Mentor Graphics Corporation today announced the availability of Automotive Ethernet support in the Volcano™ VSA™ product for network design of both AUTOSAR-based and non-AUTOSAR electronic control units (ECUs).
Increasingly, in areas in which high bandwidth and reliable performance are essential Ethernet is being used. These include advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), vehicle network backbones, audio video bridging (AVB) systems, and diagnostic communication over Internet Protocol (DoIP). The Mentor® Volcano VSA tool addresses the network-wide timing analysis challenges where a mixture of CAN, FlexRay, and Ethernet-based network busses co-exist. The AUTOSAR standard supports timing definition for all elements in a mixed-topology network. The Volcano VSA tool addresses the challenge of accounting for the many different timing paths.
“The rapid growth of software and electronic systems in today’s vehicles has meant that existing vehicle network technologies are not able to handle the data communication load created,” said Scot Morrison, general manager, Embedded Runtime Solutions, Mentor Graphics. “The high-bandwidth capabilities of an Ethernet network, along with competitive manufacturing costs, have made it a good choice for many ECU interfaces within a modern vehicle. Our Volcano VSA design tools will allow engineers to efficiently design hybrid networks utilizing Ethernet, CAN, LIN and FlexRay technologies.”
A real-life example based on a Freescale ECU evaluation board and Broadcom’s BroadR-Reach® technology (Ethernet physical layer standard for automotive), along with COTS network analysis tools, will be on display at the Mentor Graphics booth at the Automotive Ethernet Congress on February 4-5, 2015 in Munich, Germany.
AUTOSAR (AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture) is an open and standardized automotive software architecture, jointly developed by automobile manufacturers, suppliers and tool developers. Users of Volcano VSA are now able to develop and integrate networking functions in an AUTOSAR environment.
