ENGtechnica

Tag: AutomotiveTech

  • STMicroelectronics, HighTec to Enhance Software-Defined Vehicles’ Safety

    STMicroelectronics, HighTec to Enhance Software-Defined Vehicles’ Safety

    Where safety meets safety: ST’s Stellar MCUs certified to the highest level of risk management, ISO 26262 ASIL D, are now supported with the same safety level by HighTec’s Rust compiler. Image: HighTec

    GENEVA, Switzerland and SAARBRÜCKEN, Germany, Feb 10, 2025 – STMicroelectronics and HighTec EDV-Systeme GmbH are advancing automotive functional safety with a complete solution that will accelerate the development of safety-critical systems to make software-defined vehicles safer and more affordable.

    The solution supports the Rust programming language and combines HighTec’s Rust compiler, qualified to ISO 26262 ASIL D, with ST’s Stellar, the first 28nm microcontrollers certified to the same safety standard. Rust is gaining significant momentum in the automotive industry for its strong safety and reliability features.

    “Software-defined principles are transforming vehicle design, and ownership experiences, replacing traditional hardwired electronic control units (ECUs) with programmable systems,” explained Davide Santo, automotive microcontroller business unit director, STMicroelectronics. “This is the future for vehicles with any type of powertrain, letting automakers easily differentiate their product ranges and dynamically update vehicle features. The collaboration with our longstanding partner HighTec, ensures that automotive manufacturers can leverage the power of Rust while meeting the highest safety standards in the industry.”

    “Here at HighTec, our engineers created the industry’s first software compiler to support Rust, the modern safety-ready programming language, and achieve qualification to the highest level of the automotive functional-safety standard, ISO 26262 ASIL D,” said Mario Cupelli, CTO at HighTec EDV-Systeme. “On the other hand, ST’s Stellar automotive microcontrollers are the first 28nm components certified according to ISO 26262 ASIL D. This makes them a natural fit with our compiler, enabling customers to have a complete solution where safety is assured seamlessly across compiler, hardware, and software.”

    Automakers meet evolving safety standards and faster development cycles. This partnership offers a robust solution for developing safe automotive software. By integrating the ASIL D qualified Rust compiler into the Stellar MCU family, companies can develop safety-critical systems in lesser time. This helps them meet safety requirements while reducing the time it takes to bring products to market.

    Rust’s safety, performance, and reliability are making it a popular choice for crucial automotive systems. It is set to influence the future of the automotive sector. With HighTec’s Rust compiler support for Stellar products, ST provides its automotive clients with a comprehensive, feature-rich, and efficient toolchain. This approach speeds up development cycles while ensuring adherence to ISO 26262 standards.

    ST and HighTec share a common goal of developing innovative solutions that adhere to the highest safety standards in the automotive sector. Their close collaboration allows developers to incorporate Rust alongside existing C/C++ code base into their safety-critical projects using Stellar. This integration speeds up the development of safety-critical systems, shortens time-to-market, and ensures compliance with automotive safety and security regulations.

    Further technical information

    Rust contains provisions to protect the safety of memory, process threads, and data types. This ensures enhanced resilience appropriate for critical automotive systems, while Rust’s runtime efficiency is comparable to C/C++ in execution time and memory usage. These characteristics significantly lower costs in software development and maintenance, shorten development cycles, and increase safety and security.

    HighTec’s C/C++ and Rust automotive grade compiler allows Rust’s safety benefits to be integrated alongside legacy C/C++ code to build safe and secure automotive applications for the next-gen of software-defined vehicles.

    ST’s Stellar automotive MCUs are built on Arm Cortex-R52+ cores and a robust safety-focused hardware architecture. They are the first 28nm MCUs to achieve an ISO 26262 ASIL D certification, attained through an accredited assessor early in 2024. Additionally, they adhere to ISO 21434 cybersecurity standards and comply with UN155 requirements, that ensure meeting the latest safety and security standards. The Stellar MCUs offer incomparable performance, scalability, and integration for next-gen automotive vehicles, electrification, and safety-critical systems.

    The HighTec Rust compiler complements the already established HighTec C/C++ compiler suite. Both are qualified according to the safety level ISO 26262 ASIL D and enable automotive software developers to take advantage of the reliability and performance features of ST’s Stellar MCUs. The toolchain is built on the modern LLVM open-source technology and allows a hybrid development of Rust code along with C/C++, enabling the transition to modern software architectures. ST’s Stellar MCUs benefit from HighTec’s Rust compiler, allowing a smooth development of safety-critical applications.

    About STMicroelectronics

    STMicroelectronics, established in 1987 through the merger of Italy’s SGS Microelettronica and France’s Thomson Semiconducteurs, is a global semiconductor company headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The company offers a range of products, including analog chips, discrete power semiconductors, microcontrollers, and sensors, serving industries such as automotive, industrial, personal electronics, communications equipment, and computers. In 2023, STMicroelectronics reported revenues of $17.3 billion, with over 50,000 employees worldwide and offices in 40 countries. The company is committed to sustainability, aiming for carbon neutrality in scope 1 and 2 emissions, and partially scope 3, by 2027.

    About HighTec EDV Systeme GmbH

    HighTec EDV-Systeme GmbH, established in 1982, is a privately owned company headquartered in Saarbrücken, Germany. As the world’s largest commercial open-source compiler vendor, HighTec specializes in embedded software development tools, offering C/C++ and Rust development platforms. Their product portfolio includes the PXROS-HR real-time operating system, certified to ISO 26262 ASIL D and IEC 61508 SIL 3 standards, ensuring high levels of data protection and functional safety. HighTec serves industries such as automotive and industrial automation, providing development, training, and consulting services in performance optimization, functional safety, and migration from single-core to multi-core systems. The company has been recognized as a Preferred Design House by Infineon and a preferred compiler partner by STMicroelectronics. HighTec employs approximately 250 people.

    Source: STMicroelectronics

  • Molex Launches Compact MMCX PoC to Ensure RF Connections

    Molex Launches Compact MMCX PoC to Ensure RF Connections

    LISLE, IL, Jan 28, 2025 – Molex announced the availability of its new compact MMCX Power over Coax (PoC) solution, that features a patent-pending mating technique to ensure secure and stable connections while maintaining electrical ground continuity. This product innovation is suited for space-constrained applications where reliable RF connections and continuous power delivery are important, such as automotive liquid-crystal display (LCD) mirrors, driver monitoring systems or industrial sensors.

    “Our new MMCX Power over Coax solution includes a full-locking mating mechanism to fix a known weakness in traditional MMCX plug connectors, which can cause signal interruptions and intermittent power levels,” said Roger Kauffman, senior director, RF product management and marketing, Molex. “Over the past year, this solution has performed effectively in different environments, including a light sensor used in a critical industrial security application.”

    Backward Compatible, Compact Connectivity

    The MMCX Power over Coax (PoC) product not only removes persistent reliability problems, it also is backward compatible with IEC 61169-52 MMCX jack receptacles to facilitate continuous product upgrades. This alleviates the need to redesign existing PCB receptacles, that can save significant time while reducing costs associated with product integration. Meeting both current and future standards provides customers with a reliable solution to meet evolving RF connection and power needs.

    The compact product is 30% smaller than traditional MMC connectors, making it ideal for customers seeking to replace larger, heavier MCX connectors as well as more robust and reliable performance. MMCX Power over Coax is advantageous in applications where separate power and data connectors is undesirable. To date, MMCX Power over Coax is being tested and deployed in a variety of agriculture, automotive and industrial automation applications.

    This forward-thinking solution boosts performance across a wide range of compact, durable, and dependable products. These include remote and mobile devices, drones, portable electronics, smart-home automation systems, and IoT sensors and infrastructure. MMCX Power over Coax also meets strict reliability standards for GPS antennas, smart transportation systems, wireless meter readers, and more.

    About Molex

    Molex, established in 1938 and headquartered in Lisle, Illinois, is a global leader in electronic, electrical, and fiber optic connectivity systems. The company offers over 100,000 products, including electrical connectors, optical fiber connectors, and switches, serving industries such as data communications, medical, industrial, automotive, and consumer electronics. Molex pioneered the widely adopted Molex connector in personal computing. As of 2023, Molex reported annual revenues of $3.6 billion and employed approximately 45,000 people worldwide.

    Source: Molex

  • Pioneering Trimble-Qualcomm Tech Empowers Automated Vehicles

    Pioneering Trimble-Qualcomm Tech Empowers Automated Vehicles

    WESTMINSTER, CO, Jan 10, 2025 – Trimble has announced that it has extended its technology collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. to deliver precise positioning solutions for automated vehicles ranging from automobiles to heavy trucking. Trimble’s precise positioning engine, Trimble ProPoint Go, will be integrated with the Snapdragon Auto 5G Modem-RF Gen 2, a key platform of the Snapdragon Digital Chassis solution, to provide positioning accuracy within 10 cm. Vehicles with the joint solution are expected to be on the roads by 2028.

    This new integration is capable of supporting Level 2+ and potentially higher levels of automated driving (AD) applications with high-accuracy positioning for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) for automakers and Tier-1 suppliers. With the Snapdragon Auto 5G Modem-RF Gen 2, customers can extend into Level 3 autonomous driving applications, and C-V2X solutions, with the same chipset.

    “Continued success between Qualcomm Technologies and Trimble is a testament to our joint innovation and delivery of solutions that help make higher levels of ADAS and C-V2X a reality for the automotive and telecom industries,” said Olivier Casabianca, vice president, positioning services at Trimble. “Together we are ensuring the highest standards of accuracy and are empowering our end customers to operate with confidence. While fully automated vehicles and trucking are still in the development stages, we are making great strides in providing technology to meet the requirements of greater levels of autonomy.”

    The ProPoint Go positioning engine is designed to provide position and orientation data from the fusion of GNSS signals, including globally accessible high-accuracy Trimble correction services and measurement data from a variety of sensors. ProPoint Go provides precise and reliable centimeter-level position, velocity and time information based on multi-frequency GNSS signals and ASIL-C certified Trimble RTX correction data. This positioning ecosystem helps companies advance their automated driving capabilities with safety at the forefront.

    The Snapdragon Auto 5G Modem-RF Gen 2 automotive connectivity platform features integrated C-V2X direct communications, non-terrestrial networks (NTN), high-precision multi-frequency global navigation satellite system (HP-GNSS) and RF front-end (RFFE) functionalities to support major operators across key spectrum bands globally. “We are committed to delivering driver assistance technologies with a focus on achieving automated driving and creating a system that accurately responds to its surroundings,” said Jeff Arnold, vice president, product management at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Our continued collaboration with Trimble allows us to add more reliable and accurate positioning to our technology stack that enhances our commitment to maintaining the highest levels of safety and system reliability.”