Automotive Technology
Aldec shortens time of ASIC design prototype bring- up in FPGA with HES-DVM Proto mode
New HES-DVM 2018.12 provides fast compilation, partitioning tools and automation that aid in design setup for physical prototyping on multi-FPGA boards from Aldec or a 3rd party
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ldec, a pioneer in mixed HDL language simulation and hardware- assisted verification for ASIC and FPGA designs, has unveiled the latest release of HES-DVMTM, the company’s fully automated and scalable hybrid verification environment for SoC and ASIC designs. Release 2018.12 features enhancements to the level of automation in Prototyping mode plus the faster compilation of HDL to FPGA. The new HES-DVM provides design partitioning and partition interconnection tools designed to meet the growing need for, and challenges associated with, FPGA prototyping; i.e. FPGAs used as a pre- silicon SoC verification vehicle to assure ultimate speed or as a hardware software co-verification platform. Thanks to the use of virtual partitions, HES-DVM can also be used in the process of designing new prototyping boards to establish the most
efficient board architecture for the project or with third party and in-house developed FPGA boards. With the 2018.12 release of HES-DVM, users will be able to evaluate quickly various partitioning scenarios and choose the one which provides the best performance on a given prototyping board. With this release, the productivity of an
FPGA prototyping team is greatly boosted thanks to the addition of two new automation enhancements. The first of these is automatic routing, which automatically resolves feed through connections if there are no appropriate chip-to-chip traces on a prototyping board. The second is Automatic Physical Connections for multi-FPGA prototyping boards, which routes all inter- partition connections using available chip-to-chip traces and it intelligently assigns various types of I/O - including integrated
serialization (SERDES) and differential signalling (LVDS).
In addition, and to further reduce the design setup turnaround time in HES- DVM’s Emulation and Prototyping modes, Aldec has developed a proprietary HDL compiler, details of which shall be announced later in the year. “We are proud to announce the latest
release of HES-DVM. It boosts our FPGA Prototyping and Emulation solutions, through the addition of features that significantly shorten design setup time, thus enabling designers to evaluate more prototype scenarios than before in a given
amount of time,” says Zibi Zalewski, general manager of Hardware Division. “Also, users can benefit from an ultra-
fast turnaround time, from bug–fix to a revised prototype run, and potentially spare themselves from months of tedious work. Indeed, we are devoted to persistently raising the bar in FPGA-based emulation and prototyping technology.” The new HES-DVMTM 2018.12
software is available now. To learn more or to evaluate HES-DVM, please visit the website.
www.aldec.com
Solid state batteries providing ultra-fast charging and long distance driving for electric vehicles
In today’s world, CO2 emissions are a major global problem and it is universally accepted that electric vehicles will have a key impact on reducing this. Road transport is responsible for 20 per cent of the UK’s CO2 emissions and 57 per cent of this is from passenger cars – and these statistics are similar in most developed economies. If a successful system can reduce the in-use carbon footprint of a typical vehicle by 25g/km (15 per cent) on today’s baseline, universal application would reduce CO2 emissions by 10m tonnes in the UK and over 250m tonnes globally
H
owever, even though consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about pollution and the environment, they do not want to give up their cars. They want a car that addresses both their efficiency and power requirements, whilst also being environmentally friendly. In order to encourage the uptake of electric vehicles, consumers need to know that the cars will drive further and charge quicker than they presently do. Major concerns round electric cars are:
- Range anxiety - will the battery last long enough for the journey? - Where are all the charging points
on route? - Are electric cars safe?
www.cieonline.co.uk
Until the batteries used address these demands, electric vehicle uptake will remain limited. Most electric vehicles currently available need to be charged overnight and have limited ranges before needing to be recharged. The increased focus on electric and hybrid vehicles requires advances in battery technology to enable quicker charging times and longer distance ranges. At the same time the technology needs to be safe, robust and both energy and power dense. The challenge, is for a battery that can do all this without being too large that it adds extra weight, especially as reducing the weight of all the electronics going into cars is a key concern.
Within the electric vehicles industry solid state batteries are being seen as the natural successor to lithium-ion batteries with many OEMs talking openly about them being on their roadmap. Current lithium-ion batteries contain a highly flammable organic solvent to regulate the flow of the current between the anode and cathode. However, in a solid state battery this is replaced by a solid electrolyte which is non-toxic and will not catch fire. They have the potential to be smaller in size with higher density enabling them to store twice as much energy as a lithium-ion battery in the same area – much more suitable for electric vehicles. Not only are they safer, but having higher power density cells makes them ideal for ultra-fast charging. In addition, they have a longer life span of up to 10 years and are light enough to be used in high performance cars. Whilst manufacturers are trying to
respond to consumer demands for more environmentally friendly vehicles, they are also getting pressure from governments to do more. In the UK, the Government has initiated the Faraday Battery Challenge to fund research and innovation into batteries for electric vehicles, hoping to accelerate their uptake.
As part of this challenge, Ilika is leading a collaborative project with major automotive OEMs and partners specialising in ink formulation, materials processing
and battery management systems. The project will develop a lithium based solid state battery for plug in hybrid and electric vehicles, establish a pre-pilot line for solid state battery cell technology and develop processes for a solid state materials supply chain. The new battery will enable ultra- fast charging, so electric vehicle owners can charge their cars in under 25 minutes. The approach will produce a pouch cell which is a very flat cell with good heat dissipation qualities due to the large surface area to volume ratio. More energy can be charged in a small volume thus increasing range of driving between charges - addressing the key consumer concern of range anxiety. This approach also solves the consumer concern of rapid charging as their dense compact films enable quick charging and high power even at room temperature – they don’t require heating in order to operate. All this from safe, non-toxic materials that won’t leak or explode. Battery technology is clearly a key element to the success of electric vehicles and innovation is addressing this. Consumers want safety, ultra-fast charging and further driving range and will not accept anything less. Solid state battery technology can answer consumer’s concerns enabling greater adoption of electric vehicles and in turn reduce global pollution.
www.ilika.com Components in Electronics February 2019 25
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