A UK report has proposed global standards for the high-definition mapping necessary for “the safe deployment of self-driving vehicles”, according to Ordnance Survey, which worked with Zenzic, the UK Government-initiated hub organisation for self-driving vehicle development, to prepare the report – and call for comments (see below).
According to the report, self-driving vehicles will require maps with resolution better than 50mm to ensure operation in complex environments. “Maps will also need to include information on curbs, street-level features like lamp-posts, pedestrian crossings and road markings,” said OS. “Real-time updates to maps will also be crucial to let self-driving cars ‘see’ around corners for temporary objects in the road like skips or roadworks.”
These constantly-updated maps allow the vehicle to reference the position of other road users against known objects, and also, according to OS, provide back-up in situations where its sensors are less effective – f

DRAM bit volume will grow roughly 20% per year over the next few years, forecasts IC Insights. Figure 1 shows Micron’s perspective on the capex required to increase DRAM bit volume shipments 20% per year.
With new and very complex DRAM technologies requiring much more fab equipment and more fab space needed to house this equipment, Micron estimates that the industry capex required to grow DRAM bit volume by 20% more than doubled from $8 billion in 2015 to $18 billion in 2018.
Actual DRAM expenditures in 2016 were slightly below what was needed to increase bit volume 20% and about equal to what was needed in 2017.
However, in 2018, capex targeting the DRAM market reached $23.7 billion, 32% more than the $18.0 billion that was deemed necessary to grow DRAM bit volume by 20%.
In 2018, DRAM bit volume increased only 13% and is forecast to increase 17% in 2019.
Too much capex spending typically leads to overcapacity and subsequent pricing weakness—a condition that is amplified by eco

Following a solid race in Wisconsin, the Mouser– and Molex-sponsored IndyCar team is setting their sights on Honda Indy Toronto on July 14, where the car will be sporting a Mouser Blue livery for the second year in a row.
Driver Sebastien Bourdais and the Mouser-sponsored No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan car collected another 18 points at the famed Wisconsin Road America course. Now all eyes will be on the Toronto race and the sharp-looking No. 18 car as championship driver Bourdais navigates the tight 11-turn, 1.786-mile course through scenic downtown Toronto — about an hour’s drive from Mouser’s Canadian Customer Service Center at Kitchener-Waterloo in the Ontario technology corridor.
“We wish Sebastien and the team the best of luck as they take to the streets of Toronto in the ‘Mouser Machine’ for the second year in a row,” said Todd McAtee, Mouser Electronics’ Vice President, Americas Business Development. “The collaboration between this team, Mouser Electr

Fabless power semiconductor company Helix Semiconductors and Digi-Key have entered into a global distribution partnership.
Under the terms of the agreement, Digi-Key will distribute Helix Semiconductors’ MxC 200family of configurable, 15W DC-DC power ICs and evaluation boards worldwide.
The MxC 200 family consists of five monolithic, configurable, high-voltage switch capacitor ICs targeted for use in both non-isolated and isolated, buck or boost DC-DC converter applications.
The MxC 200 takes voltage input ranging from 12-48V and converts it to selectable lower voltages, enabling it to stay nearly flat from full load down to 5% load.
“We are very excited to bring on Helix Semiconductors – their products and innovations in the world of power management are true game changers,” says Digi-Key’s Nick Olson.
Target applications for the MxC 200 include a wide variety of products such as machine vision and security cameras, wireless access points, IoT gateways, and VoIP phones – a

Qualcomm’s moble processor, designated 215, has four ARM Cortex-A53 cores, a Hexagon DSP engineered to support up to 5+ days of music playback, an Adren 308 GPU and display technologies claimed to support up to 10+ hours of video playback. It has Qualcomm’s Quick Charge technology.
It has dual-ISPs which means it can support dual cameras with optical zoom and depth sensing, resulting in improved photos. It’s capable of capturing images up to 13 megapixels photos. It supports HD+ resolution.
The processor has a Snapdragon X5 modem which supports LTE Cat 4 with Carrier Aggregation for faster data rates and download speeds up to 150Mbps.
It supports EVS Voice calls and Dual Sim with Dual Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) allowing for the freedom to use multiple SIMs for concurrent high-quality 4G LTE voice and data, separation of work and personal accounts, and optimise cellular connectivity costs taking advantage of multiple plans.