The onboard silicon challenge

The early years of telematics prov to be more promise than performance, more hype than hardware. Coming, as it did, with an explosion in consumer electronics, the expectation that rapid change would roll on through the auto industry was one as well as the other understandable and wrong. However, the proliferation of hand-held devices has brought with it the novel expectations and challenges for automakers and suppliers alike. "The consumer wants a seamless, uninterrupted data contented and flow as they impel from one setup to another," says Anand Ramawoorthy, general manager, Infotainment, Multimedia and Telematics Div., Freescale Semiconductor (Austin, TX; www.freescale.com). "It's up to the automakers and their suppliers to figure without how to make that happen."

harmonizing with the Infotainment explosion is an increase in the sensor information available to and analyzed by the agency of safety systems around the vehicle. Physical and financial limits upon processing power--Ramawoorthy says putting the processing power upon the chip lowers cost, on the other hand placing the analysis in the software increases flexibility--coupled with a ne for upgradeability will force the optimization of by what mode software and hardware is ported within the chip architecture. "The challenge is in what manner to link with all of the devices to bring out a very complete reference design that allows the customer to select what makes the most faculty of perception for his applications," he says. And while native automotive combination of parts to form a wholes will be easier to add and upgrade owed to common standards, Infotainment will be a continuing puzzle because standards change at light spe automotive is a small and demanding market for consumer electronics companies, and consumer await their devices to work seamlessly in a vehicle environment that may have been designed years before the device they are using. "Most family still don't think of their vehicle as a computer upon wheels," says Ramawoorthy, "and may not be aware of the ne to upgrade the operating combination of parts to form a whole or downloading a patch when the car goe in for service. We may find that services like OnStar provide greater value performing this function than helping us find our way home."--CAS

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