GuardKnox, the automotive industry’s first Cybertech Tier supplier of high-performance computing solutions, announced today its partnership with NXP Semiconductors, the number one provider of secure vehicle network processors, and Green Hills Software, the worldwide leader in high-assurance real-time operating systems. The companies will collaborate to develop a secure automotive platform targeting next-generation zonal E/E architecture, enabling commercial deployment.
The innovative platform will empower global OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers with a flexible, efficient solution designed to overcome current technological challenges such as integrating the hardware and software required for delivering advanced features and functionalities for the next generation of vehicles. The unified platform targets new zonal vehicle architectures that consolidate services that have traditionally been performed by multiple, dedicated functional domain platforms. This will simplify wiring harnesses which lowers vehicle weight and cost and enable scalability and enhancements in the future through software over-the-air updates.
“NXP’s collaboration with GuardKnox and Green Hills addresses key challenges of the automotive industry’s dramatic shift from horsepower to compute power to drive future software-centric vehicles,” said Brian Carlson, Global Marketing Director for Vehicle Control and Networking Solutions at NXP. “This flexible automotive platform unleashes the innovation of the S32G vehicle network processor to meet the demanding processing and networking needs of domain and zonal vehicle architectures coupled with secure, service-oriented software that’s ready to accelerate automotive OEM and Tier 1 innovations.”
Based on NXP’s S32G vehicle network processor and the Green Hills INTEGRITY® safe and secure separation kernel and secure hypervisor (Multivisor®), GuardKnox will expand and optimize its offerings for high-performance automotive ECU connectivity. This new, cost-effective platform will retain GuardKnox’s signature mixed-criticality features of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) – ensuring a consolidated, scalable, dynamic, and secure-by-design product for the automotive industry.
“There is a significant gap in the automotive supply chain that is too time intensive and cost-prohibitive for OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers to fill alone,” said Idan Nadav, co-founder and CSO of GuardKnox. “As the first Cybertech Tier supplier, GuardKnox provides the expertise, experience, and technology needed to close that gap and usher in the next generation of software-defined and service-oriented vehicles. By combining NXP’s cutting-edge processor solutions and proven software and development tools from Green Hills, we are confident that our joint dynamic platform will empower OEMs with the freedom to evolve and usher in the next era of innovative automotive solutions.”
The cutting-edge platform is suited for a wide range of new vehicle services such as in-vehicle app stores, vehicle personalization, immersive infotainment systems, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), and more. It is designed to adapt to customer needs while remaining agnostic to network topology. The flagship platform is a general-purpose compute element with automotive network interfaces, serving as a baseline vehicle server. It can also serve as a high-performance domain controller for present-day architectures, designed to host applications, provide extra services, additional functionality, and consolidation of other external hardware.
“New architectures and robust networking are essential for the next generation of vehicles to function safely, securely and with greater speeds,” said Chris Tubbs, Director of EMEA Business Development at Green Hills Software. “By combining our sophisticated safety and security software offerings with NXP’s latest vehicle network processors and GuardKnox’s advanced zonal architecture, together we will deliver that immersive, in-vehicle user experience drivers are now demanding. This purpose-built, foundational platform is a major step forward, empowering OEMs to usher in the future of the automotive industry.”