Panasonic Automotive Systems and Arm join hands to promote the standardization of software-defined vehicles.

Panasonic Automotive Systems Co., Ltd. (PAS) and Arm recently announced a strategic cooperation to jointly promote the standardization of the software-defined vehicle (SDV) architecture. Based on a common vision, both parties create a flexible software stack that meets the needs of automobiles, and promote standardized cooperation in software development through participation in the SOAFEE industry initiative. In this new cooperation project, PAS and Arm will adopt and expand the VirtIO device virtualization framework to achieve decoupling of automotive software development from hardware and accelerate the development process of the automotive industry.

As the automotive industry integrates electronic control units, hypervisors and advanced chip sets are becoming increasingly important. However, automakers and Tier 1 suppliers face the challenge of inconsistent proprietary interfaces of suppliers. PAS and Arm realize that it is necessary to shift from hardware-dominated to software-first development mode, standardize software stack interfaces, hypervisors and chip sets, so that automotive partners can more easily adopt the latest technologies optimized for specific needs and application scenarios.

This cooperation includes:

Promote a unified human-machine interface based on VirtIO to achieve standardization of the regional controller architecture. Both parties use VirtIO technology to virtualize devices connected to central and regional ECUs. Through PAS's open source remote GPU technology Unified HMI, a concept verification is demonstrated. The SOAFEE blueprint and reference implementation are launched to promote the standardization of the regional controller architecture.

Realize environment equivalence from the cloud to the vehicle end. PAS's vSkipGen runs on a cloud server based on the Arm Neoverse platform. By maintaining the same architecture and virtualization framework, the gap between virtual and physical automotive systems is narrowed.

Promote the standardized expansion of VirtIO. Currently, it is focused on applying the VirtIO standard to cockpit scenarios and plans to expand to more fields, including developing standardized interfaces for real-time operating systems to achieve decoupling of ADAS software from hardware.

Masashige Mizuyama, executive vice president and chief technology officer of PAS, said that the cooperation will promote the standardization of VirtIO and lay a foundation for building future automotive technologies for SDV. Dipti Vachani, senior vice president and general manager of Arm's automotive business unit, said that SDV is an opportunity for automakers. The cooperation will reduce fragmentation through standardization and accelerate the automotive development cycle.