Imagination’s three-pronged automotive IP solution
The automotive world is undergoing great change. As electric drivetrains replace combustion engines, innovative new HMIs are revolutionising the in-car experience, AI will impact every facet of the car with Ethernet underpinning all the required data transfer. And while autonomous vehicles will need more GPU and AI horsepower and faster connectivity, this can’t come at the expense of power budget, silicon area or safety.
To meet these challenges Imagination offers an Ethernet switch/router and class-cleading graphics and AI processors, designed specifically with automotive use cases in mind.
We refer to this as our three-pronged approach to automotive:
- GPU (graphics)
- NNA (AI)
- EPP (networking)
Ethernet router for automotive: EPP
Ethernet is the gold standard of automotive networking, but implementing it effectively requires a sophisticated but robust solution for managing data. Like any network, a router or a switch is required, and the demands on this will vary based on the complexity of a network. Imagination’s Ethernet Packet Processor (EPP) is a silicon-proven, fast and efficient combined switch and router designed specifically for automotive.
It acts as a router and switch and is available in a variety of configurations to meet these needs. On top of supporting common router functions, each port is capable of handling gigabit speeds to keep pace with the expanding need for data around the vehicle and has enough ports to support dozens of high bandwidth information feeds.
Imagination’s EPP offers:
• over 400Gbit data transfer across 32 ports for high-bandwidth data transfer and management;
• flexible configuration to provide the right level of performance at the right price;
• safety-focused – developed to ISO 26262 standards and capable of use in ASIL-B systems;
• crossover into multiple protocols, including Wi-Fi, 5G, CANbus and more, for seamless integration into all systems technology in the market for ultimate bandwidth saving.
With these features and the flexibility of Ethernet cabling standards, data packets can be sent with redundancy automatically. This means that in the case of a transient fault the round-trip time of identifying missing information doesn’t cause a dangerous delay in the systems and exponentially decreases the chances of failure.
As you would expect, safety is a big concern in automotive. ISO 26262 is the ISO safety standard that identifies and defines six automotive safety integrity levels, known as ASILs. Depending on the use case, the EPP IP can meet ASIL B at the IP level and is suitable to be integrated as a component into automotive systems targeting the highest level of functional safety, ASIL D. To reach ASIL D a system would typically require the provision of external monitoring hardware independent from the EPP.
GPU for automotive
Our IMG BXS GPU with multi-core scaling delivers everything automotive SoC manufacturers require to build either area or performance-focused SoC, for graphics and compute tasks.
Features such as tile Region Protection bring functionally safe 3D graphics to the automotive market for the first time, while our IMGIC is the most advanced image compression technology in the market for the ultimate in bandwidth saving.
AI for automotive
Our IMG Series4 offers up to 12.5 TOPS per core and is scalable up to an incredible 1,000 TOPS of performance for the most demanding, area and power-efficient design to enable the creation of an incredibly powerful platform for ADAS and autonomous driving. The IMG Series 4 offers:
• ultra-low area;
• ultra-low latency;
• ultra-low bandwidth;
• ultra-low power consumption;
• ISO 26262 ASIL-B ready design.
To learn more about Imagination EPP in-depth, download our comprehensive white paper: “Data Centre On Wheels.
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