Creating a scalable platform for passenger car manufacturing means addressing the challenges of transitioning from traditional fragmented electronics architectures to scalable platforms that support AI-enabled software-defined vehicles (SDVs). Vehicle manufacturers must move toward a centralized compute hardware platform that can interface with standardized software, allowing for a single brand differentiating software interface. 

This approach requires taking a view on components as a full solution, from hardware to application, which in turn enables:  

• More ADAS features to be integrated in vehicles.

• Monetization opportunities for software products.

• An improved driving experience.  

Moreover, advanced driver-assistance features are growing in number. In the U.S. alone, it is estimated that these technologies have the potential to prevent around 21,000 fatalities per year. At the same time, these features are highly complex, and require a more diverse set of technologies and higher level of compute power, and largely fall within ISO26262 ASIL-B or ASIL-D safety standards.

The Arm Solution: Automotive Enhanced Technology

Arm automotive technologies feature cutting-edge solutions for ADAS and autonomous driving. In March 2024, Arm and its partners introduced the Arm Automotive Enhanced (AE) processors and new virtual platforms. These innovations are critical for not only delivering ADAS solutions more efficiently and quickly, but also for offering exceptional performance scalability, power efficiency, and functional safety features that ease the path to ASIL B(D) and ASIL D ISO 26262 certification. The newest additions to the AE suite include: 

• Arm Neoverse V3AE CPU: A server-class processor with top-tier single-thread performance.

• Armv9 Cortex-A CPUs: Two advanced processors designed for performance (Arm Cortex-A720AE CPU) and efficiency (Cortex-A520AE CPU).

• Arm Cortex-R82AE CPU: Arm’s first 64-bit real-time CPU, providing high performance and determinism.

• Arm Mali-C720AE: An image signal processing (ISP) core, optimized for AI-driven computer vision.

Latest Arm Technology Advances

The AI advances in the Arm Neoverse V3AE CPU deliver server-class performance for automotive applications, enabling real-time AI processing that is paramount for complex decision-making in ADAS and autonomous driving. Meanwhile, Armv9 Cortex-AE processors support high-performance computing and a range of AI workloads, allowing for faster and more accurate object detection, path planning, and driver monitoring systems. 

Featuring Arm Neoverse V3AE and the Arm Cortex-R82AE-based safety island, the Arm Reference Design-1 AE (RD-1 AE) is a high-performance compute solution with enhanced system safety monitoring for automotive applications. 

As we look to the future, the complexity of systems will continue to increase with more compute, more AI features, and safety becoming even more critical. The Arm Compute Subsystems (CSS) for Automotive, set to be released in 2025, offers pre-integrated and validated configurations of Arm AE IP. These configurations are optimized for performance, power, and area using advanced foundry processes. By integrating all the necessary components, Arm CSS for Automotive will help our partners bring products to market faster than ever.

Additionally, chiplets offer numerous intriguing SoC design possibilities for the ecosystem. Arm, through our partner ecosystem, delivers a versatile compute platform to support the expanding chiplets ecosystem. Our solution stands out by offering multiple reusable IP components that can be integrated into larger systems by partners, as showcased across our new Automotive Enhanced IP technologies. 

Our approach to safety and performance delivers: 

• Enhanced performance and efficiency: High-performance processors from the Arm Automotive Enhanced (AE) IP portfolio.

• Seamless integration: A comprehensive support package, including software test libraries (STLs), tools, and compilers.

• Accelerated Development: Virtual platforms for pre-silicon software development and testing, helping to reduce time-to-market.

• Compliance with safety standards: Adherence to UNECE GSR, ISO 26262, ISO 21448 (SOTIF), and ISO 21434 standards across our Safety Ready solutions and AE processors.

• Robust ecosystem: SOAFEE (Scalable Open Architecture for Embedded Edge) is an initiative to help reduce software complexity and enable a multivehicle platform, single software approach.

Safety, Performance, and Efficiency in an SDV Era 

The unprecedented advances in software and AI that are defining software-defined vehicles (SDVs) require new levels of performance, efficiency, safety and security. This is a challenge that we set out to meet through a brand-new suite of leading-edge processors that expands the portfolio of Arm Automotive Enhanced (AE) IP. 

The intended product based on the target solution must comply with relevant regulations and safety standards. For example, an ADAS solution must adhere to UNECE GSR and standards like ISO 26262, ISO 21448 (SOTIF), and ISO 21434, to help ensure correlation between safety and security. 

The increase in digitalized safety-critical vehicle features and change in vehicle OEM business models generates a high degree of complexity and underscores the need for a software-defined approach. However, this is leading to a need for high-performance hardware that can be costly to implement. For OEMs, these high-performance computing systems must be cost effective for mass production, while maintaining performance.

To better manage the multiple compute elements and increasing software complexity, which includes support for over-the-air updates, there is a push toward revamping the vehicle architecture. Traditionally, discrete electronic control units (ECUs) manage specific functions on the vehicle. These ECUs are then added to the architecture to support new features and functions. However, this model is neither scalable nor suitable for SDVs, as it substantially increases the challenges of managing complex software and software updates.

As a result, there is a push toward a more centralized architecture. This means having discrete and spatially located ECUs managing multiple functions that are consolidated into fewer powerful zonal controllers that run multiple software workloads.

This shift allows OEMs to protect software investments and enable post-production monetization across different car segments. Additionally, the evolution of the automotive EE-architecture to a zonal architecture with central compute supports the trend toward further software integration in cars. This minimizes the overall number of ECUs in the car, which reflects the requirements of the AI-enabled SDV for ongoing software updates and maintenance.

SOAFEE

The functionalities of SDVs are driven by software features and AI enhancements, advancing everything from the user experience to autonomous driving. While this allows the industry to reimagine vehicles as safer, more efficient, and more adaptable than ever before, the complexity challenge also presents.

The good news is that we know how to get there and SOAFEE plays a key role in this journey. SOAFEE provides a common device virtualization framework that decouples software implementation from diverse hardware targets. This allows for greater flexibility and scalability across different vehicle variants and generations, helping to reduce the dependency on specific hardware. 

Additionally, the platform’s powerful and scalable computing capabilities support advanced automotive applications, such as ADAS and autonomous driving. By using the high-performance capabilities of Arm Neoverse V3AE, vehicle manufacturers can help ensure that their vehicles are equipped with the necessary computational resources to support sophisticated software features, while keeping hardware costs manageable.

A New Approach to Building Silicon

Adopting a modular and scalable architecture for ADAS platforms can enhance their adaptability. The Arm Compute Subsystems (CSS) for Automotive offers a faster path to building chiplet-based designs through enhanced computing and integration capabilities. This modular approach allows OEMs to customize and scale their ADAS solutions to meet specific regional requirements and evolving global regulations.

Additionally, chiplets offer numerous intriguing SoC design possibilities for the ecosystem. Through our partner ecosystem, Arm delivers a versatile compute platform to support the expanding chiplets ecosystem. Our solution stands out by offering multiple reusable IP components that can be integrated into larger systems by partners, as showcased across our new Automotive Enhanced IP technologies. 

With the advent of AI-enabled SDVs, which are expected to contain billions of lines of code and significantly enhanced connectivity, the automotive attack surface is expanding and evolving. This growth has profound implications for automotive cybersecurity, as new vulnerabilities are continuously reported to the MITRE Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) database, with the number increasing annually. To mitigate the risks posed by these security flaws, the automotive industry is proactively building comprehensive defence-in-depth strategies across the entire automotive ecosystem.

The Arm Automotive Enhanced (AE) IP Portfolio is designed to meet the heightened demands for performance, safety, and security in AI-enabled SDVs. These processors address several critical security challenges in automotive applications, including:

• Increasing software complexity.

• A highly diverse software supply chain.

• Feature enablement hacking.

• Ransomware.

• Securing high-speed communication.

• Managing privacy for passengers and across different environments.

State-of-the-Art Security Practices
 

The latest Arm AE processors adopt key Armv9 defensive execution technologies and architecture features that protect against the consequences of vulnerable or malicious software. Pointer Authentication (PAC), Branch Target Identification (BTI), and Memory Tagging Extension (MTE) help to overcome the risk exposed by growing lines of code by protecting the integrity of the software control flow and reducing the impact of memory safety bugs. This is important for automotive markets because there are still vast amounts of legacy code written in memory-unsafe languages, like C, which can be ported into future SDVs.

Additionally, Arm follows state-of-the-art product security practices and standards, like ISO/SAE 21434, to ensure that security risks are managed during the idealization, development, and post-development of all products. Arm provides a set of supporting security materials for automotive partners to simplify the integration of our off-the-shelf components into ISO/SAE 21434-compliant designs.

Built into the Arm architecture are scalable isolation technologies that segregate diverse workloads with minimal performance impact. A trend in the automotive industry is to run mutually distrusted software components from varied sources of origin on the same computing platform. Isolation technologies help support this aim by offering a strong enforcement of well-defined trust boundaries. Examples of these technologies include Arm TrustZone, S-EL2 and Realm Management Extension.

Arm co-founded and continues to contribute toward standard security APIs, including the PSA Certified Crypto API, which works as a contract between firmware developers and hardware vendors. This allows developers to focus on designing firmware rather than having to understand proprietary hardware rules with each new integration. Meanwhile, for hardware vendors, standard APIs are a way to remove barriers to entry, helping them to instead focus on valuable commercial differentiation.

The Arm Automotive Enhanced (AE) Portfolio offers a comprehensive suite of solutions that effectively help address the challenges of integrating IVI systems within a vehicle’s design constraints. 

Seamless Integration of IVI Systems

The latest additions to the Arm AE portfolio include high-performance Armv9 AE CPUs, which are optimized for automotive applications. These processors deliver the necessary computational power for advanced IVI systems, while maintaining low power consumption, which is crucial for managing the thermal constraints and battery life in vehicles. 

Additionally, the portfolio’s scalability allows for the development of a wide range of systems-on-chip (SoCs) tailored to specific automotive applications and components, including digital cockpits and ADASs. This flexibility ensures that IVIs can be seamlessly integrated into various systems in the vehicle.

Alongside CPUs, Arm AE IP also includes advanced interconnects, memory management units (MMUs), and image signal processing cores, which are essential for handling the complex data flows and multimedia requirements of modern IVI systems. This helps ensure seamless operation and high-quality user experiences. 

Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Arm

AWS uses Arm-based Graviton processors to deliver high-performance, cost-effective, and energy-efficient cloud computing solutions. These processors are optimized for automotive applications, offering the necessary computational power for advanced IVI systems, while maintaining low power consumption. 

Additionally, AWS supports the use of the Android automotive operating system (OS) on its EC2 instances, allowing vehicle manufacturers and tier-1 suppliers to develop and test their infotainment applications at scale.

A New Way to Build Silicon

Adopting a modular and scalable architecture for ADAS platforms can help enhance their adaptability. The Arm Compute Subsystems (CSS) for Automotive offers an accelerated path to building chiplet-based designs through enhanced computing and integration capabilities. This modular approach allows OEMs to customize and scale ADAS solutions to meet specific regional requirements and evolving global regulations.

Additionally, chiplets offer numerous intriguing SoC design possibilities for the ecosystem. Through our partner ecosystem, Arm delivers a versatile compute platform to support the expanding chiplets ecosystem. 

Our solution stands out by offering multiple reusable IP components that can be integrated into larger systems by partners, as showcased across our new Automotive Enhanced IP technologies. 

The demand for modern IVI systems to have high-definition displays, AI-powered features, and seamless user experiences is driving the need for powerful and efficient computing solutions. Additionally, as IVI systems become more connected, the importance of robust cybersecurity measures to protect personal and financial data is increasing.

Therefore, embedding security into every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC) is crucial, including threat modelling, secure coding practices, and regular security testing. Moreover, helping to ensure that over-the-air (OTA) updates are secure is also essential for maintaining the security of IVI systems throughout their lifecycles. This involves using secure communication channels and verifying the integrity of updates before applying them. 

By leveraging Arm technology, OEMs can develop IVI systems that meet the high computational demands of modern applications, while maintaining stringent security standards to deliver a safer, more enjoyable driving experience.

Arm’s approach to automotive security includes defensive execution technologies, such as Pointer Authentication and Branch Target Identification (PACBTI), which protect against control-flow attacks. These technologies help ensure that the execution of code is secure and resistant to tampering. 

Arm also uses MTE (Memory Tagging Extension) and RME (Realm Management Extensions) to isolate different software components, which helps prevent malicious code from affecting critical system functions. MTE is an extension to the Arm architecture and helps detect errors in software use of memory, such as out of bounds accesses.

Meanwhile, Arm's suite of platform security services, including secure boot and run time security, help ensure that the system starts and operates securely. Developers can also use standard security APIs to help ensure interoperability and ease of integration for a consistent security framework across different automotive platforms. 

Finally, Arm’s built-in security solutions, including Arm TrustZone, provide robust protection against cyber threats, helping to ensure the integrity and reliability of IVI systems. 

Functional Safety

The intended product must comply with relevant regulations and safety standards. For example, an ADAS solution should adhere to UNECE GSR and standards like ISO 26262, ISO 21448 (SOTIF), and ISO 21434, the help ensure the correlation between safety and security.

From an Arm AE product perspective, meeting ISO 26262 standards is crucial and vehicle lifecycle safety must underpin partner solutions. Arm Safety Ready solutions are designed with a “safety first” approach, incorporating advanced safety mechanisms and comprehensive packages to help partners achieve ISO 26262 compliance.

Handling Multimedia, Navigation, and Voice Recognition 

Arm technologies provide a comprehensive framework that tackle the challenge of designing IVI systems to handle multiple features simultaneously. 

• Voice Recognition

Arm AI-driven speech recognition technologies, such as those implemented on Arm Cortex-M series microcontrollers (MCUs), enable efficient and accurate voice recognition. These systems can operate offline, helping to ensure user privacy and reduce latency. The use of deep neural networks allows for high accuracy and robustness in various environments, making it suitable for in-vehicle applications. 

• Heads-Up Display (HUD)

Meanwhile, Arm Mali GPUs are designed to deliver high-performance graphics with low-power consumption, which makes them ideal for HUDs in vehicles. These GPUs support advanced rendering techniques that can handle complex visual data, helping to ensure the HUD provides clear and responsive information to the driver. 

Current and future in-vehicle driver and passenger experiences are being greatly enhanced through AI-enabled human machine interfaces (HMI) technologies. 

• Navigation 

Arm Automotive Enhanced (AE) processors, such as those in the Arm Cortex-A series, provide the computational power needed for real-time navigation and mapping applications. Mapbox, a leading platform for powering location experiences, has developed its virtual head unit (VHU) with Arm and Corellium. This creates virtual prototypes of the Arm-based in-vehicle hardware before seamlessly integrating these with Mapbox’s navigation stack. Automotive OEMs can use the new VHU to build maps however they want, and then test and render it quickly before deployment.

Ensure User Data Protection with Arm

Arm uses MTE and RME  to isolate different software components, which in turn helps prevent malicious code from affecting critical system functions.

These technologies create secure compartments within the system, isolating different software components. The IVI system can be imagined as a high-security building with multiple rooms, each with its own security measures. Even if one room is compromised, the others remain secure, protecting sensitive information from malicious attacks.

Arm also promotes the use of standard security APIs, which help ensure interoperability and ease of integration across different automotive platforms. This is the same as having a universal security protocol that all devices in the car adhere to, creating a consistent and robust security framework. It helps ensure that no matter what brand or model of car is driven, the data is protected by the same high standards.

In addition to these measures, Arm integrates real-time intrusion detection systems (IDS) into the vehicle's ECUs. These systems act like a sophisticated alarm system, detecting any suspicious activities or attempts to compromise the IVI system in real time. If an intruder tries to break in, the IDS immediately raises an alert, allowing for swift action to prevent any data breaches.

Modern vehicles are increasingly integrating complex computing systems such as powertrain, IVI, and ADAS to enhance functionality and user experience. This shift toward centralized compute architectures that execute multiple applications is enabling more efficient and scalable vehicle designs and also facilitating faster decision making.

One effective strategy is transitioning from distributed ECUs to a centralized electrical/electronic (EE) architecture. Arm high-performance solutions that feature in SoCs are designed to support such a centralized architecture, helping to reduce latency and improve data processing efficiency. Moreover, Arm solutions enable the integration of various applications, such as ADAS, IVI, and powertrains, on independent hardware boards. This shift allows OEMs to protect software investments and realize post-production monetization across different car segments.

Additionally, the evolution of the automotive EE-architecture to a zonal architecture with central compute supports further software integration in cars. This helps minimize the overall number of ECUs in the car, which reflects the requirements of the AI-enabled SDV that need ongoing software updates and maintenance.

Meanwhile, using high performance SoCs designed for automotive applications can also support the integration of multiple functions. Arm’s Automotive Enhanced (AE) processors deliver AI-accelerated compute capabilities, helping to ensure that both safety-critical and non-critical applications run smoothly. These processors are built to handle mixed criticality workloads and provide the necessary performance and reliability for complex automotive systems. 

Regularly updating vehicle software and continuously monitoring system performance can also help maintain reliability. Arm solutions support OTA updates, allowing vehicle manufacturers and Tier-1 suppliers to fix bugs, improve functionality, and enhance security without requiring physical access to the vehicle. 

For instance, the Arm Reference Design-1 AE, or RD-1 AE, introduces the concept of a high-performance Arm Neoverse V3AE application processor for primary compute, augmented with an Arm Cortex-R82AE based Safety Island for scenarios where additional system safety monitoring is required. The system additionally includes a runtime security engine (RSE) used for the secure boot of the system elements and the runtime secure services.

Arm also offers different classes of processor, each with a broad range of capabilities, specifically designed to address the needs of a variety of automotive applications.

Today’s vehicles increasingly rely on centralized compute architectures to handle diverse functions such as powertrain, IVI, ADAS. Therefore, the trend toward modular and scalable designs is becoming more prevalent, allowing automotive OEMs to develop platforms that can be easily adapted to different vehicle segments and configurations.

Developing execution technologies are critical for preventing control-flow attacks and ensuring that only authenticated code can execute. Arm processors incorporate security features like Pointer Authentication and Branch Target Identification (PACBTI), which help prevent such attacks by verifying the integrity of the code before it runs. These technologies are essential for maintaining the integrity of the system, especially in a highly connected automotive environment.

End-to-End Security with Arm

Securing the world’s data is one of the greatest technology challenges during the next decade of compute. It is a challenge that can only be tackled and scaled with collaboration across the entire ecosystem. Arm is at the forefront of continued security research and industry collaborations to democratize the development of security technologies for AI-enabled SDVs. 

One of the most challenging aspects of securing devices and systems revolves around software. Arm’s MTE and RME security technologies isolate different software components, which in turn helps prevent malicious code from affecting critical system functions.

• MTE enables the detection of memory safety violations, such as buffer overflows, by tagging memory allocations and checking these tags during memory accesses. This helps to prevent common vulnerabilities that could be exploited by attackers. 

• RME provides a secure execution environment that isolates sensitive data and code from the rest of the system, helping to ensure that even if the main operating system is compromised, critical functions remain protected.

Standard security APIs are crucial for ensuring interoperability and security across different platforms.

Integrate Arm STLs for a Safe Automotive Experience

Hardware must work correctly across high-reliability automotive systems. Common methods to check the integrity of the silicon include BIST for memory (MBIST) and CPU logic (LBIST). For the highest safety standards, an evolved industry standard is Dual-Core Lock-Step (DCLS).

In addition to hardware integrity checks, software tools like the Arm STL offer an efficient and cost-effective way to enhance system reliability. STL can be executed within a running application environment to help ensure smooth operation in automotive systems and boost the reliability of safety-related applications, all while meeting stringent ISO26262 standards. 

AUTOSAR Integration
 

The integration of Arm STL into Classic AUTOSAR, which is a standardized framework for real-time deterministic automotive software, brings various benefits, including:

• Robust fault detection: Arm STL offers a comprehensive suite of diagnostic tests to verify the correct operation and integrity of Arm-based MCUs, including those built on Arm Cortex-M and Arm Cortex-R. This helps ensure that faults are detected early, preventing potential failures in critical automotive functions.

• Improved reliability: By integrating STL, developers can enhance the reliability of ECUs, helping to ensure that the hardware operates correctly before the application runs. This is crucial for meeting stringent ASIL requirements.

• Flexible integration: This flexibility allows developers to choose the best approach for their specific application needs.

Meanwhile, microcontroller hypervisors enable the consolidation of multiple applications into a single ECU, which helps ensure freedom from interference and supports mixed criticality systems. Integrating Arm STL into this architecture offers several advantages:

• Enhanced fault mitigation: The hypervisor's ability to separate applications is crucial for maintaining system integrity. By running STL at the hypervisor level (EL2), developers can achieve high diagnostic coverage, helping to ensure that faults are detected and mitigated effectively.

• Scalable and flexible systems: The integration strategies described in the white paper below allow for flexible and scalable system designs. Whether running STL during boot-time or periodically during operation, developers can tailor the integration to meet their specific safety and performance requirements.

• Support for mixed-criticality systems: The ability to run multiple software stacks on a single ECU, with assured spatial and temporal separation, is a game-changer. This supports the development of systems where applications of varying safety levels can coexist without compromising overall system integrity.

The Transformative Role of Chiplets in the Automotive Industry

Adopting a modular and scalable architecture helps enhance the vehicle’s software and hardware adaptability. Arm Compute Subsystems (CSS) for Automotive offers a fast path to building chiplet-based designs through enhanced computing and integration capabilities. 

This modular approach allows OEMs to customize and scale their ADAS solutions to meet specific regional requirements and evolving global regulations.

Additionally, chiplets offer numerous intriguing SoC design possibilities for the ecosystem. Through our partner ecosystem, Arm is delivering a versatile compute platform to support the expanding chiplets ecosystem. 

Our solution stands out by offering multiple reusable IP components that can be integrated into larger systems by partners, as showcased across our new Automotive Enhanced IP technologies. 

To protect vehicle architectures from physical security threats, vehicle manufacturers can implement robust hardware-based security measures. This includes integrating Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) and Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) into vehicle systems. HSMs provide a secure environment for cryptographic operations, helping to ensure that sensitive data is protected from tampering and unauthorized access. TEEs, on the other hand, create isolated environments within the main processor, safeguarding critical operations from potential threats. 

Physical Security Measures

Arm Automotive Enhanced (AE) IP processors, such as those based on the Armv9 architecture, incorporate these advanced security features to provide a strong foundation for protecting vehicle systems. Arm’s approach to automotive security includes defensive execution technologies, such as Pointer Authentication and Branch Target Identification (PACBTI), which help protect against control-flow attacks. These technologies help ensure that the execution of code is secure and resistant to tampering. 

Meanwhile, Arm, alongside other industry leaders such as AWS, Continental, BOSCH and Red Hat, founded SOAFEE, which is driving automotive industry standardization to reduce software complexity.  Since then, a vast ecosystem has grown, using SOAFEE methodologies for a multivehicle platform, single software approach.

SOAFEE members have already created a brand-new ecosystem of software solutions that are critical to enabling Arm Compute Subsystems (CSS) for Automotive in 2025 through delivering software consistency to support the silicon development and deployment process.

Now, SOAFEE.next is bringing together reference designs for hardware and software by aligning SOAFEE-based software solutions with the Arm Reference Design-1 AE hardware solution for automotive which leverages the AI, security, safety, and virtualization capabilities of the latest Armv9 technology. 

This alignment is key, and one of the biggest achievements of the SOAFEE initiative to date, as it enables mixed critical development for hardware and software for a variety of functional safety and application workloads. This means different software-defined functions in SDVs can run at different levels of safety criticality using the SOAFEE architecture.

Learn more on how Arm is pioneering the SDV revolution. 

Arm MTE and RME technologies isolate different software components, which in turn helps to prevent malicious code from affecting critical system functions. MTE is an extension to the Arm architecture which helps detect errors in software use of memory, such as out-of-bounds accesses.

Learn more about internal hardware security modules here.

Meanwhile, Arm’s suite of security services, including secure boot and run time security, help ensure that the system starts and operates securely. Developers can also use standard security APIs to help ensure interoperability and ease of integration, creating a consistent security framework across different automotive platforms. 

Learn more about external hardware security module here.

Arm TrustZone technology has a critical component in enhancing the security of vehicle systems. It provides a hardware-based root of trust, which is essential for implementing secure boot processes and secure firmware updates. At the core of TrustZone technology is the concept of creating two distinct execution environments: the secure world and the non-secure world. This hardware-enforced isolation helps ensure that sensitive operations and data are protected from potentially malicious software running in the non-secure world. 

Arm has also introduced Dynamic TrustZone, an innovative extension that enhances the flexibility and efficiency of TrustZone technology. Dynamic TrustZone uses RME to allocate memory between the secure and non-secure worlds at runtime. This capability is particularly useful for managing complex workloads and maximizing efficient use of resources in modern vehicle systems.

The automotive industry is moving towards modular and scalable architectures to manage the increasing complexity of software workloads. This trend is driven by the need to consolidate multiple functions into fewer, more powerful units, reducing the number of ECUs and simplifying the overall system.

Arm zonal architectures consolidate processing power into fewer, more powerful units, allowing for easier updates and maintenance. This modularity helps enhance the ability to support diverse software applications by enabling individual modules to be updated or replaced without affecting the entire system.

This shift helps OEMs protect software investments and enables post-production monetization across different car segments. Additionally, the evolution of the automotive EE-architecture to zonal architecture with central compute supports the trend toward further software integration in cars. This helps minimize the overall number of ECUs in the car, which reflects the requirements of the AI-enabled SDV for ongoing software updates and maintenance.

The Arm Automotive Enhanced (AE) IP suite, including the Arm Cortex-A and Arm Cortex-R series of processors, provides the necessary performance and flexibility to support modular and scalable architectures. These processors are designed to handle the complex workloads of modern vehicles, helping to ensure efficient and reliable operation.

For automotive embedded-software development, the right tools must comply with safety and security standards to evaluate, prototype, and test software. 

The automotive industry is rapidly transitioning toward AI-enabled SDVs which rely on centralized compute systems to control most of their functionality, from engine performance to infotainment systems. 

Transitioning to a centralized architecture involves consolidating multiple ECUs into fewer, more powerful central units. This shift helps reduce the complexity of vehicle systems, lower costs, and decrease the overall weight of the vehicle, which can improve fuel efficiency and performance. Centralized systems also help enhance scalability, allowing OEMs to integrate new features and technologies more easily than ever.

Arm high-performance processors provide the computational power and flexibility needed for these centralized systems, helping to ensure they can handle the increased processing demands of modern SDVs.

Designed specifically for targeting both safety and flexibility, a single multicore GPU can be divided into separate hardware partitions for different workloads. A single SoC can be designed and then configured at boot time into various domains or deployment use cases. Each domain can operate as a separate GPU. With flexible partitioning, these domains can be shown to be separate and isolated from each other.

For cybersecurity, integrating Arm Automotive Enhanced (AE) technologies with built-in security mechanisms, like Arm TrustZone, provides robust protection against cyber threats. These include hardware-enforced isolation for critical code and data, helping to ensure that sensitive operations are protected from malicious attacks. 

Additionally, Arm follows state-of-the-art product security practices and standards, like ISO/SAE 21434, to help ensure that security risks are managed during the idealization, development, and post-development of all products. Arm provides a set of supporting security materials for automotive partners to simplify the integration of our off-the-shelf components into ISO/SAE 21434-compliant designs.

With a billion lines of code expected in the AI-enabled software-defined vehicles (SDVs) of the future and substantial increases in connectivity, the automotive attack surface continues to grow and evolve. One challenge with SDVs is keeping interiors updated and matching the pace of iteration and innovation of the vehicle’s software. Nobody wants to drive a vehicle that feels futuristic in its mechanics, but looks vintage in its interior.

Additionally, with the shift toward alternative powertrains and autonomous driving, designers can reimagine traditional vehicle layouts, introducing sleeker aerodynamics, innovative lighting systems, and customizable exteriors. This can be further enhanced as the possibilities from 3D printing continue to evolve and become more mainstream, with OTA software updates supporting updated and new exteriors from 3D printing techniques.

Arm AE Technologies for Automotive
 

Arm Automotive Enhanced (AE) technologies are designed to meet increased levels of performance, safety, and security for SDVs. The new range of Armv9-based AE processors include the very latest security and software features. 

Arm continues to be at the forefront of providing security-focused architecture features, empowering its technology ecosystem to protect businesses, individuals, and devices. This expertise is extensively deployed in the automotive industry, where Arm collaborates with the ecosystem to deliver and activate the latest Armv9 architecture security features, alongside continuous efforts on standards and open-source software.

The latest Arm AE processors  incorporate key Arm defensive execution technologies and architecture features designed to mitigate the risks posed by vulnerable or malicious software. Technologies such as Pointer Authentication (PAC), Branch Target Identification (BTI), and Memory Tagging Extension (MTE) help safeguard the integrity of software control flow and reduce the impact of memory safety bugs. 

This is particularly crucial for the automotive sector, which still relies on a substantial amount of legacy code written in memory-unsafe languages like C, that can be ported into SDVs.

Environmental Parity
 

Arm’s ISA parity, also known as "environmental parity," refers to the alignment of the Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) used in the cloud with the ISA used at the edge, such as applications and devices in the actual vehicles. This parity is achieved thanks to the success of Arm Neoverse in the cloud and the adoption of new Arm AE solutions  in vehicles, both built on the Armv9 architecture. 

Leading cloud platforms like AWS, Ampere, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle now offer Arm-based compute instances to the automotive industry. For example, for software developers, this means that development work done in the cloud on Arm Neoverse-based AWS Graviton have almost exact parity with automotive applications built on the new Arm Cortex-A720AE. 

This allows software to be built and tested in the cloud and then deployed at the edge in vehicles with the same binaries, requiring only a recompile. Identical toolchains help eliminate the need for cross-compilation or different sets of drivers and speed up the development process.

SOAFEE for Embedded Edge provides a robust framework to help address the challenges of seamlessly integrating virtual systems in vehicles. The SOAFEE architecture supports the development of SDVs through decoupling hardware and software, which allows for a more flexible and scalable integration of different systems. 

This decoupling is achieved through virtualization technologies, which abstract vehicle hardware components like ECUs, sensors, and actuators, and enable software to control these resources more efficiently. 

The SOAFEE cloud-native approach helps in the development of vehicle applications in a virtual environment before they are validated in real-world conditions. This not only helps reduce development time, but also helps ensure that applications can be seamlessly integrated into various vehicle architectures. 

Additionally, SOAFEE support for mixed-criticality workloads helps ensure that both safety-critical and non-safety-critical applications can coexist and operate reliability within the same system.

The SDV revolution is already underway and set to transform the automotive industry. This transformation requires industry-wide collaboration, standardization, and the embrace of new software methodologies and architectural approaches.

SDVs require advanced computing power, effectively transforming them into datacenters on wheels. This metamorphosis calls for the meticulous integration and management of both hardware and software components. To achieve optimal performance, it is essential to select suitable hardware components, while monitoring and maintaining software components for safety and reliability.

SDVs demand the seamless integration of hardware and software components, with a focus on safety and performance. Prioritizing safety and reliability features is crucial to protecting occupants and other road users. The following aspects of design are essential to meet the growing demand of the SDV and the massive computation requirements and data it must process:

• Efficient but well partitioned hardware and software integration.

• Hardware that enables seamless software portability and updates.

• Continuously monitored software components for safety and reliability.

• Regularly updated and upgraded software for enhanced performance. 

Arm is at the forefront of the SDV revolution, offering essential technologies for automotive applications to make SDVs a reality. Our AE IP portfolio, which includes Arm Cortex-A, Arm Cortex-M, Arm Cortex R CPUs, Mali GPUs, and ISPs, forms the backbone of many automotive computing solutions for SDVs. 

Meanwhile, Arm, alongside other industry leaders such as AWS, Continental, BOSCH and Red Hat, founded SOAFEE – Scalable Open Architecture for Embedded Edge in 2021, which is driving automotive industry standardisation to reduce software complexity.  Since then, a vast ecosystem has grown, using SOAFEE methodologies, which enable vehicle manufacturers to implement a multi-vehicle platform, single software approach.

This SOAFEE membership has already created a brand-new ecosystem of software solutions that will be critical to enabling Arm Compute Subsystems (CSS) for Automotive in 2025 through delivering software consistency to support the silicon development and deployment process.

Moreover, SOAFEE.next is bringing together reference designs for hardware and software by aligning SOAFEE-based software solutions with the Arm Reference Design-1 AE  hardware solution for automotive which leverages the AI, security, safety, and virtualization capabilities of the latest Armv9 technology. 

This alignment is key, and one of the biggest achievements of the SOAFEE initiative to date, as it enables mixed critical development for hardware and software for a variety of functional safety and application workloads. This means different software-defined functions in SDVs can run at different levels of safety criticality using the SOAFEE architecture.

Changing consumer demands for safer, smarter, and more connected vehicles has resulted in an unprecedented evolution of the automotive industry. This is coupled with the rise of autonomous driving, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and electric vehicles. As a result, the overall complexity of automotive systems has increased significantly, bringing new safety challenges that must be addressed to protect consumers, while ensuring an optimal driving experience.

Streamlining ADAS software integration, testing, and validation involves addressing several key challenges. One of the primary challenges is the complexity of integrating ADAS features into existing vehicle architectures, which requires sophisticated software coordination. Additionally, ensuring real-time processing for safety-critical functions is crucial, as any delays can compromise system reliability. 

Virtual Platforms
 

To address the complex, expensive, and time-consuming task of developing, verifying, and validating various SDV functions, Arm has collaborated with partners, such as AWS, Siemens, and Corellium, to offer a new breed of virtual platforms. 

Arm, in collaboration with Codethink, has tackled a crucial part of this integration puzzle by incorporating Arm STL into live Arm Cortex-A application processor software stacks. This specifically addresses the integration at Exceptional Level 3 (EL3) within Trusted Firmware-A (TF-A) for runtime utilization, which  allows developers to enhance the integrity and reliability of their systems. Read more here.