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ARM continues to get excited about seeing its processors designed into embed automotive applications.
Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe is the latest semiconductor supplier to license the Cortex-R4F processor for use in automotive applications including safety and chassis.
ARM’s interest in the automotive electronics market is not surprising. Automotive semiconductor revenues could jump by an annual compound rate of 7.7% between 2007 and 2012, according to market watchers.
However, it seems likely that the global credit crisis will modify this growth somewhat.
But embedded design cars continues for future generations of vehicle. Areas such as adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning systems and monitoring driver fatigue and inattention are examples of driver-assistance safety enhancements that are expected to be widely deployed in future vehicles.
“As vehicle manufacturers strive to consolidate their microprocessor requirements, we are seeing an increasing demand from licensees to develop devices based on ARM technology,” said Wayne Lyons, global director of automotive solutions at ARM.
The Cortex-R4F processor features pre-integrated embedded error correction (ECC) and a synthesis option to implement lock step architectures simplifying implementation and aiding IEC61508 and ISO26262 and ISO26262 certification.
There is also high-resolution memory protection facilities to enable tight control over independent software tasks. These functions are all critical to automotive applications based on the AutoSAR runtime environment and the JasPar Automotive software platform architecture.
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This Fujitsu license agreement includes the ARM AMBA Designer tool and ARM CoreSight technology for advanced on-chip debug and real-time trace.
“This licensing agreement enables us to continue to build on our position in the automotive market by optimizing development costs across a common core platform,” said Dirk Weinsziehr, v-p marketing and development, Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe
Fujitsu Microelectronics has also expanded its range of 32-bit Risc microcontrollers developed in partnership with automotive electronics customers.
According to Fujitsu, efficient data recording, processing and distribution are essential and require not only a large number of communications interfaces, such as CAN and LIN, but also a high degree of flash and RAM memory capacity.
The MB91F465P and MB91F467P microcontrollers meet these requirements, providing up to four CAN controllers and up to twelve LIN-UARTs. The MB91F467P differs from the MB91F465P in that the amount of flash memory is doubled from 544kB to 1088kB and the RAM memory from 40kB to 80kB RAM.
It also features additional E2PROM emulation in a separate data flash with a size of 64kB.