Change is Coming: The Future of Automotive

With Arm’s expertise in supporting automotive designers, Marvell is perfectly placed to power ahead with industry innovation.

The Big Picture: Automotive-Enhanced Technologies

Transportation accounts for approximately 24% of worldwide, and 29% of US, greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing transport emissions is one of the most difficult challenges in moving toward a carbon net-zero world.

While electric vehicle development is still at an early stage, steps can be taken now to further technology development and help accelerate adoption. Marvell has a key role in this.

For instance, data sharing among vehicles and roadside assets can further help reduce emissions and energy consumption caused by traffic congestion. Arm has data-handling technologies and IP that can support Marvell and its customers with automotive innovation:

Data-processing capabilities that enable vehicles to streamline their progress along roads.
The latest technology for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) collision detection, lane departure warnings, and autonomous driving.
Microcontrollers based on the Arm Cortex-M processor family also enable software-defined vehicles through the deployment of a common, scalable architecture that meet processing demands, software re-use, lower development costs, faster time to market, and more.

Market Penetration and Marvell

Arm already has a significant and influential position in the auto industry which can only benefit Marvell innovation:

Every second, 50 Arm processors are installed in cars.
The 15 top automotive makers license Arm IP.
This has led to an 85 percent Arm market share in infotainment systems in vehicles and more than 55 percent in ADAS applications.

Arm and Marvell are already engaged to deliver the security of next-generation in-vehicle networks and the data they carry.

In May 2022, Marvell introduced its third-generation Marvell^® Brightlane™ Ethernet Switch. This is the first with lockstep dual-core Arm processing redundancy to enable high reliability for mission-critical applications that support vehicle safety and performance.

As a leading digital framework for next-generation Ethernet-based zonal architectures, the new automotive switch also includes a suite of advanced security and networking features, along with increased bandwidth and port counts, compared to the previous generation.

The Road Ahead

For a quarter of a century, Arm has supported automotive designers with technology products and solutions that have scaled over time to give vehicle developers flexibility and choice in building their products.

As a result, Marvell development teams have access to a broad portfolio of automotive enhanced Arm IP and solutions to integrate into their future projects:

Cortex-A CPUs: The high-performance, power-efficient Cortex-A processor series supports the complex compute needs of advanced driving systems, including ADAS, autonomous vehicles, IVI, and digital cockpit applications.
Cortex-R CPUs: With real-time deterministic control, the Cortex-R series offers reliable, safe computing solutions for powertrain and domain controllers, such as for battery management systems and traction motors.
Cortex-M CPUs: Arm's smallest and lowest power suite of processors are perfect for constrained, energy-efficient microcontrollers (MCUs). Ideal for a broad range of automotive applications, including body electronics, sensors, gateways, and SoC management.

Mali GPUs: Scalable, high-performance GPUs able to address the complex requirements of a wide range of applications, including ADAS and autonomous perception systems, and cockpit domain controllers.
Mali ISPs: Image signal processors offering high image quality multi-camera capabilities with a range of real-time hardware and software safety features for advanced human display and computer vision applications.
System IP: Selected CoreLink interconnects and system controllers have been optimized for high-performance IVI, powertrain and ADAS systems, targeting ASIL B to ASIL D safety integrity levels.

Arm Safety Ready IP for Functional Safety: The mission critical ability to detect, diagnose and safely mitigate faults, preventing harm to people and the environment. Arm provides products, tools, platforms and software to enable functional safety which also accelerates time to market to deploy safety-critical applications. Safety packages contain documentation, artifacts or evidence and specific safety claims and certificates that Arm holds for an individual IP. This provides partners with information to support their safety argumentation and as evidence for safety assessors.