Intel processors for connected cars & IoT

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intelinforgraphIntel announced the latest generation of the Intel Atom processors for IoT applications and Intel Atom processors dedicated for automotive applications.

The A3900 series is designed to power a new generation of in-vehicle experiences. The automotive series will enable a complete software defined cockpit solution that incudes in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), digital instrument clusters and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) – all in a single, compact and cost-effective SoC. The A3900 series will allow car makers to offer new levels of determinism for real-time decision-making required in next-generation cars. It is currently sampling with customers and will be available in Q1 2017.

Redefining In-Vehicle Experiences
As drivers expect more and more connectivity in the car, automakers and suppliers
must differentiate their offerings by creating immersive digital experiences that
stand out in a crowded market. The latest Intel® Atom™ automotive processors for
in-vehicle experiences make designing and incorporating digital and connected
features simpler, more powerful, and more cost effective, enabling automakers to maximize profit margins while delivering on market demands.
These processors can power in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), digital instrument clusters, and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). With substantial compute in a low-power package, impressive graphics capabilities, and security features—all based on scalable Intel® architecture—these processors allow automakers and suppliers to get cross-fleet solutions to market faster, with lower costs.
Connected and Immersive Vehicle Systems -Intel Atom SoC
A key offering of this new generation of Intel processor, the latest Intel Atom SoC achieves new levels of image and video processing power in a compact form factor, supporting critical real-time video analytics in smart and connected
vehicles. It integrates numerous specialized processors,including an energy-efficient quad-core CPU, a powerful GPU, and dedicated audio, video, and image processors. It also delivers the ability to handle more sensors and tasks.
Built into a compact flip chip ball grid array (FCBGA) and featuring Intel® 14 nm silicon technology, the Intel Atom SoC offers a new graphics engine that doubles the image processing vectors, greatly expanding its video capabilities.
It includes the game-changing time coordinated computing (TCC), which coordinates and synchronizes peripherals and networks of connected devices, achieving improved determinism and resolving latency issues.
Developers can save time and resources by optimizing apps once, including graphics and video, and then deploying across SKUs, from mid-range to premium vehicle models. Heterogeneous architecture means workloads can run in the vehicle or in the cloud and on a range of platforms, from Intel Atom to Intel® Xeon® processor-based systems and servers.
Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (Intel® VT for Directed I/O) provides hardware support for isolating and restricting device access and I/O device assignment. This ensures key safety functions get priority in terms of
access to the processor, driving the consolidation of IVI and instrument clusters.
Integrated, validated components.These new processors are also available as an automotive compute module featuring integrated power management
and memory. Automotive-qualified modules meet the Automotive Electronics Council AEC-Q100 standard for stress test qualification for integrated circuits, with SKUs that offer a -40°C to 110°C temperature rating and a seven-
year lifetime for industrial applications. The module is prevalidated with Intel’s automotive software tools and multiple OSs, so suppliers can build simpler printed circuit board (PCB) solutions. Powerful processing and graphics
The new Intel Atom automotive processors deliver excellent memory speeds and bandwidth (up to LPDDR4 2400 and 38.4 GB/s) in a compact, low-power package. They offer fast graphics and HD video for media-centric applications, with support for 4K video at 60 Hz.
With advanced protection at the hardware level, these processors can help reduce vulnerabilities. They feature an integrated converged security engine, a dedicated security coprocessor that dynamically adapts the security level to
function criticality. They also offer secure boot and fast cryptographic execution with Intel® AES New Instructions (Intel® AES-NI).
Smart and connected driving will change lives and societies for the better. By combining Intel’s expertise in technology with ingenuity in the automotive industry, a new vision for transportation is coming to light. With smart, secure
technology from door lock to data center, Intel is building solutions that not only help transportation providers meet today’s demands, but also prepare for the future of autonomoy.

Faster, stronger, better processing and sensor integration at the edge

The Intel Atom processor E3900 series will make the edge and fog more intelligent – enabling many of the processing needs to take place at or near the data sensor and alleviating the need to push all processing to the data center. Fog computing, also known as fog networking, is a decentralized computing infrastructure in which computing resources and application services are distributed in the most logical place at any point from the data source to the cloud.

As an example, consider traffic cams and sensor data. There are significant downsides to sending data to a server for analysis, such as loss due to video compression and time spent in travel, versus having the ability to process data at the device. In the automotive industry, the software-defined cockpit is also where this edge computing capability can make a difference. The ability for a single system to drive the digital gauges, navigation, and advance driver assist functions is the trend. It is important that backup sensors, bird’s-eye view parking or side collision alter function in a reliable response time, regardless of what the media or navigation system is doing at that time.

With more than 1.7 times more computing power over the previous generation1, the E3900 Series is designed to enable faster memory speeds and memory bandwidth to provide the efficient processing capability needed for edge to cloud network computing. Built into a compact flip chip ball grid array (FCBGA) and featuring 14 nanometer silicon technology, the Intel Atom processor E3900 series is perfect for a wide range of IoT applications, where scalable performance, space and power are at a premium. Additional new features and capabilities include:

  • Pristine graphics for media-rich applications: The processor series features Intel’s ninth-generation graphics engine that improves 3-D graphics performance by 2.9 times over the previous generation2, and supports as many as three independent displays.
  • Advanced image processing to support all types of vision system needs: The E3900 series has four vector image processing units, resulting in better visibility, quality video in low light, noise reduction, and color and detail preservation.
  • Faster connections to keep devices in sync: Intel® Time Coordinated Computing Technology coordinates and synchronizes peripherals and networks of connected devices. By synchronizing clocks inside the system on a chip (SoC) and across the network, Intel Time Coordinated Computing Technology can achieve network accuracy to within a microsecond.

The Intel Atom processor E3900 series is a significant step toward building a more robust IoT ecosystem. The series’ early access program has generated tremendous excitement among our customers and partners, putting the product on track to be one of Intel’s most successful IoT processors.

To continue providing endless smart and connected device possibilities for the future, we at Intel are working with a diverse ecosystem of leading IoT device and equipment manufacturers, software vendors and OEMs, including Delphi*, FAW*, Neusoft*, Hikvision* and others across a variety of industries.

We are excited about the endless possibilities and innovation the Intel Atom processor E3900 series will bring to solving real-world customer problems. With these processors, Intel continues to offer the significant advantage of economies of scale in IoT technologies across sensors, compute and storage. IoT technologies have the potential to disrupt entire industries and open new cycles of growth, as well as to transform our everyday experiences. The IoT renaissance is now, and I am eager to see the new applications yet to come.