[Technology Report]
Auto Electronics Revs Up For "Greener" Pastures
Safety, environmental concerns, fuel efficiency, and greater passenger comfort and convenience spur innovation in today’s cars.
Successful tests have been conducted on different communications protocols. In Japan, the dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) protocol is being developed. ERTICO ITS Europe is a public-private partnership organization for the development and deployment of ITSs across Europe using the CAR 2 CAR protocol. In the U.S., the Department of Transportation is pursuing the IntelliDriveSM project. These programs are expected to be fully deployed over the next few years.
Funded by the European Commission, a consortium of European research institutes, software companies, vehicle manufacturers, and parts suppliers has developed the DySCAS (dynamically self-configuring automotive system) software architecture for intelligent cars. This fundamental building block can reconfigure and update itself autonomously, as well as communicate with other devices, such as a driver’s mobile phone or PDA (Fig. 1).
DySCAS automatically downloads software patches and improvements whenever a vehicle is in range of an accessible wireless hotspot, whether it’s in the owner’s garage or a service station. It can be used to download new maps for navigation systems, update infotainment systems to play new music formats, or even adjust the engine’s timing parameters based on more efficient fuel settings supplied by the car’s manufacturer.
STMicroelectronics partnered with Navteq to develop a system that combines digital roadmap information with positioning data to enhance driver safety and convenience in all vehicles. The map positioning engine (MPE) integrates STMicroelectronics Global Positioning System (GPS) technology and Navteq’s advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) road geometry, topology, and additional attributes like the number of lanes or speed limits.
Analog Devices and Infineon Technologies are collaborating on next-generation automotive airbag systems that use MEMS accelerometers. They will look to accelerate the development of advanced airbag systems and provide automotive-safety system suppliers and OEMs access to a complete design platform that will deliver a reliable, cost-efficient, and easy-to-use advanced airbag solution.
RADAR CLIMBS ON BOARD Ultrasonic transducers and radar-based sensing are propelling the growth of parkingassistance systems in cars and lending a helping hand in object detection and parking assistance. Such systems are becoming more common on many cars. Radar systems are used more in long-range applications, while passive ultrasonic sensing, which is dominant in parking assistance and less expensive to implement, is being used for shorter-range applications.
Ultrasonic parking-assistance systems are expected to grow to 35.7 million units by 2014, up from 10.8 million in 2007, according to iSuppli (Fig. 2). By then, they’ll be available on 51% of U.S. and Japanese cars and 67% of German automobiles.
Tier 1 supplier Hella uses a dual-beam 24-GHz radar module with a 50-m range for sensing side objects. Delphi’s second-generation Back-Up Aid (BUA) also uses dual-beam 24-GHz radar modules for parking assistance, covering an area of 5 by 2.1 m behind the car. Many of these cars employ high-performance floating-point processors like TI’s C2834x, which more than doubles the computational bandwidths of conventional processors.
Radar-based parking assistance is also found on many Ford cars. Ford’s Active Park Assist system comes as an option on the Ford 2010 Ford Escape, making parallel parking a breeze (Fig. 3). Yet the adoption of radar-based systems beyond parking assistance is the goal of many auto companies. Many of them, including Nissan, aim to provide 360° sensing coverage around a car’s perimeter to detect any object.
ENERGY AND CONSERVATION No matter where electronics technology is employed on a car, energy efficiency is paramount. This is particularly true in more automotive infotainment systems, which are fast becoming key differentiators on the market. Intel’s 1-V Atom processor has set the tone for low-power dissipation.
Harman Becker Automotive Systems is huddling with Intel on energy-efficient infotainment systems that use the new Intel Atom Z520PT with a 1.3-GHz clock. At about 2.2 W of power dissipation, the processor draws 25% less power than other processors while providing higher processing performance, even in the harsh automotive temperature range of 40°C to 85°C.
One reason behind the improved performance at lower power levels is the Atom’s 45-nm manufacturing process. The Atom operates on the Moblin platform, an open-source Linux software stack and technology framework that delivers a visually rich Internet and media experience. Moblin is attracting more software support from companies like Novell and MontaVista.
The Moblin initiative has gone further with this year’s launch of the Genivi open-source in-vehicle infotainment reference platform, which is supported by an alliance of leading automobile and hardware and software suppliers (see “Alliance Launches Open-Source In-Vehicle Infotainment Development Platform”). The alliance will act as a driving force for driving in-vehicle infotainment innovations.
An important development that cuts the Atom processor’s power consumption is the first of a new family of power-management ICs from Dialog Semiconductor. The DA6001 provides all power supplies, power management, and clock signals in one chip.
Want an automotive PC the size of a hardcover book? Try Stealth’s LPC 450M Little PC with a form factor of 5.7 by 9.9 by 1.65 in. Designed specifically for in-vehicle, mobile, and embedded applications, it uses Intel’s Core 2 Duo processor and operates from a 10- to 16-V dc input (Fig. 4). It also features 500 Gbytes of storage space.
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