Technology to accelerate development of autonomous driving

Ethernet is expected to provide the network backbone for autonomous driving and connected vehicles, as it is capable of the high data bandwidth, communications speed, weight reduction, and cost efficiency that future connected cars require. NXP’s modular approach with switch and transceiver allows for flexible and cost efficient combinations, enabling automakers to build optimal solutions for a wide range of networking architectures, from entry-level cars to high-end luxury vehicles. This will also pave the way for new, distributed networking architectures in the future.

The adoption of Ethernet is quickly accelerating with the rise of secure connected cars and the subsequent high demands for data transport.

To date, NXP has shipped six billion CAN, LIN, and FlexRay transceivers to the global automotive industry and two million transceivers are supplied every day. Ethernet will complement these existing standards.

By developing technology purpose-built for automotive applications, NXP’s Ethernet PHY TJA1100 supports automotive low power modes. When the engine is off, the systems sleep. Meanwhile, the Ethernet PHY stays partially powered, waking up the system only upon activity on the network. Contrary to conventional solutions, the NXP Ethernet PHY does not require additional components like voltage regulators to stay on while the engine is off, which greatly improves power consumption and battery lifetime.

NXP has developed the Automotive Ethernet Switch SJA1105 in close co-operation with TTTech, a global leader in the field of robust networking and safety controls. The switch uses Deterministic Ethernet technology to guarantee message latency in applications such as autonomous driving, where deterministic communication is vital for reasons of operational efficiency or functional safety. Deterministic Ethernet supports the trend toward increasing bandwidth requirements of up to one gigabit, while ensuring high reliability in networked control systems and high availability in fail-operational applications. It comprises several standards including Ethernet (IEEE 802.3), Time-Triggered Ethernet (SAE AS6802) as well as Audio Video Bridging (AVB) and Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN).

NXP Ethernet transceivers TJA1100 are available in prototype samples today and will enter mass production before the end of the year. The first samples of the NXP Ethernet Switches SJA1105 have already been successfully tested by car makers and are available upon request.

“Automakers plan to use in-vehicle Ethernet broadly to enable a variety of applications and functions,” said Thilo Koslowski, Vice President and Automotive Practice Leader, Gartner. “These include safety, driver information systems, ADASs and entertainment. By 2023, 162m Ethernet nodes containing 242m ports will be included in produced consumer vehicles, worldwide.”

Jens Hinrichsen, Senior Vice President, Secure Car Access & Networking, NXP, added: “NXP has been a main driver in bringing Ethernet to cars and a founding member of the OPEN Alliance standardising organisation. It is inspiring to see the first ‘true’ automotive Ethernet transceivers and switches coming to market, ready to meet the stringent automotive requirements for EMC, quality, reliability, and volume production. The Ethernet portfolio rounds off our leading in-vehicle networking offering and will open up a variety of new features for future connected cars.”