Building Strength AVP Corner

In today's highly competitive business environment, having a strategic plan is essential to success. However, the business strategy must be flexible enough to adapt to a constantly shifting market and evolving industry. Globalization and technology are transforming the dynamics that have historically defined the nature of competition, especially in the automotive industry.

When the management team and I came together in 2006 to create a long-range business strategy for the Automotive SBU, we wanted to lay the groundwork that would enable the organization to capitalize on opportunities, address challenges, and provide strong leadership. We took stock internally and externally to establish the framework that would guide us and our customers toward a common vision of the future. The result of that brainstorming was a detailed plan that laid out our vision, mission and goals for the next five years.

The plan was eventually condensed to a simple graphic that would remind everyone of its most critical points using the building blocks of a house as an example. I would like to share that graphic and the associated ideas with you.

Multifab Expansion Summit

Global Manufacturing With a Local Presence

In February, customers and executives from NEC Electronics Group companies in Japan, Europe, Singapore and the United States joined NEC Electronics President and CEO Nakajima to participate in a formal launch ceremony for the company's recently announced Multifab™ manufacturing strategy and to take a tour of the newly added 8-inch line (0.15-micron process) in Roseville.

More than 47 customers and 42 NEC representatives attended the event.

The new Multifab manufacturing strategy is designed to integrate the production capabilities of the Roseville (California), Kumamoto (Japan) and Yamaguchi (Japan) facilities with the assembly and testing capabilities of the plants in Singapore, Malaysia, and Japan. The new capabilities will make it possible for NEC Electronics America to accommodate the expected increase in demand for next-generation automotive devices and general-purpose microcontrollers and help NEC Electronics move closer toward its goal of becoming the #1 supplier of automotive microcontrollers worldwide by 2010.

NEC Electronics has had a strong tradition and history of innovation. This new direction promises to provide additional customer benefits, including manufacturing flexibility and secure supply, and at the same time, continues the company's storied tradition with even greater successes in innovation.

A Vision for Auto Safety Product Spotlight: IMAPCAR®

Safety continues to be one of the key concerns in automotive design. In addition to keeping drivers and passengers safe, automotive manufacturers are looking for ways to protect people outside the car – such as bicyclists and pedestrians. While airbags and seat belts are designed to provide protection inside the vehicle, accident avoidance equipment, through applications such as vision-based warning systems, could provide the ultimate solution for protecting lives both inside and out.

Analysis shows that the vast majority of accidents are caused by human error or misjudgment. Automotive electronics that could monitor driving conditions and warn a driver at the onset of a hazardous situation could go a long way in preventing and mitigating human-induced accidents.

When vision-based warning systems for drivers were first introduced, acceptance from consumers was limited, mainly due to high costs and a lack of reliability related to false warnings and such. Systems have improved dramatically in recent years, and current technologies enable automotive designers to implement robust and powerful recognition algorithms while meeting the stringent power consumption and operation constraints associated with automotive design.

NEC Electronics has developed a solution, now called IMAPCAR®, which can detect nearby objects such as vehicles, pedestrians, and lane markers in real-time, enabling automobile manufacturers to easily implement safety mechanisms and collision prevention systems. IMAPCAR is five times faster than the leading automotive image processor, boasting performance of up to 100 GOPS (giga (billion) operations per second). Using parallel processing technology throughout its 128 processing elements, IMAPCAR provides the advanced performance necessary for real-time identification of objects.

The image recognition functions are processed by software, which allows easy modification of software algorithms and routines as compared to hardware solutions. Additionally, the 0.13-micron process technology used in the IMAPCAR helps it suppress power consumption to under 2 watts, which is optimal for automobiles.

Image recognition has many uses in automotive applications. In the interior, cameras can monitor the position of the driver and the passengers in real time, enabling the personalization of interior safety systems tailored to the seat occupants' physiology and position. Systems can also warn the driver if he or she gets distracted. Outside-viewing cameras can be used to cover blind spots, view the road ahead, increase vision at night, read traffic signs, and check traffic lights.

NEC Electronics America Automotive On-site Training

NEC Electronics is now offering on-site training for all automotive customers. Designed to provide engineers with hands-on experience, the training includes an in-depth review of the widely used 32-bit V850™ and 8-bit 78K0 microcontrollers and their associated development tools.

In the first training exercise, engineers step through the process of building and compiling projects for both the V850 and 78K0 CPU cores. Next, engineers add software to set up on-chip peripherals such as timers, serial interfaces, A/D converters, and CAN interfaces. Finally, participants download their software to the target microcontroller using NEC Electronics' on-chip debugging tool set.

When the software is downloaded to the microcontroller, participants can execute and debug code in real time on evaluation boards while employing various I/O signals to simulate an embedded automotive system. At each point in the training, participants learn techniques to help develop efficient and optimized software.

The training can accommodate 4 to 12 attendees per session. No special setup or equipment is required, and any available space may be used. The training duration is scalable, depending on the learners' needs and interest level. For more information and to schedule a session, please contact NEC Electronics America 's Automotive SBU at support@am.necel.com.