Cramming ARM dual core Cortex A9 MPCore, its own programmable logic fabrics and memory and IO peripherals in a single die, Xilinx has taped out a highly integrated programmable SOCs with a low BOM, or bill of material costs for automotive ADAS applications.

The Zynq 7000 family is highly programmable so that it gives ADAS developers flexibility in meeting sophisticated requirements for graphics-centric real-time video signal processing and in-vehicle networking capabilities.

Current ADAS product line-ups are built with highly sophisticated vision cameras, ultra-sonic sensor technologies, and real-time video processing technology.

That’s where the forte of Xilinx’s programmable SOC chip is, compared with traditional ASIC chips.

“Consumer demand for driver assistance applications is strong and growing but continues to be held back due to high manufacturing and development costs. To overcome this, it is vital to ‘right size’ the underlying components through increasing integration and to create common platforms that can be customized for a variety of ADAS applications – this will lower unit costs, increase economies of scale and shorten development cycles,” said Mark Fitzgerald, associate director global automotive practice, Strategy Analytics.

“By integrating more and more into fewer and fewer chips, customizable solutions hold the promise of addressing these requirements of automotive manufacturers to develop a new generation of ADAS applications available across more of their cars,” added he.

The fully qualified XA Zynq 7000 devices will be available starting with the second quarter of 2013.

For more information on the Zynq 7000 family, please click Video and Products News.

[sws_toggle1 title="Video & Products News "> Xilinx, Inc. recently set the stage for an acceleration of the automotive industry’s development and deployment of a new generation of automotive driver assistance systems (ADAS).

To cash in on the trend, Xilinx unveiled its automotive ARM®-processor based Zynq™-7000 All Programmable system-on-a-chip (SoC)platform that can reduce the cost and the time-to-market of driver assistance solutions by using programmable system integration to lower bill-of-materials while meeting the sophisticated technical requirements behind systems requiring driver assurance-critical image-to-vision and in-vehicle networking capabilities.

“The ADAS space is evolving rapidly and Xilinx’s automotive grade Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC is the game changer the industry needs to accelerate the pace of ADAS technology deployment,” said Nick DiFiore, director of Xilinx’s automotive segment.

Added he, “The Zynq-7000 family allows ADAS developers to implement a familiar software-based system, but with closely coupled, fully customized, hardware accelerators that deliver a level of raw image processing performance and low power consumption that is simply not achievable with traditional multi-chip approaches.”

DiFiore said that ADAS suppliers are already using Zynq-7000 devices rather than ‘pre-canned’ ASSPs to combine off-the-shelf IP from the Xilinx ecosystem along with their own proprietary IP and algorithms to differentiate themselves in the market, “all without the huge costs and time-to-market penalties that make ASIC development impractical – it’s a win/win in this hotly contested market.”

Automakers are bundling the current generation of ADAS applications – which includes blind spot detection, lane departure warning systems, automatic parking assistance, collision avoidance, pedestrian detection and driver drowsiness detection – as they seek to provide drivers with multiple safety features at lower costs. Common to both current and future ADAS applications is the use of a variety of cameras and ultrasonic sensors in combination with specialized, real-time processing systems, a prime example of the image-to-vision capabilities that Xilinx is putting particular focus on across all its markets.

Currently these systems use multiple chips for the required processing, which keep BOM costs high and reduce flexibility options to scale between vehicle platforms. In addition to its performance advantages, the Xilinx Automotive (XA) Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC is ideal for ADAS applications as it is qualified to meet the stringent temperature, quality and reliability requirements for automotive applications.

Current ADAS solutions typically employ multiple chips, but Xilinx overcomes this with its Zynq-7000 family, the industry’s first SoC family to incorporate an ARM dual-core Cortex™-A9 MPCore™ processing system with tightly coupled programmable logic on a single die.

This combination dramatically increases the performance critical for processing-intensive real-time ADAS, and enables greater system integration for bundling multiple applications while reducing BOM.

“The Xilinx Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC is a great programmable platform for upcoming automotive driver assistance applications that require intensive real-time video processing, parallel execution of multiple advanced algorithms and versatile interfacing with sensors and vehicles’ communication backbones,” said Davor Kovačec, founder and CEO of Xylon.

“The abundant performance and reprogrammability of the Zynq-7000 devices enables us to design SoCs that outperform competing solutions and which enable a new level of system differentiation through a combination of hardware-accelerated video inputs from multiple camera inputs and the ability to quickly adapt to ever changing sensor setups and interfacing.”

Availability

Availability of the fully qualified XA Zynq-7000 devices is scheduled for the second quarter of 2013. Developers can get started on their designs today using the commercial grade devices available today.

Quotes

Here’s what some Xilinx Alliance Program members have to say about Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoCs.

Green Hills Software, Xilinx Alliance Program Member

“The flexibility of Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoCs, with its programmability and powerful ARM dual-core Cortex-A9 MPCore subsystem, is an excellent fit for high performance automotive applications, such as ADAS, and for Green Hills Software’s Platform for Automotive Digital Instruments, which includes the industry leading ISO 26262 ASIL D qualified solutions.” – David Kleidermacher, chief technology officer, Green Hills Software

eSOL, Xilinx Alliance Program Member

“We believe the combination of Xilinx Automotive Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoCs and our eT-Kernel Multi-Core Edition real-time OS ensures high real-time capability and reliability in driver assistant systems. We expect the Zynq-7000 SoC platform to bring much more advantages to the driver assistance system developers. As a proven real-time OS vendor, eSOL has been deeply committed to the automotive system development for years.

eSOL’s high-level skills and deep knowledge about automotive systems, including AUTOSAR and the functional safety, are acquired through those experiences. For the ARM dual-core Cortex-A9 MPCore processing system integrated in the Zynq-7000 SoC platform, eSOL offers the eT-Kernel Multi- Core Edition real-time OS, which has been adopted in many automotive systems worldwide.

In collaboration with Xilinx, eSOL will fully support the DA systems developers on their development solution.” – Nobuyuki Ueyama, executive vice president of eSOL

Lauterbach GmbH, Xilinx Alliance Program Member

“Lauterbach’s support of the Zynq-7000 family with the TRACE32 hardware assisted debugging and trace tool allows customers to preserve their design/debug environment while, at the same time, explore the capabilities of Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoCs.

Especially our automotive customers, who attach great importance to real time trace will be happy with the extensive trace capabilities of the Zynq-7000 SoC platform. Our work with Xilinx builds on years of collaboration between the two companies on FPGA-based embedded systems development solutions.” – Norbert Weiss, sales and marketing manager at Lauterbach GmbH [/sws_toggle1]