We just spent a week in Detroit and as you'd expect, the trip had an automotive focus. I started this trip off by coming in a day early to spend a little time getting to know the area and learn a little more about the history of the industry.  What better place to start than with the Ford Museum, located on Piquette Avenue at the site  of the original the original Ford manufacturing facility.

1903 Ford Model A

This particular car answered one question for me and dispelled a few inaccuracies in my head - I always wondered when the first production car was manufactured by Ford, and the answer is 1903.  I'd always heard that Ford invented the assembly line and that you could have your Ford in any color you want, as long as it's black.  While Henry Ford did invent the assembly line, his first factory did not have the modern assembly line technology - that came 4 years later.  As for this red car, you could order from one of four colors, red, green, blue or black in those years.  The restriction came when the production was moved to the new assembly line in 1907.

After I got my history fix, my colleague Brendan Murphy flew in, and we concentrated on more modern automotive efforts.  We spent three days working with Analog Devices  demonstrating our new A2B Bus Monitor (Automotive Audio Bus).  The OEM and tier supplier 1 visits were fun, and A2B is definitely an up and coming protocol.  If you would like to learn more click here.

In addition to the customer visits, we also spent a day at the ST Microelectronics Dev Day.  It was a great chance to learn about some of the latest technology for electric and autonomous cars.  One new thing I didn't expect was that ST Micro produces A2B Microphones - it's a small world and it was nice to talk to other firms working to help make cars lighter with better sound systems and integration.  If you'd like see some of the products featured at the Tech Tour in Detroit take a look at this Microcontroller tips update.  I really like the part where Total Phase's Power Delivery Analyzer was featured.   - Earlier this week I read that Mercedes was installing USB Type-C in their latest SUV, so it was good timing to have their announcement at the same time as we were presenting our Power Delivery capabilities at the Tech Tour.

It's time for that flight home, so happy motoring.  If you have any questions about A2B, USB, USB PD, CAN, I2C, SPI or any other automotive related protocols, drop us a line to sales@totalphase.com

-Gil Ben-Dov, CEO