The wave of incoming embedded system applications is quietly changing the face of some traditional industries. The old, technology-driven semiconductor industry has reached an important turning point.
The blizzard that occurred in 1982 in Mount Washington, New Hampshire, completely changed the life trajectory of American rock climbing genius Hugh Herr. Previously, he was already a famous mountaineer in the United States, and in the snowstorm, Hugh Herr lost his way and was forced to spend three nights in the mountains with temperatures close to -30°C. After being rescued, Hugh Herr's legs had to cut off his limbs below the knee because of severe frostbite.
"I always thought during the surgery how can I continue my dreams?" recalls Hugh Herr. "My answer is - rely on technology." Now, Hugh Herr uses various techniques to help himself live and work like normal people. . Among them, he is most dependent on the "his" embedded system, an intelligent bionic technology that can "wear" on the body and integrate perception, calculation and interconnection.
To "wear" the machine for only a few months, Hugh Herr relied on his own "hard toe" and prosthesis that could stand on the surface of the "coin-sized" rock and returned to his favorite mountaineering. Since then, Hugh Herr received a master's degree in mechanical engineering and a Ph.D. in biomedical science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). When he was a postdoctoral fellow in biomedical devices, he began to study the prosthetic robot system that simulates human legs.
Hugh Herr now leads the work of the Institute of Biomechanics Engineering at the MIT Media Lab. In this institute, they used embedded systems including embedded processors, sensors, wireless networks, analog devices, and control software to integrate mechanical engineering with biomechanics and neural network control. "In an embedded system, the processor is like a person's brain, the sensor is like a person's eyes and ears, the analog device is equivalent to the muscles of the human body, and the software algorithm makes all the organs work." Embedded semiconductors working with Hugh Herr The solution provider Wayne Chavez, director of operations for Freescale’s global consumer electronics and industrial applications sensor products, said figuratively.
Unlike PCs, embedded systems are generally small in size, consume low power, integrate hardware and software, and can be embedded in virtually any object in the real world, enabling people to make it smart.
In an artificial knee designed by Hugh Herr, the sensor and processor can continuously perceive the position of the joint and adapt to the load of the limb in order to coordinate the movement of the leg; and he designed the world's first foot prosthetic robot system, utilizing multiple Sensors, microcontrollers, and analog devices mimic human musculoskeletal structures and movements, providing a natural gait for the calf amputee for the first time. Today, these "wearable robots" parts have been commercialized and are helping people with disabilities to achieve physical "self-healing" and allow them to live in more and more natural ways.
Hugh Herr himself also wore such a prosthetic limb, which contains 5 microprocessors and 12 sensors. Every month, Hugh Herr upgrades them, hoping that by the time they are 80 years old, the pair of prostheses will become their "bloody." "Soon, there will be other sensors implanted in my muscle tissue. They can feel muscle movements and interact with the prosthesis system." Hugh Herr told reporters, "In 50 years, the prosthesis can feel it. The information is mapped to sensors embedded in my muscles so that I can feel the feeling of the prosthesis, feel the contraction and stretching of the prosthetic 'muscle', and judge whether the current state of my walking is suitable for the prosthesis and help me to walk better. â€
In addition to the prosthetic robot system, researchers at the MIT Media Lab are also using embedded technology to achieve breakthroughs in other biotechnologies.
Some researchers, like the installation of solar panels, implanted tiny, embedded arrays into the brain to perform certain interventions and stimulations on certain parts of the brain to treat certain diseases. For example, they use the 100Hz sound wave system to create a sense of pleasure in an area of ​​the brain, allowing people with suicidal thoughts to abandon the idea, and this method can also treat depression. “Half of the world people have some degree of cognitive difficulties, we hope to rely on embedded technology and other future technologies to eliminate these disabilities at the end of this century.†Hugh Herr elaborated on their ideas.
"Now, the world is blowing a new wave of 'embedded'," said Rich Beyer, Chairman and CEO of Freescale's Board of Directors. "More importantly, unlike embedded PCs, these embedded systems have very low power consumption. Almost always stand by and always walk with us.â€
"Zero emission, zero casualty" cars can be "wearable" in addition to humans. Almost all the objects around us can "wear" on various types of robotic systems, and thus become more intelligent. The automobile is one of them. In this embedded fashion, cars are no longer the traditional steel machinery equipment. It is more like a class of electronic smart devices. More meaningfully, it makes cars closer to “zero casualties†and The ultimate goal of "zero emissions".
Some luxury cars have already put on an "active safety" robotic system, which makes the car become like an airplane. Once the corresponding procedures are set up, automatic driving can be achieved and the driver can "close his eyes." An auto-cruise system is becoming increasingly popular in the United States and Japan. It has a radar system at the front of the car. This is different from the reversing radar we are familiar with. The reversing radar is based on ultrasonic technology and can only judge objects within a couple of meters. While the radar of the auto-cruise system is based on the 77 GHz electromagnetic wave, it can “see†objects within 250 meters in front of the car. In addition, a camera system is installed on the car. It uses four or more cameras around the exterior of the car to automatically recognize objects around the car body, traffic signs on the road, and lane lines if the vehicle accidentally crosses the yellow line. The system will automatically alarm.
The auto-cruise system consists of the "brain" of the microcontroller, the "eyes" of the 77 GHz RF transceiver, the "visual analysis nerves" of the digital signal processor, and the "muscles" of the analog device. The camera system consists of the camera sensor "eyes", the "nerves" of the network communication, and the "brains" of the microcontroller. At present, these robots are still relatively expensive and are frequently worth tens of thousands of yuan or even tens of thousands of yuan. Therefore, it is estimated that it will take two years to appear on domestic brand cars, and it is expected to gradually become popular five years later. Even so, we can feel the high rate of penetration of these robot systems into the automotive industry.
“At the end of this year, airbags designed by Freescale and Bosch with a cost of around $1,000 will enter the market, which will increase the penetration rate,†said Stephan Lehmann, global automotive market director at Freescale. In addition, an electronic stability system that prevents the car from slipping or rolling when the brakes or rapid steering is prevented can gradually enter the domestically produced high-end cars by “turning the lights up and down†according to the driving direction of the vehicle.
In addition to zero casualties, zero emissions are also an objective of embedded systems. Last year, Geely's engineers began designing hybrid cars. In addition to traditional gasoline engines, motors have also been added to such new energy vehicles. In this way, when you step on the accelerator and use too much force, the excess power is converted into electricity and stored in the battery. When the energy is not enough, the energy is released from the battery, and the engine can therefore always work in a stable state. This increases fuel efficiency and reduces emissions. Of course, this is a transitional solution. In the future, pure electric vehicles will have only electric motors and batteries, and "zero emissions" will be achieved at that time.
"When Geely launched its next-generation car, you must pay attention to the contribution of the embedded system." Mr. RichBeyer emphasized.
Like the "wearing" robots in the human body, various types of embedded systems in automobiles also need platform solutions - integrating processors, sensors, RF transceivers, wireless networks, analog devices and software algorithms. Constant pursuit of miniaturization, high performance and low cost. However, there are differences between the automotive robot systems, and international organizations have established a safety standard for them - ISO 26262, which will soon be enforced. According to the standard, all kinds of robots on the car must meet different safety levels. For example, the ABS system for braking, the safety level must reach the highest D level.
The ubiquitous doctors, apart from being able to "wear" robots on people or cars, we also have thousands of independent embedded devices around us. They provide us with various services in the process of mobile and wireless interconnection. This is in the future. The medical field is particularly prominent.
Now, Mr. Steven Dean, head of Freescale’s global health department, rushes to bed every day to see a personal terminal. The terminal monitors his sleep breathing at night to see if there is suffocation, and at the same time judges his sleep quality. . After getting up, a small smart device with multiple sensors was worn on Steven's arm. At the push of a button, he automatically measured blood pressure, pulse, and other indicators for him. Another ring-like device was worn on Steven's finger to measure blood sugar for him. The test results were sent to the home health hub in real time, and Steven's personal doctor, Dr. Jose also saw the data in real time remotely.
Currently, 10% of the world’s population suffers from diabetes, while China and India account for 40% of the global diabetes patients. These patients need to measure their blood glucose many times a day. These small, connected devices make their measurement and diagnosis simple. And convenient. As a result of the economic, urbanization and high-risk medical expenditures, public health care has shifted its focus to the monitoring and prevention of chronic diseases such as hypertension, heart failure, diabetes and cancer. Through these low-cost, portable, wirelessly connected, easy-to-use smart systems, people can spend 65% less time in hospitals and 6 days in hospitals in a year.
The medical device field is now developing such a complete medical system. In these systems, the most important change comes from the "brain" application processor. "In the next few years, we predict that the display's resolution will increase by two to four times. To catch up with this speed of innovation, we have introduced dual-core processors that support 3D graphical interfaces and high-definition 3D displays," said RichBeyer. It also needs to be able to provide a complete solution that saves time-to-market and minimizes costs.â€
In addition to wireless interconnects and reducing its own cost, handheld 4G base stations are also being combined with cloud computing to change the traditional game industry rules for many years. For example, they are subverting the traditional concept of mobile network infrastructure.
No one wants to let telecom operators install those bulky transmitting antenna towers in their own homes or in residential areas. The emission power of these antennas is sometimes as high as several hundred watts. The radiation generated by these antennas is not only the major cause of cardiovascular diseases and cancerous mutations, but also causes direct damage to the human immune system and reproductive system.
"This is just one of the problems we face with telecom operators when deploying mobile networks," said Jerome Meyer, product manager for Alcatel-Lucent. According to relevant market forecasts, by 2015, mobile data traffic will increase 30 times than it is now, but unfortunately, telecom operators' revenue growth has not been so good. In this way, telecom operators have to upgrade the network and increase the coverage of the network on the one hand, and on the other hand, they have to find ways to reduce the cost of network deployment and maintenance.
Scientists at Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs have recently developed a new network architecture that decomposes large centralized management base stations into multiple small base stations and distributes management over the cloud network to achieve large scale Base station completed communication tasks.
This year, Alcatel-Lucent collaborated with Freescale and HP to launch the corresponding product, LightRadio. The antenna towers that originally caused people to panic now shrink into a 2-inch square cube and become a box on Jerome Meyer's hand. "You can install it on poles, on both sides of the building, or in some very inconspicuous places," Jerome Meyer said. Moreover, you can even install a small box in your home, because it has a launch power of only a few watts or even less than 1 watt, so you don't have to worry about radiation.
Although small in size and low in transmission power, these compact devices can accomplish large tasks in a cloud network. If 16 such small cubes are formed into an array, the functions of the 3G macro cell base station can be realized. This structure allows operators to reduce their capital investment by 20%. Considering factors such as land occupation and power consumption, operation and maintenance costs can be reduced by 50%.
This new base station benefits from the development of multi-core processor embedded system technology. On a multi-core chip using 28-nanometer process technology, it can integrate all functions of the base station because its processing performance is four times that of the previous chip. Go to a single chip, called "on-chip base station."
In this embedded fashion, the semiconductor industry has reached an important turning point. They are no longer pursuing the performance of processors as they were in the PC era. They have to increase embedded processing, sensors, radio frequency, wireless communications, and power management. The ability to seamlessly connect with software; at the same time, their innovations must be based on system design and application, not just the silicon story.
The blizzard that occurred in 1982 in Mount Washington, New Hampshire, completely changed the life trajectory of American rock climbing genius Hugh Herr. Previously, he was already a famous mountaineer in the United States, and in the snowstorm, Hugh Herr lost his way and was forced to spend three nights in the mountains with temperatures close to -30°C. After being rescued, Hugh Herr's legs had to cut off his limbs below the knee because of severe frostbite.
"I always thought during the surgery how can I continue my dreams?" recalls Hugh Herr. "My answer is - rely on technology." Now, Hugh Herr uses various techniques to help himself live and work like normal people. . Among them, he is most dependent on the "his" embedded system, an intelligent bionic technology that can "wear" on the body and integrate perception, calculation and interconnection.
To "wear" the machine for only a few months, Hugh Herr relied on his own "hard toe" and prosthesis that could stand on the surface of the "coin-sized" rock and returned to his favorite mountaineering. Since then, Hugh Herr received a master's degree in mechanical engineering and a Ph.D. in biomedical science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). When he was a postdoctoral fellow in biomedical devices, he began to study the prosthetic robot system that simulates human legs.
Hugh Herr now leads the work of the Institute of Biomechanics Engineering at the MIT Media Lab. In this institute, they used embedded systems including embedded processors, sensors, wireless networks, analog devices, and control software to integrate mechanical engineering with biomechanics and neural network control. "In an embedded system, the processor is like a person's brain, the sensor is like a person's eyes and ears, the analog device is equivalent to the muscles of the human body, and the software algorithm makes all the organs work." Embedded semiconductors working with Hugh Herr The solution provider Wayne Chavez, director of operations for Freescale’s global consumer electronics and industrial applications sensor products, said figuratively.
Unlike PCs, embedded systems are generally small in size, consume low power, integrate hardware and software, and can be embedded in virtually any object in the real world, enabling people to make it smart.
In an artificial knee designed by Hugh Herr, the sensor and processor can continuously perceive the position of the joint and adapt to the load of the limb in order to coordinate the movement of the leg; and he designed the world's first foot prosthetic robot system, utilizing multiple Sensors, microcontrollers, and analog devices mimic human musculoskeletal structures and movements, providing a natural gait for the calf amputee for the first time. Today, these "wearable robots" parts have been commercialized and are helping people with disabilities to achieve physical "self-healing" and allow them to live in more and more natural ways.
Hugh Herr himself also wore such a prosthetic limb, which contains 5 microprocessors and 12 sensors. Every month, Hugh Herr upgrades them, hoping that by the time they are 80 years old, the pair of prostheses will become their "bloody." "Soon, there will be other sensors implanted in my muscle tissue. They can feel muscle movements and interact with the prosthesis system." Hugh Herr told reporters, "In 50 years, the prosthesis can feel it. The information is mapped to sensors embedded in my muscles so that I can feel the feeling of the prosthesis, feel the contraction and stretching of the prosthetic 'muscle', and judge whether the current state of my walking is suitable for the prosthesis and help me to walk better. â€
In addition to the prosthetic robot system, researchers at the MIT Media Lab are also using embedded technology to achieve breakthroughs in other biotechnologies.
Some researchers, like the installation of solar panels, implanted tiny, embedded arrays into the brain to perform certain interventions and stimulations on certain parts of the brain to treat certain diseases. For example, they use the 100Hz sound wave system to create a sense of pleasure in an area of ​​the brain, allowing people with suicidal thoughts to abandon the idea, and this method can also treat depression. “Half of the world people have some degree of cognitive difficulties, we hope to rely on embedded technology and other future technologies to eliminate these disabilities at the end of this century.†Hugh Herr elaborated on their ideas.
"Now, the world is blowing a new wave of 'embedded'," said Rich Beyer, Chairman and CEO of Freescale's Board of Directors. "More importantly, unlike embedded PCs, these embedded systems have very low power consumption. Almost always stand by and always walk with us.â€
"Zero emission, zero casualty" cars can be "wearable" in addition to humans. Almost all the objects around us can "wear" on various types of robotic systems, and thus become more intelligent. The automobile is one of them. In this embedded fashion, cars are no longer the traditional steel machinery equipment. It is more like a class of electronic smart devices. More meaningfully, it makes cars closer to “zero casualties†and The ultimate goal of "zero emissions".
Some luxury cars have already put on an "active safety" robotic system, which makes the car become like an airplane. Once the corresponding procedures are set up, automatic driving can be achieved and the driver can "close his eyes." An auto-cruise system is becoming increasingly popular in the United States and Japan. It has a radar system at the front of the car. This is different from the reversing radar we are familiar with. The reversing radar is based on ultrasonic technology and can only judge objects within a couple of meters. While the radar of the auto-cruise system is based on the 77 GHz electromagnetic wave, it can “see†objects within 250 meters in front of the car. In addition, a camera system is installed on the car. It uses four or more cameras around the exterior of the car to automatically recognize objects around the car body, traffic signs on the road, and lane lines if the vehicle accidentally crosses the yellow line. The system will automatically alarm.
The auto-cruise system consists of the "brain" of the microcontroller, the "eyes" of the 77 GHz RF transceiver, the "visual analysis nerves" of the digital signal processor, and the "muscles" of the analog device. The camera system consists of the camera sensor "eyes", the "nerves" of the network communication, and the "brains" of the microcontroller. At present, these robots are still relatively expensive and are frequently worth tens of thousands of yuan or even tens of thousands of yuan. Therefore, it is estimated that it will take two years to appear on domestic brand cars, and it is expected to gradually become popular five years later. Even so, we can feel the high rate of penetration of these robot systems into the automotive industry.
“At the end of this year, airbags designed by Freescale and Bosch with a cost of around $1,000 will enter the market, which will increase the penetration rate,†said Stephan Lehmann, global automotive market director at Freescale. In addition, an electronic stability system that prevents the car from slipping or rolling when the brakes or rapid steering is prevented can gradually enter the domestically produced high-end cars by “turning the lights up and down†according to the driving direction of the vehicle.
In addition to zero casualties, zero emissions are also an objective of embedded systems. Last year, Geely's engineers began designing hybrid cars. In addition to traditional gasoline engines, motors have also been added to such new energy vehicles. In this way, when you step on the accelerator and use too much force, the excess power is converted into electricity and stored in the battery. When the energy is not enough, the energy is released from the battery, and the engine can therefore always work in a stable state. This increases fuel efficiency and reduces emissions. Of course, this is a transitional solution. In the future, pure electric vehicles will have only electric motors and batteries, and "zero emissions" will be achieved at that time.
"When Geely launched its next-generation car, you must pay attention to the contribution of the embedded system." Mr. RichBeyer emphasized.
Like the "wearing" robots in the human body, various types of embedded systems in automobiles also need platform solutions - integrating processors, sensors, RF transceivers, wireless networks, analog devices and software algorithms. Constant pursuit of miniaturization, high performance and low cost. However, there are differences between the automotive robot systems, and international organizations have established a safety standard for them - ISO 26262, which will soon be enforced. According to the standard, all kinds of robots on the car must meet different safety levels. For example, the ABS system for braking, the safety level must reach the highest D level.
The ubiquitous doctors, apart from being able to "wear" robots on people or cars, we also have thousands of independent embedded devices around us. They provide us with various services in the process of mobile and wireless interconnection. This is in the future. The medical field is particularly prominent.
Now, Mr. Steven Dean, head of Freescale’s global health department, rushes to bed every day to see a personal terminal. The terminal monitors his sleep breathing at night to see if there is suffocation, and at the same time judges his sleep quality. . After getting up, a small smart device with multiple sensors was worn on Steven's arm. At the push of a button, he automatically measured blood pressure, pulse, and other indicators for him. Another ring-like device was worn on Steven's finger to measure blood sugar for him. The test results were sent to the home health hub in real time, and Steven's personal doctor, Dr. Jose also saw the data in real time remotely.
Currently, 10% of the world’s population suffers from diabetes, while China and India account for 40% of the global diabetes patients. These patients need to measure their blood glucose many times a day. These small, connected devices make their measurement and diagnosis simple. And convenient. As a result of the economic, urbanization and high-risk medical expenditures, public health care has shifted its focus to the monitoring and prevention of chronic diseases such as hypertension, heart failure, diabetes and cancer. Through these low-cost, portable, wirelessly connected, easy-to-use smart systems, people can spend 65% less time in hospitals and 6 days in hospitals in a year.
The medical device field is now developing such a complete medical system. In these systems, the most important change comes from the "brain" application processor. "In the next few years, we predict that the display's resolution will increase by two to four times. To catch up with this speed of innovation, we have introduced dual-core processors that support 3D graphical interfaces and high-definition 3D displays," said RichBeyer. It also needs to be able to provide a complete solution that saves time-to-market and minimizes costs.â€
In addition to wireless interconnects and reducing its own cost, handheld 4G base stations are also being combined with cloud computing to change the traditional game industry rules for many years. For example, they are subverting the traditional concept of mobile network infrastructure.
No one wants to let telecom operators install those bulky transmitting antenna towers in their own homes or in residential areas. The emission power of these antennas is sometimes as high as several hundred watts. The radiation generated by these antennas is not only the major cause of cardiovascular diseases and cancerous mutations, but also causes direct damage to the human immune system and reproductive system.
"This is just one of the problems we face with telecom operators when deploying mobile networks," said Jerome Meyer, product manager for Alcatel-Lucent. According to relevant market forecasts, by 2015, mobile data traffic will increase 30 times than it is now, but unfortunately, telecom operators' revenue growth has not been so good. In this way, telecom operators have to upgrade the network and increase the coverage of the network on the one hand, and on the other hand, they have to find ways to reduce the cost of network deployment and maintenance.
Scientists at Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs have recently developed a new network architecture that decomposes large centralized management base stations into multiple small base stations and distributes management over the cloud network to achieve large scale Base station completed communication tasks.
This year, Alcatel-Lucent collaborated with Freescale and HP to launch the corresponding product, LightRadio. The antenna towers that originally caused people to panic now shrink into a 2-inch square cube and become a box on Jerome Meyer's hand. "You can install it on poles, on both sides of the building, or in some very inconspicuous places," Jerome Meyer said. Moreover, you can even install a small box in your home, because it has a launch power of only a few watts or even less than 1 watt, so you don't have to worry about radiation.
Although small in size and low in transmission power, these compact devices can accomplish large tasks in a cloud network. If 16 such small cubes are formed into an array, the functions of the 3G macro cell base station can be realized. This structure allows operators to reduce their capital investment by 20%. Considering factors such as land occupation and power consumption, operation and maintenance costs can be reduced by 50%.
This new base station benefits from the development of multi-core processor embedded system technology. On a multi-core chip using 28-nanometer process technology, it can integrate all functions of the base station because its processing performance is four times that of the previous chip. Go to a single chip, called "on-chip base station."
In this embedded fashion, the semiconductor industry has reached an important turning point. They are no longer pursuing the performance of processors as they were in the PC era. They have to increase embedded processing, sensors, radio frequency, wireless communications, and power management. The ability to seamlessly connect with software; at the same time, their innovations must be based on system design and application, not just the silicon story.
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