ARM has signed a strategic deal with Panasonic Automotive Systems (PAS) to standardise an automotive architecture for Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs).
The two aim to create a software stack through the SOAFEE Scalable Open Architecture For the Embedded Edge initiative that is driving greater collaboration in standardized software development across the automotive market.
The partnership will see PAS and Arm adopt and extend the device virtualization framework VirtIO to decouple automotive software development from hardware and accelerate automotive industry development cycles.
PAS, launched in 2022, is currently focused on cockpit use cases like Android Automotive and Automotive Grade Linux, and the deal aims to broaden the VirtIO standards to encompass more automotive applications. This includes standardizing interfaces for Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS) to decouple Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) software from hardware dependencies.
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As Electronic Control Units (ECUs) are integrated into a single Cockpit Domain Controller (CDC) or High-Performance Computer (HPC), hypervisors and advanced chipsets more important than ever. However, many automakers and tier-1 suppliers face vendor-specific proprietary interfaces, which leads to increased costs and delivery times.
The shift from a hardware-centric to a software-first development model to address these challenges needs standardisation of the interfaces between automaker and tier-1 supplier software stacks and the underlying hypervisors and chipsets.
PAS and ARM are using VirtIO not only for virtualizing devices connected to the central ECU like CDC/HPC, but also for remote devices linked to zonal ECUs. The two organizations have demonstrated a groundbreaking proof-of-concept using PAS’s open-source remote GPU technology, Unified HMI, to implement a Display Zonal Architecture built on ARM.
This architecture distributes GPU loads from the central ECU to multiple zonal ECUs, reducing heat generation and harness weight without altering applications running on the central ECU. The partitioning in the Mali-G78AE GPU of Zonal ECUs allocates dedicated hardware resources to different workloads, enabling deterministic graphics performance in a Display Zonal Architecture. PAS and Arm are collaborating to provide a SOAFEE Blueprint and reference implementation of this work, aiming to standardize emerging zonal architectures in the automotive industry.
For cloud services, the PAS vSkipGen operates on ARM Neoverse-based cloud servers. By maintaining the same ARM CPU architecture and VirtIO device virtualization framework, this initiative will ensure full environmental parity between cloud virtual hardware and automotive hardware. PAS and ARM will collaborate to implement VirtIO in virtual hardware, further bridging the gap between virtual and physical automotive systems.
“Our partnership with Arm aims to promote the standardization of VirtIO and bring this industry reference standard to the next level. By combining the expertise and industry leadership of our organizations, we are confident that this collaboration will unlock software potential and serve as a crucial foundation for building the future of automotive technology towards SDV,” said Masashige Mizuyama, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of PAS.
“SDVs continue to be one of the most exciting opportunities for automakers today, but realizing this vision demands innovative approaches that allow software developers to begin their work before physical silicon is available. Our partnership with PAS stems from both organizations’ active participation in SOAFEE, and builds on a shared goal to reduce fragmentation in the industry through standardization, which will ultimately accelerate automotive development cycles for our partners,” said Dipti Vachani, senior vice president and general manager, Automotive Line of Business at ARM.
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