Automotive Ethernet
Leading the transition to Ethernet in automotive
The automotive industry has adopted Ethernet for in-vehicle networking (IVN) based on open IEEE standards. Driven by the OPEN Alliance SIG, these standards aim to develop a simpler, but more powerful, automotive electrical/electronic architecture. Demand is accelerating for deterministic, high-performance Ethernet-based communication leveraging Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) standards and low-cost unshielded twisted-pair cables.
Cadence offers a variety of IP to support Automotive Ethernet applications (Figure 1). For example, you can design high-speed automotive Ethernet communication links between advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), infotainment, cameras, and other electronic control units (ECUs) by leveraging the Cadence® Ethernet controller.
Figure 1: Where Cadence IP fits in automotive Ethernet applications
Automotive Ethernet MAC Design IP
In order to build highly integrated automotive SoCs, Cadence provides key design IP such as the Cadence Automotive Ethernet Media Access Controller (MAC) IP. The MAC IP supports different operating speeds (10/100/1G/10G), the IEEE 1722 Audio-Video Bridging Transport Protocol (AVBTP) standard, and the latest TSN standards.
AVBTP and TSN are the two key IEEE standards to enable reliable real-time data transfer for Automotive Ethernet applications. AVBTP describes how to guarantee bandwidth and enable data synchronization over Ethernet to ensure a high quality of service (QoS). TSN hardware support enables robust, low-latency, and deterministic synchronized packet transmission to meet the ISO 26262 requirements of mission-critical control systems like braking or steering.
Our Automotive Ethernet MAC IP can be combined with other IP or devices using the accompanying physical coding sublayer (PCS) and connectivity IP. Our Ethernet PCS solutions are compliant with the IEEE 802.3 specifications for 1G and 10G Ethernet PCS layers and ease integration of MAC IP with a broad range of PHYs and third-party IP.
The Cadence MAC IP is UNH tested and ASIL-B ready and is widely licensed for high-volume production ICs.
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Sigrity SystemSI Automotive Ethernet Channel Simulation
Cadence Sigrity™ SystemSI™ technology for automated chip-to-chip signal integrity analysis allows you to implement automotive Ethernet networks and analyze the ECU-to-ECU communication performance via the physical Ethernet channel. It also enables simulation-based automotive Ethernet compliance testing saving expensive test and measurement equipment. Sigrity PowerSI® technology enables a power integrity analysis of the Ethernet-based ECU.
Design, verify, and optimize the full physical Ethernet channel
- Test different PHY, connector, and cable combinations
- Support of cable segmentation (different cable length)
- Support with or without jacket, shielding
- Enable simulation-based EMI verification and optimization from ECU to ECU
- Analyze cable aging effects
Automotive Ethernet Compliance Testing for 100Base-T1 and 1000Base-T1 PHYs
- IBIS-AMI models of PHY working on any cable topology
- TX and RX models
- Physical channel simulated in Sigrity SystemSI technology
- Supported compliance tests:
- Transmitter output droop
- Transmitter power spectral density
- Transmitter jitter (initiator/responder)
- Transmitter clock frequency (PAM3)
- Transmitter distortion
- Return loss measurement