Bridging PCIe to Ethernet AVB and TSN for automotive

Toshiba has announced an automotive chip that can bridge between PCIe and two Ethernet standards: Ethernet AVB and Ethernet TSN, to connect central processors to telematics, infotainment and driver assistance systems, as well as sensors, at up to 1Gbit/s.

Called TC9562XBG, “it’s not just a simple hardware-bridge between PCIe and Ethernet”, Toshiba Electronics Europe told Electronics Weekly. “Through the built-in ARM Coretx-M3 CPU and programmable DMAs, additional functionality can be implemented as software and firmware inside. It can do local additional processing and routing.”

Ethernet AVB (IEEE802.1 audio/video bridging) and Ethernet TSN (IEEE802.1 time sensitive networking) are also being adopted in industrial applications, according to the firm.

For AVB, specifically IEEE 802.1AS (Standard for time synchronization) and IEEE 802.1Qav (Standard for traffic shaping) are supported.

For TSN, it is IEEE 802.1Qbv (Standard for Enhancements to scheduled traffic], IEEE 802.1Qbu (Standard for Frame preemption and IEEE 802.3br (Standard for interspersing express traffic), according to Toshiba.

Other interfaces supported include:

PCI Express 2.0 and 1.0
I2S/TDM
RGMII (Reduced gigabit media independent interface)
RMII ( reduced media independent interface)
MII (Media independent interface)
optional SGMII (Serial gigabit media independent interface)

Toshiba intends to qualify these chips to AEC-Q100 grade 3, packaged in a 9 x 9mm P-LFBGA120. Samples are scheduled for February, with volume production in October.

There is almost no product page not data sheet for this chip on the Toshiba website at the time of writing.