Connected Car News: Infineon, Seyond, Peachtree Corners, Diodes, WindRiver, DENSO, Seeing Machines, Maganachip, eSync Alliance & Infineon.

In connected car news are, Infineon, Seyond, Peachtree Corners, Diodes, WindRiver, DENSO, Seeing Machines, Maganachip, eSync Alliance and Infineon.

Infineon Microcontroller

With the introduction of the PSoC 4 High Voltage Precision Analog (HVPA)-144K microcontroller, Infineon Technologies AG addresses the automotive battery management sector by integrating high-precision analog and high-voltage subsystems on a single chip. It provides a fully integrated embedded system for monitoring and managing automotive 12 V lead-acid batteries, which is critical for the 12 V power supply of vehicles’ electrical systems. The new microcontroller is ISO26262 compliant, enabling compact and safe intelligent battery sensing and battery management in modern vehicles.

The PSoC 4 HVPA-144K’s dual high-resolution sigma-delta ADCs, together with four digital filtering channels, enable accurate measurement of the battery’s state-of-charge (SoC) and state-of-health (SoH) by measuring key parameters such as voltage, current, and temperature with an accuracy of up to ±0.1 percent. The device features two programmable gain amplifiers (PGAs) with automatic gain control, allowing fully autonomous control of the analog front end without software intervention. The use of shunt-based current sensing for batteries provides a higher accuracy than conventional Hall sensors.

An integrated 12 V LDO (42 V tolerant) allows the device to be supplied directly from the 12 V lead-acid battery without the need for an external power supply. An integrated transceiver allows direct communication with the LIN bus. The product meets the functional safety requirements of ASIL-C according to ISO26262.

The Arm® Cortex®-M0+ MCU on which the PSoC 4 HVPA-144K is based operates at up to 48 MHz with up to 128 KB of code flash, 8 KB of data flash and 8 KB of SRAM, all with ECC. The PSoC 4 HVPA-144K also includes digital peripherals such as four timers/counters/PWMs and a serial communication block that can be configured as an I2C/SPI/UART.

The PSoC 4 HVPA-144K is supported by automotive-quality software. Infineon’s Automotive Peripheral Driver Library (AutoPDL) and Safety Library (SafeTlib) are developed according to the standard automotive software development process. They are both A-SPICE compliant, following the MISRA 2012 AMD1 and CERT C, and ISO26262 compliant.

With the introduction of the PSoC 4 HVPA-144K, Infineon is laying the foundation to expand its PSoC microcontroller portfolio to include Li-ion battery management systems for EVs. The portfolio will soon include several products for monitoring and managing high voltage (400 V and above) and low voltage (12 V/48 V) batteries, further facilitating future EV adoption.

Seyond at Peachtree Corners

Peachtree Corners – one of the United States’ first 5G smart cities powered by real-world connected infrastructure – announced a collaboration with global provider of image-grade LiDAR technology, Seyond. This collaboration enables Seyond to deploy and validate its LiDAR solutions in a real-world environment in an effort to create safer streets and smoother traffic flow for both vehicles and vulnerable road users (VRUs) in Peachtree Corners.

Wind River^®, a global leader in delivering software for mission-critical intelligent systems, today announced that it has collaborated with Elektrobit to demonstrate foundational software for autonomous, electric, software-defined vehicles.

In this collaboration, Wind River provides VxWorks as the real-time operating system, Elektrobit offers its 2nd generation EB corbos AdaptiveCore software and EB corbos Studio tools and has created the AUTOSAR Adaptive Platform based software framework for autonomous driving domain controllers. Elektrobit’s best-in-class implementation of the AUTOSAR Adaptive Platform, combined with the ISO 26262 ASIL-D certified VxWorks operating environment, lays a complete pre-integrated foundation for developing enhanced automotive safety levels for ADAS Electronic Control Units (ECUs). The innovative solution is on demonstration at the Beijing Auto Show at the Elektrobit booth.

“We are delighted to further grow our continued efforts with Elektrobit to advance autonomous driving technologies. Elektrobit’s proven software solutions, combined with the industry leading VxWorks, can help drive innovation in the automotive market while delivering on functional safety, security, and reliability,” said Woody Zou, General Manager, China, Wind River.

“The combination of Elektrobit’s AUTOSAR Adaptive Platform and the trusted VxWorks real-time operating system helps create safe, secure, flexible, and high-performance ECUs to support automakers accelerate the development of their autonomous domain controllers and promote the mass production of new electric vehicles. We look forward to delivering more successful projects together in the future,” said Demetrio Aiello, Head of Product Engineering, Elektrobit.

The two automotive software pioneers have continued to build on their long-standing global relationship, having achieved a number of major design wins together. Combining their efforts, Wind River and Elektrobit can help automakers and Tier 1 suppliers develop advanced features and functions more quickly and easily, thereby reducing time to market for the next generation of intelligent vehicles.

The industry leading global embedded real-time operating system (RTOS)¹, VxWorks is also the only RTOS that supports Open Container Initiative (OCI) compliant containers. VxWorks meets the high-performance needs of automotive innovators such as Elektrobit. It simplifies software deployment and management and reduces development and operating costs, to develop and deploy intelligent edge software better and faster without sacrificing security and performance.

Find more information about Wind River work in automotive at www.windriver.com/solutions/automotive.

Diodes Inc Video Switch

Diodes Incorporated (Diodes) (Nasdaq: DIOD) has introduced the PI3WVR14412Q, an automotive-compliant* 20Gbps 1:2 video switch for in-cabin infotainment and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) applications. This device features a space-saving design and is qualified for elevated temperatures.

The switch has four high-speed lanes with a 10GHz bandwidth to handle DisplayPort™ 2.1, HDMI™ 2.1, MIPI^® DPHY/CPHY, USB 3.2, and LVDS connections. In addition, there are switches for hot-plug detect (HPD), HDMI display data channel (DDC), and DisplayPort auxiliary (AUX) signals. Low insertion loss, low return loss, and low channel-to-channel crosstalk ensure excellent signal integrity.

Capable of passing high-speed differential signals up to 1.2V peak-to-peak, the PI3WVR14412Q allows a common-mode voltage from 0V to the supply rail, which can be up to 3.3V. This wide voltage range permits DC signal coupling, enabling designers to save PCB space otherwise needed for AC-coupling capacitors.

The PI3WVR14412Q is automotive-compliant*—qualified to AEC-Q100 Grade 2, manufactured in IATF 16949 certified facilities, and supports PPAP documents. The wide ambient operating-temperature range, from -40°C to 105°C, permits deployment in challenging environments or locations exposed to direct sunlight.

The PI3WVR14412Q is supplied in a 3mm x 6mm, 40-pin, leadless surface-mount TQFN package, and is available at $1.50 in 3,500-piece quantities.

FEML NEXUS AI for DENSO

FEDML, the company providing “Your Generative AI Platform at Scale,” announced its partnership with DENSO, one of the largest automotive suppliers in the world, to empower fully on-premise training, development, and deployment of AI models and applications via FEDML Nexus AI platform.

As enterprises and organizations move fast toward bringing AI into their products and services, the need for privacy, security, full control, and ownership of the entire AI software stack becomes a critical requirement. This is especially true with the emergence of Generative AI models and applications, as data and AI models have become essential assets for any organization to obtain their competitive advantage.

Your Generative AI Platform at Scale – this is the mission that defines FEDML and its commitment to helping enterprises navigate the AI revolution with full ownership and control. By deploying FEDML Nexus AI platform on their own infrastructure (whether private cloud, on-premise servers, or hybrid), companies can provide their employees and customers with scalable, state-of-the-art GenAI capabilities, while giving them full control over their data, models, and computing resources.

Dr. Toru Hirano, Vice President of DENSO’s Silicon Valley Innovation Center, recently highlighted the complexities associated with training AI models across diverse geographic regions and internal business units. “Due to increasingly stringent data regulations and internal confidentiality policies, federated learning has emerged as an ideal solution by leveraging edge computing,” Dr. Hirano stated. He further noted the limitations of existing methodologies: “Sometimes, even sharing local models with differential privacy and secure aggregation is prohibited, necessitating a purely on-premises solution.” Through a partnership with DENSO, FEDML has successfully implemented such a solution, addressing the specific requirements of secure, decentralized data handling. This solution is being utilized by DENSO in such projects as creating ADAS features and developing AI applications designed to safeguard vulnerable road users (VRUs) in smart cities.

FEDML Nexus AI Key Features. FEDML Nexus is an all-in-one powerful AI platform that provides the foundation to build and commercialize any AI application easily, scalably, privately, and economically. The platform offers several key features:

1. GenAI Studio empowers companies to create advanced AI agents using models from the GenAI Model Hub, with a seamless Retrieval-Augmented Generation pipeline and connectivity to external APIs.
2. Deploy, Serve, and Scale allows the creation of dedicated or serverless endpoints for proprietary or third-party models, with features like autoscaling, batch-job scheduling, failover mechanisms, and comprehensive monitoring.
3. Launch enables orchestration of AI jobs across decentralized GPU resources effortlessly with auto-provisioning, batch-job scheduling, and cluster management
4. Train provides integrated support for distributed training frameworks like DeepSpeed and Megatron-LM, with advanced observability and debugging tools.
5. Federate enables zero-code, secure federated learning, and analytics within a company’s infrastructure, allowing model training from decentralized data without requiring centralization.

According to Salman Avestimehr, CEO and Co-founder of FEDML, “In the last decade, many enterprises evolved into data-centric organizations. Now, with Generative AI advancing rapidly, these companies are transforming into AI powerhouses. FEDML Nexus AI facilitates this transition, offering full ownership and control. Our partnership with DENSO exemplifies how companies can maintain control over their data, models, and computing resources, leading the AI revolution.”

FEDML Nexus AI On-Premise Deployment. Deploying FEDML Nexus AI on-premise enables any enterprise to operate its own AI platform on its infrastructure, ensuring maximum privacy, ownership, and control. An engineer or developer simply needs to download the Nexus AI platform from FEDML’s private repository and install it on a node inside the enterprise’s private network. Once the Nexus AI web platform is online, enterprise users can login to the platform, register their private computing nodes, and execute different jobs, such as AI model training or deployment, to their private computing cluster.

FEDML Federate. One of the core components of the Nexus AI Platform is FEDML Federate, a state-of-the-art Federated Learning Operations (FLOps) platform for managing the end-to-end development lifecycle of Federated Learning jobs. FEDML Federate seamlessly orchestrates all operations with respect to the coordination, execution, and monitoring of a federated learning job. Through FEDML Federate, enterprises can federatedely train, deploy and monitor any AI model across their own private compute nodes (servers, devices, smartphones), enhancing their data privacy and security compliance. At the same time, through the advanced capabilities offered by FEDML Federate for easily experimenting with different federated learning algorithms and training policies, A/B model testing and group management features, enterprises can iterate faster and optimize their development costs.

Seeing Machine Program NA OEM

Seeing Machines Limited (“Seeing Machines” or the “Company”), the advanced computer vision technology company that designs AI-powered operator monitoring systems to improve transport safety, announces a significant generational program extension with an existing North American Tier- 1 customer and OEM.

The initial program, already in production, will expand to a total of 19 distinct vehicle models being sold in North America, Europe and China, and extend through 2032 based on the OEM’s next generation Driver Monitoring System (DMS) solution utilising Seeing Machines’ improved FOVIO Chip design delivering increased feature capability with reduced cost, power and size.

This award extends to all of the OEM’s European vehicle models in support of fast approaching Euro NCAP (New Car Assessment Program) and European GSR (General Safety Regulation) requirements and is scheduled to start production before the end of 2024 with an initial estimated incremental lifetime value of US$26m.

Maganachip New 40V MOSFTET

Magnachip Semiconductor Corporation (“Magnachip” or “Company”) (NYSE: MX) announced  the release of its new 40V MXT MV MOSFET¹. With this latest addition, the Company now offers 13 MOSFET and IGBT products for a wide range of automotive applications (see the tables below).

As the automotive industry adopts advanced technologies such as autonomous driving and enhanced infotainment systems, the demand for high-efficiency power solutions increases. According to Omdia, a global market research firm, the automotive power discrete market is projected to grow 14% annually from 2024 to 2027.

Magnachip entered the automotive sector in April 2022 with its first 40V MOSFET and has since broadened its product offerings by releasing 30V, -40V (P-channel MOSFET²), 60V, and 250V MOSFETs for vehicles. In September 2023, the Company introduced 650V and 1200V IGBTs for positive temperature coefficient heaters and e-compressors for automotive. In the last two years, Magnachip’s power products have been integrated into vehicles of major automotive manufacturers in the United States, Korea, Japan and China.

Leveraging its technological capabilities, Magnachip now unveils this 40V MXT MV MOSFET (AMDD040N055RH) in the Decawatt Package (DPAK). The new MOSFET offers exceptional versatility for various automotive applications, such as motor control systems or power seat modules and electric stability control systems for reverse battery protection.

“Magnachip is committed to supplying premium products that meet the evolving demands of the automotive sector,” said YJ Kim, CEO of Magnachip. “Our technical innovation, coupled with a steady supply and a comprehensive range of product offerings, will strengthen our foothold in the automotive industry and broaden our global market presence.”

*R_{DS(on)_max}: the maximum resistance of MOSFETs during on-state operation

eSync Alliance Spec Update on SDV Update

eSync Alliance updates specification to accelerate Software-Defined Vehicle development with greater collaboration on automotive.

The eSync Alliance launched the latest version of its standard-setting specification for over-the-air (OTA) data exchange, available now to eSync Alliance members. The new Version 2.2 eSync specification emphasizes interoperability, enabling greater collaboration among automakers and suppliers, and accelerating the development of the Software Defined Vehicle (SDV).

Version 2.2 draws on the accumulated experiences of Alliance members in implementing numerous OTA programs to clarify and tighten the specifications, minimizing the potential for divergent interpretations and implementations. Based on the three-level Server-Client-Agent architecture of eSync, the new specifications ensure that devices with agents from numerous sources can quickly be integrated into the common OTA data pipeline. This is crucial to accelerating the development of the SDV, which depends on reliable connectivity and upgradability of software in every electronic device in the car. At the same time, the eSync Alliance’s Compliance Working Group has launched an eSync Agent Validation Tool, providing users with a robust capability to test their eSync implementations. The web-based interface allows for full OTA message verification. Its launch gives automakers confidence that a Tier-1 supplier’s eSync Agent is both compliant and interoperable with other suppliers’ devices.

The only standardized bi-directional OTA pipeline available for the automotive industry, eSync enables automakers to seamlessly deliver remote vehicle updates that can reach every area of the vehicle. Manufacturers can also receive diagnostic data back from a vehicle through the same data pipeline. At eSync’s core is the eSync Alliance, a non-profit trade association that encourages collaboration between OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers to define and advance a standardized multi-company approach for automotive OTA.

Mike Gardner, Executive Director of the eSync Alliance, said: “With Version 2.2 of our specification, we’re standardizing the standard. Users of eSync technology can rest assured that, by implementing the latest edition of the specification and making use of the Agent Validation Tool, they’re able to create interoperable solutions that will shape the software defined vehicles (SDVs) of the future. Version 2.2 is about practical improvements that make eSync technology a consistent solution for OEMs and Tier-1s, and is the step change that will facilitate significant growth in the years to come.”

For Tier-1 suppliers, a fully interoperable, standardized approach to OTA enables businesses to confidently supply an OTA-ready product to automakers, with confidence that their products can be quickly and easily integrated into the platform architecture. A key benefit for automakers is that, by sourcing interoperable OTA devices, much of the OTA infrastructure is already in place. This not only saves time and reduces development costs, but it can also allow for greater scalability across models. Version 2.2 of the eSync specification is available now to all members of the eSync Alliance.