The race is on to get to Zero X, Freescale’s Jean-Christophe Bodet told this morning’s IEF2011 meeting in Seville.
Zero X is his term for a series of zero metrics in health, road safety, dropped communications links, automobile emissions and manufacturing quality which current technologies can already deliver but need cost reduction and efficient deployment.
On the roads, the 1.3m deaths and 50,000 injuries incurred every year – 90% of them in developing markets - could be reduced to zero by wider deployment of airbags in emerging economies and the move to Advanced Driver Assistance (ADAS) systems in developed markets, said Bodet.
Zero late disease detection can be achieved by the domestic ‘intelligent hospital’ – i.e home devices which monitor blood pressure, heartbeat etc which are becoming affordable and convenient.
Zero emissions in cars can be achieved by improvements in petrol engines but most significantly by a move towards electrification. For the latter, a heavy investment in R&D, government taxes on emissions and tough standards are required, said Bodet.
Zero defects in manufacturing processes are achievable with these already being measured in parts per billion in many cases.
And finally, there’s the bane of dropped phone calls and interrupted data comms links. Reducing these to zero is another, achievable, challenge for the semiconductor industry, said Bodet.
