The miscellaneous applications of the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) and autonomous-driving systems in the automotive market range from in-vehicle entertainment, mobile office and navigation, to name a few. This has lifted the curtain on the surging growth of this area, as well as the rapid emergence of secure automotive memory to satisfy the storage needs for low-level code, data and parameters. Moreover, it plays a key role in several segments, such as advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS), heads-up display (HUD), electronic dashboard, navigation, infotainment, and transmission systems. Behind such prospecting smart vehicle solutions, a very real concern is information protection and cybersecurity under the hood.

Macronix International, a leading integrated device manufacturer in the non-volatile memory (NVM) market, has announced its ArmorFlash MX75 series NOR Flash received PSA Certified Level 1 status at the device level, where the NOR Flash is integrated within a larger system. Achieving the PSA Certified distinction at the device level ensures designers have high degrees of security when selecting ArmorFlash MX75 memories for demanding applications such as Internet of Things (IoT) and other systems requiring robust data security.

As the US-China trade war continues to exacerbate tensions between the countries, the formulation of a clean supply chain - whereby the manufacturing, assembly, testing, and packaging of products all take place in Taiwan - has become an important national security and economic strategy for the United States. Over the past 30 years, Taiwan has built a complete semiconductor industry chain that provides global customers with advanced manufacturing and R&D support. In light of this, Martin Lin, marketing director at Macronix, says that now is the time for Taiwanese industry players to continue actively expanding their business layout and take the initiative to wield their competitive advantages.

Macronix International, a leading integrated device manufacturer in the non-volatile memory (NVM) market, announced that STMicroelectronics (ST) is using Macronix OctaBus flash memory for several STM32 microcontroller (MCU) platforms, including the STM32H72x/73x, STM32L5 and the recently announced STM32U5. Macronix's MX25 OctaBus family is providing the high-performance memory on select STM32 Discovery Kits and Evaluation Boards.

The combination of Internet of Things (IoT), high-speed 5G communication and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies has given rise to a diversity of applications for embedded systems such as automotive electronics and factory automation equipment. For example, rapid advances in autonomous driving and Internet of Vehicles (IoV) have significantly reshaped the automotive market. Advanced Driver Assistant Systems (ADAS) and digital instrument clusters include features that bring entirely new driving experiences to consumers. These are enabled by a myriad of software implementations that play an instrumental role.

Following the successful launch of its first-generation Ultra-Low-Voltage 1.2V SPI NOR flash in 2018, Macronix is introducing the second-generation ULV 1.2V SPI NOR flash product line in 2020 to meet the low-power consumption requirements by a diverse range of IoT devices. These low power requirements are arising from a wide range of of wireless communication technologies being designed in, including 5G, Wi-Fi, NB-IoT, and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).

Electronics systems continue to grow in complexity as automotive electronics and a diverse range of smart applications feature ever higher levels of integration. When artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) Vehicle to Everything (V2X) technologies, and 5G adoption that everyone is talking about, falls in place, it paints a clear picture of people's future for which information security becomes a concern for semiconductor solutions.

The need for memory solutions in embedded systems is rapidly increasing, in line with the surging growth of Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and 5G-enabled smart applications. Furthermore, to address the ever-increasing consumer demand for a better user experience, developers are adding more software into embedded applications. This has given rise to the emergence of serial NAND which offers higher capacity than serial NOR. As a leader in the non-volatile memory market, Macronix is the world's largest NOR flash supplier and among the world's top three SLC NAND providers.

Amid rising global trade tensions in 2019, the semiconductor industry is experiencing revenue declines as it struggles with the changes and uncertainties resulting from the technology war between the US and China. Flash memory prices peaked in 2017 but then started to go on a downward trend until reaching a bottom in 2019. With the tug of war between market demand and production capacity in addition to the shift in product segmentation, there are still global economic uncertainties going forward. However, a slew of new applications enabled by 5G x AI technologies are catching market attention, including automotive electronics, artificial intelligence (AI), 8K TV and streaming video, smart home, and smart IoT. They will open up new opportunities as the year 2020 unfolds.

As opposed to multi-level cell (MLC) and triple-level cell (TLC) memory, single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash enables high-speed reads and writes as well as excellent reliability and therefore meets the requirements for high performance and high durability imposed by IoT devices, automotive electronics and emerging embedded applications. However, amid fierce market competition, the ability to maintain a cost advantage continues to play an instrumental role in a product's success. Memory manufacturers have been leveraging progress in miniaturization of semiconductor integrated circuits to help them keep costs down and stay ahead of the competition.