On The Move

Mobile solutions at Work

Hezi Saar — Thu, 31 May 2012 00:16:50 +0000

We typically refer to mobile solutions in the context of consumers as these mobile devices are used in our daily life for fun, accessing information, watching movies and similar tasks. We also use these Mobile electronics for work related tasks: phone calls, texting, email, business apps and for accessing / sending information.

There are more specific mobile solutions which are targeted at a certain business environment such as medical and fleet management. The later is a very interesting market segment that is one of the first vertical markets targeted by mobile vendors. The benefits of using mobile solutions in fleet management are clear. Usage of inexpensive and abundant GPS-based mobile applications can help simplify workforce management, route optimization and dispatch, vehicle diagnostics, eliminating driver paperwork for Hours of Service applications for example.

All of these capabilities help control costs and increase efficiency and directly related to the usage of mobile solutions. Examples: image or barcode captured can increase productivity and reduce paperwork. Wireless time cards allow to remotely clock in and out and simplify these tasks and decrease the paperwork burdon. The ability to track driver location allows to define boundaries and provide an alert to save on fuel costs by minimizing out-of-route miles.

Here’s a photo of Motorola ES400 mobile phone scanning a barcode

What does it have to do with mobile interfaces?

Usage of high speed air-link such as 3G allow to enable data-based services. The ruggedized mobile electronics available, which are in essence smartphones or tablet computers targeted to serve a certain industry provide more opportunities (or more headache) to SoC architects. Having a flexible design that can cover multiple applications and still be cost effective and manufacturable is challenging. This is more difficult as mobile applications go horizontally (all consumers), vertically (automotive, medical, industrial, emergency, military) and in the future expected to fragment further into sub-categories. The opportunity here is to expand the mobile market into applications that could bear higher ASPs and thus higher margins but will pay for a product that can support the right features.
One approach to mitigate this problem is defining the base platforms per similar market(s) and have the flexibility within each platform to add or remove features as needed. For that you need interfaces that can support the variety of options considered on each platform AND provide application optimized approach to maximize the profitability. How you do all that? some of the mobile interfaces supported today (and in the future) allow you to achieve that in an elegant way and I’ll be discussing some of these options in future blog posts.

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MIPI Interoperability and Conformance: Interview with David Woolf (Part 3)

Hezi Saar — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:22:22 +0000

We are back with part#3 and FINAL of the interview with Mr. David Woolf, Senior Engineer at UNH-IOL, which actively engages in interoperability and conformance tests for various MIPI protocols. If you missed the first part of the interview you can find it here and second part here.

Question: David, what do you think vendors such as Synopsys can do to strengthen the MIPI eco-system?

Answer: Synopsys is in a unique position, having customers in many corners of MIPI, they can have a big influence. I’m happy to see Synopsys engaging early on conformance and interop testing. I think that will lead to smoother integration for its customers later on, which will strengthen the whole MIPI community.

Question: What is your perspective about MIPI protocols enabled by M-PHY and D-PHY and how do you think these could be tested to avoid failures in the field?

Answer: Looking ahead, I hope to see future interfaces like M-PHY and the protocols that ride on top of them like LLI and UniPro, and eventually CSI-3 and DSI-2, tested in the same way we’ve we’re testing D-PHY, CSI-2, and DSI. I know UniPro is off to a good start with a series of interop events. The interop events are a great opportunity not only to prove that an interface works, but to meet your counterparts at other companies. Knowing individuals at other companies and working side by side with them at an interop event contributes to unity within the industry. Of course many of these companies are competitors. But interoperable products lead to a more fruitful marketplace, which is good for all of us.

Question: What are the plans for interoperability in 2012?

We’re hoping to have several MIPI Interop Workshops in 2012. We just had the first ever MIPI BIF Interop Workshop in January, and I anticipate there will be another one this year. We had a MIPI Display Interop Workshop in March, which several application processor and display peripheral companies have already signed up for. There’s a chance we’ll have an LLI Interop Workshop this year too, which could be the first interop workshop with M-PHY silicon.

Question: Can you share with us summary of the results from an upcoming recent interop and conformance event which can illustrate the benefits we discussed here

Answer: There are several benefits to the interop events. One that’s often overlooked is the potential for these events to help improve the specification. Of course each individual company benefits by being able to prove their designs, and make contacts at other companies, and get a third party report showing their interoperabilty. But there is a benefit to the whole MIPI community as well. It’s when doing these interop tests that we may find cases where different companies have interpreted the specification differently. That happened at a recent event where we found an ambiguity in how DSI peripherals may respond to a Bus Turn Around request. We found that in some cases, if a host made a query to a DSI peripheral followed by a Bus Turn Around request, we would get a different response to the query from the peripheral depending on how quickly the Bus Turn Around request was sent after the query. Essentially, if the Bus Turn Around request was sent too quickly, you could get the wrong data back in the response from the DSI peripheral. This was an interoperability problem, but it proved to be an opportunity to improve the DSI specification. UNH-IOL worked with the MIPI Display Working Group to clarify that portion of the DSI specification. That benefitted the entire MIPI community.

Hezi Saar: David, thank you for sharing your perspective on this topic. I believe this interview will be used by many to educate themselves about what they need to take care of when they develop their next MIPI interface.

David: Thank you for the opportunity.

That’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed reading please visit next time and forward if you found this interesting.

MIPI Interoperability and Conformance: Interview with David Woolf (Part 2)

Hezi Saar — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:20:49 +0000

We are back with part#2 of the interview with Mr. David Woolf, Senior Engineer at UNH-IOL, which actively engages in interoperability and conformance tests for various MIPI protocols. If you missed the first part of the interview you can find it here.

Question: David, what could go wrong if a cell phone integrator uses a device that did not pass MIPI protocol interoperability?

Answer: An untested device is an unknown. The goal of interoperability workshops is to be a frontline for finding interoperability problems and erase some of those unknowns. I think that the biggest problems would crop up during ‘in house’ interoperability testing in the labs at the integrator companies. When they come across an interoperability problem they need to double check it, go back to the supplier, ask for a fix, try again. If they are constantly dealing with interoperability problems during integration, that’s going to slow down the validation process.

Question: Please explain why MIPI protocol conformance is important? Can you give an example?

Answer: Although our ultimate goal is interoperability, conformance is the foundation that interoperability is built on. If products ignore key aspects of the specification, we won’t have interoperability. Conformance also is what can provide margin in a design. For example, in the lab a receiver may be able to decode a non-conformant signal correctly. Maybe the amplitude is too low, or there is some other conformance violation. However if that non-conformant signal is sent in a noisy design across a degraded channel, interoperability slips away. So, it is key that both sides of a link are conformant.

Question: Can you comment on the growing Importance of hardware testing? and give an example of costs and what could happen if you don’t do it right.

Answer: Everyone knows that SoC designs are getting more complex, with more interfaces. Statistically, the chances of a bug popping up in the field are increasing, unless we correspondingly ramp up our test efforts. A bug being found by a customer has massive costs not only in re-spinning a design but in damage to the companies reputation. I’ve had several customers come through our lab just a few days or weeks before tape out, eager to find any bugs because of the cost of trying to fix them after tape out. At the same time, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing products come through the lab several times with incremental improvements. When I see that, I know that the testing we’re providing is helping to refine products early on, and ultimately save time.

Question: As you interact with test engineers from leading mobile IC vendors, can you comment on the general care abouts and challenges they face?

Answer: We’ve heard it said that time is money. But there are times lately when I’ve seen that for many companies time is more important than money. More and more people care about speeding up the test time and getting the testing done faster. Delays are costly.
Next, they care about automation and reproducibility. That makes sense, because often companies are trying to reuse IP. Automation that they create for one design will save time when they reuse that IP.

Question: Interesting point, can you elaborate on cases where time is more important than money? Do you mean time to design the IC ?

Answer: Time to validate. Once a design is ready, it needs to be tested thoroughly as possible and as fast as possible. When you think of all of the interfaces that are on a mobile application processor, the matrix of possible tests is massive (supply voltage, temperature, process variation). Because of this, companies are investing in ways to get this testing done faster. That could be by buying designs that are already tested from IP companies, working with 3rd party test labs, and automating testing.

Stay tuned to the next post with more Answers from David.
If you have further questions you can send to both of us using this page and we’ll try to answer within a reasonable time.

MIPI DigRF Integration Tutorial in IP Summit

Hezi Saar — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 04:54:26 +0000

Integrating new interfaces is complex. M-PHY based-protocols are new and require a lot of effort to get the IP right on the IC and then make sure it can connect to the other side. IP vendors are required to assist with this effort to make transition and adoption easy for the industry and the IC vendor who selects to integrate this kind of interface.

That’s where Synopsys can help in standardizing these new protocols and help in creating a robust eco-system which fosters adoption. Do you want an example?
In the upcoming IP Summit Synopsys will present a design incorporating MIPI DigRFv4 interface and discuss the integration effort associated with the development of a complete baseband to RFIC application that achieved system-level interoperability.

In addition the session introduces new mobile interfaces for highly configurable systems that enable standard connectivity.

If you have 90 min (or more) to dedicate then I believe this will be a good education experience. The session will be on Wednesday, March 28, 3:30 – 5:00 pm.
Here’s a link to event and registration: http://www.synopsys.com/IP/Pages/IPSummit2012.aspx

MIPI Interoperability and Conformance: Interview with David Woolf (Part 1)

Hezi Saar — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 04:12:53 +0000

I constantly receive questions about MIPI plug-fest and other certification programs through my business engagements as well as other general MIPI questions.

For this reason I wanted to interview the expert, Mr. David Woolf Senior Engineer at UNH-IOL, which actively engages in interoperability and conformance tests for various MIPI protocols. See more information at UNH-IOL web site: www.iol.unh.edu.

This interview will be posted in several parts to keep the interest and make the posts short and not boring. BTW, the MIPI Alliance Face-to-face meeting is this week in Seoul and I’ll keep you posted on interesting demo’s at a later post.

Question: David, can you tell us a little bit about UNH and the MIPI Interoperability and conformance program?

Answer: The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) was founded in 1988. Since then we’ve done conformance and interoperability testing in dozens of different technologies. We started working with MIPI Alliance in early 2007. The series of MIPI interfaces have been some of the most interesting technologies I’ve worked with. We’re approaching 6 billion mobile phone connections. It’s exciting to be working on a technology that most of the world will be carrying around in their pocket.

Question: What Interoperability and conformance tests are offered by UNH for MIPI protocols?

Answer: Currently we offer D-PHY Transmitter, D-PHY Receiver, D-PHY S-Parameters, CSI-2 Protocol for Transmitters and Receivers, CSI-2 Interop, DSI Protocol for Transmitters and Receivers, DCS Protocol for Transmitters and Receivers, and DSI Interop. Soon we’ll be offering M-PHY, LLI, and BIF services.

Question: What are the differences between UNH MIPI Interoperability and conformance programs to USB certification or PCIe plugfest based on your understanding?

Answer: USB-IF and PCI-SIG have put together very rigid conformance and interop programs. Products are required to go through that program in order to use the USB or PCI logo in marketing their products. That’s probably necessary to maintain a level of quality in the marketplace, because most products going through those programs are headed directly into the hands of consumers. At the end of the day though, consumers don’t care about S-parameters or skew. All of the work that goes into testing get’s boiled down to a logo, that the consumer should be able to trust.
However, MIPI is different. The products we’re testing are components of mobile phones. Before getting to the consumer they’ll be integrated into handset designs by experienced engineers. Those engineers are interested in learning more about those components than a single logo can tell them. The engineers want to know how well they work. They want to know things like: What kind of margin will they have? Will they operate well at different temperatures? That’s why our reports typically include plots, measurements, and detailed explanations of the components characteristics and what optional features are implemented.

Question: Why MIPI protocol Interoperability is important?

Answer: Ultimately, Interoperability is what we care about. Products need to work together. In MIPI, things get complicated because of the sheer volume of options that products may implement. Different numbers of lanes, different image resolutions, different data rates, different clocking. Making sure that each of these things is implemented properly, and defined properly is important to MIPI interoperability.

Stay tuned to the next post with more Answers from David.
If you have further questions you can send to both of us using this page and we’ll try to answer within a reasonable time.

M-PHY for the Masses

Hezi Saar — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 09:49:49 +0000

It’s probably one of the most important milestones for the MIPI alliance in my humble opinion. Having made inroads into mobile markets with several specifications, camera CSI-2, display DSI, DigRF and D-PHY to name a few, now it’s the turn of the M-PHY. The most scalable, low power physical layer that can serve multiple end-applications (or protocols). Six end-applications to be precise, yes SIX.

You may ask, but the M-PHY specification (v1.0) was released several months ago, so why are we discussing this now?
The question is not just M-PHY specification (v1.0 or future ones) but to have enough momentum from the end-application side to drive demand for the M-PHY. DigRFv4 protocol was driving initial M-PHY adoption for Gear1 functionality (see video of silicon proven M-PHY Gear1 operation ). Last year JEDEC UFS spec was released in March 2011 and this week MIPI Alliance announced the availability of MIPI Low Latency Interface (LLI) specification.
Synopsys announced its 28nm Multigear M-PHY, first to be used for future-proof the design for protocol enhancement leveraging the scalability of the M-PHY enabling IP reuse. Synopsys also announced a joint LLI solution, by providing the M-PHY and Arteris provides its LLI controller to form pre-verified solution and reduce risk of integration. LLI is complex (I’ll touch on this in a later post) and you need to partner with IP companies that can help you cross the raging waters.

Last, I’m in Barcelona Mobile World Congress this week and want to share with you a video of Nokia’s PureView 808 smartphone which has 41 MegaPixel camera capability (Yes, Fourty One Mega Pixel). The short video shows a picture that was taken and how you can zoom to check out small details like a snow flake in your hair.

With data rates increasing dramatically you’ll need to store (or playback) the image taken rapidly, you’ll need to send the image wirelessly. All of these require high speed and low power interfaces to enable this high performance communication and JEDEC UFS (based on MIPI Unipro, MIPI M-PHY) and MIPI LLI (based on MIPI M-PHY) can help Mobile device manufacturers achieve that.

It’s a Mobile World

Hezi Saar — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:10:47 +0000

We have smartphones, now we also have tablets so what’s next? Are there any new mobile device categories that need to be invented? Or is it more capabilities and more performance for the existing mobile devices?
I think the answer is Yes and Yes.

Here’s a diagram I want to share with you that shows the mobile data traffic expected for each device category, at least those that are known today (Source Cisco VNI Mobile 2011):

1 Exabytes = 10^18 bytes

The diagram shows that ‘traditional’ computing platforms such as laptops and netbooks are still the main driver for mobile data traffic. However take a look at 2011 and compare with 2015 so you see how much content smartphones (only) will have access to. In my humble opinion, the estimates for tablets are somewhat pessimistic and I think data services geared towards tablets will be more popular than today and enable more content consumption on the go but we shall see.

About new device categories: there will definitely be hybrid products that may increase total market size such as medium size tablet (or a large smartphone), handheld gaming device which can operate also as tablet (there are already smartphone with gaming capabilities) and more application specific tablets, add-on or gadgets oriented towards professional segments to answer their needs (medical, automotive for example). The mobile devices will connect with each other to transfer data wirelessly or over the cloud and we will see features originated from mobile electronics popping up in other non-mobile electronics such as TV, cars and even home appliances. And we didn’t even start talking about wearable electronics with flexible displays. Bottom line, we will have more mobile devices per person, per purpose, connected to other devices wirelessly to enable functions we want.
I’ll keep my idea of the next revolutionary mobile product for a later post.

Back to our diagram and what we can learn from it. The mobile data traffic increase expected for the mobile devices shown in this diagram represents the need for faster chip to chip data transfer, faster read/storage data in memory, high resolution displays and cameras to enable and utilize the 4G data traffic consumption. The mobile device of the future need significantly higher performance interfaces, with more throughput and scalability that will allow an existing platform to be used with higher speed components when they become available or target different market segments. All of these capabilities should be packaged together in a cost effective solution that meets the design targets of leakage and operating power, number of pads and EMI noise.

At the Mobile World Congress next week in Barcelona I’ll be presenting a paper discussing ‘how to build low power modular mobile architecture’ at the MIPI Alliance booth (Hall 7, Stand 7H11). Swing by the booth on Tuesday Feb 28th at 1pm to see me and throw tomatoes or cheer. Follow this link for more details about MIPI alliance presence there will be other interesting presentations and new specifications MIPI alliance is planning to roll out according to this page so it will be interesting.

I will be glad to meet and chat with you, so hope to see you there.

#1 Camera Application

Hezi Saar — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 02:11:25 +0000

What application sells most image sensors in the world? As you probably figure out it is not Digital Still Camera or other consumer electronics used to capture photos or videos like a camcorder.
Almost every mobile phone comes with a camera (image sensor), same with tablets. Sometimes 2 cameras are standard feature, capturing front and back. Based on latest information from iSuppli mobile handset account for ~ 1.66 billion Image sensor units shipped out of a total of 2.1 billion CMOS image sensors (79%). But there are both CMOS and CCD image sensors.
You can find CMOS and CCD image sensors and these are two different technologies for capturing images digitally, both convert light into electric charge and process it into electronic signals.

Latest shipment numbers for Image sensors in 2011 show CMOS sensors with an ultimate lead of total sensor shipped (92% of market, representing 2.1 billion units) over CCD sensors that are losing ground.
See figure below showing worldwide image sensor market share forecast (Source: IHS):

CCD sensors are typically used in consumer digital camera applications, video camcorders, scanners, and copiers. And unit shipments are expected to drop further from 8% of total worldwide image sensor market to just 3% in four years.

Some advantages of CMOS image sensors over CCD image sensors include:
- lower power consumption
- cheaper manufacturing as it uses standard CMOS manufacturing process
- support for multiple channels of sensor data to be read out simultaneously at high speeds
- higher integration allowing to add circuitry
- good quality in low and normal lighting using backside illumination

With benefits of longer battery life, area saving and reduced manufacturing cost CMOS sensors are the clear winner in most applications. Well, once you mention lower power and standard semiconductor manufacturing then it’s a great fit for low power, high volume mobile applications.

And what’s the distribution by application out of this growing CMOS Image sensor shipments?
First are Mobile handsets representing 79% of total CMOS shipments in 2011 followed by Video conferencing application. % of the other applications are not mentioned but we can assume they are far behind these high volume applications, well with about 80% of the market taken there is nothing much left.

No doubt in my mind that CMOS sensors will continue to dominate and that mobile will continue to be the leading application for these image sensor even more than today. That only says good things about mobile interfaces used in mobile electronics to intact with image sensors and that is also good news for other applications observing growth such as: consumer video conferencing, intelligent video cameras for surveillance networks, automotive safety systems like blind-spot detection or lane-departure warnings, industrial machine ‘vision’, medical imaging, toys and games, and infrared night vision.

Read more about iSuppli’s BSI Success Drives the CMOS Image Sensor Segment report.

Last comment, the Mobile World Congress 2012 is just around the corner. Synopsys will have presence in the MIPI alliance booth and a meeting suite and I plan to be there. Hope to see you in Barcelona!

Infectious Mobile Trends

Hezi Saar — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:34:28 +0000

We are surrounded by electronics that make ourselves accessible all the time. It can be at work, while driving, at night while watching a movie or having fun with family, or at a social event. The mobile device is used for socializing using several tools including instant messaging, social network, voice call or video call.
With cameras used widely in mobile electronics and the availability of broadband wireless communication it’s easy to make video calls from the device. The thing with mobile is that it tends to ‘infect’ other electronics around it… we now have home electronics such as TVs, Gaming and Set-top-boxes that incorporate cameras, wireless connectivity and app’s which allow to make video calls. All of these originated from the PC/laptop and accelerated with mobile usage that got people hooked.

Video calling is a good example as it was always hyped as the next big thing for phones but got into mainstream when it transitioned from PC to popular mobile electronics we carry and now to other consumer electronics allowing it to be used as Anywhere to Anywhere video call. It is the use in mobile that created a fun and available experience which can be used in daily life and not just when you’re in front of the computer.

Here’s a cool demonstration of a “Video phone of the future“, (courtesy History.com). The video phone booth (or should I say room) uses 10” screen and costs about $5000. Not to talk about its mobility of course and maybe that’s why it didn’t see much adoption…

There are already webcam modules, set top boxes and now Smart TV’s with integrated webcam capability allowing to make video calls.
Here’s an example: Nyxio Viosphere Smart TV to place video or regular calls with embedded webcam (time 2:40 talks about embedded camera and video calling).

Video calling is one example of a use case stimulated by mobile electronics usage and entered our daily life .
One could say these trends invade the living room and there is no place to hide from this mobile revolution and you lose privacy. Looking at the positive side you need to make sure you are dressed properly and looking good all the time even when you watch TV at the comfort of your home and you are prepared for the active living room experience.

4G: True or False?

Hezi Saar — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:40:18 +0000

The ITU-R specification for IMT-Advanced, the next step in mobile broadband wireless technology was announced this week.
ITU finalized their technical evaluation that included operational aspects and determined that LTE-Advanced and WirelessMAN-Advanced that are the compliant versions of LTE and WiMAX. These protocols are regarded as ‘true’ 4G
and according to ITU standards the so-called 4G phones we see in the market today that provide higher speeds are not part of the next generation mobile technology covered under IMT-Advanced.

As was discussed and compared in previous post ‘when wireless technology meets demand’ IMT-advanced technologies take mobile access to a different dimension. With order of magnitude improvement in speed and also improved efficiency the new technology will enable true broadband access on your mobile device. There will be several applications that will benefit from this advancement especially gaming, interactive mobile services and broadband multimedia.

The demand for broadband mobile will increase 10 fold in the next 4 years, as you can see in a graph based on Cisco’s data.

Exabytes = 10^18 Bytes

And to accommodate these higher speed links standard interface between RFIC and Baseband processor will help ease integration and support all air link flavors.
This week the MIPI alliance released the DigRFv4 specification revision 1.10 which provides enhancement to existing protocol used by mobile ICs it addresses the needs in 3G and LTE, WiMax networks. The specification is not covering LTE-A at this point and that’s yet to be specified in the DigRF working group which Synopsys is proud to participate in.
We at Synopsys already support DigRFv4 master controller specification 1.10 and silicon proven M-PHY that help create an eco-system for DigRF implementation. You are invited to get you more information about DigRF specification and typical implementation available in the embedded links.