Despite the steady stream of bad news coming out of the global automotive industry these days, efforts are underway to remake it a more energy efficient, cleaner enterprise.

Besides tire pressure monitors, a number of other safety-related devices will become mandatory over the next few years. Technologies involved include gyros, radar, and pattern recognition.

Here are the official vehicles of winter.

Despite using a plastic package, a family of standard logic devices can work in environments with temperatures of up to 175 degrees Celsius. With the products, Belgian manufacturer CISSOID aims at automotive and industrial applications.

The proliferation of options within numerous vehicle platforms requires the use of tools that enable data consistency and option handling, as well as complete and efficient wiring verification within the vehicle.

Automotive OEM Daimler AG (Stuttgart, Germany) has announced a bus which runs on energy produced by fuel cells. At the same time, the concept includes elements of energy recuperation.

Given that most innovations in power management electronics are derived from the pooling of the knowledge or expertise of groups of scientists or engineers then it is likely that the 'six degrees of separation' rule applies to a lot of technology developments.

Low-voltage PowerMOSFETs have taken over numerous applications in the power train, body or chassis area. Since SMD (surface-mounted device) packages these devices offer several advantages over THD (through hole device) packages, they have become the package of choice in most automotive applications. The article describes NEC's roadmap to further package developments.

Texas Instruments has announced the TMS320C2834x series of Delfino floating-point controllers that double performance to 300 MHz and include 516 KB of single cycle access RAM memory, high resolution pulse width modulation outputs (PWMs), 32-bit QEP modules as well as other control-oriented features.

Energy harvesting in embedded designs is not without its problems and will require designers to analyze very carefully the parameters of their system design to see if these techniques can be used effectively.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has invented a surface treatment that fabricates nanoscale grooves atop the traditional lithium iron phosphate material that reduces recharge times to seconds and allows electric cars to accelerate as quickly as gasoline power vehicles.

Energy storage for electric cars is the focus topic for the Fraunhofer research group established in Oldenburg (Germany). The group will develop prototypes and bring them to market maturity.

This sample circuit includes a dimmable LED driver that leverages a thermal-foldback-protection feature to provide a soft start and mimic the operation of an incandescent bulb.

Several technology companies, including Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Freescale Semiconductor Inc. have been named to credit rating agency Moody's list of corporate bond issuers likely to default on their loan obligations.

Automotive test system expert Berner & Matther GmbH and software vendor The Mathworks are collaborating on the development of integrated platforms aiming at developing and testing automotive ECU software.

The European Parliament Tuesday (March 10) passed a proposal that will make tire pressure sensors for new cars mandatory. The industry is prepared to offer the technology required — but new developments enhance the scope of options.

The semiconductor industry will suffer double-digit contraction in 2009, but lean inventories across the supply chain could jump-start a rapid recovery for the industry once the economy starts to improve, an analyst said.

An almost "no-sweat" guide to adding MTBF software to your design. Whether the system you're designing is open-source or proprietary, here is a virtually no-cost software-based method to track Time-in-Service and MTBF, using resources that already exist in most embedded devices.