By Peter Lefkin, Executive Director, MIPI Alliance
Since its inception in 2003, MIPI Alliance has established itself as a key player in standards development, with a comprehensive portfolio of specifications that are widely implemented in mobile and being increasingly leveraged in a growing number of industries such as automotive, AR/VR, IoT, industrial, AI, medical and aerospace.
In recognition of MIPI’s 20th anniversary, IEEE-ISTO Board Chairman & Officer Yatin Trivedi joined us at the June MIPI Alliance Member Meeting in San Jose, where he highlighted the valued relationship and shared history of the two organizations (pictured with MIPI Executive Director Peter Lefkin and MIPI Chair Sanjiv Desai).
A program of IEEE-ISTO, MIPI Alliance has more than 375 member companies worldwide dedicated to the development and implementation of specifications that efficiently interconnect components in mobile and mobile-influenced devices, helping its member companies create state-of-the-art, innovative devices while accelerating time-to-market and reducing costs.
Over the past two decades, MIPI’s 50-plus specifications, which encompass the physical layer, multimedia, chip-to-chip or interprocessor communications (IPC), control/data, debug/trace and software areas, have become integral parts of the mobile ecosystem and have helped establish a level of interoperability that has been essential for the growth and success of the industry. In particular, MIPI’s camera, display and RF front-end specifications have become the de facto standards for system designers and developers, providing energy-efficient and cost-effective solutions, not only in mobile but across a range of application areas. Other groundbreaking specifications include MIPI I3C®, which provides significant performance enhancements and backward compatibility with the widely implemented I2C bus interface, and MIPI A-PHY®, the first industry-standard asymmetric SerDes specification for automotive applications.
Building on this foundation, MIPI has introduced specification frameworks such as MIPI Automotive SerDes Solutions (MASS℠), an end-to-end, full stack of connectivity solutions built on A-PHY for the growing number of cameras, sensors and displays in automotive applications; and the MIPI Security Framework, which initially is focused on providing end-to-end protection of MIPI CSI-2® image data streams.
In addition, MIPI continues to evolve all specifications to address emerging market requirements. Thirteen specifications have been adopted so far in 2023, and several others are expected to enter adoption before year end.
Looking ahead, MIPI Alliance is poised to continue to drive innovation and shape industries in mobile and beyond. With its focus on collaboration and interoperability, the Alliance is well-positioned for success in the development of specifications that will enable new and exciting technologies well into the future.