TText, blog, or twitter hands-free while driving. Access your car’s
iPod media player to change tracks and adjust the volume without
lifting a finger. Even host a three-way telephone call via a Bluetooth
device without your hands leaving the steering wheel. No
longer content with standard features for low-end and mid-range
cars, drivers expect satellite navigation, multizone climate control,
satellite radio, and even beverage refrigeration as standard items.
We’re no doubt in the age of automotive infotainment (AI).
Those old dashboards with manual AM/FM radios and CD players
are disappearing, morphing into AI centers that include MP3
and DVD players, a GPS navigation system, hands-free mobilephone
access, and wireless Internet browsing.
To lure customers who salivate over cutting-edge audio and
video, car makers look to create entertainment centers on wheels.
These systems are enabled by the latest microprocessors, memories,
sensors, displays, microcontroller units (MCUs), graphics controllers,
programmable logic devices (PLDs) like field-programmable
gate arrays (FPGAs), and network interface controllers.
VOICE ACTIVATION
A major trend among AI systems is voice activation, with many
products and services recently arriving on the market. Dial2Do
Inc. offers voice-activated calling with a single phone number.
While drivers keep their hands on the wheel and their eyes on the
road, they can access their e-mail, send text messages, use their
phones, and accomplish other communications tasks.
Drivers can get their music on the go with another device from
Innotech Systems that permits voice activation while the iPod
is in the driver’s pocket. With the Accenda Voice Control, users
merely plug in their existing earbuds or headphones. A cable connects
the Accenda Voice Control to the iPod’s dock connector, so
drivers can tell the media player what to do via voice commands.
The Sierra Wireless 595W, 880W, and 881W AirLink MP
modems now have 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi hotspot and full routing
capabilities to simplify installation and communication between
a car and peripheral equipment. Users can access their mobile
broadband coverage while outside their vehicle, enabling the
sending of large image and video files.
The ATX Group, a telematics service provider, launched an
initiative to wirelessly connect embedded and nomadic devices
in vehicles to the Internet. Together with the Connected Vehicle
Trade Association (CVTA), it’s trying to form an international
working group to push this initiative.
BIG DEMAND FOR ICs
The demand for AI semiconductor ICs like application-specific
standard products (ASSPs) and PLDs is expected to drive their
sales by 8.5% this year after last year’s 18.5% growth, according
to iSuppli Corp. Two key driving forces, according to the market
research firm, are the addition of extra intelligence to infotainment
headsets and the push by OEMs to have tier-one electronicsystem
suppliers lower their product costs.
“About 25% of the cost to an automobile manufacturer, particularly
in high-end cars, is taken up by electronics,” says Tony Armstrong,
product marketing manager for Linear Technology Corp.,
which supplies power ICs to the AI market. Some market pundits
push that cost figure up to 40%. Obviously, it’s a good market for
semiconductor IC manufacturers.
According to iSuppli, the two largest AI chip suppliers are
STMicroelectronics and NXP Semiconductors, which grab 25% of
the market share. However, Freescale Semiconductor and Infineon
Technologies have the largest global share of the overall automotive
electronics IC market. Combined global OEM and aftermarket
revenue for AI systems is predicted to rise to $39.8 billion by
the end of this year, up 7.9% from last year’s $36.98 billion, and up
another $14 billion by 2014 (Fig. 1a).
At the same time, OEM AI system suppliers like Continental
(formerly Siemens VDO), Blaupunkt, Delphi, and Visteon are
coming under pressure from product makers to satisfy very competitive
high-performance and low-cost system needs. These four
companies, according to Strategy Analytics, occupy 57% of the
OEM market (Fig. 1b).
The massive volume of data coming from AI systems requires
automotive-grade storage media like hard-disk drives (HDDs).
Toshiba Storage Systems Division’s HDDs, such as the 80-Gbyte
MK8050GAC and the 60-Gbyte MK6050GAC, are the most
widely used disk storage media in automotive systems. Designed
to withstand rugged auto environments, they operate from –30°C
to 85°C. Each device has low-profile dimensions of 69.85 by 100
by 9.5 mm.
OMNIPRESENT FPGAS
Of all the ICs that can be found in today’s cars, FPGAs and complex
PLDs (CPLDs) are the most common. Their reprogrammable
flexibility allows electronic-system suppliers to keep pace
with changing AI market demands. Also, they’re now replacing
application-specific ICs (ASICs) and ASSPs.
Actel, Altera, Lattice Semiconductor, and Xilinx are some of
the major players in this arena. They’ve been delivering automotive-
grade FPGAs, CPLDs, and structured ASICs with the lowpower
and wide-bandwidth features needed for AI systems.
Earlier this year, Altera introduced a number of MAX CPLDs,
Cyclone FPGAs, and HardCopy structured ASICs designed with
scalable hardware/software architectures. “Our approach mitigates
the massive amount of redevelopment costs normally needed for
keeping up with changing automotive electronics requirements,”
says Dave Elliot, Altera’s automotive marketing manager.
OEMs can port their designs into a production-qualified FPGA
or migrate to a low-cost, high-performance HardCopy structured
ASIC. Available IP cores include Altera’s Nios II and ARM’s
M1 Cortex embedded processors, as well as DSP and video and
imaging IP suites. They support the latest automotive networking
standards, such as CAN, MOST, LIN, and FlexRay.
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