Archive of the Design Category

SMSC said Hyundai has selected SMSC’s MOST networking technology as part of the infotainment system for the Hyundai EQUUS. Hyundai also uses MOST in its Genesis sedan and in the Kia Mohave.

The EQUUS, currently the top of the line Hyundai model available in South Korea, also includes Vehicle Stability Management, a Lane Departure Warning System, and an Adaptive Front Lighting System.

HMI development and code generation tools from Altia Inc. were used to develop display screens for the virtual instrument cluster in Land Rover’s 2010 Range Rover. A 12-inch thin-film transistor screen shows essential driver information via graphical displays and virtual dials. Drivers can customize the message center to display personal prioritized information such as system warnings, outside temperature, and vehicle information to audio and telephone displays. The message center can also communicate off-road information, like steering angle, wheel articulation, suspension settings and Terrain Response settings.

Nick Rogers, chief engineer of new vehicle architecture at Range Rover called the new display technology a major advance. “It gives tremendous flexibility in presenting information, so that drivers get precisely the data they require, in all driving conditions,” he said.

All of the instrument cluster and message center screens were created for Land Rover with Altia HMI development and code generation tools.

Three automotive design tool vendors, dSPACE, National Instruments, and The MathWorks, are providing more than $2,300,000 hardware and software to student teams participating in EcoCAR, the three-year vehicle technology competition for engineering students. All three vendors are platinum sponsors of the contest.

The tools are intended to help students teams design green cars of the future. EcoCAR teams learn real-world automotive engineering practices through the use of model-based design and graphical system design technologies that include hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and software-in-the-loop (SIL). Students will unveil their final designs at the competition finals in Toronto on Friday, June 12, 2009.

EcoCAR students are working in teams on “what if” scenarios to validate their assumptions in a simulated environment to test hybrid controls strategies using SIL technology from The MathWorks and National Instruments. With their designs fully tested, they are trying out their work in HIL systems supplied by National Instruments and dSPACE.

dSPACE is contributing a complete product line of tools for embedded software development and testing with a cumulative value of more than $1 million. The tools include MicroAutoBox, Rapid Control Prototyping (RCP) systems, HIL simulators, measurement and calibration hardware and software, and autocode generating software.

The dSPACE Simulator enables students to cover scenarios ranging from testing single engine control units to integration testing of the whole vehicle. EcoCAR teams using dSPACE’s HIL technology include Howard University, Mississippi State, North Carolina State, Ohio State, Penn State, the University of Victoria, University of Waterloo and West Virginia University.

National Instruments is donating more than $300,000 worth of engineering hardware and software, including NI LabVIEW graphical system design software, CompactRIO in-vehicle embedded control systems, and PXI modular simulation systems, providing an entire HIL solution. Teams are using the tools to design, prototype and deploy vehicles and tackle algorithm engineering challenges associated with developing advanced hybrid vehicles.

EcoCAR teams using HIL technology from National Instruments include Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Georgia Tech, Michigan Tech, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Texas Tech, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, University of Wisconsin and Virginia Tech. Embry-Riddle and Virginia Tech also are using the National Instruments SIL solution for their projects.

The MathWorks is donating software for Model-Based Design, including its core software MATLAB and Simulink. The company is also delivering training to all student teams and faculty advisors and providing automotive industry consultants as mentors who work closely with students throughout the three-year competition. The MathWorks has provided more than $1 million in product and in-kind donations to the competition. All 17 EcoCAR teams are using The MathWorks tools for Model-Based Design.

SMSC said its MOST (Media Oriented Systems Transport ) networking technology and INIC (Intelligent Network Interface Controller) architecture have been selected as part of the infotainment system for the Lexus RX. The INIC system-on-chip provides access to all data transportation mechanisms on a MOST Network.

Christian Thiel, vice president and general manager of SMSC’s Automotive Information Systems product line, said the RX is the first Lexus model with MOST and the first Toyota platform to roll out worldwide.

MOST provides the means to distribute multimedia entertainment functions among the various control devices around the car. For example, a CD changer, radio, global positioning system, mobile telephone and DVD player can be established in a ring network and send static-free audio signals to the amplifier via the MOST network.

MOST50 uses a double density coding scheme to double the bandwidth over the first generation, MOST25, while maintaining the same physical transmission frequency. With MOST50, the data signal is transmitted over Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) or even Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) copper cables, allowing customers to use conventional wire harness and established manufacturing processes.

Fujitsu Microelectronics America, Inc. has published a technology backgrounder entitled “How the 1394 Automotive Network Simplifies Infotainment Delivery.”

It describes the 1394 Automotive standard and compares three contenders for automotive infotainment networking: 1394 Automotive, Media Oriented System Transport (MOST), and Gigabit Ethernet.

IBM has introduced Rational Team Webtop, a web-based user interface for its Jazz-based systems and software platform. The company also announced more than a dozen enhancements and/or integrations for existing products for requirements management, change management, modeling, configuration management, and collaboration.

Hans Windpassinger, Rational Software Go-to-Market Manager for the automotive industry, said Team Webtop provides a composite view of the information stored in separate tool repositories such as Rational DOORS and Rational Change. Users can access all of the available tools and repositories with a single sign-on, and will no longer have to navigate between tools.

IBM also introduced enhanced versions of Rational DOORS (version 9.2), Change (5.2), Team Concert (2.0), Rhapsody (7.5), and Synergy (7.1). All are scheduled for June availability.

DOORS 9.2 allows a wider range of stakeholders to review, analyze and modify requirements data via the web interface, without installing additional software.

Change 5.2 has been updated to include a central Synergy server that enforces traceability by managing all change processes within a wide area network. IBM said an interface between Rational Change and Rational DOORS provides round-trip traceability.

Team Concert 2.0 provides improved security features and scalability for enterprise deployments. Enhancements include an enterprise server with an unlimited number of developers, server support for p-Series hardware (AIX 5.3), support for 64-bit server platforms, and synchronized delivery of 13 languages.

Rhapsody 7.5 includes improvements for rapid prototyping and testing, and a new Agile code engineering workflow that synchronizes models and code.

Synergy 7.1 consolidates software assets and delivery on a single SCM platform with WAN access for distributed users. It also provides enhanced support for software reuse and component-based development.

An interface between DOORS and Rational Quality Manager improves traceability between test cases. Analysts can verify in DOORS that all requirements have been covered by test cases, and can also monitor test results. Other new interfaces include DOORS to Quality Manager, Rhapsody to Quality Manager, Focal Point to System Architect, Team Concert to Quality Manager, and Team Webtop to DOORS and Change.

The MathWorks said that Argonne National Laboratory used tools from The MathWorks - Parallel Computing Toolbox and MATLAB Distributed Computing Server - to help reduce from two weeks to one day the simulation time of models built with the Powertrain System Analysis Toolkit (PSAT).

Argonne used The MathWorks‘ Simulink and Stateflow in the course of developing PSAT, an industry-standard model that lets automotive engineers simulate advanced powertrain designs, including hybrid electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, to assess design tradeoffs.

Argonne used Parallel Computing Toolbox with PSAT to execute simulations on a 16-node cluster–reducing the overall run time from two weeks to one day. Using MATLAB Distributed Computing Server also enabled Argonne to move its simulations with ease from a desktop computer to a cluster in one hour.

“Hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles are much more complex than vehicles with conventional powertrains. The U.S. Department of Energy and automotive OEMs needed an efficient and reliable way to evaluate the effect that each component has on vehicle fuel economy and performance,” said Argonne National Laboratory research engineer Sylvain Pagerit.

“Without parallel computing capabilities, we would not have been able to run the necessary simulations in the time allotted and, consequently, would have been unable to support our customers. The combination of PSAT and Parallel Computing Toolbox save countless hours in development by providing an efficient simulation-based environment for design tradeoff studies.”

“Traditionally, automotive engineers use prototypes to decide on system design tradeoffs. However, with the large number of advanced powertrain options, much of the hardware is being developed in parallel with the vehicle system development,” said Jon Friedman, automotive industry marketing manager at The MathWorks. “Model-Based Design and tools such as PSAT allow automotive engineers to make critical design decisions early in the process. And by taking advantage of our parallel computing capabilities, the Argonne team cut a time-intensive simulation process down to one day, speeding up design evaluation and bringing significant time and cost savings to the automotive industry.”

QNX Software is offering board support packages (BSPs) for automotive reference boards and development platforms, including the Texas Instruments Jacinto, Renesas Technology SH7723-EVM and SH7786-EVM, and Freescale MPC5121E, i.MX25 ADS, i.MX31 ADS, and i.MX35 ADS.

Developers can download the QNX BSPs from Foundry27, the QNX community web portal. A list of current BSPs is available at http://community.qnx.com/sf/wiki/do/viewPage/projects.bsp/wiki/BSPAndDrivers.

QNX automotive BSPs are developed on the Foundry27 web portal, so developers can gain immediate access to the latest BSP code updates and enhancements. At the Foundry 27 BSP Project Wiki home page (http://community.qnx.com/sf/wiki/do/viewPage/projects.bsp/wiki/) developers can join forums and talk directly with BSP developers from QNX Software Systems. QNX support for automotive BSPs is an element of QNX CAR, a program designed to help automotive suppliers accelerate product prototyping and reduce engineering costs.

Fujitsu Microelectronics America has introduced a 1394 automotive controller that transmits high-definition video over 1394 Automotive in-vehicle multimedia networks at 800 Mbps. The MB88395 can simultaneously transmit multiple streams around the vehicle, such as HD video (1,280 dots x 720 lines) from Blu-Ray DVDs, digital TV, and car navigation images.

“Honda R&D welcomes the MB88395, the first IC to provide the 800 Mbps speed of the 1394 Automotive specification,” said Yuji Kawaguchi, Operating Officer of Honda R&D Co., Ltd. “The importance of high-speed digital transmission will increase further in the future to handle in-vehicle multimedia as well as to reduce weight. 1394 Automotive is an in-vehicle network that can enrich entertainment and comfort. We plan to promptly evaluate the MB88395.”

Co-developed with Fujitsu VLSI Limited, the Fujitsu MB88395 controller uses an 800 Mbps physical layer and link layer along with the Fujitsu proprietary SmartCODEC, which compresses video to one-quarter its original size and can compress and decompress high-resolution video in two to three milliseconds without any perceptible time lag or out-of-sync content. Akio Nezu, senior marketing manager in Fujitsu Microelectronics‘ Automotive Business Group, said this resolves latency issues that can be a problem when different viewers are watching the same content on the front and rear monitors.

Nezu said the combination brings HD-quality video to rear-seat entertainment, while also reducing vehicle weight and improving fuel efficiency. The controller and SmartCODEC combination also reduces the system cost of in-vehicle multimedia networks by up to 30% while reducing the number of wire harnesses by up to 70%. It can reduce environmental impact by approximately 10kg of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year for a car traveling 10,000km, about the amount of CO2 a tree absorbs in a year.

The MB88395 controller incorporates Digital Transmission Content Protection (DTCP) encryption protocol, which prevents unauthorized duplication, download or alteration of audio or visual media.

The controller complies with the 800 Mbps specification of the 1394 standard, doubling the 400 Mbps data rate of Fujitsu Microelectronics‘ previous controller. The Fujitsu SmartCODEC, developed by Fujitsu Laboratories, is used in the BT.601 Transport Over IEEE-1394 standard, a transport protocol for sending YUV and RGB video streams over 1394.

“The 1394 Automotive standard is now moving forward for in-vehicle multimedia networking, and we expect it to become the preferred automotive networking standard for entertainment, information, and other applications,” said Philip Hughes, senior director, Automotive Business Group, Fujitsu Microelectronics America. “We expect this new 1394 Automotive in-vehicle networking technology will be in vehicles in the 2011 and 2012 model years.”

Factors in favor of 1394 essential for digital transmission in vehicle networks include the gradual shift to digital TV worldwide, the increased availability of HD content, and the 2013 phase-out of analog output from Blu-Ray players.

The controller can transmit HD video from Blu-Ray DVDs and digital TV as well as high-resolution navigation images. A decompressed HD video stream (1,280 dots x 720 lines) from a Blu-Ray DVD has a rate of 885 Mbps. Subsequent compression by the SmartCODEC drops the rate to 249 Mbps, so two channels can be transmitted in the 800 Mbps bandwidth.

Fujitsu Microelectronics plans to expand its lineup of 1394 controllers to handle increasing information streams in vehicles, such as video content and peripheral cameras, and to reduce system costs.

The MB88395 is available now in samples in 224-pin FBGA packages. Pricing begins at $17.00.

Tesla Motors used model-based design tools from The MathWorks to develop the 2008 Tesla Roadster.

Paul Lomangio, Roadster program manager and CAD/PLM technology manager at Tesla Motors, said the firm placed heavy emphasis on early stage simulation when it designed the electric sports car.

“We were on very aggressive schedules to develop a new powertrain program in approximately six months, and we didn‘t have the time or the budget for ‘build and test‘ to explore design alternatives,” he said.

Lomangio said that many of the engineers who worked on the electric vehicle came from Stanford University and were familiar with toolsets available at Stanford, including MATLAB. “There was no need for training on a model-based design tool.”

Using MATLAB, Tesla Motors engineers took a ‘bottom up‘ approach, modeling components and then combining them. “We did systems modeling in Simulink, but to get there we started with very small kernels, validated each component, and connected components together in a hierarchical manner.”

The Tesla Motors design team used MATLAB and Simulink to model the entire vehicle and its major subsystems. Engineers combined individual models for each major system of the car, including the motor, battery, transmission, brakes, tires, power electronics, and control systems, into one full-system model, which they used to simulate and predict overall vehicle performance before building prototype vehicles.

The simulated results were then compared against road-test results from prototype vehicles to refine the full-system model. This approach shortened overall design and test processes and enabled Tesla Motors to deliver the 2008 Tesla Roadster for $145 million, a fraction of the typical vehicle program cost.