Advances in autonomous driving technologies are the ongoing catalyst for an industrywide revolution which automakers have not experienced since the advent of mass-produced cars. This electronic revolution is causing the automotive supply chain to evolve beyond established boundaries. As an example, Tier-1 suppliers are taking advantage of IP which enables them to design and build specialized SoCs to deliver market-specific value.
The latest indicator of this trend is a collaboration ARM has announced with DENSO, a leading global automotive systems supplier, to design automotive semiconductor device reference platforms for highly automated driving systems and vehicle control. As the first step in this collaboration, DENSO has licensed the Arm Cortex-R52 processor, which will enable them to achieve the highest levels of functional safety that these applications demand coupled with the right levels of performance.
The move toward fully autonomous vehicles requires the embedded systems within these vehicles to increasingly take control of decision making and maneuvering, rather than simply notifying the driver. Cortex-R52 enables the strictest functional safety levels (ASIL D) and instant control in real time. Since its launch, this processor is rapidly being adopted throughout the worldwide SoC design community as the go-to solution for embedded functional safety.
As the amount of investment required in software continues to rise to enable these safe autonomous systems, selecting the right processing platform is critical to ensuring an efficient and effective long-term solution. Arm IP enables developers to build their software on top of a consistent architecture, applying their technology across a broad range of products and solutions and taking advantage of a flexible, extendable and manageable software environment.
The Cortex-R52 provides hardware-enforced separation of software tasks to ensure safety-critical code is isolated. By enabling this robust separation of software, the Cortex-R52 decreases the amount of code that needs to be safety-certified, speeding up development through easier software integration, maintenance and validation.
“Partnering with Arm gives us access to its vast ecosystem and will allow us to continue to drive toward enabling the next generation of safe, highly automated driving systems and vehicle control,” said Hideki Sugimoto, Project General Manager, BASIS Electronics R&D Div. of DENSO.
“As the automotive revolution continues, our focus is on working with partners to build the right technologies to meet changing industry needs. We evaluated the Cortex-R52 and concluded that the processor’s functional safety capabilities were an excellent match for advanced future automotive applications. DENSO, along with our newly established subsidiary NSITEXE, will now work to further enhance these solutions.”
DENSO made use of the Arm Cycle Models to evaluate the processor’s capabilities ahead of its selection, allowing them to demonstrate its performance and confirming the Cortex-R52 as a highly capable processor in this field for functional safety and performance.
As the automotive revolution continues to gather pace, the supply chain is transforming to ensure it can deliver the promise of a cleaner, safer, automated future. This new partnership illustrates that by combining real-time and extended levels of functional safety with power-efficient performance, Arm’s processors are rapidly becoming the IP of choice for these increasingly demanding automotive applications. To learn more about Arm’s automotive solutions, be sure to attend the automotive track at Arm TechCon, Oct. 24-26 in Santa Clara, CA.