Intel has unveiled an expanded product portfolio and new partnerships to accelerate automakers’ transitions to electric and software-defined vehicles (SDVs).
The company now offers a whole-vehicle platform, including high-performance computing, discrete graphics, artificial intelligence (AI), power management, and zonal controller solutions, alongside the Intel Automotive Virtual Design Environment (VDE) co-developed with Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Intel’s whole-vehicle platform reduces the inefficiencies of traditional fragmented approaches to vehicle architectures. Intel drives significant cost reductions and performance improvements by optimizing the entire vehicle’s electrical/electronic architecture.
Supporting this platform, Intel has introduced the availability of the Adaptive Control Unit (ACU), designed for electric vehicle (EV) powertrains, and zonal controller applications. The ACU U310 is a new processing unit that supports consolidating multiple real-time, safety-critical, and cybersecurity functions, applications, and domains (X-in-1) into a single chip.
Traditional time and sequential processing-based micro and zonal controllers struggle to handle multiple workloads due to limited deterministic processing capabilities. In contrast, Intel’s new family of ACU devices integrates a flexible logic area that offloads real-time control algorithms from the CPU cores, ensuring reliable performance, freedom from interference (FFI) and deterministic data delivery even when consolidating multiple microcontroller workloads into a single zonal MCU. This dual-brain approach enables greater workload consolidation, lowers cost, and enhances safety, cybersecurity and performance.
When used in an EV powertrain, the ACU U310 supports advanced algorithmic solutions that reduce vehicle energy demand from the battery, automatically adapting high-voltage and control frequencies to individual driver styles and road conditions.
The ACU reduces cost per kilowatt and enhances energy efficiency, allowing the vehicle to reclaim up to 40% of the power train system energy losses, delivering a three to five percent efficiency boost during the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP). This translates to increased range, faster charging and a more responsive driving experience while significantly reducing per-vehicle bill of materials (BOM), electric motor size and battery costs compared to traditional approaches.
The ACU’s programmability allows it to serve as a first-of-its-kind software-defined zonal controller, adapting to different vehicle topologies and applications. This flexibility streamlines the transition to software-defined vehicles, simplifies supply chains and reduces the complexity of the vehicle BOM.
Filed Under: Technology News