New cooperation model for software-defined cars: CARIAD, the software unit of the Volkswagen Group, and STMicroelectronics (ST), a global semiconductor supplier serving customers across the entire spectrum of electronics applications, will soon launch the joint development of a automotive system on-chip (SoC).
Together, CARIAD and ST are developing custom hardware for connectivity, power management and over-the-air updates – making vehicles fully software-defined, secure and future-proof. The planned cooperation targets the new generation of Volkswagen Group vehicles that will be based on the unified and scalable software platform.
At the same time, the parties are agreeing that TSMC, a leading semiconductor foundry company, will manufacture the SoC wafers for ST.
With this measure, CARIAD intends to guarantee the supply of chips for Volkswagen Group cars years in advance.
“We are about to launch an innovative new cooperation model for the Volkswagen Group. With planned direct cooperation with ST and TSMC, we are actively shaping our entire semiconductor supply chain. We are ensuring we produce the exact chips we need for our cars and securing the supply of critical microchips for years to come,” says Murat Aksel, member of the Volkswagen Group Purchasing Board. “In this way, we are setting new standards in strategic supply chain management.”
As part of its semiconductor strategy, CARIAD will for the first time establish direct relationships with semiconductor suppliers at the Tier 2 and Tier 3 levels for the Volkswagen Group. In the future, CARIAD plans to direct the Group's tier-1 suppliers to use only the SoC developed jointly with ST and ST's standard Stellar microcontroller for the CARIAD zone architecture.
This co-development is a first for CARIAD and ST. “ With the co-development of the system-on-chip with ST ahead, we are consistently pursuing our semiconductor strategy. The SoC we are designing will be perfectly compatible with our software – without compromise. This way, we can offer our Group’s customers the best performance for their cars”, says Dirk Hilgenberg, CEO of CARIAD. “The use of a single, optimized architecture across all Volkswagen electronic control units will give us a huge boost in the efficient development of our software platform.”
This efficiency will allow all electronic control unit (ECU) devices – from microcontrollers to SoCs – to run on a common core software in the future.
The new SoC aims to complement ST's high-performance Stellar microcontroller family by extending its real-time power efficiency capabilities to service-oriented environments. CARIAD is contributing its specific requirements and functionality to Volkswagen Group vehicles and will help extend ST's Stellar Automotive 32-bit microcontroller architecture.
