SoC approach for low cost and low power consumption based on ARM Cortex M3 according to ISO 26262

Abstract

The next milestone in the automotive industry is to achieve the complete autonomous driving capability. This demands high performance computing controllers and a larger number of Electronic Controller Units (ECUs) for realizing this goal. Also, the current shift towards electric cars where the battery capacity is limited, urges for new efficient approaches. Therefore, developing compact, miniaturized integrated controller that encompasses all the features is essential for minimizing the power consumption. At the same time, this approach of ECUs must also ensure the cost efficiency. To address and handle this need, the reduction in the ECUs numbers is necessary to reduce the cost factor but at the same time not compromising on the functionalities. Therefore, the approach of integrating these individual features in a single ECU is a promising way forward, i.e., System-on-Chip (SoC). To design and implement such an SoC for the automotive industry that ensures the safe operation of the controlled functions, it must follow a particular development criterion according to the ISO 26262 - functional safety of the road vehicles. This work focuses on the development of an SoC according to the ISO 26262 standard based on ARM Cortex M3 architecture which is an attractive candidate due to its low cost and low power consumption.