Overview
With the evolution of autonomous driving, digital cockpits, electrification, and connected technologies, we now live in the age where software determines the value of automobiles. In the development of automobiles as well, changes of development style are underway to put value creation by software first. We are working on the development of virtual development environments and simulators that support customers’ value creation by software.
Background
With the evolution of autonomous driving, electrification, and connected technology, the electronic and electrical control (E/E architecture) of automobiles is becoming more complex and sophisticated. Many ECUs (electronic control units) are operating in a complicated manner, and multiple in-vehicle processors are integrated in the ECUs. Thus, E/E architecture has transformed into a very large-scale and complicated system. In the development process of the electronic and electrical control system, while refining from the top layer to the component layer, i.e., from E/E architecture design to ECU/DCU design and MCU/SoC design, each layer needs to cooperate with each other.
Conventionally, software was developed on real in-vehicle processors after MCU/SoC design. But in the new development style to put value creation by software first, software is developed, i.e., value is created, from the E/E architecture design phase at the early stage of development. To achieve the change, it is necessary to realize a virtual environment where software can be developed and verified even before the in-vehicle processor is available. Since the entire E/E architecture is very large and complex, high-speed simulation should be performed in the virtual environment using a model at high abstraction level. And in the layer of MCU/SoC design, the virtual environment using a model at low abstraction level, that can emulate hardware behavior, is required. In order to realize value creation by software, it is necessary to realize a comprehensive virtual environment/simulator that includes models at various abstraction levels in this way.
Examples of our challenges
We are conducting the following activities to provide a virtual environment/simulator that realizes “Easy to Develop” for E/E architecture development, which is the basis of next-generation automobiles.
- Research and proposal of a new development environment that will revolutionize automobile development toward a development style to put value creation by software first.
- Building an ecosystem/community that involves the entire automobile industry for the development of the virtual environment/simulator for E/E architecture development that require a wide range of technologies and development capabilities.
- Development of the virtual environment that seamlessly covers a wide range of areas from algorithm design (MILS) to ECU/DCU software design (PILS).
- Development of models (simulator) beyond the conventional framework, which is the key to the virtual environment.
Conclusion
Renesas proposes a new development environment for the development of next-generation vehicles. We contribute to developing next-generation vehicles by providing automobile manufacturers with the virtual environment for the development of E/E architectures, ECUs/DCUs, and MCUs/SoCs that support customers’ value creation by software, rather than simply providing semiconductor products.