Arm launches full-set approach to automotive chip design

Arm’s new Automotive Enhanced (AE) processors will accelerate AI-enabled automotive development cycles by up to two years, said Dipti Vachani, Arm’s SVP and GM, automotive line of business, in a webinar launch.

The automotive market is going through an unprecedented transformation with demand for more autonomy, increasingly advanced user experiences and the trend towards electrification creating an explosion of software and AI.

As vehicle electronics become more complex, a fundamental rethink of product development is needed. Arm’s intention is to provide the entire suite of chip designs involved across the automotive experience.

“We expect a mobile phone-type experience in our cars, including regular updates, and this is creating an explosion of software,” said Ms Vachani. “OEMs also now have even faster time-to-market schedule – and where a car runs on 100m lines of code now, that will become 320m lines of code by 2030. We are truly revolutionising how things are done in automotive.

“Today, in a series of industry firsts, Arm and our ecosystem are unveiling the latest Arm AE processors alongside new virtual platforms, all made available to the industry from day one to accelerate automotive development cycles by up to two years.”

Arm9 processors will be made available for automotive for the first time. Arm is partnering with industry leaders including Amazon Web Services, Cadence, Corellium, Siemens and others to deliver these virtual platforms and cloud solutions, which allow for earlier, more seamless development across the full software stack in collaboration with partners including Autoware Foundation, BlackBerry QNX, Elektrobit, LeddarTech, Mapbox, Sensory, Tata Technologies, TIER IV, Vector and more.

“Manufacturers don’t want lots of separate components, they want one supplier for across all aspects of building the cars,” concluded Ms Vachani.