The automotive industry is undergoing a profound change driven by technology. The advent of the software-defined vehicle (SDV) era has increased digital functions and applications, hardware and computing requirements, and the amount of vehicle code is moving towards one billion lines. The entire industry has to rethink the design of vehicle software and electronic and electrical (E/E) architecture. Based on this, S2C has cooperated with Arm, Xylon, and Zhicong Technology to develop and launch an automotive MCU hybrid prototype solution. This is a central + regional electronic and electrical architecture reference design for future cars, providing an automotive MCU hybrid prototype platform, supported by S2C's Core God pupil prototype verification system, which aims to reduce the time and risk of developing the next generation of automotive MCUs based on Arm® Cortex®-R52+.

The automotive revolution: the shift to software-defined cars

With the development of vehicle electrification and intelligence, the automotive industry has integrated with many cutting-edge technologies, promoting the new trend of automotive digitalization and software-defined vehicles. Intelligent connected vehicles (ICV) have become the inevitable direction of industrial upgrading, prompting the evolution of automotive E/E architecture from traditional distributed to domain-centralized, and finally to central centralized architecture.

In this process, ECU integration becomes the key. High-performance ECUs are used to perform multi-system functions, reduce development and production costs, improve flexibility, and achieve the transition from fixed functions to software-defined functions. Many OEMs have recognized this and have begun to use various topologies to optimize E/E architecture.

Among them, MCU is the most important component of ECU in automotive electronic systems. MCU is responsible for managing and controlling vehicle body electronic equipment and safety systems, and also bears the heavy responsibility of processing massive data, making driving decisions, and coordinating work between systems. It needs to have a high-performance processor, sufficient memory, and rich interfaces to cope with complex driving environments and changing driving needs. At the same time, high reliability and stability are also indispensable characteristics of MCU. The automotive-grade MCU architecture must comply with safety standards such as ISO26262, because any minor fault may have a serious impact on driving safety.

To cope with complex driving environments and higher safety requirements, MCUs need to continuously improve their performance to comply with the important strategy of ECU integration, which will help simplify layout, reduce hardware complexity, accelerate software updates and functional iterations, and lay the foundation for software-defined cars.

Automotive MCU Hybrid Prototyping Solutions

Based on this, S2C cooperated with Arm, Xylon and Zhicong Technology to develop an Arm-based automotive MCU hybrid prototype solution. This is an innovative reference design for the future automotive central + regional E/E architecture, designed to help customers conduct in-depth exploration and evaluation of the new automotive architecture and achieve product differentiation. The hybrid prototype platform is equipped with S2C's Xinshentong prototype verification and automotive MCU chips for rapid prototyping of high-performance ECUs and regional controllers. The hybrid prototype platform can achieve real-time performance with automotive MCU chips, and its flexible and configurable hardware is easier to match different Arm CPUs, while the peripherals use mainstream automotive MCU chips as external communication and network interfaces. It is currently equipped with a multi-core Arm Cortex-R52+, which can help developers analyze workloads and develop applications in the evolution of E/E architecture. And through S2C's prototype verification, it demonstrates the steps, advantages and support resources for migrating to the new Arm architecture to ensure that the entire migration process is simple and seamless.

This hybrid prototype solution is based on S2C's prototype verification and is designed with Arm Cortex R52+. Through cooperation with Xylon, high-speed bus interface IP compatible with mainstream automotive MCU chips is developed to expand common peripherals of automobiles. Zhicong Technology has developed the AUTOSAR CP multi-core real-time operating system and communication protocol stack, as well as the Muniu configuration tool and Xuanwu performance monitoring tool. Among them, Muniu, as a host configuration tool chain based on the AUTOSAR ARTOP architecture, supports the communication, diagnosis, network management and boot refresh specifications of many OEMs. Xuanwu focuses on providing diagnostic module-related solutions for automotive electronic applications, covering program refresh, diagnosis and automated testing, and provides customized services to adapt to various application scenarios of OEMs and Tier1, so that users can diagnose and test in laboratories, test vehicles and real vehicles. From operating systems to configuration tools, to performance monitoring tools, Zhicong Technology has fully demonstrated its profound skills in the field of full-stack research and development.

Cirtronix joins hands with ecological partners to deepen its presence in the automotive field

Shanghai Zhicong Technology Co., Ltd., as a high-tech enterprise deeply engaged in the field of automotive electronics basic software, its core team has pioneered the development of my country's first AUTOSAR basic software product platform. Under the general trend of automotive electrification, networking, intelligence and software, it provides high-quality, efficient and low-cost basic software solutions for the automotive industry.

Speaking of the cooperation with Sierxin, Mr. Zhang Zhiqiang, Deputy General Manager and Business Director of Zhicong Technology, said: "We are very honored to work hand in hand with an outstanding ecological partner like Sierxin. Sierxin's outstanding performance in prototype verification technology has won the trust and recognition of our customers. Through this cooperation, we aim to jointly create a reliable evaluation and development platform for automotive electronics customers, accelerate product time to market, and promote the arrival of the software-defined car era. Based on the strong technical strength of both parties and the successful cooperation experience in the past, we are full of confidence in the future development of the automotive electronics market."

"Xylon is a leader in design services and optimized IP cores for automotive vision and interface applications, supporting prototype and production designs based on programmable FPGAs and SoCs." Our logiRHSIF high-speed serial communication IP ensures seamless integration of FPGA-implemented peripherals with Renesas MCUs. Davor Kovacec, CEO of Xylon, said: "In addition, other communication IP cores in our portfolio can be compatible with a range of popular MCUs in the future. I believe that our close cooperation with CirCore, Arm and Zhicong Technology will enhance and expand the value of the reference design, and ultimately accelerate customers' software-defined car development." Suraj Gajendra, vice president of products and solutions at Arm Automotive Division, said: "Virtual prototyping solutions enable developers to start designing vehicle systems before physical hardware is ready, which is increasingly important for providing the advanced user experience required by today's drivers. Through the hybrid prototyping solution launched through this collaboration, developers can access the key functional safety and real-time functions of Cortex-R52+ early in development, thereby simplifying the innovation process of SDV and providing more differentiation opportunities for automakers." By working with Arm, Zhicong Technology and Xylon, CirCore can apply its prototype verification technology to a wider range of automotive electronics scenarios, providing automotive electronics customers with a more reliable and efficient evaluation and development platform. This cooperation not only accelerates the time to market of automotive electronics products, but also lays a solid foundation for the advent of the software-defined car era. With Sierxin's mature system and a variety of verification-ready peripheral daughter cards, as well as fast response and delivery capabilities, customers can quickly get started with efficient prototyping and evaluation, which can help the joint promotion of the two companies.

In the future, Sierxin will continue to uphold the concept of openness and cooperation, and work with more excellent ecological partners such as Arm, Xylon, and Zhicong Technology to jointly explore new opportunities in the field of automotive electronics. Sierxin believes that through continuous technological innovation and market expansion, it will be able to lead the future development of the automotive electronics field and contribute to the high-quality development of the automotive industry.

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