congatec powers Luxoft’s modular next-gen automotive reference platform

congatec – a leading vendor of standardized and customized embedded computer boards and modules – and global IT service provider Luxoft introduce a next-gen automotive platform with SMARC 2.0 Computer-on-Modules. Launching with the conga-SA5 as the first official supported module, the Automotive Reference Platform (ARP) co-developed by Intel and Luxoft makes digital cockpit designs of next-generation vehicles smarter. The new platform enables clustering of previously separately managed functions such as head unit display, cockpit occupant monitoring and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). By utilizing a standards based SMARC 2.0 Computer-on-Module, engineers benefit from high design efficiency with lowest NRE cost for the core and maximum scalability ranging from low-cost to premium performance. Target customers are new and established mobility OEMs and their suppliers who develop hardware and software solutions for digital cockpit systems of next-generation vehicles.

The platform utilizes an Intel® Atom® E39xx processor based SMARC 2.0 module from congatec in combination with an Intel Cyclone® V SoC FPGA with integrated ARM cores and MAX® 10 FPGAs to provide unsurpassed design flexibility for extra connectivity options and hardware encoded preprocessing tasks. The platform allows multiple functions to be hosted on a single system, including ADAS through video data analytics on the basis of deep learning algorithms and artificial intelligence as well as occupant safety systems such as driver awareness sensing plus navigation, passenger infotainment and rear-seat entertainment.

“Together with Intel® and Luxoft, we are accelerating the mainstream trend of multifunctional digital cockpit systems to operate on a single piece of hardware,” explains Martin Danzer, Director of Product Management at congatec. “The new automotive platform is perfect to achieve this, especially since we also provide support for real-time virtualization technologies off the shelf.”

“With cars gradually becoming autonomous, a host of opportunities to create intuitive and immersive experiences and services in the car is emerging”, said Mikael Söderberg, Senior Technical Director, Automotive at Luxoft. “As such, we have created a flexible and powerful software platform on which both OEMs and their suppliers can build the digital cockpit systems of the future.”

Features of the Automotive Reference Platform

The highly modular system design is powered by congatec SMARC 2.0 modules that are interchangeable and support multiple devices and architectures – including the Intel® Atom® automotive processors for in-vehicle experiences – and utilizes powerful Intel® automotive-grade Cyclone® V SoC FPGAs with integrated ARM cores and MAX® 10 FPGAs providing unsurpassed design flexibility. The platform offers four independent on-board display interfaces with support for additional displays via expansion slots. Two HMSC connectors provide massive high-speed I/O extension capabilities. A wide variety of expansion boards is already available through the partner ecosystem, supporting all major existing and emerging automotive wired and wireless connectivity standards. An example is the dedicated Vehicle Interface Processor (VIP) expansion slot that accepts multiple architectures. A premium automotive analog/digital radio and onboard DSP solution rounds off the design capabilities of the modular platform.

The conga-SA5 based ARP is supported by Luxoft’s PELUX / Qt Automotive Suite Digital Cockpit software platform, a Linux based open source software platform that enables the flexible integration of third party applications into cars and minimizes the effort and cost for manufacturers deploying Linux based Digital Cockpit systems.