Showing posts with label SoftBank arm. Show all posts
From Google Cars to Apple and McLaren to Daimler Benz and in-car voice activated Microsoft office to specially designed safety chips – the journey is only starting
So it appears that whatever else you will be
doing in your car in the future, you won’t be driving it
The
ever tightening integration of the car industry and the digital tech industry
appears to be accelerating if the number of deals, technology announcements and
rumours is anything to go by.
Cars
and digital technology are suddenly everywhere. In the period of just a couple
of days.
Apple
to buy a British supercar maker reported the FT.
This
was denied by McLaren, the UK sports car manufacturer and owner of McLaren F1
racing team. But it didn’t stop the spread of comment about why this would be
logical.
In
another breaking news story, the electric car maker Tesla is reportedly being
sued for being low on horsepower.
A
group of Norwegians is has filed a lawsuit claiming that Tesla’s Model S P85D
only reached horsepower of 469 and not 700 as had been marketed as an ‘insane’
mode. Tesla rejected the claims. The case is due to begin in Oslo in December.
In China Tesla is facing a lawsuit which centres around its autopilot function
following a fatal crash.
Over
in Germany, Daimler Benz said it would extend its deal with T-Systems, the
business arm of Deutsche Telekom which included its connected car platform.
T-Systems connects over two million Daimler vehicles across the globe via
Daimler’s proprietary connected car platform, and it will continue to operate the
existing "Mercedes me connect" services for the next generation of
vehicles as well. The services include live traffic information, safety
functions such as emergency call, convenience services such as remote control,
and infotainment apps like Internet radio and hotel/parking search functions.
Microsoft
this week said in a blog that it was working with Daimler and other auto makers
to bring voice activated Office365 to the car.
It
said: “Many of us love our cars, but we don’t necessarily love spending time in
them during the work week if it means inching forward on the freeway or being
stuck in stop-and-go traffic. When we’re behind the wheel during those long
commutes, we often end up behind the curve by the time we get to work.”
"To
help make time in the car more productive, Microsoft is working with auto
companies to bring to the car the same Office 365 communication and
collaboration services you’ve come to rely on at work. Office 365 in the car
includes Microsoft Exchange support, which integrates your work calendar, to-do
list and contacts, with all of them using your car’s voice and navigation
systems."
Daimler
AG recently announced it will start using what it calls, “In Car Office” in
some of its Mercedes models beginning in mid-2017.
“Microsoft
is working with auto companies to make time spent in vehicles more efficient
and connected to people’s daily lives,” said Kevin Dallas, corporate vice
president of Business Development at Microsoft. “This collaboration with
Daimler represents a new emphasis on consumer productivity within the car as we
look forward to autonomous driving in the future.”
The
system, “knows about your next phone conferences and dials you in automatically
while you’re in the car,” said Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the board of
management of Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, speaking at IFA 2016
in Berlin earlier this month.
The
service can also tap into your calendar data and auto-populate your car’s
navigation unit with driving directions for an upcoming meeting. In the future,
when autonomous vehicles become a reality, the service will become a platform
for more extensive tasks like Skype video chats.
Here
the in the UK and deep down at the technology level ARM Holdings, announced a
‘safety’ chip for autonomous vehicles.
ARM
has launched a new real-time processor with advanced safety features for
autonomous vehicles and medical and industrial robots. The ARM Cortex-R52 was
designed to address functional safety in systems that must comply with ISO
26262 ASIL D and IEC 61508 SIL 3, the most stringent safety standards in the
automotive and industrial markets
STMicroelectronics
is the first ARM partner to announce it has licensed the high performance
processor to enable it to create highly integrated SoCs for the automotive
market.
The
Cortex-R52 is the first processor built on the ARMv8-R architecture and it was
designed from the ground up to address functional safety," said James
McNiven, general manager for CPU and media processing groups, ARM. "We are
helping partners to meet particular market opportunities, especially in fully
autonomous vehicles and robotics systems where specific functionality is
required for safety-critical tasks. By documenting the strict development
process, fault modelling and supporting software isolation, ARM is enabling a
faster route to market for partners addressing these applications
The
Cortex-R52 offers hardware-enforced separation of software tasks to ensure
safety-critical code is fully isolated. This allows the hardware to be managed
by a software hypervisor policing the execution and resourcing of tasks. By
enabling the precise and robust separation of software, the Cortex-R52
decreases the amount of code that must be safety-certified, so speeding up
development as software integration, maintenance and validation is easier. The
processor also deals with increased software complexity while delivering the
determinism and fast context switching that real-time systems demand
The
Cortex-R52 supports our Smart Driving vision by enabling a new range of
high-performance, power-efficient SoCs for any in-vehicle application demanding
real-time operation and the highest levels of functional safety, including
powertrain, chassis and ADAS," said Fabio Marchiò, Automotive &
Discrete Group Vice President and GM at the Automotive Digital Division, STM
Microelectronics. The ability to compartmentalise software provides our users
with the best solution for safety without loss of determinism. Its
virtualisation support simplifies the consolidation of applications and
functions into a single processor, delivering a shorter integration time. DENSO,
a leading global supplier of advanced automotive technology, systems and
components is supporting the launch.
ARM
was sold to Japan's Softbank back in July. Read Why did Softbank buy ARM
Japanese-owned chip designer ARM has today unveiled a new chip designed with safety as its key feature.
Unlike
standard chipsets, the ARM Cortex-R52 is designed to comply with the most
stringent safety standards in the automotive and industrial markets.
Such
a chipset is necessary for a number of new emergent computing fields, including
self-driving cars and medical robots.
In
these fields, compromised code on the chip itself could result in very
dangerous consequences when in use.
To
mitigate this danger, within the Cortex-R52 chip safety-critical code is fully
isolated by ‘hardware-enforced separation’ of software tasks.
“The
Cortex-R52 is the first processor built on the ARMv8-R architecture and it was
designed from the ground up to address functional safety,” said James McNiven,
general manager for CPU at ARM.
While
the chips were designed by ARM, the company has already signed a deal with
STMicroelectronics for them to be the first licensed manufacturer of the
Cortex-R52.
STMicroelectronics
themselves noted the security provided by the chips as a key selling point.
“The
Cortex-R52’s ability to compartmentalize software provides our users with the
best solution for safety without loss of determinism,” said Fabio Marchiò,
automotive digital division general manager of STMicroelectronics.
The
announcement of this chip comes at a time of growth for autonomous vehicles and
other critical robotic systems.
With
recent hacking demonstrations showing the relative insecurity of the current
chips and software used in these systems, the new ARM chip could find a strong
market niche.
The
release of the Cortex-R52 also follows ARM’s recent acquisition by Japanese
electronics company Softbank.
One
of the main drivers of this deal was for Softbank to acquire the chip
technology which would underpin the explosion of so-called Internet of Things
(IoT) devices.
As
autonomous cars and industrial/medical robots are key parts of the IoT
ecosystem, this acquisition already appears to be bearing fruit for Softbank.
Further
demonstrating the interest in this sector, key rival Intel earlier this year
acquired Yogitech, another company which specialized in designing safety chips.
ARM
Holdings is currently preparing the Cortex-R52 application processor,
the follow up for the ARM Cortex-R5 chipset, which is already being used
in a number of safety-critical applications. The new generation
Cortex-R52 is set to be around 35% more powerful than the outgoing chip
design and has recorded 1.36 Automark per MHz on the EEMBC AutoBench
according to the Green Hills Compiler 2017, the highest reported
benchmark of the class. ARM’s Cortex-R52 is designed with many built-in
protections against random, design and software errors and is compliant
with ISO 26262 ASIL D and IEC 61508 SIL 3 safety standards. As part of
this, the chipset identifies an issue and is capable of performing
safety-critical tasks, such as bringing a vehicle to a stop, in the
event of a problem. The Cortex-R52 has the ability to reach a decision
based on circumstances and the information available. This means that
ARM’s new chip could potentially be used in autonomous vehicles, factory
product lines, power plants and medical equipment. The artificially
intelligent design will make it easier for an overall products to reach
the necessary safety standards and certification.
ARM’s
worldwide marketing and business development manager, Richard York, explains
that the kinds of products the Cortex-R52 is destined for can affect life, but
that the built-in decision making technology “…will make it much easier to do
increasingly complex software.” ARM’s new Cortex-R52 design uses the hardware
to separate software tasks, which is a means of ensuring safety-critical code
is kept isolated. This makes is considerably easier to debug code and makes use
of a software “hypervisor” to police the code running on the chip. Ultimately,
ARM’s new high performance design helps developers build safety-critical
applications and the first customer, STMicroelectronics, will be using the
Cortex-R52 as part of their “Smart Driving” vision. The Cortex-R52 will be put
to service in a number of ways including powertrain, chassis and ADAS (advanced
driver assistance systems). STMicroelectronics’ Automotive & Discrete group
vice president and Automotive Digital Division general manager, Fabio Marchiò,
explained that the Cortex-R52 is the best chip for task that must combine “safety
without loss of determinism.” Fabio also explained that the Cortex-R52’s
support for virtualization technology should lead to a streamlined integration
process. This should save manufacturers time and development costs.
There
is currently significant interest into the autonomous automobile sector as more
and more manufacturers are developing products and services for the industry.
Although it is the technology and automobile manufacturers that are getting
more of the limelight, it’s important to remember that behind these big brand
names there are a large number of supporting companies that are building the
tools necessary to enable tomorrow’s technology. It is not yet clear how
quickly we will see autonomous vehicles on the road as in addition to the
technology issues, there are significant legislative barriers: today’s road
laws were not designed with a machine being responsible for the vehicle rather
than a driver. With many different companies working on the end product, ARM
Holdings is clearly taking the view that, not unlike the California gold rush,
it is better to sell the underlying technologies to be used by the final
product, rather than the final product.
Here,
ARM Holdings appear to be well positioned for this. The company, which was
recently bought by SoftBank for around $31 billion, does not manufacturer their
own chips but instead license their designs to manufacturers. This very much
reduces the risk to the business of a failed automotive product. Both the manufacturer
and ARM work with developers to bring the product to market. Following the
SoftBank takeover, ARM may now have sufficient financial backing to allow the
company to expand its operations and design specialist chipsets for the
automotive markets. Although the new ARM Cortex-R52 will not be available in
devices until early 2018, this may be the first of a family of new products
designed for the automotive market.
