German consortium, led by Infineon, to build automotive supercomputing platform

Peter Schiefer, Division President Automotive at Infineon

(IN BRIEF) Infineon is leading a consortium of 30 research partners in the development of an automotive supercomputing platform for future highly-automated vehicles. The research project, called Mannheim-CeCaS, will investigate the development of a holistic central computing platform to provide energy-efficient and economical high-end computers for connected and electrified cars. The project is supported by the German federal government’s large-scale funding initiative for digitalization of auto-mobility, and has received around €46 million in funding. The consortium’s objective is to complete automotive qualification (ASIL-D) at the system level. The project is expected to have an overall budget of approximately €90 million and will last for three years.

(PRESS RELEASE) MUNICH, 28-Feb-2023 — /EuropaWire/ —  Infineon Technologies AG (FSE: IFX / OTCQX: IFNNY), a German semiconductor manufacturer, has announced the kick-off of a research project aimed at developing a central computing platform for highly automated vehicles. Dubbed Mannheim-CeCaS (CentralCarServer), the project involves 30 research partners from industry and universities working together to create a high-performance automotive supercomputing platform that can process data quickly and reliably, ensuring safe vehicle navigation in traffic.

“The high level of acceptance enjoyed by driver assistance systems is a sign that there’s no end in sight to the automation of driving,” says Peter Schiefer, Infineon’s Division President Automotive. “Here we’re also talking about digital sovereignty in the interest of a robust automotive industry in Germany and Europe. That’s why we’re consolidating our strengths in order to develop reliable high-performance computing structures for highly-automated vehicles. As the world market leader in semiconductors for the automotive industry, Infineon is contributing its automotive system expertise and handling coordination of the research project.”

The research project is being supported by the German federal government’s large-scale funding initiative for digitalization of auto-mobility, and Infineon will lead and coordinate the project. The participating institutions met for the kick-off event at the Campeon, Infineon’s Munich corporate headquarters.

Mannheim-CeCaS is dedicated to the investigation and development of a holistic central computing platform for future highly automated vehicles. The platform aims to fill a gap for connected and electrified cars, requiring energy-efficient and economical high-end computers that can keep up with increasing computing power and complexity. The project will involve the combination of safety and highest performance, including specially designed processors, interfaces, and system architectures.

The central computing units will be based on innovative high-performance processors qualified for automotive applications, using non-planar transistor technology (FinFET). Application-specific hardware accelerators and an adaptive software platform for autonomous vehicles will complement the processors. The necessary modifications of the on-board power network will be taken into account, as will an automotive-capable integrated circuit packaging. The consortium’s objective is a complete automotive qualification (ASIL-D) at the system level.

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is supporting Mannheim-CeCaS with approximately 46 million euros as part of the government’s “Mannheim” initiative, named after the birthplace of the automobile. The project participants, under the leadership of Infineon, comprise the entire chain from component suppliers and specialists to research institutes and universities. Major participating corporations include Bosch, Continental and ZF Friedrichshafen, in addition to various Fraunhofer Institutes and partners like TU Munich (TUM) and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

The 30 partners propose an overall budget of approximately 90 million euros for the development of the future-capable central computer concept for automotive electronics. The three-year project makes Mannheim-CeCaS one of the largest subsidized German collaborative projects.