paper technology. Robert Bosch GmbH will take advantage of an Infineon chip to improve its automotive radar systems. And, Concurrent Technologies has turned to Intel’s 45-nm process for VME/VXE advances.
No Power? No Problem
French e-paper display company Nemoptic will license its bistable BiNem (Bistable Nematic) technology to Seiko Instruments. BiNem enhances existing LCD technologies with memory effects and high image quality. This means its displays can retain data and images on a screen without using power. Energy is required only when changing the screen’s content. Unlike some other bistable technologies, BiNem is compatible with existing LCD processes, so it can be produced on existing LCD manufacturing lines without additional capital investment.
Driving the Radar Road
Automotive systems and parts specialist Robert Bosch GmbH has said it will employ a chip from Infineon Technologies in its next generation of automotive radar systems (Fig. 1). Part of Infineon’s RASIC (Radar System IC) product family, the chip will be used in Bosch’s new third-generation Long Range Radar (LRR3) radar sensor system.
The LRR3 has been developed for Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) at ranges up to 250 m and predictive radar-based safety functions such as predictive brake assist systems, collision warning features, and automatic emergency braking. As Infineon produces the radar chip using silicon-germanium (SiGe) technology, it enables smaller and more cost-effective radar systems than were possible with components based on gallium-arsenide (GaAs) technology.
Market researchers at Strategy Analytics expect that by 2014, 7% of all new cars could be equipped with a remote warning system, predominantly in Europe and Japan.
45-nm Process Technology
Over in Colchester, England, computer board specialists Concurrent Technologies announced its first VME/VXS critical embedded product based on Intel’s 45-nm process technology and the latest DDR3 memory devices. The VX 511/06x single-slot 6U dual PMC/XMC VME/VXS processor board uses the latest low power high-performance dual-core processor from the Intel embedded roadmap—the Intel Core2 Duo processor operating at 2.26 or 1.86 GHz (Fig. 2).
The board supports up to 6 Gbytes of DDR3-1066 SDRAM and optionally provides a VXS P0 connector supporting, on the backplane, VITA 41.4 (dual x4 PCI Express) and VITA 41.6 (dual 1000-Mbits/s baseband IEEE802.3) to provide fast data/control transfer between other boards in the system. Commercial and extended temperature versions are available now. Ruggedized, conduction-cooled, and air-cooled (to VITA 47) versions will be announced soon says the company.
The Intel Thermal Design Power (TDP) for the 45-nm, 2.26-GHz dual-core processor is 25 W, providing an improved performance per watt when compared to earlier generations of processors.