Automotive

dSpace and Nordsys develop tests for connected self-driving vehicles 

Tue, Nov 16, 2021

Working in partnership to accelerate the development of connected self-driving vehicles, dSpace  and Nordsys have announced the V2X (vehicle to everything) interface for waveBEE communication systems. 

Nordsys specialises in the development of systems for vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communication and dSpace provides simulation and validation of automated and electrically-powered vehicles. The dSPACE V2X interface for waveBEE communication systems combines simulation for advance driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving (AD) functions with flexible and scalable waveBEE V2X solutions to form a new type of test and validation platform. 

V2X communication makes it possible to connect vehicles with each other and the surrounding infrastructure so that self-driving vehicles can drive attentively and safely. V2X applications require powerful simulation and validation solutions due to the high complexity resulting from the many technologies involved and the numerous application scenarios.  

The V2X Interface for waveBEE combines the technologies of dSpace and Nordsys. It supports the communication standards DSRC and C-V2X for Europe, North America and China, including the associated protocol stacks. It also allows for the testing of a broad range of application scenarios, including robustness and reliability tests. This makes it possible to conduct initial virtual tests of V2X applications on the PC-based simulation platform dSpace VEOS and, later in the development cycle, HIL tests. 

When combined with waveBEE, software offered by dSpace, the V2X can be integrated with real vehicle sensors and GNSS positioning data, making infrastructure simulation and sensor simulation possible.

“Co-operation with dSpace is an important milestone not only for Nordsys, but first and foremost for our shared OEM and Tier-1 customers,” said Manfred Miller, CEO of Nordsys. “The combination of the established dSpace test solutions with the flexible and scalable waveBEE V2X system opens up entirely new possibilities for the development of autonomous vehicles, even beyond Level 3 autonomy,” he enthused.

 http://www.dspace.com

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IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm supports NXP’s S32K3 MCUs

Tue, Nov 16, 2021

The complete development toolchain IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm now supports NXP Semiconductors’ latest automotive microcontroller (MCU) family, the S32K3.

The announcement extends the list of MCUs supported by the embedded tool suite. NXP’s S32K3 MCUs are designed for automotive body electronics, battery management and zone and domain controllers. The extended MCU support will help developers maximise application performance, maintain a high level of code quality and achieve functional safety compliance in automotive designs, says IAR.

The introduction is intended to meet the growing complexity in automotive embedded systems with development tools that help companies maximise the capabilities of the chosen MCU without compromising on workflow efficiency. IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm delivers optimisations, comprehensive debugging features and integrated code analysis tools. In addition, the toolchain is available in a functional safety edition certified by TÜV SÜD in accordance with 10 standards, such as the international umbrella standard for functional safety, IEC 61508, and the automotive standard ISO 26262

The S32K3 MCUs are based on single, dual and lockstep-configured Arm Cortex-M7 cores and support ASIL B/D safety applications. They include a hardware security engine with NXP firmware, support for firmware over-the-air (FOTA) updates and ISO 26262 compliant real-time drivers software for AutoSAR and non-AutoSAR with IAR Embedded Workbench support.

IAR Systems supplies future-proof software tools and services for embedded development, enabling companies worldwide to create the products of today and the innovations of tomorrow. 

The company was established in 1983 and is headquartered in Uppsala, Sweden. It has sales and support offices all over the world. 

Since 2018, Secure Thingz, which specialises in device security, embedded systems, and lifecycle management, has been part of IAR Systems Group.

http://www.iar.com

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Multi-cell battery ICs tackle large, HV battery packs

Fri, Nov 12, 2021

Battery packs that packs that power e-scooters, energy storage, high-voltage power tools, and other high-voltage equipment can be managed with RAA48920x ICs. Renesas Electronics claims that the multi-cell battery front end ICs for battery management systems (BMS) accelerate battery development for mobility, uninterrupted power supplies (UPS) and energy storage systems. 

The ICs provide fast, flexible, cell balancing up to 200mA to enable fast recharging and high utilisation in large battery packs with hot plug tolerance up to 62V. 

BMS, or the ‘brains’ of the battery pack, is increasingly adopted in UPS and data centres, driving demand for ICs that can support higher voltage and larger cell battery pack sizes, said Andrew Cowell, vice president at Renesas’, mobility, infrastructure and IoT power business division. The RAA489206 and RAA489204 ICs have been designed to simplify the design process and create robust, cost-effective battery systems for the growing mobility, UPS back up and energy storage markets, he explained.

The RAA489206 is designed for higher voltage mobility applications where larger cell count and temperature variance across cells are more likely to lead to cell-to-cell imbalances. It provides full high-side battery protection and monitoring for 4S to 16S cell battery packs. The RAA489204 provides improved daisy chain operation with accelerated device-to-device communication and enhanced diagnostics compared with previous-generation devices. It also has internal cell balancing options and support for the higher voltages and cell count required by UPS systems, grid back up and other energy storage systems.  

The ICs’ high integration simplifies the design cycle and reduces customers’ system bill of materials’ costs “significantly”, claims Renesas, adding that it also accelerates design and bill of material selection time from months to weeks. 

The ICs also feature extensive built-in self diagnostics, improving safety functionality, reducing firmware workload and easing the design burden for meeting safety standards. They are pin-to-pin compatible with Renesas’ previous battery front end devices.

Both the RAA489206 and RAA489204 ICs are available now. 

http://www.renesas.com

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i.MX 93 applications processor enhances security at the edge, says NXP

Thu, Nov 11, 2021

Believed to be the industry’s first implementation of the Arm Ethos-U65 microNPU, the i.MX 93 applications processors are the first in NXP’s i.MX 9 series.

The applications processors are designed for automotive, smart home, smart building and smart factory applications, which use edge machine learning to anticipate user needs. They combine the Arm Ethos-U65 microNPU with a high level of security and integration to deliver efficient, fast, secure machine learning at the edge, for example in voice-assisted smart home and building systems. They can also be used in low power industrial gateways and automotive driver monitoring systems. 

The i.MX 93 family has a heterogenous multi-core architecture, including up to two 1.7GHz Arm Cortex-A55 applications processors and a real-time Cortex-M33 microcontroller subsystem with access to all SoC peripherals, including the 256 MACs / cycles Arm Ethos-U65 microNPU. This architecture delivers power-efficient machine learning across a variety of applications, including compact, battery-powered IoT devices, says NXP. 

The i.MX 93 family supports a variety of industrial and automotive connectivity interface protocols, in addition to broad multi-media interfaces. This also reduces the need for external hardware components and additional design work, to reduce the time to market as well as overall systems costs. 

Ron Martino, executive vice president and general manager, ege processing for NXP Semiconductors, believes: “The highly integrated i.MX 93 applications processors will help open an entirely new range of use cases at the edge, where you need to have that close tie-in to the sensor data to make fast decisions. This will enable a new generation of secured, efficient, intelligent devices across IoT, industrial IoT and automotive applications.”

NXP’s EdgeLock secure enclave is a standard on-die feature across the i.MX 9 series. It is a pre-configured, self-managed and autonomous security subsystem. It is particularly useful for developers without deep security expertise.

“We’re making it easier for developers to create, connect, and maintain innovative IoT devices by providing a comprehensive platform actively supported by the scale and expertise of Microsoft software, cloud and security experts,” said Halina McMaster, partner group program manager, Microsoft Azure Sphere. “Together with NXP, we are delivering a variety of Microsoft Azure Sphere-certified edge processors that provide a secured environment for customer applications, critical over-the-air update infrastructure, and more than 10 years of ongoing security improvements for every Azure Sphere chip,” she said. 

i.MX 93-CS processors with Azure Sphere are built with Microsoft Pluton enabled on the EdgeLock secure enclave. Pluton on EdgeLock secure enclave is the dependable hardware root of trust which is built into the silicon and enables the Azure Sphere security stack.

Machine learning application development on the i.MX 93 family will be enabled by the eIQ software development environment, including the eIQ Toolkit workflow tools, the GUI-based eIQ Portal development environment and eIQ inference engine options that will include the Arm Ethos-U65 microNPU as an inference target. 

The i.MX 93 applications processors implement NXP’s innovative Energy Flex architecture, enabling developers to optimize energy usage for each operating mode to create portable devices with longer battery life. 

http://www.nxp.com

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