Executive Briefing: Automotive Systems Convergence

One of the biggest challenges facing today's auto industry is resolving the conflict of meeting customer expectation - generally interpreted as providing ever-higher levels of equipment - without exceeding stringent budgetary constraints. The issue is common to all auto makers, and is compounded by the requirement to meet increasingly severe safety and security compliance standards set by a host of governing bodies.

The car manufacturers are responsible for laying out a map of equipment requirements, timing and cost, and the Tier One manufacturers the next level on this map, but it is falling on the shoulders of those who design and manufacture semiconductors to create the architecture capable of delivering the expected levels of functionality, compliance and reliability within the requisite cost parameters.

This exclusive new Executive Briefing, produced by ABOUT Automotive and authored by Dennis Foy, the highly respected editor of Automotive Telematics Bulletin, analyses how the microprocessor manufacturers are quietly revolutionising the auto industry's development.

Report coverage

Chapter 1: Introduction Why the electronics industry is coming to the aid of auto makers

Chapter 2: The paradigm shift Open Source or proprietary systems?

Chapter 3: That connection dilemma MOST? FlexRay? IEE1334? Conflicting interests can lead to confused developers

Chapter 4: Developments in microprocessor-based technology Who is doing what - designing solutions for problems that not everyone realised existed

Chapter 5: Convergence in logistics telematics Combining telematics with RFID technology enhances security.

This Executive Briefing includes brief profiles of the major players in this sector, assessing the extent to which each company has targeted the auto industry as an area for growth:

ADI

Altera

AMD

ARM

Atmel

Clarity Technologies

dSPACE

Encirq

Fairchild

Freescale Semiconductor

Fujitsu

Infineon

Motorola

National Instruments

NEC Electronics

ON Semiconductor

Philips Micro

QNX

SMaL

STMicro

Texas Instruments