Launching the "1+N" central computing + regional control architecture, CoreDrive leads the era of intelligent mobility

On April 25, SemiDrive Technology held its 2024 Spring Conference at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition, launching a new generation of automotive-grade CPU and regional controller chip product families. Zhao Peng, chief engineer of the Digital Center of Chery Automobile R&D Institute, and Zhao Yongchao, head of the intelligent IoT and automotive business line of ARM Technology, and other guests attended the conference.

Group photo of guests attending the 2024 Beijing Auto Show and Xinchi Spring Conference

Zhao Peng, chief engineer of the Digital Center of Chery Automobile R&D Institute, said: "As China's leading automotive chip company, SemiDrive has performed well in leading the R&D and implementation of automotive chip products and making overall plans for future EE architecture. It is an excellent partner for automotive companies. Chery and SemiDrive have established a stable and in-depth cooperative relationship, and are actively exploring and practicing innovations in core application areas such as smart cockpits and smart vehicle control. SemiDrive's series of products have been mass-produced on many Chery models. We will continue to work together to innovate on platforms such as cabin-driving-parking integration based on SemiDrive's latest products."

Zhao Yongchao, head of ARM's smart IoT and automotive business line, said: "Semiconductor has always been a very important partner of ARM. We give full play to our respective technological advantages, constantly explore new products that truly meet market demand, and better contribute to the 'new four modernizations' of the automotive industry. In the future, both parties will continue to work with partners upstream and downstream of the industry chain to inject more innovative energy into automotive chips."

With the theme of "Central Region, 'Core' Leading Smart Travel", Cheng Taiyi, CEO of CoreDrive Technology, shared his views on the evolution of automotive electronic and electrical architecture and the development of automotive chips at the press conference.

CoreDrive CEO Cheng Taiyi delivered a speech at the press conference

He pointed out: "Under the transformation trend of intelligent, electrified and software-defined vehicles, automotive chips have ushered in new development opportunities and challenges. Providing core support for the evolution of automotive electronic and electrical architecture is the basic principle of Semiconductor's product planning and business focus."

At present, Xinchi has achieved industry-leading mass production results in the fields of smart cockpits and smart vehicle controls. The full range of products has achieved mass production and shipment of more than 4.5 million units, covering more than 40 mainstream models, serving more than 90% of China's OEMs and some international mainstream car companies.

Launched the "1+N" central computing + regional control architecture

Launched the pioneering CPU and next-generation regional controller family

At the press conference, CoreDrive first launched the "1+N" central computing + regional control architecture. One central computing platform CCU provides centralized computing support for automotive intelligence, and N flexible and configurable regional controllers ZCU are used to adapt to the needs of different models.

Under the "1+N" architecture, CoreDrive officially released the pioneering central computing processor X9CC. X9CC is a multi-core heterogeneous computing platform designed for central computing, with a computing power of up to 200KDMIPS. It integrates multiple high-performance computing cores in a single chip, including 24 Cortex-A55 CPUs, 12 Cortex-R5F CPUs, 2 NPUs, 4 GPUs, 4 Vision DSPs, and a Crypto engine that supports national encryption algorithms.

CoreDrive's unique UniLink Framework provides high-bandwidth, low-latency data interaction between multiple systems, as well as standard, easy-to-use programming interfaces, greatly reducing the difficulty of multi-system integrated development. The X9CC single chip can support the operation of up to six independent systems, including entertainment navigation, LCD instrumentation, central gateway, intelligent driving, intelligent vehicle control, and information security. According to software deployment, X9CC can support the flexible configuration of each computing core in different systems and reasonably allocate computing resources.

At the same time, in response to the diversified configuration requirements of the zone controller (ZCU) under the new generation EE architecture, Xinchi has also launched a new generation of ZCU product family, covering I/O-rich, control-integrated and computing-intensive zone controllers, targeting core application scenarios such as body control, cross-domain integration of body + chassis + power, and super power domain control.

The regional controller product family includes E3119/3118, E3650 and other Xinchi E3 series products that are being planned.

At the press conference, CoreDrive highlighted the ZCU flagship product E3650. E3650 uses the latest ARM Cortex R52+ high-performance lock-step multi-core cluster, supports virtualization, non-volatile memory (NVM) up to 16MB, has large-capacity SRAM, and more available peripheral resources, solving the pain points encountered in the current vehicle electrical architecture design, and supporting the realization of a higher-integration, wider-configuration vehicle electronic and electrical architecture.

On E3650, CoreDrive upgraded its self-developed SSDPE (Super Speed ​​Data Packet Engine) hardware communication acceleration engine, which can achieve zero data packet loss when all CAN FDs work simultaneously, effectively reducing CPU load and improving communication throughput.

In response to the growing demand for information security, E3650 also integrates the Xuanwu ultra-secure HSM information security module to meet the information security levels of ISO 21434, Evita Full and above, and better support the overseas expansion of vehicle models.

In addition, the E3650 meets AEC-Q100 Grade 1 and ISO 26262 ASIL D functional safety levels.

Embracing big models and opening a new era of AI cockpits

With the launch of new products, CoreDrive's complete layout in the fields of smart cockpit and smart vehicle control is fully demonstrated. In the field of smart cockpit, CoreDrive embraces big models and opens a new era of AI cockpit.

The car cockpit has evolved from digital to integrated information display, and is gradually realizing AI cockpit. With its X9 cockpit core series products, CoreDrive comprehensively covers the cockpit processor requirements of all eras, including instrumentation, IVI, cockpit domain control, cabin integration, and other cockpit application scenarios from entry-level to flagship level, and is actively leading the development of AI cockpit products.

X9SP, released in 2023, is the first generation of CoreDrive AI cockpit, with 8TOPS NPU computing power, which enables local deployment and acceleration of AI algorithms. X9SP currently supports multi-modal perception in the car and interaction with large cloud models. The AI ​​cockpit based on CoreDrive X9SP was demonstrated at the press conference, and intelligent functions such as in-car user emotion recognition, gesture interaction, smart navigation, active recommendations, and automatic generation of call summaries can all be smoothly realized.

The new generation of X9CC has a higher-performance NPU unit, which can achieve local + cloud hybrid deployment of large models. In the future, SemiDrive will further launch the AI ​​cockpit processor X10, which will more efficiently support the Transformer architecture and support pure terminal-side deployment of large models, bringing users a safer, more efficient and more personalized AI cockpit experience.

So far, the shipment volume of CoreDrive X9 series cockpit processors has exceeded 3 million pieces, and models equipped with X9 series chips from automakers such as Chery, SAIC, Changan, GAC, BAIC, Dongfeng Nissan, and Dongfeng Honda have all been mass-produced. With the advent of the AI ​​cockpit era, it is believed that CoreDrive intelligent cockpit processors will usher in a broader development space and provide innovative products and services for more automakers.

From core control to advanced intelligence, leading the high-end automotive MCU

In the field of intelligent vehicle control, with the release of the new generation of regional controller product family, CoreChi has further improved its strategic layout in high-performance automotive MCU. From core control to advanced intelligence, CoreChi E3 series control core products are leading the local high-end automotive MCU track.

In terms of product performance, the Xinchi E3 series products are 1-2 generations ahead of similar competitors, and both software and hardware achieve the highest functional safety level; in terms of mass production, the E3 series is even more "volume-based", saving customers 3-5 months of development cycle; at the same time, the Xinchi E3 series can support customized service needs and create differentiated solutions for customers.

At present, the Xinchi E3 series products have been widely used in core domain control fields such as regional control, body control, electric drive, BMS battery management, intelligent chassis, ADAS intelligent driving, etc., and the shipment volume has exceeded 1.5 million pieces. With the mass production of the new generation of ZCU product family, the Xinchi E3 series will further consolidate its leading position in the field of intelligent vehicle control.

At the end of the press conference, Cheng Taiyi, CEO of CoreDrive Technology, said that in the future, CoreDrive will continue to provide core support for global automotive companies with innovative technologies and products, helping more automakers speed up the mass production of smart products and allowing more people to enjoy the smart travel experience faster.