FPGAs turn to automotive applications

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Oct 3, 2006

In the Automotive Innovation Area at this year's Electronica, Altera (Hall 6, A48/49) will be exhibiting innovative FPGA-based solutions for electronics in motor vehicles.

In the Automotive Innovation Area at this year's Electronica, Altera (Hall 6, A48/49) will be exhibiting innovative FPGA-based solutions for electronics in motor vehicles.

Altera's programmable solutions for automotive electronics represent a complete development platform.

This includes a broad spectrum of programmable logic for the industrial temperature range from -40 to +125C, IP cores for CAN, LIN, MOST etc, embedded processors, Quartus II design software and reference designs.

This comprehensive solution reduces development time and costs for multiple design iterations, which enables customers to develop innovative products within the framework of their (frequently stringent) time to market requirements.

These programmable solutions from Altera can be found in many automotive electronics applications, such as driver information systems, infotainment, gateways, software-defined radio, or MOST-based audio transmission.

By using Altera's Cyclone FPGAs and Nios II embedded processors, Blaupunkt, for instance, was able to significantly reduce the time needed to launch its TravelPilot Rome while simultaneously reducing the number of components required for this product.

Altera also makes the MediaLB IP Core available - an IP core that greatly simplifies implementation of the popular MOST (Media Oriented Systems Transport) bus protocol for applications in the area of automotive infotainment, networks, or gateways.

At the Altera stand, visitors will find product demos on graphics solutions for head-units, rear-seat entertainment and cluster displays, a central gateway demonstration as a platform for car networking applications, and a MOST audio transport reference design.

Beyond this, the exhibit will focus on developing customer and application specific microcontrollers on the basis of structured ASICs from the HardCopy family.