Enhanced functional safety, processing power and physical interface drive R&D.

Connected car features are growing and so are the power and the complexity of automotive SoCs enabling them. Chipmakers respond with a development agenda, highlighting greater functional safety, processing power and physical interface attributes.

"An SoC device - from architecture and processing standpoints - is the best and most efficient way to meet the increasing performance and functionality demands in a connected car system," said Edoardo Merli, marketing and application director of STMicroelectronics' automotive product group for the Greater China and the South Asia regions. "The main reasons to develop such ICs are the integration of several functions and technologies in a cost-effective, space-compact, low-power consumption solution, and the possibility to better control implementation features such as security, response time and latency, which are critical for safety applications."

STMicroelectronics has SoC devices, which are compatible with common buses and relevant interfaces CAN, MOST, FlexRay, LIN, SPI and PSI. This facilitates the interconnection with the vehicle, its electronic control units or ECUs, and sensors for positioning, safety, temperature, pressure, radars and cameras. "We will keep working on new physical interfaces to achieve higher throughput performance to support multiple sensor connections."

In addition, the semiconductor maker is looking to boost the application processor's capability to handle a greater amount of data from sensors and ECUs. It is also trying to reduce the number of wires per interface and onto boards for enhanced EMC.

Vehicles are gaining intelligence for detecting safety situations and providing critical decisions about driver operations as a result of the rise in onboard content. "These trends are expected to cause an increased emphasis on conformity to ISO 26262 as safety-critical functions come under the direct control of electronic systems," said Dev Pradhan, Texas Instruments Inc.'s safety and security microcontrollers marketing director.

TI has invested in its scalable Hercules microcontroller platform, which offers a compliant architecture. The company's SafeTI design packages for functional safety provide ISO 26262-specific bundles, including software, tools and documentation, to help customers facilitate qualification.

Functional safety

The crucial importance of functional safety in automotive SoCs is apparent in the recent partnership between Arteris Inc. and Yogitech S.p.A. "Yogitech is now developing the safety verification component for our FlexNoC IP," said Kurt Shuler, Arteris' marketing VP. "It will make it easier for FlexNoC IP users to automate the required ISO 26262 test coverage and fault injection needed for certification." Shuler said Arteris is also working with the latter in creating the safety documentation, which will help customers'qualification efforts for their designs.

The latest generation of TI's Hercules MCUs is built in accordance with ISO 26262. The company's TMS570LS12x/11x devices are also based on the highest safety level ASIL-D. "The microcontrollers are also qualified to the AEC-Q100 standard and have proven to be highly reliable," Pradhan said.

STMicroelectronics aims to meet the AEC-Q100 and above guidelines. "All our devices will be compliant with automotive reliability, safety and quality requirements," said Merli. This entails integration, openness, scalability and design cycle, all being close to a consumer environment.