Photo credit and copyright: courtesy of MediaTek
MediaTek jumped on the automotive bandwagon in April 2023 when it launched its Dimentsity Auto automotive platforms to compete with Qualcomm in the digital cockpit arena. The Taiwanese chipmaker is mainly known for its mobile, computer, and TV systems-on-chip (SoCs), and to broaden its car-focused feature sets in automotive hardware, it partnered with NVIDIA to add AI and accelerated computing to the mix. Last March, MediaTek expanded the collaboration to bring support for NVIDIA DRIVE OS to its new Dimensity Auto Cockpit C-X1, C-Y1, C-M1, and C-V1 chipsets.
Last week, Infineon announced its partnership with MediaTek to bring smart cockpit and in-car infotainment solutions to entry-level vehicles. The world’s market leader in automotive MCUs, co-developed an easy-to-use digital cockpit solution with MediaTek, based on Infineon’s TRAVEO CYT4DN MCU family and an entry-level MediaTek Dimensity Auto processor.
Automakers must deliver high-performance digital features while maintaining systems’ safety to fulfill the increasing need to replace traditional physical dashboards with advanced displays. According to the Gerrman chipmaker, the standard way to do it is to combine a powerful SoC with a hypervisor, a software that runs multiple virtual machines. The Infineon / MediaTek solution should be easier to develop. It will reduce Bill of Material (BOM) costs for car manufacturers since the Infineon CYT4DN MCU acts as a safety partner alongside the SoC to achieve ASIL-B safety compliance for automotive clusters. It monitors the SoC-rendered content and assumes control with limited functionality if errors occur while handling standard tasks like vehicle network communication.
The TRAVEO T2G CYT4DN MCU family supports up to 1920 x 720 pixel resolutions for both clusters and in-vehicle infotainment displays, ensuring robust reliability with ASIL-B compliance. Operating on an open-source Android OS, the SoC eliminates the need for hypervisors and expensive commercial operating systems, thereby reducing software costs. This approach empowers suppliers and manufacturers to manage and update software independently, further driving down expenses.
The TRAVEO T2G CYT4DN MCU family, designed on a cutting-edge 40nm process, features a 2.5D graphics engine, dual Arm Cortex-M7 CPUs operating at up to 320 MHz for primary processing, and an Arm Cortex -M0+ CPU for peripheral and safety functions. Its extensive peripheral support includes CAN FD, LIN, CXPI, and Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, complemented by ample memory configurations tailored to automotive applications.
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