Infineon Technologies AG has announced the launch of the Mannheim-CeCaS (CentralCarServer) research project aimed at developing a central computing platform for highly automated vehicles. Infineon will coordinate the project with 30 industry and university research partners. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research is supporting the project with approximately €46m as part of the government’s “Mannheim” initiative, named after the birthplace of the automobile. The project participants include Bosch, Continental, ZF Friedrichshafen, and various Fraunhofer Institutes and partners like TU Munich (TUM) and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).
Infineon’s Division President Automotive Peter Schiefer said, “We’re consolidating our strengths to develop reliable, high-performance computing structures for highly-automated vehicles. That’s why we’re leading and coordinating the research project.” The project will address the need for energy-efficient and economical high-end computers for connected and electrified cars that can keep up with increasing computing power and complexity requirements while meeting the high demands placed on automotive qualification. The central computing units will be based on innovative high-performance processors qualified for automotive applications and use non-planar transistor technology (FinFET). The consortium aims to achieve complete automotive qualification (ASIL-D) at the system level.
The Mannheim-CeCaS research project will investigate and develop a holistic central computing platform for future highly-automated vehicles. Application-specific hardware accelerators and an adaptive software platform for autonomous vehicles will complement the processors, convolutional neural networks, and event-driven neuromorphic accelerators. They will also consider the necessary modifications of the onboard power network and automotive-capable integrated circuit packaging. The project will have a three-year duration and a proposed budget of approximately €90m.
