SDV dev

1. PUBLIC
NXP, THE NXP LOGO AND NXP SECURE CONNECTIONS FOR A SMARTER WORLD ARE TRADEMARKS OF NXP B.V.
ALL OTHER PRODUCT OR SERVICE NAMES ARE THE PROPERTY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS. © 2023 NXP B.V.
J U N E 2 0 2 3
Oskar Walder
SYSTEM AND APPLICATION ENGINEER
HOW TO DESIGN SDV
ARCHITECTURE WITH REAL-TIME
INTEGRATION IN CENTRALIZED
VEHICLE COMPUTE

2. 1
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AMOUNT OF SOFTWARE IN VEHICLE
• Amount of software in vehicle is raising
quickly every year
• This will accelerate only further with
vehicle personalization and autonomous
driving
• This challenges:
− Software architecture
− SoC Hardware architecture
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
2010 2015 2020 2025E 2030E
Lines of code in vehicle [millions]
Lines of code [M]

3. 2
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CURRENT FLAT VEHICLE ARCHITECTURE
INTRODUCTION
• Traditional vehicle architecture:
− Features are introduced to vehicle by
integration of “ECU boxes”
− Multiple types of communication buses (Lin,
CAN, FlexRAY, etc. ) are used across the
vehicle
− Complicated wire-hardness where wires are
spanning across entire vehicle
− Software updates are complicated due wide
dependencies and tight coupling
− New feature in big majority of cases requires
integration of an additional “ECU box”
Traditional flat vehicle architecture is not suitable for modern software defined vehicles.
LEGACY ARCHITECTURE
ORGANICALLY GROWN

4. 3
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ETHERNET BACKBONE
SOLUTION TO WIRE-HARNESS COMPLEXITY
• To solve the problem with wire-
harness complexity a highspeed
ethernet backbone can be introduced
to the vehicle architecture.
• The backbone can be shared for
sending of low speed bus data across
the vehicle.
• Time Sensitive Networking standards
enable use of ethernet as backbone
thanks to improved predictability,
determinism and robustness.
ECU ECU
ECU ECU
ECU ECU
Ethernet
SIMPLIFIED DIAGRAM OF
ETHERNET USED AS A BACKBONE

5. 4
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SCALABLE AND CENTRALIZED
SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
ZONAL
CONTROL
ZONAL
CONTROL
ZONAL
CONTROL
POWERTRAIN &
VEHICLE
DYNAMICS
VEHICLE
NETWORKING
AND
CONNECTIVITY
BODY &
COMFORT
INFOTAINMENT
ADAS & HIGHLY
AUTOMATED
DRIVING
POWERTRAIN &
VEHICLE
DYNAMICS
BODY &
COMFORT
VEHICLE
NETWORKING
AND
CONNECTIVITY
INFOTAINMENT
ADAS & HIGHLY
AUTOMATED
DRIVING
DOMAIN SW BENEFIT +
SIMPLIFIED WIRING AND
VEHICLE NETWORK
LOWER HW COST
VS MORE COMPLEX SW
ZONAL
CONTROL
ZONAL
CONTROL
VEHICLE
NETWORKING
AND
CONNECTIVITY
BODY &
COMFORT
INFOTAINMENT
ADAS & HIGHLY
AUTOMATED
DRIVING
MOTION CHASSIS
ZONE
+
ZONE
+
ZONAL
CONTROL
I/O
ZONES
I/O
ZONES
I/O
ZONES
POWERTRAIN &
VEHICLE
DYNAMICS
VEHICLE
NETWORKING
AND
CONNECTIVITY
INFOTAINMENT
ADAS & HIGHLY
AUTOMATED
DRIVING
BODY &
COMFORT
VEHICLE
COMPUTER
INTEGRATION
I/O
ZONES
I/O
ZONES I/O
ZONES
I/O
ZONES
I/O
ZONES
I/O
ZONES
I/O
ZONES
I/O
ZONES
SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCES SW
DEVELOPMENT COST,
VS HIGHER HW COST FOR
FUTURE-PROOFING
E/E ARCHITECTURE EVOLUTION
LEGACY ARCHITECTURE
ORGANICALLY GROWN
Flat Domain + Body Zonal Cross-Domain Zonal Consolidated Compute
Domain

6. 5
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PROCESSING POWER SCALABILITY SOLUTION
• To solve the problem with processing power scalability
a real-time high-performance processor like the S32Z
series and S32E series can be used.
• The processors contain real-time high-performance
Cortex-R52 cores, multi-ECU support, isolation and
hardware virtualization support to fulfill strict real time
requirements.
• On the processor thanks to isolation support can be
deployed multiple virtual ECU with respect to freedom
to interference.
• Build in hardware virtualization support enables to
assign amount resource to virtual ECU based on needs
in scalable manner
• Each virtual ECU can leverage one, two or four high
performance cores like Cortex-R52 based on required
performance and ASIL level.
• Ideally this processor position as central or zonal node
and is connected to high speed ethernet backbone.

7. 6
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SOFTWARE DEFINED VEHICLER ARCHITECTURE WITH REAL TIME INTEGRATED IN VEHICLE
COMPUTE
High Performance Central Processing Unit
(MPU based)
ECU
(MCU based)
ECU
(MCU based)
Ethernet
IO / low speed COM
ECU
(MCU based)
.
.
.
vECU
vECU
vECU
vECU
vECU
vECU
vECU
vECU
High Performance Real-
Time Processor with
virtualization support
Virtual ECUs implemented
as virtual machines

8. 7
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REAL-TIME PROCESSOR
CORES ASSIGMENT
Core 0 Core 1 Core 2 Core 3
Cluster
Core 0 Core 1 Core 2 Core 3
Cluster
S32Z2 single package
vECU vECU vECU vECU
Isolation

9. 8
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REAL-TIME PROCESSOR
PERIPHERAL AND MEMORY ISOLATION
• Virtual ECU implemented as
virtual machines can fully benefit
from virtualization support.
• Peripherals and processing cores
can be assigned to virtual
ECUs/VM and forced to respect
VM boundaries.
• Memory can be divided into
regions and regions can be
assigned to virtual ECUs/VMs.
S32Z2 / S32E2 single package
Core Memory Peripheral
Core Memory Peripheral
vECU #1
Core Memory Peripheral
Peripheral
vECU #2
Core Memory Peripheral
Core Memory
Memory
Core
Core Memory
vECU #3
Peripheral

10. 9
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CORE TIME-SLICING
• Virtual ECU based on high performance cores like Cortex-R52 are often more performant than
physical ECU based on small cores and hence high-performance core might not be utilized fully.
• In such a case it is beneficial to implement core time-slicing and reuse potential idle time of one
virtual machine for useful code execution of another virtual machine.
• Time-slicing is enabled by hardware but controlled mainly by software layer called Hypervisor /
Virtual Machine Manager
Physical
Cortex-R52
Virtual
Cortex-R52
Physical core
Full cycle Full cycle
VM 1 VM 2 VM 1 VM 2
VM 1 VM 1
VM 2 VM 2
Virtual core #2
Virtual core #1
Virtual
Cortex-R52

11. 1 0
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VIRTUAL MACHINE SWITCH SCHEME
BASIC TYPES
• Possible switching schemes are defined by capability of Virtual Machine Manager
Core
Full cycle Full cycle
VM 1 VM 2 VM 1 VM 2 Core
Full cycle Full cycle
VM 1 VM 1 VM 2
VM 1 VM 2 VM 1 VM 2
Execution till a high priority
interrupt is raised by another VM
VM 1
Execution till idle task triggered
and VM switch triggered
Interrupts

12. 1 1
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Motor Control Module
(ECU) Example

13. 1 2
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ELECTRIC MOTOR CONTROL MODULE
TRADITIONAL IMPLEMENTATION
• PWM complementary pairs
generated with fine grained
resolution
• Resolver used for motor control
position detection
• FOC, SVM and field weakening
algorithms used
• Highly optimized algorithm
implementation based on NXP’s
motor control library
Motor Control ECU
SVM
Angle
Position
Current
Measurement
High speed loop (FOC, etc.)
Motor control strategy (speed,
torque, etc.)
Safety, diagnostics, etc.
PMSM
Power
Transistors

14. 1 3
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ELECTRIC MOTOR CONTROL MODULE
SPACE FOR IMPROVEMENTS
• Dedicated ECU box implementation
• Multiple communication buses and signals routed from all
over the vehicle into the ECU
• Restrained processing performance not suitable for future
use cases
• Complete update of entire solution needed during
software update
• Things to improve potential future needs:
− Easier update of frequently updated higher software layers
− Dedicated core to run safety application
− More math processing capability
− AI & ML accelerator to run some advance AI & ML algorithm
− More processing power assigned in configurable manner
Motor Control ECU
SVM
Angle
Position
Current
Measurement
High speed loop (FOC, etc.)
Motor control strategy (speed,
torque, etc.)
Safety, diagnostics, etc.
PMSM
Power
Transistors

15. 1 4
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ELECTRIC MOTOR CONTROL MODULE
Motor Control ECU
SVM
Angle
Position
Current
Measurement
High speed loop (FOC, etc.)
Motor control strategy (speed,
torque, etc.)
Safety, diagnostics, etc.
PMSM
Power
Transistors
Higher software layers would
benefit from higher performance
and decoupling from the hardware
The lowest software layers are
coupled to hardware, IO, etc.
Strategy part
Actuation part

16. 1 5
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ELECTRIC MOTOR CONTROL MODULE
MODERN IMPLEMENTATION
• Taking advantages of both edge
node and high-performance central
node
• Solution was split into two parts
− Actuation part which is IO constrained
− Strategy part which can highly benefit
of modern approach
ECU
SVM
Angle
Position
Current
Measurement
High speed loop (FOC, etc.)
PMSM
Power
Transistors
MCU
High Performance Central Processing Unit
(MPU based)
ECU
(MCU based)
.
.
.
vECU
vECU
vECU
vECU
vECU
Ethernet
IO / low speed COM
Motor control strategy
(speed, torque, etc.)
Safety, diagnostics, etc.
Virtual Cortex-R52
(50% of physical
Cortex-R52)

17. 1 6
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ELECTRIC MOTOR CONTROL MODULE
MODERN IMPLEMENTATION
• Multiple instances of Strategy VM
can be easily spawned
− Software update (Zero downtime)
− For redundancy
− Etc.
ECU
SVM
Angle
Position
Current
Measurement
High speed loop (FOC, etc.)
PMSM
Power
Transistors
MCU
High Performance Central Processing Unit
(MPU based)
ECU
(MCU based)
.
.
.
vECU
vECU
Ethernet
IO / low speed COM
vECU v1.0
Motor control strategy
(speed, torque, etc.)
Safety, diagnostics, etc.
vECU v2.0
Motor control strategy
(speed, torque, etc.)
Safety, diagnostics, etc.

18. 1 7
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ELECTRIC MOTOR CONTROL MODULE
MODERN IMPLEMENTATION
• Functionality of Strategy VM can be
further split
• Running VM with different
scheduling based on VM
requirements
− For example, Safety 100% vs
Diagnostics 20%
• Decoupling of functions simplifies
development and software update
ECU
SVM
Angle
Position
Current
Measurement
High speed loop (FOC, etc.)
PMSM
Power
Transistors
MCU
High Performance Central Processing Unit
(MPU based)
ECU
(MCU based)
.
.
.
vECU
vECU
Ethernet
IO / low speed COM
VM #1
Motor control
strategy (speed,
torque, etc.)
VM #2
Motor
Control
Safety
VM #3
Motor
Control
Diagnostics

19. 1 8
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Time Sensitive
Networking

20. 1 9
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LATENCY IMPROVMENTS FOR HIGH PRIORITY FRAMES
• 802.1Qbu – Frame preemption
• Significant reduce of high priority frame latency for big frames
Normal frame
(part 1)
Normal frame
(part 2)
High priority frame
Low priority
frame
High priority
frame
Normal frame transmission start
A need to send high priority frame,
normal frame preempted by high
priority frame transmission
Rest of normal frame
transmission

21. 2 0
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REDUNDANT ETHERNET PATHS / FRAMES
• 802.1CB – Frame Replication
and Elimination adds message
redundancy Zonal Zonal
Zonal Zonal / ECU
Zonal Zonal
Ethernet
PMSM
ADAS
Connectivity
+ IVI
Vehicle
Computer /
Real Time
Processor

22. 2 1
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VIRTUAL MACHINE SCHEDULING AND NETWORK BANDWIDTH RESERVATION
• 802.1Qbv – Time Gating allows to dedicate network bandwidth to particular vECU
• Virtual Machine Manager allows to schedule VM execution in right moment
Actuation
execution (ECU)
Actuation cycle Actuation cycle
High speed MC loop High speed MC loop
VM #1
Ethernet Network
Strategy
execution (vECU)
VM #1
Time gate / slot dedicated
the application
Other network traffic

23. 2 2
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SUMMARY
• Real-Time processors with hardware
virtualization support enable efficient
and scalable implementation of multiple
virtual ECU in single box solution.
• Ethernet TSN standards improve
communication latencies, predictability
and allows to reserve network bandwidth
according ECU needs.
• Both when used together simplify vehicle
hardware and software architecture,
increases utilization of hardware,
simplifies vehicle software updates, and
the most importantly enable software
defined vehicle.
I/O
ZONES
I/O
ZONES
I/O
ZONES
POWERTRAIN &
VEHICLE
DYNAMICS
VEHICLE NETWORKING AND
CONNECTIVITY
INFOTAINMENT
ADAS & HIGHLY AUTOMATED
DRIVING
BODY &
COMFORT
VEHICLE COMPUTER
INTEGRATION
I/O
ZONES
I/O
ZONES I/O
ZONES
I/O
ZONES
I/O
ZONES
I/O
ZONES
I/O
ZONES
I/O
ZONES
SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCES SW DEVELOPMENT COST,
VS HIGHER HW COST FOR FUTURE-PROOFING
Consolidated Compute

24. 2 3
PUBLIC