Virtualized Environments
Business Wire | January 09, 2024
VeriSilicon today unveiled its latest VC9800 series Video Processor Unit (VPU) IP with enhanced video processing performance to strengthen its presence in the data center applications. The newly launched series IP caters to the advanced requirements of next generation data centers including video transcoding servers, AI servers, virtual cloud desktops, and cloud gaming.
The VC9800 series of VPU IP boasts high performance, high throughput, and server-level multi-stream encoding and decoding capabilities. It can handle up to 256 streams and support all mainstream video formats, including the new advanced format VVC. Through Rapid Look Ahead encoding, the VC9800 series IP improves video quality significantly with low memory footprint and encoding latency. With capable of supporting 8K encoding and decoding, it offers enhanced video post-processing and multi-channel encoding at various resolutions, thus achieves an efficient transcoding solution.
The VC9800 series of VPU IP can seamlessly interface with Neural Network Processor (NPU) IP, enabling a complete AI-video pipeline. When combined with VeriSilicon’s Graphics Processor Unit (GPU) IP, the subsystem solution is able to deliver enhanced gaming experiences. In addition, the hardware virtualization, super resolution image enhancement, and AI-enabled encoding functions of this series IP also offer effective solutions for virtual cloud desktops.
“VeriSilicon’s advanced video transcoding technology continues leading in Data Center domain. We are working closely with global leading customers to develop comprehensive video processing subsystem solutions to meet the requirements of the latest Data Centers,” said Wei-Jin Dai, Executive VP and GM of IP Division of VeriSilicon. “For AI computing, our video post-processing capabilities have been extended to smoothly interact with NPUs, ensuring OpenCV-level accuracy. We’ve also introduced super resolution technology to the video processing subsystem, elevating image quality and ultimately enhancing user experiences for cloud computing and smart display.”
About VeriSilicon
VeriSilicon is committed to providing customers with platform-based, all-around, one-stop custom silicon services and semiconductor IP licensing services leveraging its in-house semiconductor IP.
Read More
Server Virtualization
PR Newswire | January 10, 2024
Global automaker Stellantis N.V. led the creation of the world's first virtual cockpit platform as part of its Stellantis Virtual Engineering Workbench (VEW) enabling the delivery of infotainment tech to customers 100 times faster than previous processes. The new platform uses the QNX Hypervisor in the cloud from BlackBerry, which is now on early access release via AWS Marketplace within the QNX Accelerate portfolio of cloud-based tools. Stellantis can now create realistic virtual versions of car controls and systems, making them behave just like they would in a real car, but without needing to change the main software that runs them, taking what used to take months to be achieved down to 24 hours in some cases.
Accessing QNX Hypervisor via AWS Marketplace enables Stellantis to include a virtual cockpit high-performance computing (HPC) simulation into a cloud environment. This industry-first platform for mixed-criticality and multi-OS embedded application development includes QNX Hypervisor Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) and industry-standard hardware interfaces as defined in the VirtIO standard Trout v1.2. With tools such as virtualization of graphics, audio, and touchscreen/mouse/keyboard inputs, the solution offers little to no difference between running QNX Hypervisor-based systems in the cloud versus on real hardware.
Software is a key building block for Stellantis to deliver clean, safe and affordable mobility, as outlined in the Dare Forward 2030 strategic plan, and the driving force behind the AI-powered STLA Brain, STLA SmartCockpit and STLA AutoDrive technology platforms. In 2022, Stellantis selected AWS as its preferred cloud provider for vehicle platforms and the companies began work on Stellantis' purpose-built, in-house VEW.
Taking a software-driven approach and deploying the QNX Hypervisor in the cloud, Stellantis can accelerate customer feedback sessions, and with minimal effort, replicate the cockpit experience of a particular brand and vehicle, and make changes in real time to optimize the experience for the driver. This real-time feedback, underpinned by low-latency access to the cloud, allows Stellantis to solicit valuable feedback from its customer and developer base to build future infotainment features and applications.
"Software is becoming increasingly crucial in vehicles, leading us to innovate in how we develop and validate it," said Yves Bonnefont, Chief Software Officer at Stellantis. "With our virtual cockpit, we're revolutionizing not just our approach, but also that of our suppliers and partners in the industry. Essentially, we're able to get closer to our customer's needs through this technology with faster development cycles, faster feedback loops, and quicker delivery of the technology they use and love. It's a leap towards customer-first innovation and efficiency in the automotive world."
"We're delighted to introduce early access availability of our trusted QNX Hypervisor platform in the cloud, leveraging the vendor and platform-neutral VirtIO standard that QNX has long-supported for its importance in creating a true-to-life virtual development environment for embedded software," said Mattias Eriksson, President, BlackBerry IoT. "Working with Stellantis to launch the world's first commercial hypervisor in the AWS cloud helps to reduce complexity, accelerate innovation and cut costs on in-car software development throughout the entire product lifecycle."
"Software virtualization and abstraction in the cloud is vital to accelerating development and maintaining feature delivery on-pace with consumer demand," said Wendy Bauer, Vice President and General Manager, Automotive and Manufacturing, AWS. "With BlackBerry's QNX Hypervisor on AWS Marketplace, Stellantis can easily harness the power of the cloud to reimagine research and development processes, architect more insightful ways to solicit and integrate feedback, and deliver functions faster than before that delight drivers and further the industry."
Standard VirtIO interfaces are also used by a suite of automotive partners to scale their offerings across OEMs and enable plug-and-play across the OEM landscape. Recognizing the benefits, AWS fully supports the VirtIO industry standard for cloud simulation of cockpit HPCs.
BlackBerry QNX launched QNX Accelerate in January 2023 with its portfolio initially featuring QNX Neutrino RTOS 7.1 and the QNX OS for Safety 2.2.3, each provided as Amazon Machine Images allowing QNX customers to run a QNX OS natively on AWS cloud hardware. The early access release of QNX Hypervisor in the cloud is available now and general availability will be announced later in 2024.
About BlackBerry
BlackBerry provides intelligent security software and services to enterprises and governments around the world. The company secures more than 500M endpoints including over 235M vehicles. Based in Waterloo, Ontario, the company leverages AI and machine learning to deliver innovative solutions in the areas of cybersecurity, safety, and data privacy solutions, and is a leader in the areas of endpoint management, endpoint security, encryption, and embedded systems. BlackBerry's vision is clear - to secure a connected future you can trust.
About Stellantis
Stellantis N.V. is one of the world's leading automakers aiming to provide clean, safe and affordable freedom of mobility to all. It's best known for its unique portfolio of iconic and innovative brands including Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Citroën, Dodge, DS Automobiles, Fiat, Jeep, Lancia, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot, Ram, Vauxhall, Free2move and Leasys. Stellantis is executing its Dare Forward 2030, a bold strategic plan that paves the way to achieve the ambitious target of becoming a carbon net zero mobility tech company by 2038, while creating added value for all stakeholders.
Read More
Server Virtualization
PR Newswire | January 09, 2024
Panasonic Automotive Systems Company of America, a tier-one automotive supplier and a division of Panasonic Corporation of North America, announced its High-Performance Compute (HPC) system. Named Neuron, this innovation addresses the rapidly evolving mobility needs anticipated for software-defined vehicle advancements.
As vehicles become more software reliant, vehicle systems must support the extended software lifecycle by enabling software upgrades and prolonging the supporting hardware capability. Cars rely on hardware and software compute platforms to process, share, sense, and derive insights to handle functions for assisted driving. Panasonic Automotive's Neuron HPC allows for not only software updates and upgrades but also hardware upgrades across platform lifecycles.
The Neuron HPC can aggregate multiple computing zones to reduce the cost, weight and integration complexity of the vehicle by removing redundant components. Panasonic Automotive's design supports effortless up-integration with high-performance and heavy data input processing capability. Importantly, the design is upgradeable, scalable and future-proof across today's evolving in-vehicle platforms.
Neuron HPC Architecture & Design
Panasonic Automotive's High Performance Compute architecture could reduce the number of distributed electronic control units (ECUs) by up to 80%1 – allowing for faster, lighter, cross-domain computing for real-time, cross-functional communications. The Neuron HPC design is suited for any mobility platform including internal combustion engine, hybrid, fuel cell or electric vehicles.
"In collaboration with OEMs, Panasonic Automotive has designed and met some of the largest central compute platform challenges in the industry in order to make the driving experience evolve with technology," said Andrew Poliak, CTO, Panasonic Automotive Systems Company of America. "Neuron maximizes performance, safety and innovation over the entire ownership of the consumer's vehicle and enables OEMs with a future-proof SDV platform for ensuing generations of mobility needs."
Key Systems, UX Features & Technical Benefits
With a streamlined design, the Neuron HPC incorporates up-integration capability by consolidating multiple ECUs into one centralized nucleus to handle all levels of ADAS, chassis, body, and in-cabin infotainment features.
About Panasonic Automotive Systems Company of America
Panasonic Automotive Systems Company of America is a division company of Panasonic Corporation of North America and is a leading global supplier of automotive infotainment and connectivity system solutions. Panasonic Automotive Systems Company of America acts as the North American affiliate of Panasonic Automotive Systems Co., Ltd., which coordinates global automotive. Panasonic Automotive Systems Company of America is headquartered in Peachtree City, Georgia, with sales, marketing and engineering operations in Farmington Hills, Mich.
About Panasonic Corporation of North America
Newark, NJ-based Panasonic Corporation of North America is committed to creating a better life and a better world by enabling its customers through innovations in Sustainable Energy, Immersive Entertainment, Integrated Supply Chains and Mobility Solutions. The company is the principal North American subsidiary of Osaka, Japan-based Panasonic Corporation. One of Interbrand's Top 100 Best Global Brands of 2023, Panasonic is a leading technology partner and integrator to businesses, government agencies and consumers across the region.
Read More
Server Virtualization
PR Newswire | January 09, 2024
aelf is advancing cross-chain interoperability through a strategic partnership with ChainsAtlas. By utilising ChainsAtlas' innovative virtualisation technology, aelf will enable decentralised applications (dApps) from diverse blockchains to seamlessly migrate and integrate into the aelf blockchain, regardless of the dApps' smart contract specifications. This collaboration marks a significant step towards a globally interconnected and efficient blockchain ecosystem, breaking down the silos between blockchains.
Khaniff Lau, Business Development Director at aelf, shares, "The strategic partnership with ChainsAtlas is a significant step towards realising our vision of a seamlessly interconnected blockchain world. With this integration, aelf is set to become a hub for cross-chain activities, enhancing our ability to support a wide array of dApps, digital assets, and Web2 apps. This collaboration is not just about technology integration; it's about shaping the future of how services and products on blockchains interact and operate in synergy."
Jan Hanken, Co-founder of ChainsAtlas, says, "ChainsAtlas was always built to achieve two major goals: to make blockchain development accessible to a broad spectrum of developers and entrepreneurs and, along that path, to pave the way for a truly omnichain future."
"By joining forces with aelf, we are bringing that visionary future much closer to reality. As we anticipate the influx of creativity from innovators taking their first steps into the world of Web3 on aelf, driven by ChainsAtlas technology, we are excited to see these groundbreaking ideas come to life," adds Hanken.
The foundation for true cross-chain interoperability is being built as aelf integrates ChainsAtlas' Virtualization Unit (VU), enabling the aelf blockchain to accommodate both EVM and non-EVM digital assets. This cross-chain functionality is accomplished through ChainsAtlas' virtualisation technology, allowing aelf to interpret and execute smart contracts written in other languages supported by ChainsAtlas, while also establishing state transfer mechanisms that facilitate seamless data and asset flow between aelf and other blockchains.
Through this partnership, aelf blockchain's capabilities will be enhanced as it is able to support a more comprehensive range of dApps and games, and developers from diverse coding backgrounds will now be empowered to build on aelf blockchain. This partnership will also foster increased engagement within the Web3 community as users can gain access to a more diverse range of digital assets on aelf.
Looking ahead, the partnership between aelf and ChainsAtlas will play a pivotal role in advancing the evolution of aelf's sidechains by enabling simultaneous execution of program components across multiple VUs on different blockchains.
About aelf
aelf, a high-performance Layer 1 featuring multi-sidechain technology for unlimited scalability. aelf blockchain is designed to power the development of Web3 and support its continuous advancement into the future. Founded in 2017 with its global hub based in Singapore, aelf is one of the pioneers of the mainchain-sidechain architecture concept. Incorporating key foundational components, including AEDPoS, aelf's variation of a Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) consensus protocol; parallel processing; peer-to-peer (P2P) network communication; cross-chain bridges, and a dynamic side chain indexing mechanism, aelf delivers a highly efficient, safe, and modular ecosystem with high throughput, scalability, and interoperability.
aelf facilitates the building, integrating, and deploying of smart contracts and decentralised apps (dApps) on its blockchain with its native C# software development kit (SDK) and SDKs in other languages, including Java, JS, Python, and Go. aelf's ecosystem also houses a range of dApps to support a flourishing blockchain network. aelf is committed to fostering innovation within its ecosystem and remains dedicated to driving the development of Web3 and the adoption of blockchain technology.
About ChainsAtlas
ChainsAtlas introduces a new approach to Web3 infrastructure, blending multiple blockchain technologies and smart contract features to create a unified, efficient processing network. Its core innovation lies in virtualization-enabled smart contracts, allowing consistent software operation across different blockchains. This approach enhances decentralized applications' complexity and reliability, promoting easier integration of existing software into the blockchain ecosystem.
The team behind ChainsAtlas, driven by the transformative potential of blockchain, aims to foster global opportunities and equality. Their commitment to building on existing blockchain infrastructure marks a significant step towards a new phase in Web3, where advanced and reliable decentralized applications become the norm, setting new standards for the future of decentralized networks.
Read More