Mentor Graphics Expands Automotive Linux Infotainment Business

“The integration of the MontaVista Automotive assets and Mentor Graphics automotive businesses will give us an unparalleled, industry-leading engineering team,” stated Mark Mitchell, general manager of Mentor Graphics Open Source Embedded Solutions. “Our combined Linux- and Android-based automotive infotainment platform, together with our Sourcery CodeBench development tools and our extensive professional services capability, will allow us to more closely collaborate with automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers to build next-generation automotive infotainment systems.”

Today, Mentor and MontaVista Automotive IVI assets are in production at three automotive OEMs. They are in active development for next-generation vehicles by seven automotive Tier 1 suppliers and will go to production with additional OEMs within the year. Mentor Embedded is now the largest commercial automotive IVI Linux supplier and is strongly positioned to meet the increasing worldwide demand for Linux- and Android-based IVI system development.

Mentor Graphics has led the standardization of Linux for automotive IVI applications, with executives serving on the boards of directors and actively contributing to numerous technical working groups, including SAE International, AUTOSAR and the GENIVI Alliance. With over 45 million automobiles sold each year, auto manufacturers are keenly aware of the impact of IVI systems as a key differentiator with consumers. This includes the need to integrate technologies such as voice-recognition, touch screens, web browsing, GPS, and connectivity between automobile and smartphones—all dependent on embedded software.

The GENIVI Alliance is driving standards for the broad adoption of open source IVI development platforms; Mentor has been elected to its board of directors. All of the platforms are designed to be custom-tailored to meet the unique needs of each OEM and Tier 1 supplier. Mentor provides an extensive professional services team to work in partnership with customers to develop customized and differentiated IVI solutions in the highly competitive automotive market.