Next-gen vehicle networks design simplified

The integrated Mentor/SystemWeaver toolchain is based on the AUTOSAR standard, supports data consistency and full traceability to vehicle level requirements, and helps reduce design complexity across a wide range of vehicle functions and signals.

“Growing demand for automated driving functionality and new, highly efficient electric vehicles presents unique challenges to automotive engineers charged with designing the increasingly complex in-vehicle networks these next-gen vehicles require,” said Jeremy Parker, Business Project Manager for CEVT.

“Mentor’s VSA COM Designer network design tool helped CEVT overcome these challenges, allowing our engineers to focus less on time-consuming manual work and more on high-value tasks that help us differentiate and win in the marketplace.”

The VSA COM Designer tool is part of the Volcano VSx design tools suite, which provides a robust medium for an AUTOSAR-based vehicle system design flow, including E/E architectural design, application software development, virtual validation, and software test.

VSA COM Designer enables definition of timing requirements from sensor to actuator, from network signals between ECUs, and for arbitrary complex signal and sensor/actuator chains. This enables a clear definition of functional timing requirements which, after allocation of functionality to ECUs, is used as input to the network design process.

The user is able to balance the amount of time spent on the different network segments and the amount of time spent internally on ECUs, as in the case of signal chains or gatewaying. In addition, the VSA COM Designer tool’s analysis capabilities verify that all signals arrive at their destinations in time, calculate their timing margins, and assess the amount of spare capacity on each network segment.