Intel has announced plans to drive the company’s “AI everywhere” strategy into the automotive market, including a deal to acquire Silicon Mobility — a fabless silicon and software company that specializes in SoCs for intelligent electric vehicle (EV) energy management.
Intel also announced: a new family of AI-enhanced software-defined vehicle system-on-chips (SoCs), with Zeekr as the first original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to adopt the new SoC to deliver its generative AI-driven living-room experiences to next-generation vehicles.
The EV transition alongside customer demand for in-vehicle experiences fuels Intel’s strategy to enable the SDV. Intel also announced a commitment to deliver the industry’s first open UCIe-based chiplet platform for SDVs. Intel will work with imec to ensure the packaging technologies meet the rigorous quality and reliability requirements of the automotive industry. Intel will also chair a new industry-defining international standard for EV power management.
“Intel is taking a ‘whole vehicle’ approach to solving the industry’s biggest challenges. Driving innovative AI solutions across the vehicle platform will help the industry navigate the transformation to EVs,” said Jack Weast, VP and GM of Intel Automotive. “The acquisition of Silicon Mobility aligns with our sustainability goals while addressing a critical energy management need for the industry.”
Open standards key to success
To fuel a faster, smoother transition to EVs and a sustainable SDV, Intel and SAE International announced a committee to deliver an automotive standard for Vehicle Platform Power Management (J3311). Intel will chair the committee.
Inspired by proven-in-use power management techniques from the PC industry’s ACPI standard, the new SAE standard will accelerate progress by adopting and enhancing advanced power management concepts from the PC industry, helping all EVs become more energy-efficient and sustainable.
The standards committee currently includes industry representation from Stellantis, HERE, and Monolithic Power Solutions (MPS). The committee is open to additional industry participation, with the goal of delivering the first draft standard within 12 to 18 months.
Working together
Silicon Mobility SAS, a portfolio company of Cipio Partners and Capital-E, is a fabless automotive silicon and software company that designs, develops and deploys EV energy management SoCs. Silicon Mobility’s SoCs feature accelerators purpose-built for energy delivery and co-designed with highly advanced software algorithms for significant gains in vehicle energy efficiency.
Silicon Mobility’s technology portfolio will extend Intel’s reach in the vehicle beyond high-performance compute into intelligent and programmable power devices. The acquisition is subject to necessary approvals.
Geely’s Zeekr brand will be the first OEM to use Intel’s new family of SDV SoCs. Andy An, president of Geely Holding Group and CEO of Zeekr Company, explained how forward-compatibility on Intel systems combined with Intel AI acceleration will allow Zeekr to continually scale and upgrade services to enable next-gen experiences customers demand, such as generative AI-based voice assistants.
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