In the past decade, the in-vehicle network architecture has become more complicated. Although the number of in-vehicle network protocols has decreased, the number of actual networks in use has greatly increased. This raises the issue of scalability of the network architecture and requires the optimization of semiconductor devices to meet the practical needs of various applications and networks.
FPGAs were once considered as development-only solutions, but nowadays, their price drop has solved many problems, so they have been put into production at a lower overall system cost than traditional ASIC or ASSP solutions. Now, all major FPGA vendors for the automotive market have passed ISO-TS16949 certification, which has made programmable logic devices a mainstream technology in the automotive market.
Vehicle network electrical architecture
Over the past decade, the network protocols of many specialized automotive OEMs have given way to more standardized global protocols such as CAN, MOST and FlexRay. As a result, semiconductor suppliers have carefully manufactured devices that meet these agreements, which has made the first-tier parts suppliers more competitive and have lowered prices, while also promoting the interoperability of modules between automotive original equipment manufacturers. However, there are still many problems in today's automotive electrical architecture that plague automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers.
Engineers can divide and formulate network strategies in several different ways. High-end cars can have up to seven different network buses running at the same time. For example, a car can have a LIN loop for rearview mirrors, a 500 Kbps low-speed CAN loop for low-end functions such as seat or door control, a 1 Mbps high-speed CAN loop for body control, and another high-speed CAN loops are used for driver information systems, a 10 Mbps FlexRay loop is used to provide real-time driver assistance data, and a 25 Mbps MOST loop is used for transmission within or between various infotainment systems such as navigation or rear seat entertainment Control and media streaming.
On the other hand, low-end cars can have only one LIN or CAN loop, allowing all other modules to work independently with little or no interaction. Automotive OEMs handle inter-module communications and automotive network topologies in different ways, and each vehicle platform is different. This makes it difficult for Tier 1 suppliers to develop module architectures that have both correct interfaces and reusability. The uncertainty that accommodates the final architecture of the module is where FPGAs come in.
ASICs, ASSPs and microcontrollers have fixed hardware architectures, often making their resources surplus or lacking in flexibility. The programmability (and reprogrammability) of FPGAs facilitates the addition and removal of on-chip channels (such as CAN channels), and allows the reuse of IP. With this flexibility, solutions optimized for the number and type of network interfaces can be quickly made into modules.
Semiconductor implementation of network protocols
The strength of FPGA is not only the scalability of the number and type of interfaces. As far as ASSPs, ASICs and microcontrollers are concerned, the peripheral macros are implemented in hardware, which naturally makes them less flexible. In the FPGA environment, the network interface IP itself can be optimized according to the IP used.
For example, using Xilinx® LogiCORE ™ CAN or FlexRay network IP, users can flexibly set the number of transmit and receive buffers along with the number of filters. In traditional hardware solutions, engineers using CAN controllers usually have only three configuration options: 16, 32, and 64 message buffers. Depending on the level of system functionality and available processing outside the FPGA, Xilinx ’s scalable MOST network interface solution includes a network controller IP that can be configured for active or slave operation, as well as an asynchronous sample rate converter (ASRC), data router, or replication Protect a large number of IPs such as encryption engines.
This IP allows optimization to fit both lower-density devices in low-end solutions and higher-density devices in high-end solutions, and its packaging often occupies the same area on the target circuit board of the module. In addition, for each major agreement, middleware stacks and drivers have been developed that can complete the solution. This scalability and versatility of FPGA solutions is simply impossible to achieve in traditional automotive hardware solutions.
All major FPGA vendors use soft microprocessors, which can be effectively implemented in the framework of control functions, and their running speed can be comparable to the microprocessor embedded in some hardware. Another major advantage of the FPGA architecture is the ability to offload processing tasks on the microprocessor and partitions by using multipliers or parallel DSP processing functions in the on-chip hard MAC, thereby improving overall performance and throughput.
We have made great progress
Programmable logic devices have made great progress and gradually become the mainstream technology in the automotive market. Various programmable logic devices are indistinguishable in terms of reliability, and FPGA technology can achieve flexible and scalable integration, which is not possible in traditional ASIC, ASSP, or microcontroller architectures. The shortened development cycle, the use of advanced process technology by programmable logic device suppliers, and the inevitability of programmable devices will bring economies of scale, which all contribute to the reduction of overall production system costs.
As the key IP and solutions of the automotive network mature and the performance potential of the FPGA architecture gradually improves, programmable logic devices will become the protagonist, helping to overcome certain engineering problems inherent in the development of automotive electrical architecture.
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