The selection and use of FPGAs for automotive interfacing, security, and compute-intensive loads
and use sensor fusion to combine the data such that the resulting information has less uncertainty than would be possible if the data from the different sensors were to be used individually. In many cases, AI applications are employed to analyze the data, make decisions, and take appropriate actions. A relatively recent trend is the deployment of electronic (also known as “digital”) rear-view mirrors. In this case, a wide- angle, high-resolution camera is installed inside the rear window.
The video stream from this camera is presented on a digital display that replaces the traditional mirror,
Another recent trend is to deploy in-cabin cameras mounted on the dashboard, on the steering column, or integrated into the rear- view mirror (regular or electronic). When coupled with AI, these in-cabin mirrors can be employed for a wide variety of tasks, such as recognizing who is sitting in the driver’s seat and adjusting it and the mirrors accordingly. In addition to monitoring drivers to ensure they’re paying attention to the road and not dozing off, such a system can also look for signs of drowsiness, as well as medical problems or distress such as an epileptic fit or heart attack, and take appropriate actions. These actions may include activating the hazard warning lights, applying the brakes, and guiding the vehicle to the side of the road. Further applications include ensuring young children and pets are not mistakenly left unattended in the rear seats by preventing the car from being locked and flashing the lights, and alerting the driver if a passenger leaves something like a phone, bag, or package on the back seat. With regard to video-based applications, in some cases, it is required to split a single video input into multiple streams; in others, a design requirement may be to aggregate multiple video streams into one.
With the increasing deployment of electric vehicles (EVs) comes the need to monitor and control motors, and to monitor and manage the charging process to achieve maximum battery life. On top of all of this, many of today’s automobiles are starting to be 5G or V2X enabled, where V2X (“vehicle to anything”) refers to communication between a vehicle and any other entity that may affect (or be affected by) the vehicle, from roadside infrastructure to other vehicles. Along with this connectivity comes the need for security to prevent the vehicle from being hacked. Automotive-grade devices It’s important to remember that not all FPGAs are suitable for automotive applications. The Automotive Electronics Council (AEC) is an organization originally established in the 1990s by Chrysler, Ford, and GM for the purpose of establishing common part qualification and quality system standards. One of the most commonly referenced AEC documents is AEC-Q100, " Failure Mechanism Based Stress Test Qualification for Integrated Circuits ." IATF 16949:2016 is a technical specification aimed at the development of a quality management system which provides for continual
improvement, emphasizing defect prevention and the reduction of variation and waste in the automotive industry supply chain and assembly process. Based on the ISO 9001 standard, IATF 16949:2016 was created by the International Automotive Task Force (IATF) and the Technical Committee of ISO. Electronic system suppliers to the automotive market increasingly
In addition to two hardened four- lane MIPI D-PHY transceivers supporting 10 gigabits per second (Gbits/s) per PHY, CrossLink-NX devices also support 5 Gbits/s PCIe, 1.5 Gbits/s programmable inputs/outputs (I/O), and 1066 megabits per second (Mbits/s) DDR3. These devices also support traditional electrical interfaces and protocols like low-voltage differential signaling (LVDS), Sub- LVDS (a reduced-voltage version of LVDS), Open LVDS Display Interface (OLDI), and serial gigabit media-independent interface (SGMII). As a result, these devices can be used for aggregating video streams, splitting video streams, running AI applications, and— while doing all of this—also act as bridges between legacy MCUs/APs and modern sensors and displays. Developers of automotive systems looking to evaluate CrossLink-NX FPGAs will find the combination of the LIFCL-VIP-SI-EVN CrossLink- NX VIP Sensor Input Board (Figure 1) and the LF-EVDK1-EVN Modular Embedded Vision Kit to be of interest (the former can act as an input board for the latter). In addition to a CrossLink-NX FPGA, the sensor input board also features four, 13 megapixel Sony IMX258 CMOS MIPI image sensors, supporting 4K2K @ 30 frames per second (fps) or 1080p @ 60 fps. It also supports easy sensor connectivity via three independent PMOD interfaces.
resulting in a clear rearward view that is unobstructed by
passengers in the rear seats. In some cases, video streams from cameras mounted on the side mirrors may be merged with the video stream from the rear window camera. These three feeds are “stitched together” to provide a single image that is presented on a super-wide electronic mirror, thereby providing the driver with a much higher degree of situational awareness as to what’s going on around the vehicle.
require that semiconductor suppliers provide products compliant to the AEC-Q100
standard, and can demonstrate ISO/TS-16949 certification of their quality systems.
Choosing the right FPGA for the job FPGAs are extremely flexible, but different device families offer various combinations of capabilities and functions that make them better suited to specific tasks. In the case of embedded vision applications, for example, modern cameras and displays often employ MIPI interfaces. The MIPI CSI-2 (camera/sensor) and DSI (display) protocols both employ a communications physical layer (PHY) called the D-PHY. Legacy MCUs/APs may not support this interface, but some FPGAs do, such as CrossLink-NX embedded vision and processing FPGAs from Lattice Semiconductor.
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