ARM recently announced at
the Fall Processor Forum in
San Jose, California, the new
ARM® Cortex(TM)-R4F processor to
reduce the cost and design-time of
future automotive electronic
technology. The Cortex-R4F
processor will enable ARM Partners
to meet the stringent error-free
safety standards and high
performance requirements of
automotive applications including
next-generation Anti-lock Braking
(ABS) and vehicle stability systems.
The advanced features of the
Cortex-R4F processor specialised
for the automotive market include
support for Error-Correcting Code
(ECC) memory, the extension of
error detection into the
interconnect and a synthesisoptional
Floating-Point Unit (FPU).
“Vehicle OEMs need to
continually innovate in order to
meet tightening emissions and
safety legislation, while adapting
to changing consumer
expectations,” said Chris Webber,
VP, Automotive Practice, Strategy
Analytics.“The ARM announcement
of the Cortex-R4F processor is
extremely timely as designers of
next-generation automotive
control systems look for highly
robust floating-point processor
solutions that are needed for the
innately intelligent backbone
which will be part of even the most
affordable car,” he added.
“Automotive systems require
high performance at the very
highest levels of reliability to
maintain our stringent safety
standards,” said Berthold
Fehrenbacher, engineering
manager, of Robert Bosch GmbH.
“The Cortex-R4F processor enables
Bosch to provide this through
extensive features that are closely
aligned to our product
requirements,” he added further.
The Cortex-R4F processor
builds upon the advanced features
of the Cortex-R4 processor. These
features include configurability
during synthesis to optimise the
processor for different applications
through a high-resolution memory
protection unit, caches, tightlycoupled
memory, DMA and debug
facilities. This configurability is
provided without compromising
the underlying ARM instruction set
compatibility, maximising the reuse
of existing software investments by
application developers and third
parties. In addition, the Cortex-R4F
processor brings a strong focus on
safety with high resolution
memory protection facilities to
allow tight control over
independent software tasks. This is
critical to applications based on
the OSEK standard for an openended
architecture, the JasPar
Automotive software platform
architecture, and the AutoSAR
runtime environment. ARM is a
premium member of AutoSAR
which has wide industry support
with members such as BMW, Bosch,
Continental, DaimlerChrysler, Ford,
GM, Siemens and VW. ARM is also a
member of JasPar, whose board
members include Toyota, Nissan
and Honda.“The automotive
industry is going though a
transformation, with the
emergence of 32-bit processors as
the catalyst for new standards of
functionality, intelligence and
performance in future car
technology,” said Mike Inglis,
executive VP,Marketing and
Business Development, ARM.
Features for automotive
advancement
The Cortex-R4F processor is
designed to enable all the ARM
Partners to meet error-free
automotive safety standards
through seamless support for error
detection from the processor,
through the interconnect and into
peripherals, providing true systemwide
protection.
ECC technology monitors
memory accesses to detect and
correct errors. If a memory error
occurs the ECC logic will correct it,
rather than just communicating
the error and stopping the system.
With embedded error correction in
the Cortex-R4F processor, ARM
Partners do not need to design
external ECC logic, simplifying
implementation and aiding
IEC61508 certification. Careful
integration of ECC within the
processor pipeline allows this to be
achieved without the performance
penalty, which is normally
....CONTD
