The next generation of MCU is about to be put into mass production! The transformation of vehicle electronic architecture, the "security" behind computing power

The upgrade of the new generation of vehicle E/E architecture is bringing new changes to the industrial chain.

In the past few years, with the accelerated advancement of vehicle intelligence, especially computing power SoC, central computing platform, and the integration of vehicle control functions, higher requirements have been placed on traditional automotive-grade MCUs.

For example, in traditional distributed ECUs and various single-function controls, MCUs are more often used as control nodes for body signal processing and control. Common examples include body control such as lighting, wipers, windows, seats, as well as cockpit entertainment (mainly instruments), low-data processing for low-level assisted driving, and functional safety assurance.

With the integration of dozens of ECUs with central computing + regional control such as HPC+ZCU, and the geometric growth in computing power requirements and functional processing complexity of key modules such as cockpit, intelligent driving, and chassis power, new requirements for MCUs have been put forward for higher performance, higher security, higher bandwidth data communication, and real-time computing.

According to the calculation of Gaogong Intelligent Automobile Research Institute, starting from 2024, cross-domain centralized computing platforms (cabin-driver integration and HPC+ZCU) will begin to enter the pre-installed mass production cycle, and it is expected that by 2030, the market share will exceed 30%.

Among them, computing power SoC, including NVIDIA Thor, Qualcomm 8775/8795, Black Sesame Smart Wudang C1296 and other computing platforms have entered the development and mass production stage. And the next generation of high-performance MCUs are also ready to go.

1. AURIX™ TC4x, a new era

At present, there are two development routes for high-performance MCUs based on the E/E architecture of domain control and zone control. One is to lean towards MPU by introducing more A cores. The representative product is the automotive network processor, which emphasizes providing real-time network performance and data packet acceleration to meet the needs of service-oriented (SOA) gateways.

This type of product is mainly used in existing new vehicle architectures for applications such as central gateways, cockpit domain integrated gateways, chassis central domains, and vehicle-cloud central computing units (most basic vehicle control), with an emphasis on network acceleration.

The other is a more balanced performance optimization. Compared with the previous generation of MCU, it has been comprehensively upgraded in multiple dimensions such as CPU, virtualization, on-chip flash memory, OTA, network security, efficient communication and data processing, and multiple high-speed data transmission interfaces.

In summary, for the next generation of high-performance, highly centralized vehicle architecture, MCU requires higher processing power, higher security performance, more complete hardware virtualization support and isolation features, and richer network connections.

Two years ago, in order to adapt to new market demands, automotive chip giant Infineon announced the launch of the new AURIX TC4x series of microcontrollers (MCUs) produced using 28nm process technology. The new generation of electric vehicles, advanced driver assistance systems, automotive electronic/electrical (E/E) architecture, and artificial intelligence (AI) applications are regarded as the four core scenarios.

From the product definition point of view, the AURIX TC4x series is more inclined to the second type of the above-mentioned next-generation MCU, and places more emphasis on the reliability, safe and efficient real-time control requirements of the new generation of vehicle electronic/electrical architecture for functional integration.

Public information shows that compared with the previous generation AURIX TC3x series, the TC4x series uses the new generation TriCore™ 1.8 architecture, with a main frequency of up to 500 MHz (the previous generation was 300 MHz), and supports virtualization. Compared with MCUs on the market that use Arm public version IP, the characteristic of TriCore™ is that it is deeply optimized to meet the high requirements of automotive grade.

Public information shows that the TriCore™ core architecture has gone through four generations of single-core microcontrollers since its birth in 1999. AURIX™ is a multi-core architecture microcontroller based on the TriCore™ core.

The core design concept of TriCore™ is to integrate the functions of application processor (AP), microcontroller (MCU), and digital signal processor (DSP) into a single processor architecture.

The TriCore™ instruction set architecture (ISA) combines the real-time capabilities of a microcontroller, the computational power of a DSP, and the cost-effective features of a RISC load/store architecture in a compact, reprogrammable core.

One of the characteristics of this architecture is the balance between performance and energy efficiency. This hybrid architecture has stronger real-time processing capabilities and reliability, and is suitable for handling complex tasks and strict real-time requirements in automotive electronic systems.

This is why, since the launch of the first generation AURIX™ TC2x in 2014, the AURIX™ series has been a "phenomenal" MCU in the automotive powertrain, chassis control and driver assistance system (ADAS) markets.

For example, the TC3x series provides up to 16 MB of flash memory, more than 6 MB of integrated RAM, and up to 6 TriCore™ 1.62 cores, each with a maximum clock frequency of 300 MHz. In addition, up to two dedicated signal processing units (SPUs) are provided for data fusion.

Especially for applications such as chassis control and assisted driving, domain control and data fusion that meet ASIL-D standards are required. In addition to meeting ASIL-D standards, the TC3x series also provides higher security support through the second-generation HSM with asymmetric encryption accelerator and full EVITA support.

In order to speed up the development of downstream customers, TC4x can reuse the existing TC3x algorithms and ecosystem, and Infineon's AURIX TC4x ecosystem has also been laid out in advance. For example, MATLAB support will be used for automatic code generation to quickly achieve prototype creation.

In addition, Synopsys' TC4x-supported Virtual Machine Development Kit (VDK) can accelerate software development during the design phase. The Synopsys DesignWare® ARC® MetaWare Toolkit supporting AURIX TC4x can provide the required compilers, debuggers, libraries, and simulators for PPU software development.

Monitoring data from Gaogong Intelligent Automobile Research Institute shows that, taking ADAS as an example, from the early Mobileye forward-looking integrated device to the intelligent driving domain controller that has been increasingly adopted in vehicles in recent years, Infineon's AURIX™ series is almost the standard configuration for most mass production solutions.

According to public data, in 2023, Infineon's automotive-grade MCU sales increased by nearly 44% over the previous year, accounting for approximately 29% of the global market share, ranking first in the world in this key market segment for the first time.

2. Virtualization + network security, the new standard for MCU

With the launch of the central computing + regional architecture and the integrated cabin and driver domain control solutions, downstream customers are also in urgent need of higher-performance MCUs to provide support. "Some solution providers can use multiple previous-generation MCU solutions for transition in the short term, but the cost will also increase significantly."

In fact, Infineon's newly launched AURIX TC4x series is designed to meet the changing market demand in the next stage. It includes the first virtualization function, which allows multiple operating systems and AUTOSAR protocol stacks to be executed in parallel on a single MCU, that is, the ability of "one chip for multiple uses".

In particular, E/E architecture is gradually shifting to domain and region-based, which is driving automakers to integrate multiple ECUs while adding more functions and complex applications. However, it also puts forward new requirements for MCUs to run multiple applications in a secure and separate manner.

The birth of the AURIX TC4x series means that Infineon has completed the evolution of MCU software architecture from single-core to multi-core and then to multi-core virtualization for the first time in the industry, and supports single-core virtualization enable/disable. This makes it possible to integrate and safely and independently operate a wide variety of vehicle control function modules in the past under the HPC+ZCU architecture.

In addition, thanks to the AURIX TC4x architecture's first built-in RRAM non-volatile storage medium (NVM), the basic software program is almost always in standby mode, and some ADAS functions, air conditioning, heating and suspension functions are ready within 1 second.

At the same time, the MCAL of AURIX™ TC4x is a driver that meets the ASIL D safety level and enhances support for multi-core, virtualization, and ASIL partitioning, thereby providing greater flexibility and simplifying customers' software partitioning and system-level safety demonstration.

This means that for downstream customers, they can maximize the utilization of MCU hardware resources. The resource isolation feature can also reduce the difficulty of software development and integration, and better meet the requirements of functional safety and information security.

At the same time, OTA and cybersecurity are also becoming standard modules for various types of processors on the vehicle side. For example, the AURIX TC4x series of microcontrollers are developed in full compliance with the ISO/SAE 21434 certification process and support post-quantum encryption, thereby further enhancing the protection of data and information.