Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1335241
FEBRUARY 2021 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 103 I have focused on the following three OEM presentions: 1. Transportation 2. Consumer electronics 3. Computers and gaming TRANSPORTATION General Motors On Monday, I listened to a keynote address from GM CEO and Chair- man Mary Barra. General Motors is now 113 years old, and Barra announced that her company is com- mitting to "an all-electric future." She said that GM will introduce 30 new electric vehicles by 2025, and all will be built on their new EV architec- ture called Ultium. Ultium is a battery-EV strategy that GM believes will give it the flexibility to innovate in EV designs for mobility, passenger sedans, will they really be available? Maybe not until mid-decade. Where Samsung missed the need was for elderly assistance in the home, espe- cially in countries like Japan where they do not allow immigration. Some of the car's digital cockpit videos seem to go a bit too far. Are we going to pay a high price to make our car the place we preferen- tially want to spend our time? e competing vision, making the home where we will spend more time, seems to be more practical. is will be especially true if Hollywood contin- ues to introduce new films in our home at the same time as theaters. Visual and audio tech- nologies have been making great progress. e TVs are getting bigger and the image quality is improving. Samsung is offering a new 110-inch model, LG can provide a transparent screen or rollable TV, and Sony has an AI chip (Cogni- tive Processor-XR) to enhance the portions of an image where it believes people are focusing their attention. All said, my first CES was informative and fun, but I would have loved to have seen the actual electronics and PCBs. Figure 1: GM's Ultium's EV architecture and platforms: a) Lithium polymer battery modules; b) Modules stacked in a protective frame; c) Power frame with wireless communication; d) 8-, 12- or 20-modules with power plants. Mary Barra