The self-driving, autonomous vehicle has been getting lots of attention, due to significant development efforts and dramatic progress made by companies such as Google. While general use of autonomous vehicles for widespread use on public roads is likely years away, these vehicles are already being employed in "constrained" applications such as open-pit mines and farming. Google has been doing extensive road tests of autonomous vehicles, both as a) custom vehicles and b) modified standard cars. Among the many technologies which make autonomous vehicles possible is a combination of sensors and actuators, sophisticated algorithms, and powerful processors to execute software. The sensors and actuators in an autonomous vehicle fall into three broad categories: 1) navigation and guidance (where you are, where you want to be, how to get there); 2) driving and safety (directing the vehicle, making sure it vehicle acts properly under all circumstances, and follows the r
Chipmakers are readying their next-generation technologies based on 10nm and/or 7nm finFETs, but it’s still not clear how long the finFET will last, how long the 10nm and 7nm nodes for high-end devices will be extended, and what comes next. The industry faces a multitude of uncertainties and challenges at 5nm, 3nm and beyond. Even today, traditional chip scaling continues to slow as process complexities and costs escalate at each node. As a result, fewer customers can afford to design chips around advanced nodes. In theory, finFETs are expected to scale to 5nm as defined by Intel. (A fully-scaled 5nm process is roughly equivalent to 3nm from the foundries). Regardless of the confusing node names, the finFET likely will run out of steam when the fin width reaches 5nm. So at 5nm or beyond, chipmakers will need a new solution. Otherwise, traditional chip scaling will slow down or stop completely. For some time, chipmakers have been exploring various transistor options for 5n