Using iMX536 to construct the core of the intelligent terminal of the Internet of Vehicles

    Over the past 100 years, cars have evolved from a means of transportation to a continuation of living and entertainment space. As cars gradually become a necessity in most people's lives, safer, more comfortable and more convenient modern smart cars are emerging with the assistance of many electronic devices. Infotainment systems and telematics control systems are increasingly being used in cars in response to this market demand.

    In addition to the well-known GPS for positioning, wireless networks such as WIFI, Bluetooth and 3G are also widely built into the system, allowing cars and mobile phones and other terminal devices with networking functions to be connected at any time, and to be connected to a dedicated customer service network at any time, and even to the Internet at any time and anywhere. Navigation is a basic function that customers can enjoy. Through GPS and intelligent network driving system to assist driving, relying on cellular networks to achieve information retrieval, real-time traffic navigation and any other Internet interconnection applications; more and more new cars can achieve compatibility between manual driving and automatic driving by integrating global positioning system navigation technology, car-to-car communication technology, wireless communication and remote sensing technology. On the other hand, relying on advanced sensing technology, the real-time situation of the road ahead of the vehicle can be judged in real time. Combined with the latest network traffic data, it can not only help car owners choose the most suitable route, but also deal with the adverse situation of emergency situations to driving safety, thereby making vehicles safer and more punctual.

    There have also been significant changes in in-car entertainment, from only music and radio at the beginning to the increasing popularity of digital TV and digital radio. With online access at any time, downloading songs or movies online, or listening or watching online is no different from the experience on a PC. Full-format, high-definition decoding capabilities also make cars a mobile cinema. From the user interface, the application of touch screens and three-dimensional graphics gives customers a strong animated 3D visual experience. The application of voice recognition and voice integration technology allows drivers to freely control the system while driving, switch content, and realize voice and short message communication. Due to the existence of the Internet, in addition to listening to online radio stations, watching instant news on online TV, and tracking the real-time market conditions of the stock market have become basic functions. Customers can also use voice commands to play media, find songs, answer calls, dial, reply to short messages, etc. Customers can also access the customer call center with one click to request to set navigation destinations, find service hotspots, remote applause diagnosis, emergency repair services, etc. Through the touch screen of the car dashboard, you can check and book your favorite restaurant and arrive at the restaurant with your car. The increasingly smart cars are giving car owners a unique driving experience.

    More applications mean stricter functional requirements for electronic products. From the trend of functions and performance, it can be seen that the requirements of in-vehicle infotainment systems are similar to those of portable computers and high-end handheld devices, which requires the CPU of the in-vehicle system to have a frequency of more than 800MHz, a sufficiently fast external bus and memory, and a sufficiently large storage space. Even in portable and desktop applications, the complexity of such a system is already very high. Moreover, in the automotive environment, due to the high quality requirements of customers and the stringent requirements of automotive products on electromagnetic compatibility, power consumption, real-time performance and power consumption, the design difficulty of in-vehicle infotainment systems has reached an unprecedented level.

    On the other hand, the complexity of in-vehicle infotainment system design is largely due to the complexity of software. Most new system functions rely on a lot of development work on embedded software. In other parts of the car (such as the engine controller), the difficulty lies in algorithms, real-time performance, and high reliability. In addition to algorithms (voice recognition and synthesis, etc.), real-time performance (must be able to respond to customer input instantly), and high reliability (no freezing, unreadable content, etc.), in-vehicle infotainment systems also have high compatibility (various digital music and movie formats, various web page formats, various e-book file formats, various communication protocols), high operability (voice interaction, touch screen button settings, 3D graphics should be cool and simple), and maintainability (online download of update software to install new functions or patches).

Figure 1: Driving recorder image

    iMX536 is a processor that meets automotive-grade standards for the automotive industry. It has many interfaces and is used as the core processor of the intelligent terminal of the Internet of Vehicles to meet the standards of the new generation of the Internet of Vehicles industry. It can not only meet the requirements of the aftermarket entertainment market, such as 1080P decoding, multi-channel VGA, multi-screen anomalies, navigation, 3G, Bluetooth, WIFI, but also meet the various indicators of the original equipment market, such as real-time vehicle conditions, driving records, high-definition multi-camera vehicle video monitoring, hard disk recorders, Beidou GPS intelligent navigation, voice recognition, vehicle interface detection, CAN, RS485, RS232, RFID modules, etc.

Figure 2: iMX536 system block diagram

    Chenhan Electronics uses the iMX536 processor and has completed a vehicle-mounted front-mounted GPS video terminal solution that meets the new national standard after more than a year of development. The product solution has now entered the national standard certification system of the Ministry of Public Security. The launch of this product has greatly improved the intelligence level of the domestic smart vehicle terminal industry and created a solid core for building a new generation of vehicle networking systems.