Infineon Technologies is to show a virtual prototype of a microcontroller based on the RISC-V open instruction set architecture for automotive applications next week.
This will sit in the Aurix family alongside devices based on the TriCore and ARM 32bit architectures and will evolve into a full digital twin of the RISC-V microcontroller family.
While Infineon says this is the first RISC-V automotive microcontroller in the market, it doesn’t give a timescale for silicon production (see software timeline below). There are also RISC-V microprocessor cores from Andes Technologies in Taiwan and Munich-based Codasip certified to the highest ASIL-D level for automotive applications already available as IP.
The timeline sees hardware variants with embedded AI developed in 2027, indicating production in 2028. Certifying the designs will take time, and the current Aurix TC4x TriCore microcontroller is only just entering production.
The RISC-V Aurix family will cover a wide range of automotive applications from entry-level MCUs up to high-performance MCUs, and Infineon beyond what is available in the market today.
This will be key for software defined vehicles says the company. “In software-defined vehicles, RISC-V is key to standardization and ecosystem compatibility, unleashing a new era of innovation and collaboration,” said Peter Schiefer, President of Infineon’s Automotive Division. “Infineon is committed to making RISC-V the open standard for the automotive industry.”
- European RISC-V startup named as Quintauris
- Hightec, Andes tream for ASIL-D RISC-V compiler
The virtual prototype has been developed by US EDA giant Synopsys, where Infineon was a key backer of the company’s RISC-V cores, and as part of the Quintauris European automotive RISC-V joint venture.
The software development kit (SDK) allows Infineon partners to begin pre-silicon software development and will be shown at Embedded World 2025 next week in Nuremberg. IAR, Elektrobit, Green Hills, HighTec, Lauterbach, PLS and Tasking have already started to use the software development kit and will showcase their first solutions.
“In the era of software-defined vehicles, real-time performance, safe and secured computing as well as flexibility, scalability and software portability become even more important than today. Microcontrollers based on RISC-V help to meet these complex requirements, reducing vehicle complexity and time to market at the same time,” said Schiefer.
This move to RISC-V is important as Infineon is the global market leader for automotive microcontrollers with a market share of 28.5 percent according to TechInsight
More partners will follow in the course of 2025 and the virtual prototype will evolve into a full-fledged digital twin of the future microcontroller family says Infineon.
Quintauris this week launched the first RISC-V profile tailored for real-time, safety-critical automotive applications. The RT-Europa profile is intended to enable low-latency, predictable execution and high reliability designs such as the Aurix version.
RT-Europa aligns RISC-V implementations for Safety Island and Domain Controllers where deterministic execution and low latency are key and will be announced in more detail at the Embedded World exhibition in Nuremberg, Germany, next week.
“Quintauris RT-Europa marks a major step forward for RISC-V in the automotive space. This profile is the initial foundational step for OEMs and Tier 1s to confidently adopt open-standard, real-time solutions without compromising software environment” says Alexander Kocher, CEO of Quintauris.
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