"A software-defined future": Intel at CES

Setting the scene, Jack Weast, Vice President and General Manager of Intel Automotive, who delivered the announcements at CES, acknowledged the challenges the automotive industry is currently facing, which it hopes to address with its own solutions.

“In the last year [in automotive] industry has become fierce, profits have become more elusive, and so we can’t keep doing the same thing and expecting a different approach,” he said.

Among these announcements was Intel’s full embrace of what it referred to as a “whole software-defined vehicle architecture”, launching to the market its Arc B series graphics to facilitate large-language models and eliminate Cloud latency; an adaptive control unit (ACU), a zonal controller created as an alternative to traditional MCU architecture; and the Intel Automotive Virtual Development Environment (VDE) co-developed with Amazon Web Services (AWS). 

The ACU, for example - the ACU U310 - addresses limitations experienced by processing-based micro and zonal controllers in managing multiple workloads, by integrating a flexible logic area that offloads real-time control algorithms from CPU cores. In doing so, the ACU improves performance, freedom from interference and deterministic data delivery.

“I think it’s safe to say we’ve entered the AI Covid era with AI-enabled PCs in our home,” remarked Weast. “Consumers’ expectations are changing to expect, if not demand, that their cars feature the same kind of AI capabilities [that] they’re enjoying on other devices. 

“And so whether it’s the growth of large-language models, increasing demand for gaming in the vehicle or the desire for automakers to differentiate their in-vehicle experiences, a theme we’ve heard over and over again is that our customers want more: more compute, more AI and more graphics.”

In providing an example of how AI can enhance the in-vehicle experience, Weast shared one of an AI chatbot from Baichuan, from where he is based in China, designed to allow children on long car rides to have a natural conversation with a story-telling character to keep them entertained.

Intel also announced new partnerships and collaborations  with Red Hat, an open-source software company which will see Red Hat bring its in-vehicle operating system to vehicles; AWS on the Intel Automotive VDE; automaker KARMA which will see it implement Intel’s whole software defined vehicle (SDV) architecture; and HCL Tech, to provide its engineering services in their joint aim to address the needs of OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers in moving over to software-defined vehicles. Stellantis Motorsports, additionally, chose Intel as a key technology partner and is adopting the Adaptive Control technology into its inverter control. 

This approach, the whole software-defined architecture, was referred to by Weast as “a mindset. It’s an architectural philosophy that abstracts hardware from software so that hardware resources across multiple sockets can be pooled from compute and memory and IO, and then when a workload comes along, you can allocate a platform from that pool that matches the priority or policy needs.”

An emphasis was placed on the role open-source software had to play in enabling SDV vehicle architecture, as Francis Chow, Vice President and General Manager at Red Hat said that 90% of Cloud servers running on Linux, which “has enabled many industries to move from hardware defined to software defined.”

In a more open declaration, Marques McCammon, President of Karma Automotive said: “We don’t believe that it makes sense for SDV architecture to be wholly proprietary. That approach is slow, it’s cost prohibitive and frankly, it threatens the integrity of the entire industry. We want, not just Karma, but the whole auto industry to succeed and to provide a foundation for the advancement of open standards.” 

In his closing remarks, Weast invited attendees to visit the technologies mentioned in the presentation at their company booth at CES, and summarised Intel’s efforts as he said: “We are all together paving the future to a future vehicle that is software defined, sustainable and more scalable than current industry approaches.”