Mentor Blogs

Recent research into alternatives to traditional fossil fuels has identified that hydrocarbon chemicals found in ice cream,  or household items such as shampoo or soap could be manipulated to replace substances contained in fossil fuels.  The work has been done as a combine project between the Universities of Manchester (UK) and Turku (Finland).  According to EDF Energy,   supplies of oil in the world … Read More

Automotive

Mentor Graphics decided from the start when launching its Embedded Linux for Infotainment product, to remain GENIVI specification-compliant – we duly announced our 1.0 product back in 2011. The reality of remaining compliant, is continuous effort to update the platform approximately every 6 months, as new GENIVI platform specifications are released. As with any emerging standard, the GENIVI roadmap … Read More

Automotive, GENIVI, GENIVI INFOTAINMENT

One of the main themes at the Connected Infotainment event in London this week,  was exactly how   cars will get themselves connected to the internet? There was wide agreement that within 10 years most new cars will be in direct wireless contact with each other, and the outside world, to enable a range of cloud-based services. These will include routine updates on traffic, weather, and road conditions … Read More

Infotainment, Automotive

Freescale picked Beijing and Bangalore for their recent Technology Forum events – two very different cities, but some common themes at both events. Noticeable at both events was a tremendous appetite for new technology – around 1500 designers attended each event, hungry for new innovations particularly in the areas of smart energy, connected devices, automotive, and home-automation. China’s semiconductor … Read More

Freescale, Infotainment, Automotive, Mentor Embedded

I was involved in a discussion about driver workload management the other week. It is a fascinating topic and I can see it becoming a much more important feature of in-vehicle HMIs in the coming years. The basic concept is pretty straightforward – when a driver is in a high workload situation (e.g. driving at 70mph on a crowded freeway), the HMI adapts so that the functionality available to the driver … Read More

CAN/LIN, Medical, Energy, Freescale, Ethernet, Infotainment, MOST, Automotive, IVI, SoC, flexray

I was involved in a discussion about driver workload management the other week. It is a fascinating topic and I can see it becoming a much more important feature of in-vehicle HMIs in the coming years.  The basic concept is pretty straightforward – when a driver is in a high workload situation (e.g. driving at 70mph on a crowded freeway), the HMI adapts so that the functionality available to the driver … Read More

Driver Distraction, Automotive, Infotainment, IVI, HMI, Inflexion

I attended an excellent automotive HMI conference in Europe last week, with attendees from many of the top OEMs and tier-1 suppliers.  As we all know, automotive HMI is a complicated subject, and hence topics ranged from driver distraction,  workload management,  usability studies, the desire of drivers to access their favourite internet applications in the car and the recently published NHTSA driver … Read More

HMI, Automotive, IVI, UI, Inflexion, Infotainment

Today, more ‘things’ are connected to the Internet than there are people on the planet. Connectivity was a major theme at last week’s Freescale FTF event in San Antonio, Texas. There were over 1300 attendees, and around 200 technical sessions over the course of 4 days. An impressive range of SoC solutions aimed at connectivity covered such diverse applications, from Medical, Energy Management, Safety … Read More

IVI, Infotainment, Medical, CAN/LIN, Automotive, MOST, flexray, Freescale, SoC, Energy, Ethernet

Mentor held its 12th Integrated Electronics Solutions Forum (IESF) in Dearborn, Michigan on Thursday.  It was very well attended, with over 500 visitors representing automotive OEMs, tier 1s, and a range of services and support organizations.  There was a real sense that some of the business drivers and values in the automotive world have changed for ever – it is hard to imagine now that car makers … Read More

Automotive

Mentor held its 12th Integrated Electronics Solutions Forum (IESF) in Dearborn, Michigan on Thursday. It was very well attended, with over 500 visitors representing automotive OEMs, tier 1s, and a range of services and support organizations. There was a real sense that some of the business drivers and values in the automotive world have changed for ever – it is hard to imagine now that car makers … Read More

Automotive

It’s an article of faith in the automotive industry that customers want to bring their increasingly sophisticated smartphones into their vehicles and use them as easily and effectively as possible without having to take their eyes off the road or their hands off the wheel for more than a brief moment. From the customer’s perspective, the more freedom and flexibility they have to use smartphone “apps,” … Read More

MovieTickets.com, location-based services, Nuance, Bing, Stitcher, Toyota's Entune, BMW ConnectedDrive, Automotive, OpenBeak, Internet radio, OpenTable, iPhone/MP3 connectivity, Pandora, Ford Sync, smartphone "apps", iheartradio

In the early days of PCs, the software was very fragile - from a security point of view. Virus software could easily infiltrate a system and it was common practice to be very careful with the use of media from non-trusted sources. Then, everyone started to be connected to the Internet and the problem became orders of magnitude worse and we all have a justifiable paranoia about the security of our online … Read More

Networking, Automotive

I love gadgets but I hate cables – they make things so untidy. As a result, anything that can go wireless in our house has – even our light switches are on remote control. I used to think this was just plain silly when we were going through the retrofit until I realized I could turn off the kitchen lights from the comfort of our sofa. I’ve only used this “power” once but I tell you knowing that I can … Read More

Physical Prototype, CFD, Consumer Electronics, Automotive, Quality, EMI shielding, Medical, Design Engineer, Thermal, Electromagnetic Interference

It was well over 10 years ago and I was working a trade show booth with a techie colleague. It was quiet and we were bored. We chatted about things that interested us and eventually settled on our common ground: embedded software. He made a reference to “back in the 8 bit days”. I questioned this: “We are in the 8 bit days now!”. He did not believe me … It was not that he thought I was deceiving him … Read More

Development Tools, Low Power, Multicore, RTOS, Automotive

Without motivated, competent, enthusiastic and happy employees there is little chance of great organizational performance. The beginning of the year sales event held in San Antonio by Mentor Graphics had the theme “common purpose, ucommon passion”  emphasizing dedication and quality teamwork setting us apart from the competition in EDA.      In the Motor City, unless you have been avoiding TV, avoiding … Read More

Capital H, Automotive, CHS, Detroit, Change Management, Customers