Infineon's new generation MCU AURIX™ TC4x is about to go into mass production

As a global leader in the automotive semiconductor market, Infineon Technologies continues to shape the innovative path for future mobility.

To expand its leading AURIX ™ microcontroller family, Infineon Technologies has launched the next-generation AURIX ™ TC4x series of 28nm microcontrollers (MCUs) for e-mobility, ADAS, automotive E/E architectures and cost-effective artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

The first AURIX ™ TC4x samples are already being used in lead customer designs.

Infineon AURIX™ Development History

Since the birth of the TriCore™ core architecture in 1999, it has gone through four generations of single-core microcontrollers. AURIX™ is a multi-core microcontroller based on the TriCore™ core.

▲ The first generation AURIX™ TC2x launched in 2014 integrates up to three TriCore™ cores.

The TC2x series MCU integrates a safety management unit SMU to perform safety management on each module inside the MCU. In addition to providing power, the power supply PMIC chip TLF35584 can also interact with the MCU. When used with the SafeTlib™ software, it can perform self-checks and monitor whether the MCU is running normally. In the event of an abnormality, the safety mechanism can be triggered to put the system into a safe state.

▲ The second-generation AURIX™ TC3x launched in 2018 integrates up to six TriCore™ cores, bringing microcontroller performance to a new level.

The AURIX™ TC3x series of microcontrollers have excellent real-time performance. All models can reach the highest functional safety level ASIL-D, integrate information security hardware encryption modules, and have powerful interconnection interfaces, making them particularly suitable for many automotive applications.

▲ The new generation AURIX™ TC4x series launched in 2021 provides an upward upgrade path for the leading AURIX™ TC3x series.

It uses the next-generation TriCore™ 1.8 core and a scalable suite of performance-enhancing accelerators. This includes a new parallel processing unit (PPU), a SIMD vector digital signal processor (DSP) that meets the needs of various artificial intelligence topologies, including real-time control and radar post-processing. The scalable and highly compatible design of the product series allows users to adopt a common software architecture, which greatly saves platform software costs.

AURIX™ TC4x Application Areas and Features Overview

AURIX™ TC4x targets a wide range of automotive applications, including the strong demand for functional integration in E/E architectures based on domain control and zone control, and supports the development of electric transportation and autonomous driving through safety systems. Infineon's AURIX™ TC4x provides enhanced connectivity, including advanced functional safety and information security, further consolidating Infineon's leading position in high-reliability and high-security automotive electronics.

In addition, the new SOTA (Software Over the Air) feature helps meet OEMs' needs for fast and secure car-to-cloud connectivity, enabling field updates as well as diagnostics and analysis during vehicle use. The new AURIX™ TC4x series MCUs support high-speed communication interfaces such as 5 Gbit Ethernet and PCI Express®, as well as new communication interfaces such as CAN-XL and 10BASE T1S Ethernet. The increase in network throughput and connectivity provides customers with the performance and flexibility they need to implement new E/E architectures.

Complete AURIX™ TC4x Ecosystem

Considering the increasing complexity of automobiles and the implementation of artificial intelligence technologies, the AURIX™ TC4x ecosystem has received great attention to ensure fast time to market and ease of use. Infineon is collaborating with Synopsys to accelerate software development for the AURIX™ TC4x family. The Synopsys Virtualizer™ Development Kit (VDK) for TC4x enables software development earlier in the design cycle. The Synopsys DesignWare® ARC® MetaWare Toolkit for AURIX™ TC4x provides the best compilers, debuggers and libraries, and simulators needed to develop software for the PPU.

Other partners will also provide corresponding products and support MATLAB automatic code generation for rapid prototyping. Thanks to the cross-generational scalable compatible design, customers who already use existing AURIX™ MCUs will benefit from shortened development time and faster time to market. Significant hardware and software compatibility allows customers to widely reuse existing TC3x algorithms and ecosystems.

AURIX™ TC4x Series Key Features at a Glance

1 TriCore™ and AURIX™ Accelerator Kits Deliver High-Performance Computing and Economical AI

■ Up to 6 TriCore™ v1.8 running simultaneously at up to 500 MHz

■ AURIX™ Accelerator Kit:

□ Parallel Processing Unit (PPU) - Enables AI up to ASIL-D

□ Data Routing Engine (DRE) - for efficient communication and data processing

□ CDSP – Digital signal processing of analog sampled signals

□ Signal Processing Unit (SPU) - Radar signal processing accelerator

□ Information Security Module (CSRM/CSS) - Hardware Encryption Accelerator

2 Memory upgrade

■ Up to 25 MB on-chip NVM storage space

■ Supports zero downtime SOTA through optimized A/B swap partitions and external memory interfaces

3 Advanced clock modules and AD conversion increase real-time control capabilities

■ New eGTM timer and high-resolution PWM, dedicated Low Latency Interconnect (LLI) bus

■ Faster control loops for motor control and power conversion

■ GTM compatible with AURIX™ TC3x

■ Various ADC converters, time division multiplexing ADC (TMADC) / fast comparator (FC) / DSADC

■ CDSP/DSEX Accelerator

4 Stronger functional safety and information security performance

■ Security clustering including CSRM and CSS provides enhanced security

■ Complies with ISO 21434 standards

■ Secure DMA

■ ASIL-D compliant

5 Provides a rich network communication interface for all E/E architecture microcontrollers

■ Scalable high-speed communication interface:

□ Up to 5 Gbps Ethernet

□ PCIe

□ 10BASE T1S Ethernet

□ CAN-XL

■ Data Routing Engine (DRE) - Communications Accelerator

6. Extensive Ecosystem

■ Infineon MCAL Driver

■ Reuse of existing AURIX™ TC3x algorithms and ecosystem

■ Supports rapid prototyping using Synopsys - Virtualizer Development Kit for AURIX™ TC4x virtual prototype

■ Software Development Kit (SDK)

■ Simplify PPU software development with Synopsys - MetaWare Toolkit for AURIX™, which includes MATLAB and Simulink, DSP and math libraries, neural network software development kit, and AUTOSAR complex device drivers

Availability

The first AURIX™ TC4x samples are already being used in the designs of major customers, with the various models set to go into mass production from the second half of 2024.

AURIX™ TC4x internal data preview

What kind of MCU do future cars need?

◆ There is more potential to make cars smarter

◆ Artificial intelligence provides more efficient processing capabilities

◆ Adapt to new electronic and electrical architecture

◆ Have a wider and more secure network connection

◆ Adapt to faster technology iteration

AURIX™ TC4x was born to provide the most attractive upgrade path for the automotive industry.

AURIX™ TC4x opens a new era for the automotive industry.

Supporting new electrical and electronic architectures

◆ Has higher ASIL-D computing power

◆ Greatly enhanced secure network connections

◆ Adapt to new software development model

Electrification is accelerating

◆ Help achieve zero emission goals

◆ OEMs are more focused on developing electric vehicles

◆ The proportion of pure electric vehicles continues to increase

Infineon Technologies continues to provide the highly reliable AURIX™ series MCUs to meet automotive requirements for high stability, high safety, long-term supply security, etc.

◆ AURIX™ series MCU comprehensive product catalog and flexible scalability provide users with a two-way choice of platform development ideas for upgrading and cost reduction

◆ Infineon Technologies develops and maintains long-term relationships with trusted partners

◆ Security has always been the core competitiveness of AURIX™ series MCU

◆ Very high stability greatly reduces the risk of failure

◆ Tricore™ core and related peripherals provide strong real-time control performance

◆ Committed long-term supply guarantee and reliable supply chain management

AURIX™ TC4x uses 28nm semiconductor process technology and introduces RRAM non-volatile storage medium (NVM). Infineon and TSMC have been cooperating on this process technology for 8 years, which will help the TC4x series MCU achieve high cost performance and pave the way for the continuous iteration and upgrade of the next generation of MCUs.

In accordance with the development trend of automobiles, AURIX™ TC4x focuses on expanding applications such as electric vehicles, domain controllers/regional controllers, intelligent (assisted) driving, radar, and power chassis.

Thanks to the cross-generational high compatibility design of the AURIX™ series MCUs, users’ development experience in TC3x will greatly reduce the migration workload and accelerate product time to market.

◆ Rich development tools and good continuity

◆ Good compatibility between software and hardware design

◆ The security architecture and concept are consistent and more complete and powerful

◆ High reliability as always

AURIX™ TC4x has been significantly improved in many aspects according to the requirements of the next generation controller