Bridging solutions for mobile-related platforms such as smart car ADAS and in-vehicle infotainment systems
In the past decade, with the continuous development of smartphones and their application ecosystems, innovative technologies for mobile-related applications in the automotive electronics are also deeply affected. Automakers have begun to apply the same processor platform for smartphones to next-generation cars, giving the driving experience a qualitative boost while making cars safer and cheaper. In addition, automakers hope to take advantage of the scale and application support of today's mobile industry. While many processor manufacturers are now able to offer automotive-grade mobile platforms, the processors are still designed with the smartphone in mind. In many cases, such platforms need to be adjusted to meet the needs of automakers. The use of FPGAs enables fast, low-cost bridging solutions that make existing platforms ideal for automotive applications. Whenever design engineers try to apply existing platforms to new areas, there are always many challenges. The automotive industry is no exception. FPGA bridging solutions can solve many problems. Depending on the system design, specific concepts and requirements, automotive manufacturers may need multiple components to achieve the right solution. A variety of FPGAs from Lattice Semiconductor enable a variety of solutions that meet these requirements. · CrossLinkTM devices – a low-power, low-cost sensor and camera interface bridging solution that aggregates and multiplexes data from multiple camera interfaces (visual or radar) and sends it to the SoC. · ECP5TM – an excellent, comprehensive automotive application bridge chip. The ECP5 is a low-power, low-cost device that uses SERDES to easily connect to devices via Ethernet or fiber. The DSP block enables pre- and post-processing of sensor data or converts video data into various standard display formats. · MachXOTM – A small form factor FPGA with the highest I/O per LUT, making it easy to expand I/O and enable simple conversion of video data. The following are the application of bridging solutions in specific areas. While embedded vision sounds a bit sci-fi, it is actually one of today's most exciting application trends. As the name suggests, it refers to the ability of the machine to view and collect visual data from the surrounding environment. This technology enables manufacturers to implement machines and cars that can be "seen", sensors that can be perceived, and computers that can make informed decisions. The data collected by the embedded vision system can help machine learning technology become smarter and more capable. The Human Machine Interface (HMI) allows the machine to achieve smarter operation and control while the machine feeds back information to aid decision making. One focus of computer vision is the use of multidimensional images to measure distance and depth in target recognition and stereo vision applications. Using sensor fusion technology, these systems combine data from different sensors into meaningful, useful information for processing. At the same time, these systems enable secure communications over high-speed connections for smart cities, smart factories and smart cars. Lattice's wide range of programmable products provide co-processing, bridging and interconnect solutions that enable intelligent functions for network edge applications. The flexibility of FPGAs helps speed time-to-market, reduce cost and power consumption, and minimize the size of industrial and automotive-grade devices. Modern processors typically have only two camera interfaces, but many ADAS systems require at least four interfaces, and in some cases even up to eight cameras are needed to accurately sense the surroundings of the car. Another challenge faced by design engineers is how to handle the image data collected by these cameras. These data requirements typically require a large ISP (Image Signal Processor) to connect to the processor. Lattice ECP5 FPGAs are designed for parallel processing to speed up processing. The device offers a large number of I/Os that make it easy to connect multiple cameras. In addition, their co-processing capabilities increase the efficiency of the processor. The ECP5 can connect multiple cameras and perform basic or advanced image processing tasks to provide the highest quality images for the processor to make decisions. The aerial panoramic camera of the modern car and the front and rear view systems are an example. The bird's eye view panorama system provides a panoramic view from the top of the car 20 feet down. This is done by stitching together the data of four (or more) wide-angle (FoV) cameras. ECP5 can aggregate all camera inputs, stitch together images, fisheye correction (this is caused by FoV wide-angle lens), perform white balance, use HDR to maximize image quality, etc., then send the image with the best quality to processor. In the above applications, an ECP5 device can replace multiple processors with limited camera interfaces. This provides design engineers with a way to reduce system cost and power consumption. The following factors must be taken into account when designing systems of the above type: · Number of video channels required and resolution · Fast and stable transmission · Preprocess images to reduce the load on the main ADAS processor Video channel and resolution The Lattice CrossLink device enables design engineers to aggregate data from multiple image sensors and transfer the data to the application processor via a single CSI-2 interface. CrossLink's small size allows it to be placed near the sensor to increase design flexibility. Lattice also offers a variety of off-the-shelf IPs for CrossLink devices that bridge and aggregate between MIPI D-PHY and other camera or display interface standards. This allows designers to use cameras or displays with traditional interfaces such as OpenLDI, CMOS, LVDS, and modern MIPI CSI-2 or DSI interfaces. DisplayPort is another open standard that is increasingly popular in the automotive industry. Due to the built-in embedded clock, the number of channels required is reduced and its electromagnetic interference (EMI) is also lower. It uses a micro-packet protocol that can be easily extended to support higher resolutions and longer distances. Using dedicated SERDES channels from ECP5, DisplayPort (DP) or embedded DisplayPort (eDP) can be used for applications such as instrumentation systems, instrument panel/navigation displays, and rear seat entertainment systems. Combined with Lattice's automotive-grade MHL/HDMI ASSP solution, it's easy to connect to modern smart devices such as smartphones and tablets. Lattice MHL/ HDMI ASSP for interconnection between smart devices and cars Data transmission in the car When there are many sensors in a car that need to be managed, the complexity and cost of point-to-point wiring will increase dramatically. By connecting multiple sensors to the ECP5 at the rear of the car, you can use a single cable to quickly and efficiently send data to the front of the car, reducing weight and cost and simplifying repairs. ECP5's 3.2Gbps SERDES provides strong support for many network and transport applications. The device can be used to drive in-vehicle networks such as BroadR-Reach or Ethernet for connecting PHY chips or collecting sensor data for use in the car. The ECP5 also supports an emulated CSI-2 interface that can be used to connect multiple cameras or radar equipment. In-vehicle sensor aggregation and network connectivity using ECP5 Video preprocessing ECP5 can also be used to preprocess video. As the automotive industry began to adopt mobile processors, design engineers had to face a variety of new interfaces. For example, while cell phone processors typically have a single DSI output connected to the display, mainstream displays on the automotive market use LVDS. The FPGA can implement preprocessing of video signals of different resolutions and bridging between different interfaces. The ECP5 can be used to build a video bridging solution between the application processor DSI or FPD-Link output and most automotive display LVDS inputs. In addition, the ECP5 can be used in in-vehicle infotainment applications to split a video output into two outputs for the rear-seat display or to tailor and format a single video output to specific video resolution requirements. Radar and lidar are not only suitable for autonomous vehicles, but also as driving aids. Specifically, it is used to detect dangerous targets and conditions, to let the car inform the driver or automatically take measures to protect the safety of passengers when necessary. Although these systems are still evolving, it is foreseeable that future cars will not only be limited to image signal processing of images received by cameras, but also radar-based proximity sensors and lidar-based terrain sensors. Radar and lidar systems make full use of the high-speed MIPI interface and use CSI-2 to output data. After considering the above situation and the resources of the processor, the design engineer will once again face the challenge of a limited number of MIPI CSI-2 interfaces or different interface types. Automotive-grade CrossLink devices can be used to aggregate data from multiple sensors or simply as a bridge solution to convert CSI-2 data into a format acceptable to the application processor interface. For example, many modern 77 GHz radars use CSI-2 to interconnect with ADAS MCUs. Using the topology shown below, the ADAS system can connect multiple radar devices through multiple CrossLink bridges to collect data in all directions around the car and send the data to the application processor via the parallel interface. CrossLink for radar bridging applications in ADAS systems ADAS also requires expensive Image Signal Processing (ISP) resources to identify objects or focus on specific objects rather than ordinary images. As machine learning algorithms for decision making continue to evolve and cars become more automated, FPGAs provide design engineers with the flexibility they need. When the decision-making power is attributed to the computer, it must decide how to deal with the road conditions, the objects on the road, and in any case ensure the safety of the driver. The Lattice ECP5 has a full HDR ISP from Helion Vision, GmbH, which can be used to improve the quality of captured images. Based on higher quality images, target recognition is easily accomplished using a microprocessor soft core. If automakers want to implement an AIS system to provide information and entertainment for the entire car, it will need to support multiple screen outputs, a rear-screen camera input, and video and data input to support mobile devices. Mobile processors typically only drive one DSI display. The automotive sector uses a variety of displays with interfaces such as LVDS, DSI or DisplayPort. For traditional display interfaces like LVDS, ECP5 converts DSI to LVDS and ensures output resolution is compatible with the display. The ECP5 also supports displays for DisplayPort (DP) and Embedded DisplayPort (eDP) interfaces. For processors that do not support DSI, CrossLink can bridge the DSI display. Design engineers can also support multiple displays using MachXO devices and input video from mobile devices using the HDMI Automotive ASSP. Lattice customers have implemented a similar solution using ECP5 FPGAs. The customer's products provide a bird's eye view solution while processing image data and providing hardware acceleration. The solution uses four cameras (front, rear and sides) mounted on the body. The video data is processed and seamlessly stitched to provide a panoramic image around the car. ECP5-based wraparound vision application block diagram As shown in the above figure, an ECP5 can replace the bird's-eye view function of multiple ARM processors. The images captured by all four cameras are processed and combined, and with the help of ISP, such as white balance, fisheye correction and defogging, a complete 360-degree panoramic surround view function can be realized. This solution can be installed during the automotive manufacturing phase or as a aftermarket product. Each camera provides 720p analog HD images. The final wraparound panoramic view solution has a resolution of 1080p 60 fps. Design engineers replaced multiple ARM processors with a low-cost, low-power ECP5 FPGA. A low-end ARM processor is also required for initial calibration and video encoding. In many industries, the flexibility of FPGAs has proven to be very valuable. In the automotive market, FPGAs can help solve the problem of mismatch between advanced entertainment and security systems and mobile processors. This business model has clear advantages, allowing automakers to use a large number of market-proven products from the smartphone field and quickly adapt to the changing needs of the automotive sector. FPGAs can also play a role in other areas. FPGAs have begun to appear in applications such as motor control, proving to be useful in the automotive industry. To be sure, as long as the automotive electronics system continues to evolve and systems such as ADAS continue to advance the development of driverless vehicles, design engineers need to integrate more sensors into these systems. This will drive the changing market demand for FPGAs that enable cameras, sensors, video and higher speed connections. SHENZHEN CHONDEKUAI TECHNOLOGY CO.LTD , https://www.szfourinone.com
