Central computing + regional control architecture, SemiDrive wants to make the whole vehicle intelligent a reality.
作者 | Juice
Edit | Zhihao
Regarding how to develop the vehicle architecture of smart cars, the industry has reached a three-step consensus.
In the past, the automotive industry used a distributed computing architecture, but now it is entering a more integrated stage of cross-domain convergence, and the vision for the future is to realize central computing.
As one of the enterprises with the most complete layout in the field of intelligent automotive chips in China, SemiDrive Technology has proposed a "1+N" central computing + regional control architecture based on its own advantages, providing centralized computing power support through a central computing platform and multiple flexibly configured regional controllers to realize the intelligent upgrade of the whole vehicle.
▲The scene of the press conference of SemiDrive Technology at the Beijing Auto Show
At the same time, SemiDrive has also released corresponding products to support this idea, the X9CC launched at the Beijing Auto Show is a multi-core heterogeneous computing platform designed for central computing, and the E3 product lineup of intelligent vehicle control chips is expanding.
From the perspective of technology and products, SemiDrive's approach is very feasible, and with more intelligent automotive chips on the car, SemiDrive Technology is expected to promote the comprehensive intelligent upgrade of the automotive industry.
01.
The central computing becomes the direction of the industry
SemiDrive proposes a new solution idea
Intelligence has become a recognized development direction of the automotive industry, and both car companies and supply chain companies are promoting the intelligent transformation of the automotive industry.
In the process of intelligent transformation, car companies are constantly improving their requirements for the integration and integration of intelligent products. Previously, vehicle intelligent driving and automatic parking were designed separately, and they were two sets of parallel products.
And now the industry is developing a solution for the integration of travel and parking.
Even with the continuous improvement of the computing power of intelligent driving chips, many companies have begun to integrate intelligent cockpit and automatic parking, and launched the design of cabin and parking integration. But this is not the end, the ultimate goal of many companies is to achieve the integration of cabin and driver.
To achieve this ultimate goal, it is inseparable from the upgrade of on-board chip products.
Therefore, at present, when many chip companies develop next-generation products, they will promote cross-domain integration and central computing as a very important goal, and at the same time, they must also have stronger computing power support.
Many chip companies have officially announced that the computing power of the next generation of chip products will reach thousands of TOPS.
However, from the perspective of industry reality, it is not easy to achieve this goal. At present, there are almost no chip companies that can mass-produce chips that fully support central computing.
On the other hand, for chips, the increase in computing power will also bring about an increase in cost, if the cost cannot be reduced, it is doomed that even if the central computing chip is mass-produced, it can only be mounted on a few high-end models.
In this environment, how to quickly promote the intelligent upgrade of the vehicle architecture has become a problem that the industry needs to solve.
02.
The two core series of SemiDrive were unveiled with new products
At the just-opened 2024 Beijing Auto Show, the domestic chip manufacturer Xinchi Technology put forward its own solution ideas. Cheng Taiyi, CEO of SemiDrive Technology, proposed the model of "1+N" central computing + regional control architecture at the press conference.
▲SemiDrive Technology launched the "1+N" central computing + regional control architecture
Specifically, "1" refers to a central computing platform CCU to provide centralized computing power support for automotive intelligence, and at the same time, "N" flexible and configurable zone controllers ZCU are used to adapt to the needs of different models.
This architecture can not only realize the requirements of vehicle intelligence, but also flexibly adjust according to the needs of enterprises, and realize the balance between performance and cost.
In order to better realize this idea, SemiDrive Technology released corresponding products, first announced the pioneer central computing processor X9CC, which is a multi-core heterogeneous computing platform designed for central computing, with a computing power of up to 200KDMIPS, integrating a variety of high-performance computing cores in a single chip, including 24 Cortex-A55 CPUs, 12 Cortex-R5F CPUs, 2 NPUs, 4 GPUs, and 4 Vision DSP, as well as a Crypto engine that supports the national cryptography algorithm.
▲东软睿驰基于单颗X9CC芯片的中央计算单元X-Center 2.0
SemiDrive's UniLink Framework also provides high-bandwidth, low-latency data exchange between various systems, as well as a standard and easy-to-use programming interface to facilitate system integration.
Therefore, the X9CC single chip supports the operation of up to six independent systems, including entertainment and navigation, LCD instrument, central gateway, intelligent driving, intelligent vehicle control and information security. At the same time, through software deployment, X9CC can support the flexible configuration of each computing core in different systems, reasonably allocate computing resources, and ensure that the product can run efficiently.
▲X9CC central computing platform reference design
At the same time as the launch of the X9CC, SemiDrive also launched a new generation of ZCU chip product family, including E3119/3118, E3650 and other SemiDrive E3 series products under planning.
▲SemiDrive has launched a variety of domain controller chips
These products cover I/O-rich, control fusion, and computing-intensive area controllers, which are respectively oriented to core application scenarios such as body control, body + chassis + power cross-domain fusion, and super power domain control.
At this auto show, SemiDrive Technology also focused on the introduction of ZCU's flagship chip product E3650, which uses the latest ARM Cortex R52+ high-performance lockstep multi-core cluster, supports virtualization, nonvolatile memory (NVM) up to 16MB, has large-capacity SRAM, and has abundant available peripheral resources, which can support the implementation of vehicle electronic and electrical architecture with higher integration and wider configuration.
▲SemiDrive E3650 parameter introduction
On the E3650, SemiDrive has upgraded the fully self-developed SSDPE (Super Speed Data Packet Engine) hardware communication acceleration engine, which can achieve zero data packet loss when all CAN FDs work at the same time, effectively reducing the CPU load and improving the communication throughput.
In addition, for information security requirements, the E3650 also integrates the Xuanwu Super Security HSM information security module, which meets the information security level of ISO 21434, Evita Full and above, and the E3650 also meets the AEC-Q100 Grade 1 and ISO 26262 ASIL D functional safety level.
On the whole, SemiDrive has thought very clearly about the "1+N" central computing + regional control architecture, and has also launched the corresponding product layout, which can meet the different needs of enterprises, so as to help car companies carry out comprehensive and intelligent upgrades.
03.
The product line layout is comprehensive, and the cockpit is more comprehensive
And putting forward such an idea is also inseparable from the long-term accumulation of Xinchi Technology.
It is not difficult to find that the central computing processor X9CC released by SemiDrive this time also belongs to the X9 series from the series point of view, if you look carefully at the product series of SemiDrive, the X9 series is a chip product created by SemiDrive for intelligent cockpit, and has been committed to the deep integration of cockpit and AI.
The X9SP released by SemiDrive in 2023 is the first generation of SemiDrive's AI cockpit product, with 8TOPS NPU computing power, realizing the local deployment and acceleration of AI algorithms, and realizing intelligent functions such as user emotion recognition, gesture interaction, intelligent navigation, active recommendation, and automatic generation of call summaries.
▲SemiDrive actively explores AI cockpits
From the X9SP, we can already see some cross-fusion functions appear. And the newly released X9CC is undoubtedly a step further.
Through the X9 cabin core series products, SemiDrive has been able to realize cockpit application scenarios from entry-level to flagship-level such as instrumentation, IVI, cockpit domain control, and cabin parking integration, covering the cockpit processor requirements of various eras, and also providing a foundation for X9CC to achieve more operating system control.
According to official data, up to now, the shipment of SemiDrive X9 series cockpit processors has exceeded 3 million pieces, and Chery, SAIC, Changan, GAC, BAIC, Dongfeng Nissan, Dongfeng Honda and other car companies are customers.
At the same time, SemiDrive is also the car company with the most complete layout of on-board chips in China, and at the same time lays out the field of intelligent cockpit and intelligent vehicle control, facing the intelligent upgrade of the whole vehicle.
The E3 series MCU products of intelligent vehicle control chips also have a good foundation, leading the 1-2 generations of similar competing products in terms of performance; with rich adaptation experience, it can also shorten the development cycle of the car by 3 to 5 months; and this product supports customized needs and can better serve car companies.
At this stage, the 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, and ADAS intelligent driving, with a cumulative shipment of 1.5 million pieces.
▲SemiDrive MCU shipments ranked first in China
Combined with the previous product layout of SemiDrive, it is not difficult to see that the new idea released by SemiDrive this time is not accidental, but the result of long-term careful consideration. It can be said that SemiDrive has been developing and deploying in this direction from the beginning.
In the past few years, a large number of chip products have been shipped and entered the models of various car companies. This also gives SemiDrive more opportunities to contact with car companies, and is more clear about the needs and pain points of car companies in the development process.
It is precisely by virtue of the accumulation of the foundation in the early stage and the continuous cooperation process with car companies that SemiDrive has a clearer demand for intelligence in the automotive industry, and finally further developed a new product architecture idea.
04.
Conclusion: SemiDrive accelerates the intelligent upgrade of the whole vehicle
Judging from the Beijing Auto Show, intelligence has become the common pursuit of car companies and supply chain enterprises.
However, the intelligence of the car is not only the upgrade of the intelligent cockpit and intelligent driving, but also the real intelligent upgrade of the whole car, which requires car companies to carry out comprehensive intelligent upgrades from the field of electronic and electrical architecture and domain controllers in addition to the cabin driving.
As one of the automotive chip suppliers with the most abundant product lines in China, SemiDrive has been promoting intelligent upgrades in the fields of cockpit, intelligent driving, domain control, and gateways for a long time.
At present, SemiDrive's product line is still being upgraded, and it is also helping car companies achieve comprehensive intelligence through its own way.