Comcast and Liberty Global will use Metrological-developed open-source browser enhancements for set-top boxes, Metrological said in a Thursday news release. The Metrological enhancements will be part of the Reference Design Kit (RDK) software stack used by pay TV. The browser software will allow better rendering of HTML5 apps and next-generation user interfaces across set-tops, Metrological said. Liberty Global plans to use the Metrological software for its RDK-based Horizon TV platform, while Comcast plans to test the set-top box browser software on its RDK-based X1 platform, Metrological said.

The automotive market has overtaken data processing to become the third-largest end-market for power semiconductor applications, an IHS report said Thursday. Infotainment and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are leading demand for semiconductors, with the 2015 automotive power IC category forecast to grow 8 percent over 2014, while discrete revenue is projected to remain flat over the period. To control research and development costs, automakers are developing shared designs, components, engineering and production platforms “and using the same electronic control units (ECUs) for many different platforms with the same features,” analyst Jonathan Liao said. “While over time modern cars have increased in size, suppliers prefer small and interchangeable ECU’s that can fit on various platforms, which help lower overall development costs, and expand the universe of target customers, for an improved return on investment,” Liao said. Rising consumer demand is pushing luxury car features into the nonluxury segment, including adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, connected traffic updates and sophisticated infotainment systems with voice command, also feeding the demand for power ICs, Liao said. “Features that were originally designed for Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Lexus and other luxury cars have very quickly found their way into the non-luxury market,” he said. Features that will spur further power IC adoption include Internet-connected cars, vehicle-to-vehicle communication, autonomous cars and connected car platforms from Apple and Google that rely on application processing speed and software, he said. “It is crucial for the ECUs to gather, process and respond to information in real time, for the safety and convenience of the driver,” Liao said. “Sophisticated power management solutions for power-intensive multi-core processors, baseband chipsets and sensor arrays can be implemented much more easily with power ICs,” he said.

Qualcomm Technologies announced Qualcomm Snapdragon Smart Protect, an app designed to provide real-time, on-device machine learning to detect zero-day malware threats on mobile devices. It will debut on the upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor. Smart Protect also will be the launch vehicle for Qualcomm’s Zeroth technology that works with conventional anti-malware solutions on real-time malware detection, classification and cause analysis using a cognitive computing behavioral engine, the company said Monday. Smart Protect analyzes and identifies new threats before signature updates, Qualcomm said. OEMs and mobile anti-malware app providers can also use Smart Protect’s application programming interface for analysis to receive real-time information on identified threats, it said. With consumers storing an increasing amount of personal information on their devices, data leakage incidents and malware are on the rise, said Asaf Ashkenazi, Qualcomm Technologies director-product management. Qualcomm is able to address the security issues because of its ability to “access lower layers of the software stack and dedicated security hardware to create a device-based, behavioral analysis approach for mobile security," Ashkenazi said. The technology supports "deep on-device monitoring for nearly instantaneous notifications of detected privacy violations and malicious activity,” he said. Qualcomm is working with OEMs and mobile security providers Avast, AVG and Lookout to make Snapdragon Smart Protect capabilities available within commercial anti-malware apps, the company said. Smart Protector can enable operators to reduce incidents of fraudulent charges and network congestion associated with malware-infected devices, while consumers benefit from better protection of personal data, the company said. The technology has minimal impact on battery life, it said.

The global acoustic wave sensor market, estimated at $387 million this year, is projected to reach $1.2 billion by 2020, a MarketsandMarkets report said Monday. Applications for the temperature, pressure, mass, torque, humidity and viscosity sensors include CE, automotive, military and aerospace, healthcare and industrial, the research firm said. The CE segment is forecast to account for 39 million units this year, jumping to 157 million units by 2020, it said. Major players in the acoustic wave sensor market are API Technologies, Applied Sensor Research & Development, AVX, Boston Piezo-Optics, CeramTec, CTS, Honeywell, Kyocera and Murata Manufacturing.

LightSquared's downplaying of the GPS market's future "is simply out of touch with basic technology trends," the GPS Innovation Alliance (GPSIA) said in a statement in response to the LightSquared filing posted Thursday in docket 12-340 that said the personal navigation device industry overall is in decline (see 1507310020). "GPS is becoming even more ubiquitous with continual innovation and growth for applications like precise automotive guidance safety applications and unmanned aerial systems that will further revolutionize transportation, agriculture, and construction, to name a few," GPSIA said in an email. The European Global Navigation Satellite Systems Agency's GNSS Market Report earlier this year also forecast roughly a doubling in the number of GNSS devices worldwide between 2014 and 2019, GPSIA said. The LightSquared filing also shows "a fundamental misunderstanding of location-based technologies," as inertial and real-time kinematic technologies don't substitute for GPS, but complement it by increasing position accuracy and maintenance during adverse conditions, GPSIA said.

Shipments of set-top boxes will grow this year, but revenue will be down due to price wars at the high end and growing numbers of economy units in emerging markets, IHS said in a report. Unit shipments in the first quarter of 2015 were up 3 percent from the same quarter a year earlier, IHS said. The global set-top box market was $4.2 billion in the quarter, down 3 percent sequentially. Cable set-top box sales were down 2 percent in the first quarter, while headed gateways and hybrid IP/QAM devices grew, IHS said, saying it expects to see strong unit growth for High-Definition Multimedia Interface dongles such as Amazon's Fire TV Stick HDTV, Google's Chromecast and Roku HDMI sticks. The number of HDMI dongles sold worldwide could top 27 million by 2019, IHS said.

The Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee (DSTAC) plans its sixth meeting Tuesday, a public notice issued Thursday said. The DSTAC’s congressionally mandated report is due Sept. 4, and Tuesday's is the second to last remaining meeting on the schedule. The group's final meeting is slated for Aug. 28. According to the agenda, Tuesday's meeting will include discussion of how to resolve the separate efforts of the committee’s two working groups and the final process for drafting the report.

Intel and Micron Technology unveiled a nonvolatile memory called 3D XPoint that promises access to large sets of data at speeds up to 1,000 times faster than current technology. The companies called 3D XPoint the “first new memory category since the introduction of NAND flash in 1989.” The vast amount of data made possible by connected devices and digital services has to be stored and analyzed very quickly, said the companies, and 3D XPoint technology combines the performance, density, power, nonvolatility and cost benefits “of all available memory technologies on the market today,” they said. It has 1,000 times the endurance of NAND with 10 times the density, they said. “For decades, the industry has searched for ways to reduce the lag time between the processor and data to allow much faster analysis,” said Rob Crooke, general manager, Intel’s nonvolatile memory solutions group. Micron President Mark Adams said the new class of nonvolatile memory “allows for quick access to enormous data sets and enables entirely new applications.” Use cases include retail where stores could use 3D XPoint technology to quickly identify fraud detection patterns in financial transactions, they said. For PCs, 3D XPoint technology could enable faster interactive social media and collaboration along with more immersive 8K gaming experiences, they said. The technology’s nonvolatile nature makes it useful for low-latency storage applications since data is not erased when the device is powered off, said the companies. Intel and Micron will sample 3D XPoint technology later this year with select customers, and each company is developing its own products based on the technology.

Renesas Electronics announced a battery fuel gauge IC, the RAJ240500, designed to extend battery life for tablets, notebook PCs and smartphones. The single-chip device is said to deliver high-precision battery charge measurement and control, reducing the burden on the battery and contributing to longer device battery life. Renesas’ two-in-one fuel gauge IC combines algorithmic fuel gauge IC functionality with charger IC functionality in a single device allowing designers to achieve precision charging control that closely matches battery status, said Renesas. Designers can maximize battery capacity to the fullest extent per charge while reducing battery load and degradation rate to extend the service life of the battery, it said. RAJ240500 samples are available at $10 per unit, with mass production slated for October.

A day after Intel CEO Brian Krzanich disclosed his company had downgraded its PC sales expectations for the year despite any anticipated sales bump from the impending Windows 10 launch (see 1507160038), Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su similarly disclosed that her company’s Q2 revenue and gross margin decreased “more than we initially guided" at AMD's May 6 Analyst Day event "as the consumer PC market became decidedly weaker” thereafter. The “softer than expected” consumer PC demand in advance of the Windows 10 launch “caused our OEM notebook sales to slow late in the quarter, as our OEM customers and retailers actively work through their inventory of Windows 8-based systems,” Su said on a Thursday earnings call. That slowdown also hurt orders for AMD’s sixth-generation Carrizo processor, “as some OEMs chose to align Carrizo launches with the Windows 10 launch,” Su said. “We expect our mobile unit shipments will rebound and ramp in the second half of the year as more than 35 Carrizo platforms come to market globally.” With the passing of Q2, AMD is optimistic that the worst of the company’s problems are done for 2015, Su said. “Looking forward, we believe the second quarter will be our revenue trough for the year,” she said, citing as one reason the improving second-half OEM demand she expects as the market “transitions” to Windows 10. “That said, the PC market remains volatile,” she said. Chief Financial Officer Devinder Kumar seemed to contradict Su on the outlook for second-half PC demand from AMD’s OEM customers when he said: “Due to the shift in the PC market, we are now seeing a more challenging environment than we did in May with OEMs remaining very cautious about the second half, particularly the back-to-school cycle.” AMD representatives didn't comment.