Eternet In Automotive How To Integrate Ethernet

Spirent will be at booth 20 and attendees also can see a demonstration of OPEN Alliance SIG Conformance Test Solution running on Spirent C1 and C50 devices that support 100BASE-T1, 1000BASE-T1 (BroadR-Reach), and 101001000BASE-T.

Attendees can experience a hands-on session with practical training tasks and access to the tools used in the workshop.

Prototyping enables early software development, interoperability testing and system validation.

Access to these facilities is often delivered through the drivers console, along with real-time information and control of the safety and comfort systems.

The growing complexity of in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems is pushing automotive design teams to create faster networks with more traffic and network interdependencies.

Manufacturers are turning to Ethernet for IVI networks alongside traditional controller area networks (CAN), proven for use in safety-critical automotive subsystems.

This can be achieved using audio-video bridging (AVB), which enables precise synchronization of data on multiple Ethernet streams.

The IEEEs AVB specifications include 802.1AS, 802.1Qat, 802.1Qav, 1722, 1733, along with study groups such as 802.1Qbu and 802.1Qbv.

The IEEE updated the 1588 standard in 2008 to support real-time networks of greater precision.

These updates help to ensure that Ethernet has a useful capacity advantage for IVI applications.

Whereas CAN offers 1Mbits and FlexRay 10Mbits, Automotive Ethernet will support data rates of 10Mbits to 1Gbits, with 10100Mbits in use today.

Ethernet is a 4-wire protocol, which adds weight to the vehicle.

The OPEN (One Pair EtherNet) Alliance special interest group has released a standard for reduced twisted-pair Ethernet.

Work is also underway to extend this to gigabit Ethernet (RTPGE), enabling design teams to use a single twisted pair, achieve 1 Gbps speeds, and enable a broader deployment of faster automotive networks.

Many manufacturers are exploring the capabilities of Ethernet for the whole car (Figure 1).

A unified hardware network opens up the possibility of having one chipset for all vehicles, using software to control its features.

This will cut manufacturing and test costs for automotive networks.

Figure 1 Ethernet the automotive network of the future (Source: Synopsys).

Eternet In Automotive How To Integrate Ethernet

Many automotive makers are new to implementing Ethernet and lack the experience and understanding of how to integrate Ethernet with existing chipsets.

The consumerization of IVI systems is intensifying the pressure to bring new features to market more quickly and within budget.

While reducing cost has always been a major driver for design teams, consumerization is elevating the need for faster time-to-market and more innovative features..

Chipset vendors with products, such as GPUs (graphics processing units), qualified for use in automotive subsystems now want to add Ethernet networking to their chipsets.

Being first to market with such products can help them secure design wins.

This means design teams want to get systems up and running quickly.

Prototyping can help design teams integrate and test software earlier in the design phase.

Released in 2009 when the IEEE specifications for AVB were published, Synopsys has since enhanced the IP to support additional dedicated audio-video channels and one-step time stamping.

Synopsys ships the cores with comprehensive documentation, which helps teams achieve ISO 26262 certification.

The most popular choice for automotive designs is the Ethernet QOS IP, shown in figure 2.

Figure 2 DesignWare Ethernet QOS functional block diagram (Source: Synopsys) Design teams can use a configuration wizard to select data bus width, CSR port options and clocking, and other parameters.

The wizard then generates a correct-by-configuration RTL description.