Automotive Electronics

The risks for driverless cars will be a battle between the professional hacker and the system developer to protect both the passengers, pedestrians and other road users from malicious attacks

Cypress adds to its FL-L flash family with AEC-Q100 (automotive) qualified 64 and 128Mbit NOR memories with Quad SPI data transfer.

Mentor Graphics has introduced an ISO 26262 qualification programme for its tools and embedded software for use safety-critical designs and verification flows at all criticality levels up to and including ASIL D. Called the Mentor Safe programme it includes the Nucleus SafetyCert real time operating system, the Volcano Vstar Autosar operating system and BSW stack. It also includes ISO 26262 certified documentation and qualification reports ...

Intersil announces a 3.6V single-cell battery charger for lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) cells.

Imagination Technologies is aiming to bring sophisticated gaming to mid-range mobiles with a series of PowerVR graphics processors.

Wolfspeed has introduced a 900V, 10mΩ mosfet rated for 196A (case=25°C) for electric vehicles. Four of the devices were used recently in a research project with Ford and the US DoE to create a 400A all-SiC module with 2.5mΩ on-resistance. “Wolfspeed engineers have since demonstrated the capability to use these chips to create an 800A, 1.25mΩ module,” added the firm. ...

For radio reception in vehicles, Maxim is proposing a ‘remote-tuner’ software-defined radio (SDR) architecture, where multiple tuners located next to their antennas communicate to a central ‘head unit’ (car radio) through bit streams in coax cable. “Traditional radio architecture (right) brings many challenges to designers. The vehicle’s complex head unit must accommodate multiple tuners, manage heat dissipation, and receive multiple ...

Panasonic has adopted Android 7.0 for the user interface of a in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) system it is developing with Qualcomm – a co-operation that was announced at CES in Las Vegas. “State-of-the art Android 7.0 features give drivers a unified experience across an automaker’s entire vehicle line-up, adjusting for different applications, screen sizes, and resolutions,” said Panasonic. It “is designed ...

Carried out on behalf of the UK government’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Lutz Pathfinder project was started 18 months ago to build and trial three automated pods within Milton Keynes, and assess their feasibility from both a technological and societal point of view. Designed and manufactured by Coventry-based firm RDM, the electric-powered two-seater pods are equipped with sensor and ...

Renesas and TTTech Computertechnik have developed a prototype electronic control unit (ECU) for self-driving vehicles. Aimed at mass production vehicles, the platform includes TTIntegration software and tools. It is the first outcome of the collaboration between TTTech and Renesas announced in January 2016, and is an extended version of kit released in October 2016. The hardware is based around dual ...