Panasonic Automotive Electronics Systems joins hands with Arm to advance software-defined automotive standardization

Panasonic Automotive Electronics Systems (PAS) and Arm announced a strategic collaboration to advance the standardization of software-defined vehicle (SDV) architectures. Based on a shared vision, the two companies are committed to creating a flexible software stack that meets the needs of current and future vehicles, and have promoted standardization cooperation in software development for the automotive market through active participation in the SOAFEE industry initiative. In this new collaboration, PAS and Arm will adopt and extend the VirtIO device virtualization framework to decoupled automotive software development from hardware and accelerate development in the automotive industry.

As the automotive industry increasingly consolidates multiple electronic control units (ECUs) into a single powerful ECU, such as a cockpit domain controller (CDC) or high performance computer (HPC), hypervisor and advanced chipsets are more important than ever. However, many Oems and Tier 1 suppliers face the challenge of varying vendor proprietary interfaces, resulting in increased costs and longer delivery times for switching vendor solutions.

PAS and Arm realized that in order to meet these challenges, they had to move from a hardware-led to a software-first development model. By standardizing the software stack interfaces of the vehicle and Tier 1 suppliers, as well as the underlying hypervisor and chipset they run on, automotive partners can more easily adopt the latest technologies optimized for specific needs and application scenarios.

The partnership will include the following key initiatives:

1. Promote the unified man-machine interface based on VirtIO to standardize the regional controller architecture

PAS and Arm have partnered to virtualize devices connected to a central ECU, such as CDC/HPC, as well as remote devices connected to regional ECUs, using VirtIO technology. Through Unified HMI, PAS 'open source remote GPU technology, the two parties demonstrated a groundbreaking proof-of-concept to implement an ARM-based display area controller architecture. This architecture distributes GPU load from the central ECU to multiple regional ECUs, reducing heat generation and harness weight without affecting the operation of applications on the central ECU. The flexible partitioning capability of the Arm® Mali™-G78AE GPU in the regional ECU enables dedicated hardware resources to be allocated according to different workloads, ensuring stable and reliable graphics performance in the display zone controller architecture. PAS and Arm are working together to launch the SOAFEE blueprint and its corresponding reference implementation to drive the standardization of emerging regional controller architectures in the automotive industry.

2. Achieve environment parity from cloud to car

PAS 'vSkipGen™ runs on cloud servers based on the Arm Neoverse™ platform. Ensure environmental parity between cloud virtual hardware and automotive hardware by maintaining the same Arm CPU architecture and VirtIO device virtualization framework. PAS and Arm will work together to implement VirtIO in virtual hardware, further bridging the gap between virtual and physical automotive systems.

3. Promote the standardization expansion of VirtIO

PAS and Arm are focusing on applying the VirtIO standard to cockpit scenarios such as Android Automotive™ and Automotive Grade Linux™, with plans to expand the VirtIO standard to more automotive applications. This includes developing standardized interfaces for real-time operating systems (RTOS) to enable the decoupling of software and hardware for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).

Masashige Mizuyama, PAS Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, said: "Our collaboration with Arm aims to facilitate the standardization process of VirtIO and take this industry reference standard to a new level. With the expertise and industry leadership of both of us, we are confident that this collaboration will unlock the potential of software and lay an important foundation for building future automotive technologies for SDVS."

Dipti Vachani, senior vice president and general manager of Automotive at Arm, commented: "SDVS continue to be one of the most exciting opportunities facing automakers today, and realizing this vision requires an innovative approach that allows software developers to develop before physical chips are available. Our collaboration with PAS builds on our active participation in SOAFEE and our commitment to reduce fragmentation in the industry through standardization, ultimately helping our partners accelerate the automotive development cycle."