volkswagenpays$80mfor ballardfuelcelltechnology · page 7, march 2015 vehicle electronics vehicle...

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IN THISISSUE

Page 2: Volkswagenbuys fuel celltechnology

Page 3: VehicleElectronicsconference agenda

Page 6: Sony investsin self-drive cars

Page 7: Verificationusing requirements

2: Securitywith connected cars

Page 16: Roadmodelling forsimulation

Palne 17: Computermoves from plane totrains

Page 22: Volvo’sautonomousdriving project

Page 23: Productnews

Page 28: Contactdetails

Issue 15March 2015

NEWS

Vehicle Electronics March 2015, Page 2

Stella, the world’s first solar-powered family car project, took home theprestigious Best Technology Achievement award at the eighth annualCrunchies Awards, hosted by TechCrunch in San Francisco. The car usesvarious NXP technologies including microcontrollers and secure V2Xcommunications.

“It’s fantastic that we have won,” said Tom Selten, captain of SolarTeam Eindhoven. “Receiving the award means we are recognised amonggiants and there is a great potential for our family car of the future.”

He said the team was working on designing a new solar family car witha range of 1500km. The four-seater is being designed from scratch andwill be equipped – like Stella – with aV2V and V2I transmitter, developedby NXP.

Stella shines in Crunchies Awards

Freescale paves way forautonomous drivingAutomotive vision SoC launched at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona

Block diagram of S32V automotive vision SoC

Freescale raised the barfor autonomous driving atthis month’s MobileWorld Congress inBarcelona with an auto-motive vision SoC that itclaims has the requisitereliability, safety and se-curity to automate and co-pilot a self-aware car.The chip, which will be

sampling from July thisyear, is initially targetedat adas applications suchas autonomous emer-gency braking, lanedeparture correction,pedestrian protection andsensor fusion to combinedata from cameras andsensors all around the car.“Sensor fusion takes in-

puts from sensors, cam-eras, radar and ultrasonicsand uses that to make a3D model of the car,”said Allan McAuslin,Freescale’s product man-ager for adas devices.“That can be used toachieve crash avoidancemeasures. This means it

needs to satisfy securityand reliability issues.”He said devices for

these types of applica-tions had to last for 15 to20 years with zero defectreliability and meet stan-dards such as ISO 26262.“We think at Freescale

we are positioned to ad-dress these challenges,”he said.The S32V device inte-

grates Cognivue Apeximage processor technol-ogy and fourArm Cortex-A53 cores. The softwareplatform includes theGreen Hills Integrity real-time operating systemand Neusoft’s real-timeobject recognition algo-rithms to detect partialobjects, allowing the de-

vice to interpret and dis-tinguish between roadhazards and pedestrianrisk.Under ISO 26262, the

chip is a safety elementout of context butMcAuslin said it includedmost of the featuresneeded.“We put the hardware

on chip for dynamic selftest,” he said. “We pro-vide automotive grade in-terfaces such as Can,Flexray and AutomotiveEthernet. We also providesecurity encryption onchip. If an infotainmenthead unit fails, you canstill drive safely but thatcan’t happen with pedes-trian detection. You can’ttake shortcuts.”

Volkswagen has paidaround US$80m to Bal-lard Power Systems forautomotive-related fuelcell IP and a two-year ex-tension of an engineeringservices contract. Theseare the fuel cell IP assetspreviously acquired fromUnited Technologies.“Audi, VW and the

Volkswagen Group arevery pleased with the ac-quisition of a world-classautomotive fuel cellpatent portfolio,” saidUlrich Hackenberg, tech-nical development man-ager at Audi. “We believethat this portfolio, to-gether with the combinedfuel cell skills and expert-ise of our group and Bal-lard, will underpin ourability to play a leadingrole in fuel cell automo-tive development andcommercialisation.”Ballard will retain a

royalty-free licence to usethe IP transferred to Volk-swagen in bus and non-automotive applicationsas well as for limited pre-commercial purposes inautomotive applications.Randy MacEwen, Bal-

lard president and CEO,said: “Extension of theengineering services con-tract reflects a growingpositive sentiment to-wards fuel cells within

Volkswagen pays $80m forBallard fuel cell technology

the automotive sector,along with the outstand-ing progress made to datein our work with Volk-swagen Group on its fuelcell car programmes.”The extension till

March 2019 of the long-term engineering servicesagreement has an incre-mental value estimated at

US$24-40m. Over thefull six years, the contracthas an estimated value ofUS$80-112m and in-cludes a further optionaltwo-year extension.The IP sale has pleased

Intelligent Energy, whichnow considers itself theleading independent fuelcell developer and imple-

mentation partner for ve-hicle manufacturers.“This news from an-

other top global automanufacturer will stimu-late wider public and in-dustry interest in fuel celltechnologies,” said JamesBatchelor, managingdirector of motive atIntelligent Energy.

NEWS NEWS

Vehicle Electronics Vehicle ElectronicsPage 3, March 2015 March 2015, Page 4

Vector Informatik has ac-quired a 24.8% share ofCompu t e r -Sy s t eme -Messtechnik (CSM).Though they will con-tinue to operate as inde-pendent companies, theywill work together on ajoint venture for long-term and sustainable de-velopment and sales. Inthe future, users of meas-urement technology inautomotive and commer-cial vehicle developmentshould benefit from thiscoordination for software

and hardware products.Vector is contributing

with its software tools foronline acquisition, analy-sis and management ofmeasurement data.“Especially in the field

of measurement technol-ogy, requirements by ve-hicle OEMs and ECUsuppliers have increasedtremendously with regardto measurement datarates, reliability and flex-ibility of the developmenttools that are used,” saidThomas Riegraf, CEO of

Vector Informatik. “Thepartnership between Vec-tor and CSM enables op-timal exchange ofknow-how and close in-termeshing of their prod-ucts. Our customers willin turn benefit from thispartnership in their proj-ects.”CSM is providing the

measurement technologyhardware – in particularits rugged and compactanalogue measurementmodules for use in vehi-cles and on test benches.

Arm and Green HillsSoftware have collabo-rated on an optimisedcompiler for the Cortex-R5 processor that deliversclaimed record-settingautomotive performance,enabling the processor tomeet the needs of difficultautomotive applications.EEMBC Labs has certi-

fied the Green Hills com-piler, v2015.1, as havingachieved a performancescore of 1.01EEMBC au-tomarks/MHz on the Cor-tex-R5 automotive MCUsfrom Spansion. This rep-resents a 30% increase onprevious scores.“Processor and com-

piler technology go handin hand, and Arm’s in-

vestment in supportingand working with its de-velopment tools ecosys-tem is unrivalled,” saidRichard York, vice presi-dent of embedded mar-keting at Arm. “Theautomotive and industrialmarkets are demandingmulti-sourced, powerfuland standardised MCUssupported by well-estab-lished tool chains such asGreen Hills. In an indus-try where safety is a criti-cal success factor, thereputation that Arm’secosystem enjoys withtop tier OEMs and suppli-ers is a major advantage.”The Green Hills tool-

chain has a strong func-tional safety pedigree –

having received certifi-cates by accredited inde-pendent agencies TÜVNord and Exida at thehighest levels of automo-tive and industrial func-tional safety, includingISO 26262 Asil D andIEC 61508 Sil4. Thiscombined level of certifi-cation and performanceshould let the Cortex-R5deliver performance,safety and cost advan-tages to automotive sys-tems developers as iteliminates the need forcustom MCU architec-tures.“Green Hills Software

is pleased to see our con-tinued collaboration witharchitecture specialists at

Arm and Green Hills collaborateto create performance record

Richard York: “Majoradvantage.”

Arm raise the bar for au-tomotive and industrialcode performance onArm processors,” saidDan Mender, vice presi-dent of business develop-ment at Green HillsSoftware. “Cortex-R5supports powerful per-formance and safety fea-tures that our latestcompiler optimisationsunlock for customerschoosing this industry-proven processor inperformance-sensitivemarkets.”The Spansion Traveo

family of Cortex-R5based automotive MCUsbuilds on the Cortex-R4based FCR4 family.“An automark score of

192 for a cost-effectiveautomotive grade MCUat this price sets a new barfor affordable MCUs inbody, driver informationand powertrain applica-tions,” said Takeshi Fuse,senior VP for automotiveMCUs at Spansion.

Vector buys stake in CSM

The programme for theinaugural Vehicle Elec-tronics conference nextmonth is coming togetherwith educational sessionsthat will benefit hardwareand software engineersworking in the automo-tive sector.The keynote address

will be from Tim Ar-mitage, associate directorofArup, who will be talk-ing about the UK Auto-drive project, which willbe testing autonomousvehicles in Coventry andMilton Keynes. Arup isthe consortium leader forthe project and Armitageis the programme direc-tor. Other partners in theconsortium include Jag-uar Land Rover, Mira,Ford, Thales, Tata Mo-tors, Oxbotica and RBM.The conference is due

to be held at the NEC inBirmingham, UK, from21 to 22 April 2015. Itwill be part of NationalElectronics Week andwill be joined by Embed-ded Masterclass, witheach of the two days com-prising a half day forMasterclass and a half forVehicle Electronics.Jeff Loeliger, principal

staff engineer at FreescaleSemiconductor, will dis-cuss, as the silicon indus-try shrinks devices, whatare the challenges for the

Focus on education atVehicle Electronics event

automotive industry ofthese ever decreasinggeometries that are pres-ent from all silicon ven-dors. Andrew Coombesfrom Rapita Systems willbe talking about ensuringthe correct timing behav-iour of embedded soft-ware, an important aspectof automotive ECU de-velopment.Jim Thomas from TVS

will look at requirementsdriven verification andtest for ISO 26262. AndMark Pitchford fromLynx Software will ex-plain using a Posix com-pliant rtos to improvehard real-time perform-ance and reduce glass-to-glass latency in adas andIVI applications.“Unfortunately, generic

versions of open sourceLinux are not designedfor in-vehicle use, andthat is particularly evidentin adas,” said Pitchford.“The lack of hard real-time functionality seesthem suffer a from glass-

to-glass latency that isneither optimal nortightly controlled. That isa big problem for systemsto control the behaviourof a moving vehicle, suchas adaptive cruise control,lane change assistanceand collision avoidancesystems.”A team from Durham

University – DavidWood, Linzi Dodd, DavidEtor and Claudio Balocco– will look at the recoveryof energy from car ex-haust pipe surfaces. Theirproposed method will ex-ploit the radiative heatfrom the exhaust pipe sur-face, and so will not inter-fere with the gas flowdynamics in any way.Speakers at Embedded

Masterclass include Fer-gus Duncan from Bitwiseon managing productsoftware development tosupport long-term main-tenance and optimal codere-use for product vari-ants and Jason Mastersfrom Programming Re-search on key drivers im-pacting return oninvestment for staticanalysis tools.There are still sponsor-

ship and exhibiting op-portunities available. Fordetails, email conferenceorganiser Jayne Foster [email protected].

Tim Armitage

A partnership that teamsVideantis’ low-power vi-sion processing IP plat-form with Gestigon’sskeleton tracking and ges-ture recognition algo-rithms could bringgesture and pose recogni-tion technology to the au-tomotive market.“We’re excited to bring

Gestigon’s unique and ac-curate skeleton trackingand gesture control to ourlow-power, high-perfor-mance vision platform,”said Hans-Joachim Stol-berg, Videantis CEO.“Gestigon is the globalmarket leader for gestureand skeleton recognitionfor the automotive indus-try and we are eager tojointly offer this to ourcustomers.”More image sensors are

entering cars, includingdepth-sensing technolo-gies. These can be usedfor skeleton tracking in-side and around the car.The driver’s and passen-gers’ poses, behaviour,and signals can be usedfor gesture control butalso for more advanced,UX-focussed comfort andsecurity features.Gestigon CEO Moritz

von Grotthuss said: “Bothcompanies excel in theirfield of work and have al-ready built a significantcustomer network amongtier ones and OEMs.”

Gesturepartners

NEWS

Page 5, March 2015 Vehicle Electronics Vehicle Electronics March 2015, Page 6

NEWS

Taiwan’s Industrial Tech-nology Research Institute(Itri) has been awarded anISO 26262 certificationfor developing functionalsafety for automotiveelectronics.Chou Sheng-Lin,

deputy general director ofItri‘s information andcommunications labora-tories, said as industry gi-ants such as Google andApple delved into auto-motive electronics, the

ratio of electronic prod-ucts in automobiles hadcontinued to climb. Butfor domestic automotiveelectronics manufactures,getting a coveted ISO26262 certification took alarge investment of timeand manpower.Itri, which has been

training automotive func-tional safety experts since2012, plans to play an ac-tive role in helping localmanufacturers shorten the

development process ofhardware, cut develop-ment costs and help speedup the process of obtain-ing ISO certification.According to Itri esti-

mates, world automotiveelectronics output will topUS$300bn in 2019, ofwhich automotive safetyelectronic system will ac-count for US$24bn, anarea of the strongestgrowth in emerging elec-tronic markets.

Itri to use ISO 26262to help Taiwan firms

India-based Tech Mahin-dra’s automotive grouphas achieved AutomotiveSpice organisation capa-bility level three certifica-tion under the Pathfinderscheme for process capa-bility and organisationalmaturity.Assessors from Im-

pronova in Sweden per-formed the assessment,led byAlec Dorling, prin-cipal assessor and inter-national project leader ofthe Spice ISO/IEC 15504standard and convener ofthe ISO group developingISO/IEC 15504.“Tech Mahindra joins

the select group of com-panies that have achievedcertification to Automo-

tive Spice under thePathfinder scheme,” saidDorling. “This is a signif-icant achievement andreaffirms Tech Mahin-dra’s commitment to im-plementing best practicesin developing softwarefor automotive.”Karthikeyan Natarajan,

global head of integratedengineering at TechMahindra, added: “Thiscertification and signifi-cant experience in the au-tomotive industry align usto the challenges that theindustry is facing andreaffirms our commit-ment to deliver best inclass services to our cus-tomers in automotiveelectronics.”

Tech Mahindra landsSpice certification

Following last month’spublication of the Euro-pean Commission’s En-ergy Union proposal, theEuropean AutomobileManufacturers’ Associa-tion (Acea) re-stated itscommitment to contribut-ing its fair share towardslowering greenhouse gasemissions, through morefuel-efficient technologyand continuing invest-ments into alternativepowertrains.Europe’s cars, vans, lor-

ries and buses meet thehighest environmentalstandards in the world.“We now need a wider

debate involving allstakeholders on a morebalanced and effective

Acea commits tolowering emissions

system for further reduc-ing CO2 emissions,” saidErik Jonnaert, Acea sec-retary general. Acea ad-vocates a system thatfocuses on reducing over-all CO2 emissions fromall transport modes.“For the automobile in-

dustry, this means weshould not only focus onemissions from the vehi-cle itself, but also look atother factors influencingemissions during the useof the vehicle,” Jonnaertsaid. “This includes thecarbon content of fuels,driver behaviour, infra-structure and the age ofthe car fleet.”He saidAcea welcomed

the call for the swift de-ployment of alternativefuel re-charging infra-structure – essential forthe roll-out of alternativevehicles. He also calledfor the harmonisationof customer incentivesacross EU member statesto support the market up-take of such vehicles.Electrification is one of

a basket of alternativetechnological options thatmanufacturers are provid-ing. “Technological neu-trality, which has enabledmanufacturers to developa wide range of electricand non-electric alterna-tives and has encouragedinnovation, must remain akey principle,” he said.

All three category winners, plus runners-up and a good number ofentrants, to the Volvo Trucks’ ‘Truck of the Future 2050 Design Competi-tion’ recently enjoyed a visit to Volvo Group UK headquarters in War-wick. As announced in December, the winners were Luo Tong Sim (under11 years and pictured), Barry Llewellyn (11 to 18 years), who is fromDublin, and Rhys Guy Llewellyn (over 18 years). Two of therunners-up, George Goodfellow (11 to 18 years category) and RobertHunt (over 18 years), were also there.

The visit to Warwick was hosted by the executive team of Volvo Trucks,headed by managing director Arne Knaben, who said he was “veryimpressed” with the overall quality of not only the winners, but also the100 plus entries received, and the creative thinking that had gone intotheir design submissions.

Most of the entrants produced their designs during the 2014 summerholidays. Many reported that they had spent several weeks producingpreliminary sketches and notes about their favoured design concepts. Anumber of designs featured autonomous, driver-less lorries. Alternativefuels and kinetic energy recycling also found favour.

Day out for lorry of the future winners

Japanese electronics giantSony has invested ¥100mto buy a two per centstake in ZMP, a Japanesestartup manufacturer ofrobot cars.Sony hopes to combine

its experience with sensortechnology with ZMP’sautomotive knowledge toenter the self-driving carmarket, competing withthe likes of Apple andGoogle as well as majorestablished automotivemanufacturers.Though Sony is seeing

a decline in its TV andsmart phone markets, it isstill doing well in thecamera sensor sector, andit is this technology itwants to adapt for au-tonomous vehicles.Reports are rife that

Apple is about to enterthe self-driving car mar-ket and Google’s researchin this field has been wellpublicised.Sony sees image sen-

sors as a major growtharea and has announcedthat it plans to invest inboth production capacityand research and develop-ment to bolster its posi-tion in cmos imagesensors.The company an-

nounced last month that itwant to increase produc-tion capacity for imagesensors from the present60,000 to about 80,000wafers a month by the

Sony invests in self-drive carsend of June 2016.This will take place at

the company’s NagasakiTechnology, YamagataTechnology and Ku-mamoto Technology cen-tres. The investment willbe around ¥105bn.

A recent statement fromthe company said it sawits traditional TV andmobile communicationsbusinesses as beinghighly volatile and that itplaced “the highest prior-ity on curtailing risk and

securing profits” in thesebusinesses.The company says it

plans to cease productionof high-density semicon-ductors at its Oita Tech-nology centre by Marchnext year.

SOFTWARE TOOLS SOFTWARE TOOLS

Vehicle ElectronicsPage 7, March 2015 Vehicle Electronics March 2015, Page 8

Automotive applicationssuch as lane keeping as-sistants are leading to a

rapidly escalating system-on-chip(SoC) design complexity, mean-ing engineers have to embrace anumber of verification methodolo-gies to ensure a successful tape-out. Many organisations involvedin SoC design have evolved fromusing verification environmentsbased primarily on directed teststo include constrained-randomtechniques and, most recently,metric-driven verification.

The inclusion of constrained-

Between the lines

As applications such as lane keepingassist add to automotive complexity,Mike Bartley explains how to bringrequirements driven verification tohardware

random and metric-drive verifica-tion has helped greatly in drivingdown the number of bugs that lurkin an SoC design by the time itneeds to be taped out. The meth-ods are effective at finding bugsthat traditional directed tests donot find. Metric-driven verifica-tion focuses effort on parts of thedesign that risk being ignored andprevents tests from concentratingtoo much on functions that havealready been checked. But thesemethods cannot satisfy all theneeds of verification and ignoreone essential part of the design:

Lane-keeping assist on Toyota Avensis

SOFTWARE TOOLS SOFTWARE TOOLS

Vehicle Electronics March 2015, Page 10Vehicle ElectronicsPage 9, March 2015

the requirements that the SoCneeds to satisfy.

Requirements-driven verifica-tion has been a vital part of high-reliability designs for decades,providing a key part of the V-model paradigm that these proj-ects employ. The V diagramdescribes the journey that the im-plementation and verificationteam needs to follow through aproject. It starts with high-levelrequirements that are progres-sively decomposed into systemfunctions expressed in hardwareand software. As these functionsare assembled into subsystemsand ultimately the final system,along the rising edge of the V,tests ensure that each function be-haves as expected. Finally, sys-tem-level tests at the end of the Vtie back to the system-level re-quirements. If those are satisfied,the design can proceed toproduction.

Similarly, for SoC designs, therequirements driven verificationand test (RDVT) methodologyenables project progress to betracked and analysed from theperspective of the requirements ofthe system. In this way, every

functional requirement can bemapped to a demonstration of im-plementation. Furthermore, anyverification or test activity thatdoes not relate to a requirementcan be easily identified and ques-tioned. If it is not needed, it canbe removed from the test databaseto avoid wasting resources.

As an example, consider an au-tomotive product that might havea new requirement for a lanekeeping assistant, which providessupport to the driver to stay inlane. This is obviously a high-level requirement that can be bro-ken down hierarchically tohardware requirements (for exam-ple, a video input stream) andsoftware requirements that canidentify the lane separation linesin the video input. These hardwareand software requirements will bebroken down further to atomic re-quirements, which can be testedindividually. As those atomic re-quirements are then integrated,combined requirements can betested until it can finally demon-strate that the requirement for alane keeping assistant is working.

RDVT provide a number of ad-vantages that can pay dividends

not just in terms of product qual-ity but time to market. With con-ventional approaches toSoC-design test and verification,the engineers responsible forbuilding the test harness need towait for implementation code. TheRDVT methodology makes it pos-sible to shift a large amount of theverification process left in theproject. The provision of require-ments early in the cycle makes itpossible to analyse the overallstructure of the design and thetests it requires and enable theteam to build an effective verifica-tion plan.

The RDVT methodology im-proves management visibility ofthe project. As well as providinganalysis of code coverage, metricscan support the project managersby showing how well the design ismeeting its requirements overtime. Used across multiple proj-ects, the metrics can help identifycommon or recurring issues, let-ting managers spot potential prob-lems earlier in the cycle and havethem addressed.

Through RDVT, the projectmanagers can understand verifica-tion status in terms of externallyfocussed customer requirements –how well the product will meet itsgoals – rather than less transparentinternal metrics. Because the met-rics reflect the completeness ofthe design, RDVT support im-proved decision-making becausethey expose real-time data on theproject’s actual status and reducethe reliance on indirect measuressuch as bug-detection rates.

A common criticism of the re-quirements-driven approach isthat it is inflexible and often man-ually intensive. These aspectshave helped prevent widespread

use other than in military andavionics projects where require-ments traceability forms a majorpart of the standards that develop-ment teams are required by law tofollow.

In most projects that do not havestrict legislative or contractualconstraints, the interpretation ofrequirements can change duringthe course of the project to reflectengineering realities – which caninclude enhancements made pos-sible by optimisations as much asproblems encountered during im-plementation.

The lack of flexibility is madeworse by a lack of automation.Even though a wide array is avail-able for analysing source code and

executables, there are no tools thatautomatically track the results oftests as they apply to require-ments. The common practice is tostop tracing requirements at thepoint at which tests are defined.Tools typically do not ensure thatrequirements have tests defined tomatch them and that those testswere successfully completed. Thisapproach results in a gap betweenthe requirements capture tools thatare commonly available and theresults provided by test-focussedproducts.

The manual mapping of docu-ments produced by test tools to re-quirements is time-consuming andprone to error. The translation ormoving of the data involved can

result in errors or even corruptionof databases and maintaininggood visibility of requirementsthrough the entire tree is difficultto achieve. IC design has a furtherproblem due to its multidiscipli-nary nature – the communicationsacross pre- and post-silicon viewsand the software and systemdomains are complex.

To enable RDVT, there is a clearneed for tools to help automatethe process of tying test results aswell as specifications to require-ments, and tracking results overtime to ensure changes to the de-sign do not cause results in re-quirements from being untested inthe final version. Such an environ-ment also needs to provide docu-Fig. 1: The traditional V-shaped software development lifecycle

The complexity of Honda’s lane keeping assist (LKAS) system

SOFTWARE TOOLS DRIVER ASSISTANCE


mentations to prove that the im-plementation met requirements foraudit purposes.

Tools are now beginning to ap-pear on the market that supportthe RDVT approach. These can bebuilt on top of a relational data-base to track how a project is de-veloping over time for everyfeature and requirement, and howthese features relate to the teststhat are used to measure theirprogress.

The advantage of such tools isthat they can be independent ofspecific EDA tools and flows.They can import requirementsfrom a range of sources, fromExcel spreadsheets through to theoutput of specialised tools such asDoors or Visure and many others.And through support for test stan-dards such as UCDB and UCIS aswell as direct translation, test datafrom multiple sources can beincorporated into the RDVTmethodology.

Any changes to the requirement

during the lifecycle of a projectcan be managed through direct ed-iting within the tool or through apartial import from a requirementstool. The tool performs an intelli-gent analysis of where in the hier-archy a changed requirementshould fit and, if there is a match,compares all the attribute valuesto look for changes. Any changesneed to ensure that goals or sub-features still satisfy the changedrequirement, and will be flaggedas suspect to ensure the user ispro-active in accepting that the re-quirement is satisfied and that keyrequirements are not missed asproject needs change.

Support for partial imports andchanging requirements meansRDVT can support agile develop-ment environments. Agile is an ef-fective way to develop products inan environment where the marketrequirements are not clear and canevolve with the development. Byallowing requirements to changeand modify the associated tests

Fig. 2: Dashboard gui for a tool that supports theRDVT approach

over time, RDVT are effective forsuch projects.

The adoption of any new tech-nique is not without its drawbacksand RDVT are no different. Onepotential obstacle for adopters isacquiring the discipline to writeeffective requirements at an earlystage. However, organisations thatraise such an objection have largerproblems and are unlikely to beable to develop systems that meetunspecified requirements. Be-cause the team needs to set re-quirements early on, thisadditional phase may seem to in-crease costs. However, this earlycapture is likely to lead to savingsin the overall development costsbecause bugs are more expensiveto fix later in the cycle. RDVTprovide a highly effective way ofsupporting the shift left in SoCdesign and verification.

Mike Bartley is founder andCEO of TVS

Mike Bartley

Advanced driver assistancesystems (adas) enable bet-ter situational awareness

and control to make driving easierand safer. Adas technology can bebased on systems local to the car –that is vehicle resident systemssuch as vision and camera sys-tems, and sensor technology – orcan be based on smart, intercon-nected networks as in the case ofvehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) or vehi-cle-to-infrastructure (V2I) sys-tems, jointly known as V2X.

V2X communications use on-board dedicated short-range radiocommunications devices to trans-

Who’s talking with whom?Prem Arora provides an introduction toadas and the secure connected car

mit safety related messages abouta vehicle’s speed, heading, brakestatus, vehicle size and so on toother vehicles and receive thesame information about other ve-hicles from these messages. Usingmulti-hops to transmit messagesthrough other nodes, the V2X net-work can communicate over longdistances. This longer detectiondistance and ability to see aroundcorners or through other vehicleshelps V2X-equipped vehicles per-ceive some threats sooner thansensors, cameras or radar can, andwarn their drivers accordingly.

Apart from the basic safety mes-

sage developed for safety applica-tions, the network may also beused by other connected vehicleapplications such as mobility orweather. Additional messagesfrom vehicles or from the infra-structure may also be developedin the future.

In terms of safety impacts,based on a study conducted from2004 to 2008, the National High-way Traffic Safety Administration(NHTSA) estimates that 22 possi-ble different crash scenarios canbe prevented by a V2V network.This represents approximately 81per cent of unimpaired light motorvehicle crashes that can beprevented.

Using 2004 to 2008 crash data,the approximate average number

Fig. 1: Typical V2Xnetwork implementation

DRIVER ASSISTANCE DRIVER ASSISTANCE


of fatalities, injuries and propertydamage per year caused by these22 target light-vehicle pre-crashscenarios are 27,000, 1,800,000and $7,300,000, respectively.

With V2I, the potential safetyadvantages of a wide-scale imple-mentation are enormous. The fol-lowing is a list of V2I potentialsafety applications:

• Red light violation warning;• Curve speed warning;• Stop sign gap assist;• Reduced speed zone warning;• Spot weather informationwarning;• Stop sign violation warning;• Railroad crossing violationwarning; and• Oversize vehicle warning.

Warning alarms not only informthe vehicle and driver responsiblefor the safety violation, butthrough the wireless link they canwarn other nearby vehicles, forexample cross-traffic when a redlight or stop sign is being run at ablind corner, thus helping to pre-vent collisions.

Securing V2XFor the promise of V2X to berealised, the system must ensuretwo things: that messages origi-nate from a trustworthy source;and that a message isn’t modifiedbetween sender and receiver.

The problems originating from afailure of either of the two men-tioned scenarios could lead to se-rious consequences and loss oflife. A bogus message could pro-vide false data about speed and di-rection of oncoming traffic andlead to accidents, whereas poten-tial data manipulation by miscre-ants can cause traffic outages and

chaos across cities.In addition to the concerns men-

tioned above, users are also wor-ried about privacy and ensuringthat messages do not give awaythe identity and location of thedriver, with anonymous vehicularsafety information only going topre-authorised entities such asother vehicles. This is particularlyimportant to ensure wide scaleadoption of V2X where usersshould be able to feel confidentthat the V2X system does not pro-vide access to their personal data.

To prove authenticity, the senderof a message must provide aunique identifier that can be veri-fied at the receiver to confirm thatthe message comes from a truesource. Typically this is achievedby using either symmetric or

asymmetric cryptographic tech-niques.

Symmetric cryptography isoften suitable for small networkswith limited number of nodes,wherein the transmitter and re-ceiver share a common key that isknown by both sides in advanceof any packet transmission. Thiskey is used to verify the authentic-ity of the data at the receiver viadynamically generated codes(called message authenticationcodes, or macs), which are com-puted based on the payload andthe key to verify packet integrityand source.

This method, although simple, isimpossible to use in large net-works such as large scale V2X be-cause either the same key must beused by all nodes – which pres-

Fig. 2: A: Sram start-up values are used to compute a private keymade reliable with the aid of an activation code saved during theenrolment phase. B: From the private key, a public key is com-puted and certified by the component manufacturer, giving eachcomponent a verifiable globally-unique unclonable identity

Four out of five crashes could be prevented with V2V technology

ents an unacceptable security risk– or different keys must be usedfor each pair of nodes communi-cating with each other – which isunwieldy.

In asymmetric cryptography, theidea is to provide a scalable wayto connect as many nodes as thenetwork may need. To achievethis, each node uses a private keyto sign each transmitted messagedigitally. This digital signaturecan be verified by the receiver byusing an associated public key,which is transmitted to all the re-ceiving nodes. Apart from the factthat this scales better than a sym-metric cryptography scheme, italso enables easier replacement ofany faulty nodes.

But this poses another question:How does one ensure that the pri-vate and public key used by each

node is authentic and not tam-pered with?

The best possible solution to thefirst part of the problem is to usebiometric signatures of silicon ICsbased on small physical variationsin the manufacturing process ofeach device. These process varia-tions are never identical and can-not be cloned for any two ICs, andthus provide a unique signaturefor each. Such signatures arecalled physically unclonable func-tions or PUFs. Besides being un-clonable, PUF based keys are alsovery difficult to extract by ahacker because they are typicallyrealised at the atomic level. ICscan base PUFs on several physicalfactors such as memory elements,logic delays and resistance. Sram-based ICs that use the unique andrandom start-up state of an sram

cell to generate private keys arefurther secure because the state ofthe cell is wiped out at power off.

The second part of the questioncan be addressed by a public keyinfrastructure (PKI). A PKI is asystem for the creation, storageand distribution of digital certifi-cates that are used to verify that aparticular public key belongs to acertain entity. The PKI createsdigital certificates that map publickeys to entities, securely storesthese certificates in a centralrepository and revokes them ifneeded.

In a PKI system, a certificate au-thority (CA) certifies all nodes bydigitally signing their public keysusing the CA’s own private key.The most common public key cer-tificate format is called X.509.When a device transmits a mes-

DRIVER ASSISTANCE SIMULATION & MODELLING


Fig. 3: A chain-of-trust is created founded on the unclonabledevice identity established by the PUF including keys certified bythe component manufacturer, allowing each system integrator oroperator to certify their own independent PKI

sage digitally signed by its privatekey that message can be authenti-cated with the device’s public key.The device can also send itsX.509 certificate to all nodes re-ceiving its messages so they haveits public key. The X.509 certifi-cate including the device’s publickey can be verified at the receiverusing the CA’s public key, whichis pre-placed in all the nodes andis inherently trusted. Using thisscheme a proven, hierarchical,certificate-based chain of trust canbe established because the signa-ture applied by the transmitter canbe verified by the receiver. Thisscheme also ensures that impostermachines can be easily detected.

According to the NHTSA, thepublic key infrastructure option(asymmetric key) using the signa-ture method was deemed to offerthe most effective approach to im-plementing communications secu-rity and trusted messaging for avery large set of users. In additionto providing a secure network, aPKI based system also providesan easy to scale infrastructure

using a PKI scheme. Importantly,the effectiveness of this approachis highly dependent on the techni-cal design decisions regardinghow to implement this approachin its given environment. TheV2X certificate authority issuesmany anonymous certificates peryear for each vehicle, to hinderattempts to track the owner’smovements.

Devices are available that usePUF technology to enable a PKI.These devices provide a broadproduct roadmap with multiple IOand fabric density options to allowusers to select a device that fitstheir requirement. The sram PUFin these devices is used to estab-lish a pre-configured certifiedidentity for each node in the net-work with a certificate authority atthe device level. These devicescan also have built in crypto-graphic capabilities such as hard-ware accelerators for AES, SHA,HMAC and elliptic curve cryptog-raphy (ECC), plus a cryptographicgrade true random number genera-tor. These capabilities can also be

used to create a user PKI with theuser’s own certificate authority orto enrol systems using them in theUSA or European V2X PKIs.

Because fielded systems such asvehicles are accessible by peoplehaving malicious intent, it is im-portant for the hardware to be ableto protect the secret keys againstvarious physical and side channelattacks, such as differential poweranalysis (DPA). In addition tostate-of-the-art key storage andkey generation technologies suchas PUFs and ECC, certain devicescome with a DPA pass throughpatent licence. SoCs and FPGAsare available that provide for se-cure, remote, DPA resistant updatecapabilities. A DPA pass throughlicence can additionally let usersharness the massive amount ofcomputational capability in amainstream FPGA to acceleratePKI transactions in a DPA safemanner using DPA countermea-sures. V2X networks thus pro-tected will ensure safe and securecommunications.

Prem Arora is director ofmarketing at Microsemi

Prem Arora

As increasing numbers ofnew vehicles are designedto suit global markets,

making the optimum designchoices at the outset has becomemore difficult. Revisions to a ve-hicle to suit individual markettastes late in a development pro-gramme can be costly, so manu-facturers aim to avoid such issuesby testing as early as possible. Asimulator allows a human driverto experience the vehicle’s behav-iour in a virtual environment, longbefore physical prototypes areavailable, but needs an accurateroad model to be really useful.

As such, the latest surface scan-ning technology can produceultra-accurate digital road models.This capability allows manufac-turers to tailor chassis dynamicson global vehicles for individualmarkets, even before prototypesare available, significantly im-proving development time andcosts.

“We can capture and reproducethe differences between a frost-damaged Detroit highway, abumpy minor road in Wales, asmooth German autobahn or anyother surface,” said simulator soft-ware company RFpro’s technicaldirector Chris Hoyle. “This meansvehicle manufacturers locatedanywhere in the world can evalu-ate their vehicle’s chassis re-sponse to any road type in arealistic virtual environment,without leaving the office.”

To support this requirement,RFpro is exploiting a break-through in scanning technology tocapture road surfaces with betteraccuracy than ever before, and upto 50 times the level of detail. Thekey development has been to re-place the single pulse laser lidartime-of-flight scanning processwith a number of separate, phasedlaser signals. Instead of waitingfor each signal to return beforefiring the next one, the controlledphasing allows the signals to beoverlapped, increasing both thespeed and quantity of data cap-tured.

The company works with a coregroup of regionally located scan-ning partners to provide globalcoverage. All the partners haveadded this latest phase-basedscanning capability to the systemsthey use for RFpro’s road surveys.

“As growing numbers of vehiclemakers ask us to reproduce theirfavourite test route surfaces, ourdigital road modelling workload isincreasing rapidly,” said Hoyle.“In 2012 we built just over

100km; in 2014 it was more than1000km; and this year we expectto build approximately 3000km ofdigital road models. The newtechnique isn’t just more detailed,it’s also faster, which allows thescanners to drive at normal roadspeeds without impeding otherroad users.”

The growing volumes of datahave led the company to switch tocloud-based processing and stor-age, providing almost limitlessscope for further growth and en-abling hundreds of CPU cores towork simultaneously on data pro-cessing each project, further re-ducing timescales.

“Any vehicle manufacturer withan established vehicle model andsimulator can benefit from theroad models produced using ournew digital road building capabil-ity,” said Hoyle. “Even after pro-totype vehicles are available, thecost and logistical challenges oftesting on roads in different conti-nents can be reduced by the strate-gic use of effective virtualtesting.”

Every detail of a broken roadsurface is captured, making ridesimulation on a specific routehighly accurate

SCANDO

IN-VEHICLE COMPUTERS IN-VEHICLE COMPUTERS


From plane to train

How an in-vehicle computer originallydeveloped for the Airbus A400M aircraftis helping train management in Australia

IN-VEHICLE COMPUTERS IN-VEHICLE COMPUTERS


For rail operators, safety is acrucial factor. What has be-come known as functional

safety has seen new technologiesin electronics ensuring ever-in-creasing reliability and safety intrains and rail vehicles. In addi-tion to the safety aspect, moderni-sation can also increasecost-effectiveness and efficiency.

Automatic train operation(ATO) and automatic train protec-tion (ATP) play an important rolein this. Automated operation hasmany advantages – accidentscaused by human error are signifi-cantly reduced, maximum permit-ted speeds can be fully exploitedand train frequency on the trackscan be increased.

To guarantee reliable operation,ATP systems monitor all relevantfunctions. Data from both systemsare usually recorded in higher-level automatic train control sys-tems in the control centre, whereemployees can intervene and takethe appropriate action in case ofan emergency.

Redundant computer structuresare used to guarantee

the safety and availability of thesystems. Different redundancyconfigurations can be used de-pending on the desired outcome.A 2oo3 or even a 2oo4 system istypically chosen by those whowish to achieve a high level ofsafety and availability, see Fig. 1.

A voter is an integral part ofsuch a complex system. It contin-uously compares and evaluatesthe calculated results. In cases ofinconsistency, the voter recog-nises the defective CPU, but thesystem can continue to run withthe two remaining components.

If you use a modular system, forexample Com-

Fig. 1: Structure of a 2oo3 system: a voter compares theresults of the three redundant CPUs

Fig. 2:Advancedtrainmanage-ment system: theleft section, in 6U,controls all critical func-tions; the remaining hybridsystem, in twofold 3U, controls thenon-critical functions

pact PCI, building a structure suchas this is, mechanically speaking,relatively simple – you simplytriple all the cards. However, threecomputers also need space, havethree times the power loss, and thesoftware and the voter have to bemore sophisticated.

Keeping it simpleTo meet the safety standards forrail applications, such complexstructures are unavoidable. How-ever, the systems are also requiredto be increasingly faster, more ad-vanced, better and more cost-ef-fective. And so the question arisesof how to achieve the same level

of safety in less time and at alower cost. The challenge isnot to miss out on opportu-nities and to create clear ad-vantages over existingdesigns using new ideas.What would happen if every-

thing could be a little bit morecompact and if the computerdidn’t have to be constructedusing individual cards? If severalprocessors were accommodatedon one board? Would there thenbe enough space to handle over-voltage? Could overheating be aproblem?

One company that has tried thisis MEN Mikro. It has put three re-

dundant processors onto a 6UCompact PCI card and a VME buscard. In addition to the threePower PC-750 processors, redun-dancy has been implemented forthe main memory, the local powersupply, the clock and the flashmemory. The voter has beenimplemented as an IP core inan FPGA.

This requires much less powerand space than three individualcards and simplifies the software.The three Power PCs work in aso-called lock step architecture.The processors behave absolutelysynchronously. They constitute asingle unit for the software – theredundancy is essentially invisi-ble. Therefore, the software itselfdoes not have to be redundant;this reduces the effort required to

implement it and the developmentcosts.

Originally developed for theAirbus A400M aircraft and there-fore protected against cosmic ra-diation and in compliance withaviation standard DO-245, theCompact PCI version of the cardis now also suitable for railwayuse, and was the foundation of anadvanced train management sys-tem (ATMS) in Australia. The ad-vantages provided by the ATMSinclude increased track use thanksto collision avoidance and there-fore higher train frequency,greater schedule reliability, in-creased flexibility and efficiencyof the rail network, cost savingsthanks to lower fuel consumption,fewer instances of track-sidemaintenance, decreased wear of

trains and, finally, an increase insafety, see Fig. 2.

The system controls vital andnon-vital functions. The non-criti-cal section is implemented with ahybrid system, configured withCompact PCI and Compact PCI-serial cards. The critical section iscontrolled by one or two of thethreefold-redundant cards with asecure VxWorks certified operat-ing system. As the fail-safe CPUcards were certified according toSil 4 in their own right, time andcosts were saved when certifyingthe whole system.

Compact and safeAfter implementing most of theCompact PCI-based rail systemsin 3U, it was only natural to trans-fer the idea of on-board redun-

The computer was originallydesigned for the AirbusA400M aircraft

IN-VEHICLE COMPUTERS AUTONOMOUS DRIVING


dancy to an even more compactformat.

And thus followed a 3U Com-pact PCI Plus IO SBC, with threeIntel Atom processors – but thistime with twofold redundancy.While two control processorsform the safe control unit, an in-dependent IO processor takes overcommunications with the inter-faces. Two independent supervi-sors check voltage, temperaturesand frequencies, but also registerinternal errors in the relevantprocessor and can, like the soft-ware of every control processor,switch the card to a safe state. Adiscrete error-detection supervisorhas also been assigned to theFGPA, which controls communi-cations with the IO module.

With a QNX-BSP (Pikeos on re-quest), both the hardware andsoftware are completely certifiedaccording to Sil 4 – a correspon-ding certification package simpli-fies the process considerably for

the final system.Inspired by the opportunities

posed by this compact rail com-puter, a concept for a complete Sil4-certified system for safe traincontrol was formed, and is in de-velopment.

At the same time the modulartrain control system (MTCS) – seeFig. 3 – not only claims to be an-other fail-safe control for dedi-cated applications, but also offersan open, freely configurable plat-form for implementing differentindividual functions or even con-trolling a whole train.

With specially developed,equally safe IO cards and a wide-range power supply unit suitablefor railway use, the doubly redun-dant CPS card described earlierforms the heart of the MTCS.Should the system be used as partof an existing network infrastruc-ture, a slot can be used for con-necting typical railway-relatedFieldbuses such as MVB,

Canopen andProfinet. Communications be-tween the units take place viareal-time Ethernet and are ensuredby safety protocols conforming toEN 50159 (black channel).

If the overall system includingcertification package for Sil 4 isnot required, it is also possible touse just the fail-safe CPU cardswith a certification package forhardware and/or software or simi-larly the fail-safe IOs.

ConclusionThe developers have understoodthe market requirements and havedone real pioneering work to meetas many of the demands for traincontrol systems as possible – safe,compact, flexible and thereforecost-effective – specially tailoredto rail applications and thus con-forming to EN-50155 and suitablyrobust. All aboard for a safe, mod-ern future!

Fig. 3:MTCSprovidesnot onlySil 4-certifiedsafety, butalso anopen,application-readyplatform

Volvo Cars claims to havedeveloped a complete sys-tem that makes it possible

to integrate self-driving cars intoreal traffic, with ordinary peoplein the driver’s seat.

“We are entering uncharted ter-ritory in the field of autonomousdriving,” said Peter Mertens, sen-ior vice president for R&D atVolvo Car Group. “Taking the ex-citing step to a public pilot, withthe ambition to enable ordinarypeople to sit behind the wheel innormal traffic on public roads, hasnever been done before.”

As the Drive Me project entersits second year, Volvo is movingrapidly towards the aim of placing100 self-driving cars in the handsof drivers on selected roadsaround Gothenburg by 2017. Thekey to making this leap is a com-plex network of sensors, cloud-

based positioning systems and in-telligent braking and steeringtechnologies.

“Autonomous driving will fun-damentally change the way welook at driving,” said Merten. “Inthe future, you will be able tochoose between autonomous andactive driving. This transformseveryday commuting from losttime to quality time, opening upnew opportunities for work andpleasure.”

The autopilot system is designedto be reliable enough to allow thecar to take over every aspect ofdriving in autonomous mode. Themain challenge is to design an au-topilot that is robust for trafficscenarios as well as for technicalfaults that may occur.

It cannot be expected that thedriver is ready to intervene sud-denly in a critical situation. Ini-

tially, the cars will drive au-tonomously on selected roadswith suitable conditions, for ex-ample without oncoming traffic,cyclists and pedestrians.

“Making this complex system99 per cent reliable is not goodenough,” said Erik Coelingh,technical specialist at Volvo Cars.“You need to get much closer to100 per cent before you can letself-driving cars mix with otherroad users. Here, we have a simi-lar approach to that of the aircraftindustry. Backup systems will en-sure that autopilot will continue tofunction safely, also if an elementof the system were to become dis-abled.”

On the road, the complete tech-nology needs to handle even themost complicated scenarios, fromsmooth commuting to heavy traf-fic and emergency situations.

“Just as good drivers would, po-tentially critical situations are ap-proached with sensible caution,”said Coelingh. “In a real emer-gency, however, the car reactsfaster than most humans.“

When autonomous driving is nolonger available – due to excep-tional weather conditions, techni-cal malfunction or the end of theroute has been reached – thedriver is prompted to take overagain. If the driver does not takeover in time, the car will bring it-self to a safe place to stop.

“Developing a complete techno-logical solution for self-drivingcars is a major step,” said Coel-ingh. “Once the public pilot is upand running, it will provide uswith valuable knowledge aboutimplementing self-driving cars inthe traffic environment, and helpus explore how they can con-tribute to sustainable mobility.”

LOOK:NO HANDS

PRODUCTS

Vehicle Electronics Vehicle ElectronicsPage 23, March 2015 March 2015, Page 24

PRODUCTS

A series of 32bit automo-tive microcontrollers foruse in instrument clustersthat deliver easy-to-access information tosupport a safer and richdriving experience hasbeen introduced by Rene-sas Electronics.

For entry class and mid-range vehicle systems,the RH850/D1x devicesintegrate gauge control,graphics display andfunctional safety in onechip. They also enablescalable development andhelp designers implementinstrument cluster sys-tems with reliable colourgraphics LCDs.

The MCUs incorporateup to 3.5Mbyte ram andthe company’s recentlydeveloped high-function-ality graphics engine sup-ported by a graphicslibrary. These contributeto a reduction in theamount of ram use andenable high-definitionLCDs without externalhigh-speed drams. Thismeans systems can be de-signed on low-cost, four-layer PCBs. To ensureupward scalability, vari-ants with external draminterfaces are available.

By combining the com-mon basic functionality,including gauge controland in-car network func-

32bit MCUs improvecluster experience

tions, there are 22 prod-ucts in seven groups thatoffer varieties of graphicsand cost options.

They provide softwarereusability and scalabilityto enable common plat-forms for instrument clus-ters.

The graphics engine en-

ables the creation of high-precision animations on alarge display to addressthe requirement of mid-range cars, and also pro-vides the power andvisibility for head-up dis-plays. The engine sup-ports the Open VG 1.1standard and HMI devel-

opment tools support theAPI standard.

A function automati-cally corrects video out-put in accordance withelements of car design,such as windshields. Theoutput video data can bewarped to fit an arbitraryshape without framedelay. This lets head-updisplays be added to theinstrument clusters.

There are functions fordetecting system mal-functions and monitoringfunctions that continu-ously verify informationsuch as warnings. Thesefunctions also verify thegear position to ensuresafety.

Samples are availablenow. Mass production isscheduled for April 2016.

Available from TTI is aVishay throttle positionsensor in hollow- and D-shaft versions with Halleffect technology for ap-plications in harsh envi-ronments.

The Hall effect technol-ogy of the 981 HE devicegives it the ability to per-form in conditions in-volving high-frequencyvibrations up to 20G andshocks up to 50G over atemperature range of -45to +125˚C.

With all electrical an-gles available up to 360˚with no dead band, thedevice has accurate lin-earity down to ±0.5%.The sensor offers a lifegreater than ten million

Throttle position sensorfor harsh environments

cycles for the D-shaft ver-sion, and more than fivemillion cycles for the hol-low-shaft version. Thecomponent provides con-tinuous performance forthe life of the device withno drift of linearity.Spring-loaded versionsare also available.

Supply voltage is 5V±10%, with other valuesavailable on request. Typ-ical supply current is10mA, and 16mA forPWM output.

There is +20V overvoltage protection and -10V reverse voltageprotection. The recom-mended load resistance is1kΩ for analogue andPWM output. Redundant

output signals are alsoavailable.

Applications includefoot pedal position sen-sors, throttle position sen-sors, steering positionsensors, drive-by-wire,lift and shuttle position

sensors, tilt control andtilt positioning feedback,and suspension systemposition sensors in ma-rine, avionics, fork lifttrucks, farm equipment,cranes and automotiveenvironments.

Development kit expanded forMCU to include network supportSynopsys has expanded its Virtualizer development kit for Renesas’RH850 MCU family to include support for Ethernet AVB and Can-FDautomotive network peripherals. The software development kit usesRH850 virtual prototypes as a target with software debug and analysistools.It enables automotive engineers designing electronic control units to

start software development, integration and test months before hardwareis available. The Ethernet AVB and Can-FD models were developedthrough collaboration between Synopsys and Renesas.“The requirement for more communications bandwidth is requiring

tier one automotive suppliers and OEMs to deploy automotive networktechnologies such as Ethernet AVB and Can-FD,” said Naoki Yada,department manager at Renesas.Can-FD extends the data rates of Can to 8Mbit/s. The Synopsys model

can be integrated into any Synopsys VDK for RH850-based virtual pro-totypes. It also integrates with Vector Canoe and rest-of-bus simulationtools, enabling developers to work in a virtual environment that deliversmore debug and analysis capabilities than the physical environment.

Kemet has expanded itscommercial and automo-tive lines of surfacem o u n t

multilayer ceramic capac-itors in C0G dielectric.This includes what it

C0G capacitor range extendedclaims is the world’s first250V rated 0402 case sizecapacitors with values upto 330pF. In addition, ca-pacitance offerings in

EIA 0603 to 2220 casesize devices have been

extended by over 30%.These capacitorscan be used in ap-plications such as

critical timing,tuning, decou-

pling, bypass, filtering,blocking, circuits requir-ing low loss, circuits with

pulse, high current, tran-sient voltage suppressionand energy storage.

The material used inthese C0G devices elimi-nates piezoelectric noise,provides low ESR andESL, high thermal stabil-ity and no capacitancedecay with time. Avail-able in commercial andautomotive grades, theyhave a variety of termina-tion finish options includ-ing matte tin, tin-lead andgold.

PRODUCTS

Vehicle ElectronicsPage 25, March 2015

PRODUCTS


In launching Vadas De-veloper, Vector is intro-ducing a tool fordeveloping multi-sensorapplications that has beenadopted by Baselabs.

It provides the infra-structure needed to de-velop algorithms fordriver assistance systems,letting users develop,debug and test multi-sen-sor applications quicklyand conveniently.

In the development ofalgorithms, the tool canacquire, visualise and re-play the data of all com-monly used adas sensortypes – from cameras tolaser scanners – time syn-chronous to the bus mes-sages.

The application’s data

flow is configured graph-ically with a clearlyarranged layout. VisualStudio integration letsusers implement, debugand test the application inone tool.

They can develop datafusion systems. The rangeof implementable appli-cations extends from ob-ject recognition by imageprocessing of sensor datato sensor data fusion, forexample for multiple ob-ject tracking, as well asadas functionality that isbased on environmentperception. The tool isalso suited to the tasks oftesting and evaluatingprototype systems.

The modular BaselabsCreate algorithm library,

Regulator ruggedised for high temperatureA fixed-voltage 5V linearvoltage regulator hasbeen ruggedised for highreliability and high tem-perature automotive andindustrial applications.The CMT-Antares fromCissoid delivers up to200mA to the output loadfrom input voltages be-tween 5.5 and 30V. Theoutput voltage is sta-bilised to 5V ±5% includ-ing all possible variations– initial accuracy, temper-

ature changes from -55 to+175˚C, line and loadregulations.

The chip is immune tolatch-up, resists ESDevents up to 6kV (HBM)and is protected againstshort circuits and poweroverloading by a currentlimiter. Over temperatureprotection triggers above+225˚C. Maximum ab-solute ratings for temper-ature and input voltageextend, respectively, to

+200˚C and 40V.The device comes in a

three-pin TO-263 plasticpackage. The junction-to-case thermal resistance is4.6˚C/W. The combina-

tion of high operatingjunction temperature anda low junction-to-casethermal resistance re-duces cooling require-ments, for example byusing a smaller copperthermal pad on the PCB.

It is suitable for supply-ing automotive sensorsand actuators modulesused close to the engine,the exhaust systems,brakes, turbochargers andexhaust gas recirculation.

Multi-radio modules suit in-car useAutomotive-grade, multi-radio modules fromU-Blox are for imple-menting in-car wirelessconnectivity. Applica-tions for the Ella-W1 se-ries include hands-freetelephony, in-car hot-spots, rear view camerasand gui mirroring.

The host-based, short-range transceiver mod-ules provide simultaneousand independent commu-

nications over Wifi802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetoothv3.0 + HS and Bluetoothv2.1 + EDR. Each mod-ule has an integrated mac,baseband processor and

RF front end, and con-nects to its host via anSDIO 2.0 interface.

The dual-band Wifi ver-sions (2.4 and 5GHz) re-duce interferenceproblems from thecrowded 2.4GHz band.The modules operate si-multaneously in client(STA) and access point(AP) mode, the latter en-abling up to eight Wificlients to be connected

concurrently.The surface-mount

module has a 14.8 by14.8mm footprint and is2.5mm high. Operatingtemperature is -40 to+85˚C and they have au-tomotive qualification toVW 80000, ISO 16750-4,and European, USA andCanadian certifications.

Engineering samplesand development kits areavailable.

Heating elements warm electric vehiclesIn contrast to tried andtested heating elementsfor 12V onboard powersupplies, the Epcos PTCelements from TDK arefor the considerablyhigher voltage batteries inelectric vehicles.

The rated voltages ofthese heating elementscover 200 to 500V, en-

abling surface tempera-tures of up to +250˚C tobe achieved. Dependingon the design, these ele-ments are suitable for safeoperation at up to 1kV.

Whereas cars with com-bustion engines can usewaste heat for heating thepassenger compartment,EVs require electrical

heating. PTC heating ele-ments, connected in ar-rays and installed in heatexchangers, suit this ap-plication as they are self-regulating. The flow ofcurrent increases not onlythe temperature of theseceramic elements, butalso their resistance, thuslimiting current and es-

tablishing a stable equi-librium.

Depending on require-ments, the elements canbe manufactured in vari-ous geometries and withdifferent electrical andthermal properties.

Software development assessedto ISO 26262 and IEC 61508The Safe TI functionalsafety software develop-ment process from TexasInstruments has been cer-tified as suitable for de-velopment of ISO 26262and IEC 61508 compliantsoftware components.The process was assessedby TÜV Nord.

In addition, Safe TIcompliance support pack-ages (CSPs) have been

developed according toTI’s certified software de-velopment process andare available for Herculesmicrocontroller softwarecomponents. These CSPswere developed to makeit easier for users of Her-cules software to achieveend system functionalsafety certification.

The CSPs include staticanalysis and dynamic

analysis test results, codetraceability to require-ments, code coverage andcode quality metrics.They can reduce softwarevalidation efforts and pro-vide work products thatassist in end system func-tional safety certification.

TI uses the LDRA suiteof software analysis toolsin the development ofthese CSPs, which also

have a test automationunit that uses theLDRA unit and enablesusers to re-execute in-cluded unit-level testcases in their environ-ment.

CSPs are available forthe Halcogen hardwareabstraction layer codegenerator device driversand the Safe TI diagnosticlibrary.

Tool helps develop multi-sensorapplications

which can be seamlesslyintegrated, gives develop-ers additional features forconfiguring and imple-menting signal processingalgorithms in data fusion.Other modules fromC/C++ or Matlab andSimulink can be embed-ded.

By adopting the tool

from Baselabs into itsown tool chain, Vector issupporting the entire de-velopment process foradas. While the primaryfocus is on system devel-opment, the Canapedriver assistance option isused for validating objectrecognition algorithms inthe vehicle.

Vehicle ElectronicsPage 27, March 2015

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Editor and Publisher:Steve [email protected]

Advertising Manager:Jayne [email protected]

Web Site Manager:Martin [email protected]

Published by: Vehicle Electronics Magazine,72 Westwood Road, Nottingham NG2 4FS, UK

Web site: vehicle-electronics.bizTwitter: @velectronicsmag

© 2015 Vehicle ElectronicsISSN 2055-1177

Vehicle Electronics is available to readers world-wide. It will be published approximately twelvetimes a year in a digital-only format. All rights re-served. No part of Vehicle Electronics may be re-porduced or transmitted in any form or by anymeans, electronic or mechanical, including photo-copying or recording on any information storagesystem, without the written consent of the pub-lisher. The publisher cannot be held responsiblefor loss or damge to unsolicited press releases orphotographs. Views of contributors and advertis-ers do not necessarily refelect the policy ofVehicle Electronics or those of the publisher.

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A four-channel analoguevideo decoder with built-in analogue video en-coder for around-viewparking assist applica-tions is available fromIntersil.

The TW9984 can re-place up to nine discretecomponents with a singlechip and can generate360˚ surround images foradas applications.

The device providesmotorists with detailed,high-quality video, en-hancing their ability tosee objects not just be-hind the car but aroundthe entire vehicle. Anaround-view monitor sys-tem processes video fromfour cameras and thencombines the four imagesinto a single bird’s-eye,top-down view as if a

Decoder and encoder combineto provide bird’s eye view

camera was stationed di-rectly above the vehicle.The monitor helps driversvisually confirm the vehi-cle’s position relative tosurrounding objects foreasy manoeuvring andparking.

It integrates four NTSCand Pal analogue videodecoders with 10bitADCs to support fouranalogue camera inputssimultaneously.

A flexible digital outputinterface makes it easyfor the designer to sendthe images to a processorthat can then combine thefour images into a singleunified around-viewimage. The on-chip ana-logue video encoder pro-vides the ability totransmit the combinedvideo as a standard ana-logue composite signal tothe head unit display.

Also incorporated areanalogue anti-aliasing fil-ters on each channel inputto reduce componentcount further.

“The decoder’s innova-tive architecture and highlevel of integration en-ables an ultra-clear imageto increase driver andpedestrian safety, as wellas avoid vehicle dam-age,” said Philip Chesley,senior VP at Intersil.

AEC-Q100 qualified, itintegrates programmableautomotive short diagnos-tics – short-to-battery andshort-to-ground detection– on each differentialinput channel and sup-ports 108MHz time mul-tiplexed ITU-R BT.656format to output fourchannels over a single8bit data bus.

The A1232 from AllegroMicrosystems is a Hall-effect speed and directionsensor IC with built-inhysteresis detection. Thesensitive temperature-sta-ble magnetic sensing de-vice is for use in ringmagnet based speed anddirection sensing systemsin harsh automotive andindustrial environments.

It is the first device ofits kind with the ability todetect when it powers upin the magnetic hysteresisband. This reduces angleaccuracy error, which canoccur when edges aremissed at start-up.

The dual Hall elementsare spaced 1.63mm apartand are photolithographi-cally aligned to within1µm.

The precise spacing ofthe sensing elementseliminates a major manu-facturing hurdle encoun-tered when usingfine-pitch ring magnets.The signals from the dualHall elements are en-

coded into logic outputsrepresenting the speedand direction of the tar-get.

Factory trimming andproprietary chopper sta-bilisation and dynamicoffset cancellation tech-niques provide precise,symmetrical magneticswitch points over a widerange of operating condi-tions.

A built-in voltage regu-lator, short-circuit pro-tected outputs, internalZener clamps, reversebattery protection, and a-40 to +150˚C operatingrange give the device theruggedness demanded byautomotive applications.

Key applications in-clude window lifts, sun-roofs, sliding doors andtail and trunk lift gates. Itis also suitable for non-automotive applicationssuch as garage door open-ers and window blinds.The device comes in aneight-pin surface-mounttssop.

Sensor IC has built-inhysteresis detection

LED drivers for low tomedium-power automo-tive exterior lighting ap-plications are availablefrom Infineon. The LitixBasic drivers are said toreduce system complex-ity and improve reliabilityof turn indicator, tail, stopand reverse LED lights.

They provide precisecurrent control across awide voltage range. Thefamily consists of 15 pin-compatible linear currentsources with one to threeoutput channels and cur-rent ratings from 60 to180mA. Versions supportdiagnostic functions di-rectly at the LED’s pointof load. This allows carmanufacturers to achievehigher light quality.

With parallel connec-tion of several drivers,load currents higher thanthe 180mA of individualdevices can be realised.There is overload andover-temperature protec-tion in all devices includ-

ing output current reduc-tion, and a supply voltagerange of 5.5 to 40V.

For devices with inte-grated diagnostics, shortcircuit, open load or diag-nos t ic -bus -be tween-devices functionality canbe chosen for LED chainfailure detection. Thedrivers are suitable forboth centralised diagnosis– meaning the failure di-agnosis is controlled bythe central body controlmodule – and for decen-tralised diagnosis to en-able real-time faultdetection. In a decen-tralised architecture thedrivers communicatewith a microcontrollerthat can be within the rearlight or an extra-modulenear it.

Either way, the func-tionality ensures thatfaulty light functions canbe quickly identified forfast repair. This fulfilssafety aspects and legalrequirements.

Drivers powerexterior LEDs

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