The Embedded Beat: Freescale Blog Community - Automobility

The i.MX 6 series: Getting it done (Part 3 of capabilities convergence, device divergence)

admin@community.freescale.com — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:08:48 GMT

The i.MX 6 Series Ecosystem

As part of Freescale’s premiere series of Smart Application Blueprint for Rapid Engineering (SABRE) market-focused development systems, Freescale has deployed three SABRE designs focused on automotive infotainment, smart devices, and the general embedded market, as well an evaluation kit (EVK) based on the i.MX 6SoloLite, which drives current and next-generation electronic paper display (EPD) panels. The SABRE board for smart devices, SABRE platform for smart devices, SABRE for automotive infotainment and the i.MX 6SoloLite EVK provide customers with the board layout, circuit design, software and other documentation necessary to quickly produce their own i.MX 6 series-based platforms.

Freescale has been working with the leading embedded system design companies, OS vendors, tools vendors, and application developers to create one of the broadest ecosystems in the industry supporting the i.MX 6 series. This is a critical aspect to the i.MX 6 series as it enables broad choices and options in designing products for the processor family. And with the recently improved online i.MX Community within the Freescale Community, the ability to find answers to your design and development questions has never been easier.

In Summary

The market for intelligent devices is increasing exponentially. Tomorrow’s smart devices, auto infotainment and in-flight entertainment systems, medical systems, personal and enterprise-class intelligent control and data systems, and new classes of devices never before seen need to present data and user interface choices to the end user primarily through rich sound, video, voice, pictures and touch, rather than keyboards and mice.

The need for manufacturers to quickly provide multiple devices to fit specific market segments or niches and provide their customers with a broader range of choices is increasing just as quickly. The i.MX 6 series was designed specifically to enable this new market by bringing together high-performance scalable multimedia processing, a software-compatible family of five processors and pin*-compatible processor solutions with integrated power management so that a manufacturer can deploy a full portfolio of products with a single hardware design.

Let them spin!

admin@community.freescale.com — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 06:59:41 GMT

A few months back, we talked about the benefits of the electrification of motors in vehicles. Having the right silicon solution available is obviously the key element of the equation, but when software development for motor control for PMSM (permanent magnet synchronous motor) or BLDC (brushless DC) motors starts, the trouble really begins ... It usually takes a developer weeks or even months to implement a stable and optimized PMSM or BLDC motor control solution. And time is money.

Help is on it’s way. Freescale has recently introduced a series of fully loaded motor control development kits, offering developers one of the most integrated automotive motor control solutions on the market today. At the initial stage, seven development kits for Freescale’s Qorivva 32-bit microcontrollers are available to help reduce the time needed to develop motor control applications such as HVAC blowers, electric power steering, engine cooling fans, fuel, water and oil pumps and wipers. Freescale also plans to extend the series over the course of the next 12 months by including more Qorivva kits as well as kits based on the 16-bit S12 based MagniV mixed-signal product lines.

The initial kits feature controller boards powered by the latest Qorivva 32-bit MCUs such as MPC560xP, MPC564xL and MPC560xB families and a 3-phase low-voltage power stage board with the MC33937A FET pre-driver. These come to the developer with complete board schematics, user guides and development kit application notes. Integral to the kits is the source code of the motor control application software, based on the Automotive Math and Motor Control Library Set (MCLib). The kit is complemented by the FreeMASTER application visualization and control tool which allows tuning, debugging and building demos.

As an example, the image shows the 3-phase sensorless BLDC Development Kit with the Qorivva MPC5643L MCU.

For more information, part numbers and ordering instruction, visit www.freescale.com/automcdevkits

A week of automotive Ethernet-based networking

admin@community.freescale.com — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 20:19:04 GMT

By Axel Streicher – As a founding member of the OPEN Alliance SIG (One-Pair Ether-Net Special Interest Group), Freescale hosted the second 2012 Promoter and All Members face-to-face meeting in its Munich, Germany, facility this month.

A decade ago, an initial assembly of companies formed in the same Freescale building. This group became known as the FlexRay consortium. At the time, BMW was the leading car OEM driving the FlexRay protocol as a high speed communication standard. In 2006, BMW introduced it into production in their X5 model. As a result of the rapidly increasing bandwidth requirements for multimedia and ADAS systems, BMW is now spearheading the deployment of Ethernet networking in the vehicle. By 2013, we’ll see the first cars on the streets with Ethernet-based connectivity.

Freescale shares the vision of global standards. By hosting the OPEN Alliance meeting, Freescale re-confirms its long standing commitment to drive and participate in global standardization efforts. The interest in this meeting was overwhelming: Based on attendance at previous OPEN Alliance meetings, about 50 participants were expected. Instead, the meeting drew in close to 100 attendees—representatives from companies that supply semiconductors, connectors, cables, tools and test equipment attended, as well as TIER1s and OEMs from all global regions—on site at Freescale, which demonstrates the broad interest Ethernet has gained within the entire automotive supply chain.

The Promoters and All Members meeting at Freescale was followed by the “Second Ethernet & IP @ Automotive Technology Day” at the University of Applied Science in Regensburg. The conference hosted 450 experts from 142 companies engaged in Ethernet-based automotive connectivity. Among the broad range of presentations, Strategy Analytics’ Ian Riches moderated the panel discussion “OEMs’ Visions for Ethernet-based Communication in the Car.“ Spokespersons from Hyundai Motor Group, Ford, BMW, GM and Volvo Trucks confirmed that OPEN Ethernet networking is globally considered as cost-efficient solution to the challenge of ever increasing network bandwidth requirements in the vehicle.

The OPEN Alliance, a non-profit organization, enables wide scale adoption of Ethernet-based automotive connectivity, establish industry standards for Ethernet connectivity over single pair, unshielded cable and enable migration from closed application to open, scalable Ethernet-based network. To date, 14 promoters and 66 adopters have joined. For more information, visit www.opensig.org.

48V for car electrification

admin@community.freescale.com — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 19:30:45 GMT

By Cherif Assad – At the Ludwigsburg Elektronik Congress last year, German carmakers including Audi, BMW, Daimler, Porsche and Volkswagen agreed on 48V embedded supply to support the growing current load requirements in modern vehicles.

From an engineering point of view, the intention is to streamline the electric/electronic architecture, which will optimize the power network and decrease fuel consumption. This has a positive effect on greenhouse emissions and will comply with future government regulations. It also facilitates the real start-up of the car electrification.

The 48V battery system would be packed in a similar way to a higher voltage battery used in hybrid electric vehicle (HEV). Basically, there are elementary cells staggered in clusters to reach the required voltage.

Interfaced with an inverter driving an electrical motor up to 10kW, the current energy is not sufficient to insure the traction of the car. Therefore, the overall weight for powertrain is lighter than for HEV and it could be combined with the internal combustion engine (ICE) during the start-up phase to significantly reduce fuel consumption by bringing an additional torque to the engine.

The cost of such system would remain reasonable versus a full hybrid system; it requires an inverter stage with a controller in addition to a DC/DC converter to recharge the usual 12V battery.

The compressor for the heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems would significantly improve with an electrically driven system. Current vehicles may have insufficient electrical power available with the low voltage battery used. The secondary 48V energy network will easily address the compression drive question.

In addition, the electrical motor for the electric power steering (EPS) would also benefit by extending the power range especially for premium cars with even more electronic loads.

If you consider power ICs, MOSFET transistor technology is a good fit for the inverter. The breakdown voltage capability is determined by the system partitioning, likely between 80 to 100V, and the RdsOn level is tuned to mitigate the power dissipated. Therefore, tight collaboration between our technologist team, system engineers and our customers is important to optimize the technology specification in order to fulfill the application cost-efficiency. The inverter delivers the 3-phase alternative current (AC) directly connected to the electrical motor. Thanks to a dedicated 32-bit MCU, it can perform a motor control command supporting various algorithms and software libraries. More information is available here.

The cost of the battery is an important consideration in the HEV market. Many analyst reports agree the price of Li-ion technology battery should fall dramatically by 2020, by a factor of three to four. The battery is not a commodity product and must address a few technical challenges. The main ones to highlight include properly handling the chemistry because of the safety risk in case of damage, management of the charge/discharge cycles and sustainable lifetime operating. Electronic components are available today to monitor through these physical measures and to work out the challenges. Check out my previous blog: “What makes a battery sensor an Xtrinsic solution is a car?”

The car electrification path is on-going with multiple directions that are possible. The 48V falls in the mild hybrid segment which will represent more than 50% share of the HEV/plug-in HEV and EV market by 2020 according to Strategy Analytics study. One of the reasons is that high voltage isolation is not required with <60 V battery – which drops the cost with lower voltage batteries.

These upcoming events at Paris Motor Show or SAE Convergence 2012 in Detroit will give us the opportunity to uncover a bit more of the intention of industry stakeholders. We look forward to news that will be shared on this topic!

We welcome your thoughts about embedded solutions for a second battery network.

Automotive infotainment and open-source development: Where is the industry moving?

admin@community.freescale.com — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 04:21:32 GMT

By Laurent Emmerich – Coupled with high-speed internet connectivity and intuitive human machine interfaces (HMI), our cars have become smart devices on wheels. Dashboards that once featured basic audio systems are being replaced with multimedia and entertainment systems that stream data from the internet, mirroring many of the features that we access in our homes and our smart mobile devices. Printed maps are being replaced with sexy navigation systems that get us where we need to be at the touch of a screen or sound of our voice.

The incredible features that are rolling off the automotive assembly lines are a result of deep collaboration among automotive manufacturers, standards bodies, manufacturers of semiconductor components, and software solutions partners.

A group that focuses on this collaborative effort is the GENIVI Alliance, which brings together various sectors of automotive infotainment. This group keeps us all on the “same page” by aligning technology through industry recognized and accepted standards, from requirements and reference implementations to compliance programs. The group fosters a vibrant open-source community for development, focusing on Linux and its ecosystems as a foundation. The benefits? Shortened development cycles as a result of the rich software Linux ecosystem and the amount of available open source software. The alliance uniquely brings companies that typically compete in the same market together for collaboration on the foundation of the GENIVI platform. Companies then work independently to differentiate features of their end products. This new model aims to help automotive manufacturers keep up with the pace of innovation.

This year, I had the chance to attend the 6th GENIVI All Members Meeting in Paris, which was not my first one, but this one was special. We implemented one of the GENIVI software components (the GENIVI Layer Manager) using one of the i.MX 6 GPU cores specially designed for hardware compositing, which makes a huge difference in graphics performance. Compared to several others, our implementation leaves the two other cores (2D and 3D) unused and fully available for the creation of fancy and sexy HMI or rich graphics applications.

The i.MX 6 series applications processor series offers a triple play GPU architecture which allows you to create and deliver innovative HMI. In addition to the graphics capabilities of the i.MX 6 series, the i.MX 6 system-on-a-chip can include from one to four ARM® Cortex-A9 cores so that you get enough “juice” to power CPU intensive applications. Let’s say that the innovation in infotainment is no longer capped by the technical capabilities of the hardware platform but more bound to the engineer’s creativity and imagination.

Above: It was the biggest demo show room that GENIVI has ever had – and it was amazing to see so many demos running Freescale i.MX applications processors. This shows how well our products fit to the market requirements, which technically bridge the consumer electronics and the automotive world, yet deliver automotive-grade quality and longevity.

I attended several popular Linux sessions, as well as others that addressed topics such as virtualization and HTML5, which are clearly gaining huge momentum in the automotive industry. This is very well aligned with our strategy – always a good feeling!

Linux has certainly changed infotainment, and several products on the market today are already running Linux, and more are to come with the first products running GENIVI compliant platforms should appear in 2013-2014. Linux is bringing a rich software ecosystem to the car, but Linux is not only a desktop or consumer-grade operating system: today you can find Linux networking systems, medical systems and most of connected TVs are running Linux.

But we should not forget the stringent automotive requirements such as stability, security, fast boot time and clear isolation of the infotainment system from the critical systems in the car, which is why virtualization is becoming a hot topic, as it could be one answer to those concerns.

HTML5 was heavily discussed, and it is very much aligned with the trends in the consumer market and the fact that a lot of people are convinced that HTML5 could be the standard enabling a full cross platform portability of applications, not only among devices, among operating systems and platforms but also among markets. Could you imagine developing an application that could run on a mobile phone, a tablet, a TV, a washing machine … and car? But let’s save HTML5 for another blog.

Several sessions covered the potential relationship with GENIVI and Android OS. It was very interesting to see that participants from several places came to share their views on this very dynamic market and bring their requirements to the table. I have to be fairly honest here, and I myself never believed that Android, at least in its first generations could address the infotainment market. For several reasons: Licensing grey areas and the issue between Google and Oracle, a monolithic HMI/Core application business architecture limiting creativity and innovation on the HMI side where OEMs want to differentiate, the limited hardware acceleration support, an architecture limited to one single user, and a limited eco-systems compared to Linux, etc. … But several products proved me wrong. For instance, InkaNet in China and Renault in Europe, and several other ongoing projects, clearly indicate that some OEMs and tiers are considering Android as a valid platform. Moreover, in the meantime Android has evolved and several of my concerns are no longer valid. All that may explain why several companies, although members of the GENIVI Alliance consider Android and would like to define the best way to get the best of those two platforms.

GENIVI offers silicon vendors the opportunity to meet and to discuss commonalities – and lets us collaborate on how we can best support the software side of GENIVI.

And last but not least, Freescale provided i.MX 53 Quick Start boards (QSB) for a hands-on session. It was great to see all the engineers putting their design skills to work on our tiny QSBs. It also demonstrates how well-supported our hardware is. Watching the GENIVI reference implementation running on the QSB showed them how close our consumer products are to our automotive grade solutions. Hopefully those who left with a QSB will produce code and contribute to the GENIVI effort.

To further illustrate the GENIVI support for the i.MX application processors, I have selected one demonstration that we caught on video this summer at Freescale Technology Forum. In this video, you can watch Canonical demonstrating their Ubuntu One solution, which supports the Freescale i.MX application processors

David Duffey from Canonical not only demonstrates that Unbuntu runs on the i.MX application processors, but also shows the GENIVI Compliant Ubuntu IVI Remix running on the Freescale SABRE for automotive and how the Ubuntu One cloud solution enables the users to share media and content among all their devices, from smartphones, tablets, laptops to IVI head units.

Freescale passed all the GENIVI 2.0 compliance requirements last July with our i.MX 6 Application Processors and our Steed software release. GENIVI support for our i.MX applications processors has been available through several of our partners since the GENIVI compliance existed. You can see more compliant products here.

If you are a GENIVI member and are planning to attend the 7th GENIVI All Member Meeting in Shanghai in October, please stop by and meet us at our booth.

Automotive safety, efficiency and speed

admin@community.freescale.com — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 00:45:57 GMT

By FTF staff –

Since the fuel-injection era began six months ago, NASCAR has seen a 10 to 15 percent improvement in fuel economy. In this last morning of FTF, Doug Yates and Peter Van Manen joined Freescale’s Lou Lutostanski on stage to talk about the evolution of technology in motorsports. The fuel-injection engines, which debuted at Daytona, are managed by a McLaren ECU with Freescale technology inside. (Watch for the replay that will be posted soon.) But this was just the tip of the iceberg of automotive insights at FTF this year. Here’s a sample below.

Geek out on our concept car

This little beast – affectionately known as “Mad Mac” – is packed with a lot of bright ideas that our automotive engineers, and our customers, have dreamed up. Check out the solutions stacked on this car for powertrain, infotainment, cluster, safety and body applications.

Infotainment for Generation Y

The car is becoming another connected device on the “Internet of Things.” Freescale’s Luke Smithwick offers his perspective on the challenges developers face in bringing the connected car to market and how the Vybrid automotive processor with its production-grade software gives developers a huge jump start in their designs.

Danny McKenna demonstrates the Vybrid family’s ready-to-play connected radio – now any car can have a great connected experience. Up to 80 percent of the software design is done; just customize it to make it your own.

Single-chip instrument cluster (yes, it’s only one chip)

This one-chip wonder brings together the capabilities that are commonly found from multiple chips. The single-chip instrument cluster, based on Freescale S12 MagniV mixed-signal MCU, simplifies design across the instrument cluster and reduces cables and connections to increase system reliability.

Auto safety drives toward zero fatalities

In the U.S., preliminary 2011 data shows that 32,310 people died in motor vehicle crashes – that’s the lowest on record since 1949. The decrease is attributed to better safety systems and vehicles designed to allow people to survive a crash. Freescale’s Stephan Lehman talks about the next step for developed countries: advanced active safety systems. He also addresses the real challenge: 90% of people who die in accidents are in emerging countries.

Get a view from every angle with the multi-camera panorama view park assist that features the Qorivva MPC5604E MCU for streaming live video via Ethernet unshielded twisted pair, and the i.MX 6 series applications processor for video decode and 3D graphics rendering.

Freescale and Bosch collaborate on an airbag reference platform. Based on Freescale's Qorivva 32-bit MCU family and Bosch's Airbag ASSP family, this solution uses sensors from both companies.

High-tech tractor navigates FTF

Check out this tractor that uses i.MX and QorIQ processors to bring advanced technology to our nation's farms. These microprocessors assist in engine control, deliver precise GPS navigation, and provide the ability to steer the tractor, hands free.

Electrical motors, invisible little helpers!

admin@community.freescale.com — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 07:55:08 GMT

By Axel Streicher -- Did you ever ponder over how many electrical motors can be found in a modern vehicle? Not really, eh? So if you, the technical savvy reader here, did not, then the average car user may not even acknowledge that there are electrical motors in vehicles running from fuel. Invisible little helpers, that’s what they are!

At a recent automotive congress (VDI Conference “Halbleiter-Elektronik im Automobil”), a leading German car OEM stated that a fully equipped top-of-the-line vehicle hosts more than 120 electrical motors.

Each and every single motor – electrical or mechanical - contributes to weight, power consumption, noise and reliability concerns. These facts are driving two major market trends:

Electrification. Motors that are mechanically forced to rotation today (such as pumps or blowers) get replaced with electrical motors that only spin when needed and exactly at the speed and torque required at any given time.
DC motors are replaced by BLDC (brushless DC) motors that operate with less noise and higher reliability, driven by sophisticated algorithms for optimal speed and torque control. Since these motors are no longer just being switched on and off, networking and diagnostic capabilities are required.

Motor control solutions meeting these needs typically consist of five ingredients: Physical network connection (CAN or LIN), voltage regulation and watchdog, microcontroller with embedded Flash memory, analog application layer (e.g. 3-phase FET gate driver), small footprint (PCB space).

Car OEMs, electronic system suppliers and electric motor manufacturers are embracing this trend, but often struggle with sub-optimal or non-scalable solutions when working with custom solutions.

As part of its MagniV family, Freescale has launched the S12ZVM single-chip motor control solution. At the heart of the S12ZVM family, an enhanced S12Z core running at 50 MHz provides significant design benefits over prior versions. Its linear addressing space simplifies software development and allows porting across applications. New instructions have been introduced to accelerate fractional math operations that are heavily used in sophisticated motor control techniques, such as field-oriented / vector control algorithms. The integrated gate drive unit contains protected low-side and high-side drivers capable of driving up to six external MOSFETs. The S12ZVM offers a wide range of product versions, supporting CAN and LIN communication protocols with multiple memory sizes and package options.

This will allow automotive manufacturers to develop true platform solutions with hardware and software design reuse for applications such as HVAC blowers, wipers, fuel pumps and water pumps.

Get more information on the S12 MagniV 16-bit S12ZVM family from our web site.

The race is on! The Freescale Cup @ embedded world 2012

admin@community.freescale.com — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 00:00:59 GMT

By Andy Mastronardi - The Freescale Cup is a global competition where teams of up to three students build, program, and race an autonomous intelligent model car around a track for speed. The fastest car to complete the track wins.

More than 200 undergraduate students from Czech Republic, France, Germany, Poland, Romania, Russia and Slovakia have enrolled and joined the EMEA Freescale Cup. embedded world 2012 was the first opportunity to see some of the cars in action where Freescale showcased a demo Freescale Cup track.

Cars feature the Qorivva MPC5604B 32-bit MCUs for automotive body electronics applications, as well as Freescale’s MC33931 monolithic H-Bridge power ICs, which are robust thermally enhanced packages designed primarily for automotive electronic throttle control, but can be used for some low-voltage DC servo motor control applications.

The cars manage their way through turns, tunnel, speed bumps and crossing via image recognition processing from the onboard CMOS camera. Students are allowed to add some additional components such as LEDs to help them manage lighting conditions throughout the track and differentiate their cars from their competitors.

Universities that showcased their cars at embedded world included the University of Applied Sciences of Deggendorf, the Czech Technical University of Prague, and the University of Applied Sciences of Landshut. These teams will go on to compete during the upcoming European finals.

Ninety-three students will meet on April 3-4 at the Czech Technical University of Prague to race for the EMEA Freescale Cup title. The winning team will be invited to join us at FTF San Antonio 2012 to compete against other universities.

You can keep up to date with the teams on the Street Smarts community.

Discover the evolution of the connected car

admin@community.freescale.com — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 02:58:48 GMT

By Stephan Lehmann -- Many in the automotive industry believe that the automobile will undergo more changes in the next 15 years than it has since its inception 125 year ago. Through partnerships, this industry is working towards fuel efficiency and a world without accidents. Vehicles will connect to each other and to the cloud creating opportunities beyond imagination.

Design engineers will have the chance to preview the latest Freescale innovations in automotive this week at Embedded World in Nuremberg, Germany.

In this video, Tim Nixon, Karla Wallace and Mike Grimes from GM, as well as John Schneider from Ford, share incredible energy, excitement and passion for the progress being made in the automotive industry and the future evolution of the connected car.

Mike Grimes summarizes it nicely: “I thought I would have retired with technology that actually has already occurred. So, I’m already beyond my retirement point and now I’m just having fun!”

Take a look and see for yourself.

What’s smaller than a fingernail, weighs almost nothing, and can power a 3,500-pound race car to run faster than 200 MPH?

admin@community.freescale.com — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:24:14 GMT

By Steve Nelson – On Sunday, at the Daytona 500, we'll watch history unfold as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series roars into action with fuel-injected engines powered by Freescale technology. And we’re not kicking off this transition at a minor event, but at “The Great American Race,” in front of more than 200,000 fans and 15 million TV viewers.

Doug Yates, CEO of Roush Yates Engines and designer of the Ford FR9 race engine, recently visited with our engineering team and discussed the intricacies of a high performance race engine. Doug was flooded with questions from the team who designed the processor inside of the fuel injection system. (The fire codes prevented us from starting it up.)

Doug pointed out that one of the biggest improvements as a result of the switch from carburetors to fuel injection is the ability to collect data. As with all engineering challenges, gathering and analyzing data is key to making future improvements – especially if you’re designing a carto move faster and more efficiently. Put a computer in the car and race teams can analyze the engine performance in ways never before possible.

Doug is fitted in a bunny suit to go “behind the scenes” in our wafer fabrication plant and he meets the engineering team for insight on the development of our technology.

So, here you have it. The chip inside that case is the size of a fingernail, weighs almost nothing, but can power a 3,500-pound race car that runs faster than 200 MPH.

Below is an incredible example of a tiny piece of technology strapped to a $100,000, 900 HP monster!

We’re looking forward to Daytona.

What makes a battery sensor an Xtrinsic solution in a car?

admin@community.freescale.com — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:46:44 GMT

By Cherif Assad – Sensors are proliferating in our cars. According to IHS, the MEMS sensor market continues to grow strong in automotive applications with compound annual growth revenue (CAGR) of 10% within the 2010-2015 timeframe.

With the emergence of electrification, the 12V battery (also known as a low voltage battery) is more and more solicited by the electronic equipment of the car and has to handle all modes of operation (drive, start, stop, and standby). The risk of shortage becomes real with unavoidable leakage current when the car is not in use. To mitigate the battery consumption when the car is stopped and the engine is switched-off, all ECUs (electronic control unit) connected to the battery are limited on a maximum stand-by current in order to not discharge the battery in a short time.

Usually, a sensing point translates a physical measure in a signal wave. Freescale has defined Xtrinsic sensing solutions as a new generation of sensors that extract the contextual sensing from the application environment and combine it with logic capability to bring greater value and decision making to the sensing solution.

For the battery, the contextual sensing is about voltage, current, and temperature measurements. On one side, an analog die handles accurate building blocks to sustain each operating mode, power management, clock generation, and wake up options. The processing unit calculates data characteristics like dynamic internal battery resistance and supports customizable software tools to allow modular design and to increase levels of integration.

The stop/start function is currently expanding at OEMs with new car models. They know the battery needs a specific monitoring to guarantee some charging level to perform the stop/start function during idling and cranking modes. With the upcoming car electrification to lower the fuel consumption and comply with emission regulations, a second battery may also be necessary to handle the energy requirements. A battery sensor makes sense and fulfills Freescale’s Xtrinsic concept. The Xtrinsic MM912J637 intelligent battery sensor has been developed in that spirit, as well as the foreseen successor.

EcoCAR2: Design for a greener Malibu

admin@community.freescale.com — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:51:28 GMT

By Andy Mastronardi – The EcoCAR2 Challenge is all about automotive innovation. During this three-year engineering competition, college students are immersed in real-world exploration and design of powertrain systems inside the Chevrolet Malibu. Their ultimate objective? To roll out a real car demonstration of a “greener” Malibu, one that helps reduce its impact on the environment without compromising the car’s performance, safety and consumer acceptability.

During this challenge, which is sponsored by the US Department of Energy and GM, 15 university teams across North America compete head-to-head. You can ”meet” the teams here. Every year, there’s a new phase to the challenge. This year, which is the first of three years, the focus is on design, analysis, and simulation of the overall vehicle architecture as well as planning the implementation of all the mechanical, electrical and controls features of the vehicle. A key deliverable for Year 1 is the demonstration of a full-vehicle hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulator that will be used for all software and electronics development for the competition.

There’s no other challenge of its kind to prepare our students for a future in automotive engineering. The students get to design with industry leading enabling technology, steering them on a path to quickly enter the automotive industry with a solid base of knowledge and skills. The students also have the opportunity to work with Freescale engineers who can help guide them in using our technology.

And for Freescale? We have the opportunity to work with talented students who have a passion for embedded solutions. I had the opportunity to meet with the teams during a training workshop that we had on site at Freescale last week.

The EcoCAR outside of Freescale with Team Waterloo.

Student teams from across North America gather at Freescale for the workshops.

Regardless of who places first, it’s an absolutely unique experience for all of the students and faculty who get involved. Not to mention me, since I manage our university programs and I’m following the challenge every step of the way. Watch for more to come in the coming months.

Securing telematics and infotainment

admin@community.freescale.com — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 06:42:48 GMT

By Rainer Makowitz -- The Consumer Electronics Show 2012 is once again demonstrating to what extent consumer devices either enter the car or they get converted into their automotive equivalent and added to the feature list. The biggest expectations on value for the driver are in the field of infotainment and assist functions. Whether access to content from the cloud is desired or the factory-installed features must be augmented by downloadable apps, the key technology used is access to a wireless network infrastructure with its associated security challenges.

For vehicle manufacturers, it is essential that they somehow get closer to consumer development cycles and provide new features quicker and at lower cost. The integration of consumer electronics technology, such as open source operating systems into automotive platforms, is an attractive path to reuse. However, it will be essential that automotive-compliance, reliability and protection against attacks can still be demonstrated.

At CES 2012, Freescale, OpenSynergy and Secunet are showing a demonstrator for a solution that allows manufacturers to address these new demands instantly, without compromising on safety or security.

Using Freescale's SABRE platform for automotive based on the i.MX53 applications processor, a prototypical telematics control unit has been built that provides:

The high performance required to drive the latest automotive infotainment and telematics systems

The accelerators to implement advanced user interfaces, sophisticated video processing, security, 2D and 3D graphics, at a high level of system integration

On top of the hardware platform, a set of new capabilities have been realized:

Opensynergy’s COQOS virtualization environment that includes a certified separation kernel that securely isolates processes of different safety and security levels on a single ECU.

Secunet’s Application Control Unit (ACU) for reliable protection for the vehicle’s onboard network

The main benefits for users are

Use of multiple operating systems that can only access the hardware resources that are assigned to them, for example Linux-based infotainment software next to AUTOSAR-compliant automotive software

Integration of untrusted infotainment software with the on-board network (e.g. CAN) to access vehicle data and the typical automotive diagnostic functions

Detection of attacks at the application layer and the ability to actively keep them away from the vehicle’s onboard network

Efficient use of the i.MX applications processor’s hardware security features with the ACU that provides connected cars with necessary hardware supported countermeasures

For the first time, OEMs will have full flexibility to realize different security levels on the same standard hardware platform. The solution is a future-proof investment as it is open for future enhancement through software updates. Application developers can run their fast development and maintenance cycles in independence from automotive life cycles.

You can find more details on the security features on our automotive web site. And if you're at CES, enjoy the show!

Ethernet on wheels

admin@community.freescale.com — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 01:52:49 GMT

By Axel Streicher – Ethernet on wheels … is not really groundbreaking news, some may say. No argument here, since 100Mbps Ethernet has been around for a while as an on-board diagnostics (OBD) port and access point to the vehicle for re-programming or flashing modules at the OEM dealership.

The news is that the automotive industry is making strong efforts to standardize Ethernet as in-vehicle network for high bandwidth applications such as cameras and multimedia. Up to now, high bandwidth meant proprietary network architectures with cumbersome cabling, expensive physical interface devices, custom tools and limited supplier base.

Recently, Broadcom, BMW, NXP, Freescale, Hyundai Motor Company and Harman announced the formation of the OPEN Alliance SIG (One-Pair Ether-Net Special Interest Group). The alliance’s goal is to enable wide scale adoption of Ethernet in automotive, establish industry standards for Ethernet connectivity over a single pair unshielded cable and enable migration from closed application to open, scalable Ethernet-based network.

With more than 40 years of development history, Ethernet is the de-facto industry standard for high bandwidth communication in networking, office, industrial and other markets. Since these industries spearhead the communication bandwidth requirements, the automotive world can rely on future developments, wide availability of tools, widespread knowledge base and broad support from the semiconductor industry. Already today, many of Freescale’s microcontrollers feature an integrated Ethernet MAC layer, including the 32-bit Qorivva MPC5604E MCU for ADAS applications that supports audio video bridging (AVB).

Key to the OPEN Alliance is the proliferation of Broadcom’s BroadR-Reach® technology as an open standard. It addresses key concerns of the automotive industry such as the stringent EMC requirements, weight reduction, availability from multiple sources and cost efficiency. Based on single unshielded twisted pair cable (UTP), it delivers a bandwidth of 100Mbps, perfectly suitable to handle applications such as camera-based park assist systems.

Analysts project significant digital camera growth for advanced driver assistance systems. Broadcom, Freescale and OmniVision have collaborated to develop the world’s first Ethernet-based 360-degree surround view parking assistance camera system. Based on the Broadcom® BroadR-Reach® BCM89810 physical layer transceiver (PHY), the Freescale 32-bit Qorivva MPC5604E MCU, and OmniVision’s OV10630 color CMOS image sensor, the system expands the opportunity for OEMs to deploy surround view parking assistance capability across a broad range of vehicle classes, ranging from luxury to mass market automobiles.

Ethernet on wheels -- ground breaking news? No, not really. But this new way of using it will bring a host of automotive applications to market that were never imagined before.

Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint cars turn off carburetors for good, fuel injection to come in 2012

admin@community.freescale.com — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 04:57:34 GMT

By Steve Nelson –Wow, what a great end to the NASCAR season. Two drivers — the only guys that can win the championship — fighting it out for more than 400 miles. It was truly the NASCAR version of a ‘game 7’, and if you missed it, then you missed something special.

There’s also a lot history that came to end on Sunday as well. If you’ve ever attended a NASCAR event, you know that the sound of more than 40 cars and 800-plus horsepower is an incredible experience – it’s an assault on your whole body, not just your ears! It all builds during the last hour, with the pre-race activities, the flyovers, and finally the cars come to life. At the end of the race, it’s like a ‘deafening’ silence: The cars shut off, the cheering crowd clears out, and a calm comes over the track.

When the last engine shut off on Sunday (congrats to Tony!), it was the end of history and an era. Never again will the premier series in NASCAR, the Sprint Cup, come to life using carburetors. Literally 50 years of history, all of the teams and drivers and cars that came before, all of the changes to the cars, they all had the fuel system in common. And now that passenger cars have moved on, NASCAR will as well. At Daytona in February, when we all hear, “Drivers, start your engines!”, it will be with a totally new fuel injection systems. I can’t wait to hear that roar, and know that Freescale is making it happen.

While we’re playing a big part of the story going into 2012, Sunday reminded me that racing is still about drivers and teams. Two guys, fighting over several hours, and only one will take home the championship. We’re there to provide the technology, but it’s the people on the track that turn it into something great. Like all of our customers, we provide the tools, the rest is up to them, and the results can be amazing.