By hmimcu 
The “new four modernizations” of automobiles, represented by intelligence, electrification, networking, and sharing, are accelerating the rapid evolution of automotive electronic technology and architecture. Among them, FPGA, known as the “universal chip”, is also receiving increasing attention. Due to its highly flexible and scalable characteristics, it can achieve algorithm iteration at a lower cost, and can better help cars achieve computing, control, and upgrade functions in new scenarios. Therefore, many car manufacturers are accelerating the introduction of relevant FPGA platforms. What are the benefits for domestic FPGA companies? At the “OFweek 2023 Engineer Series Online Conference – Automotive Electronics Technology Online Conference” held on March 23, Xia Jinjun, Senior Engineer/Sales Director of Zhongke Yihai Microelectronics Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., delivered a keynote speech on “Domestic Fully Forward Strong Autonomous FPGA Chips and Reconfigurable Systems” for the automotive electronics industry, We shared with everyone how domestic FPGA companies can assist in the intelligent upgrading of automobiles in the context of the “new four modernizations” era.
Deeply cultivate the FPGA field and adhere to the full forward design technology route
According to Xia Jinjun, Zhongke Yihaiwei is a scientific research and industrialization team in the research field of “programmable chips and systems” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. According to the national innovation driven development strategy, it initiated the establishment of a high-tech enterprise with the technical characteristics of “programmable logic chips and reconfigurable systems”. Since the launch of programmable chip project research in the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2004, The R&D team of Zhongke Yihai Micro has explored the technology path of independent and controllable FPGA chips for nearly 20 years. The team adheres to the technical route of full forward design, independently develops embedded programmable circuit IP cores, programmable logic chips, EDA software and reconfigurable systems with high reliability, and provides industry solutions and integrated circuit design services with high performance and adaptive computing. The product has successively won the “Most Promising IP Design Award in China”, “Best FPGA Chip Award”, and “Best EDA Product Award”, and has been certified by car regulations and certified as a professional level inspection report in the special field. It has been included in the “High Quality Supplier of Car Regulation Level Computing Chips” list. The product has been widely used and has strong reliability; Capable of long-term stable operation in extremely harsh environments, meeting the needs of special high-temperature application scenarios such as engine health management, geological guidance, and measurement while drilling. It has been successfully applied in oil drilling, filling the gap in the application of domestically produced special FPGA chips in ultra-high temperature scenarios; Adopting domestic technology, domestic design, domestic lamination, domestic packaging, and domestic testing, the full chain manufacturing process is completed domestically, ensuring safety, reliability, and stable supply.
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Three core products of Zhongke Yihai Micro
At present, the company has FPGA chips of the Yihai Shendun series and Yihai Shenzhen series. Its shelf products include chips, bare chips, and IP cores, which are basically available from large-scale to medium to small-scale. After Xia Jinjun focused on introducing products such as EQ6HL130, EQ6HL45, EQ6HL45 A2, EQ6HL25, EQ6HL16, EQ6GL9, it is not difficult to find that their product categories are diverse and comprehensive, which can meet a wide range of temperature ranges, diverse packaging forms, and sizes from large to small, fully meeting the application needs of automotive grade semiconductors.
In terms of product advantages, Zhongke Yihai Micro programmable logic chips have the characteristics of integrated software and hardware forward design, high performance, high cost-effectiveness, small size, low power consumption, as well as product type spectrum, multiple packaging, diverse forms, and chip+bare die; From a safety perspective, the products are designed, taped, packaged, and tested domestically, with a high degree of autonomy and stable supply. Users have alternative solutions to reduce the risk of device selection; From the perspective of support, the company has a mature FAE team that can efficiently and quickly respond to user needs, and can also provide various forms of professional technical support, including on-site, remote, online, and offline; Finally, in terms of application, due to its ability to provide users with a variety of temperature ranges, strong flexibility, and strong adaptability to the perfect domestic ecological environment, the product has been widely used.
In terms of programmable circuit IP cores, Zhongke Yihai Micro is a leader in domestic embedded FPGA IP core technology and has successfully provided a team of SoC users to implement applications. Xia Jinjun stated that the company’s products adopt independent architecture and control, ensuring stable supply while meeting the latest needs of system level development. At present, multiple silicon technology verifications have been completed, and the expected results have been achieved in terms of functionality, performance indicators, and stability. At the same time, with the help of embedded programmable circuit IP core compilation technology, we have also completed the design of Zhongke Yihai Micro Programmable Logic Chip. Currently, the product has been recognized in the market, providing IP authorization for users, and has been successfully integrated into SoC chips for practical applications, receiving high praise from users.
In addition, Xia Jinjun also showcased the Yilingsi programmable logic chip development software to the audience. This software has domestic independent intellectual property rights and can support the design and development of programmable logic chips at the level of millions of gates or above. It is reported that Yilingsi software can not only support the industry standard programmable logic chip development process, from RTL synthesis to configuration code stream generation and download, but also provide an evaluation process for customized development of embedded programmable circuit IP cores, helping SoC users customize the scale and layout of embedded programmable circuit IP core resources, and generate corresponding chip databases to provide end users with EDA full process services.
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Yilingsi ® Software interface display
FPGA Technology Helps Upgrade Automotive Intelligence
After introducing the corresponding technologies and product routes, Xia Jinjun also focused on sharing the main application cases of FPGA in intelligent vehicles.
From the perspective of automotive functional modules, FPGA chips are used in ADAS/AD systems, powertrain systems, intelligent cockpit systems, intelligent networking systems, and safety systems. From the perspective of specific application scenarios, FPGA chips can achieve switching functions, expand GPIO, and be used in vehicle pre control units, as well as in applications such as laser projection, laser, car lamp control, and LiDAR.
In the current context of the prevalence of smart cars, LiDAR has become a major application that cannot be ignored in FPGA chip applications. It is reported that the data acquisition of the lidar echo signal is an important component of the lidar system. The lidar data acquisition system based on FPGA can achieve the drive of the mechanical rotation system, laser drive, and use TDC to record the arrival timestamp of the echo pulse, calculate the TOF time, and communicate with the upper computer.
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Application of Zhongke Yihai Microcar Scale FPGA in LiDAR
At present, the speed of updating and upgrading new energy vehicles is very fast, and each generation of vehicles also has corresponding accessory logic. However, IP chips are constrained by price and cost issues, and some users hope to solve this problem. At this time, as a chip design enterprise, we will help users with product upgrades, such as an evaluation of chip logic, which parts are changing and which parts are unchanged. In between this process We can all assist users in upgrading and tuning. Once mass production is stable, the functionality is reliable, and integrated circuits will solidify into specialized chips, greatly reducing costs Xia Jinjun stated that Zhongke Yihai Micro will deeply participate throughout the entire process, assist car companies in steadily upgrading, and help car companies have a competitive advantage in the market.
It can be seen that the development speed of China’s automotive industry has been extremely fast in the past few years, especially in the field of smart cars, and FPGA, as a key component inside, has also encountered a golden window of development. Looking at the current domestic FPGA circuit, there is a certain gap in both the software and hardware ecology compared to foreign giants, and there is still a long way to catch up.
In Xia Jinjun’s view, localization substitution is bound to be one of the major trends in the future industry development. Despite the gap, there are many domestic manufacturers and many automotive application scenarios that can be developed. With full support for promoting chip autonomy and controllability in China, we believe it can also help China’s new energy vehicle industry achieve a “curve overtaking” of development, gradually moving towards the center of the world stage, and becoming a leader in industrial transformation.