How to Design a Cost-Effective, Safety-Enabled Automotive eCockpit Solution

Rapid advances in microelectronics and software technologies are transforming automotive infotainment and safety system design in profound ways that are redefining the driving experience.

At the center of this transformation is the electronic cockpit, or eCockpit, a sophisticated system within modern vehicles that integrates infotainment, connectivity and safety monitoring functions into a single, cohesive interface. An eCockpit controls everything that keeps drivers informed and connected, enhancing vehicle safety through real-time monitoring and autonomous response.

The heart of an eCockpit is the cockpit domain controller, which consolidates multiple electronic control units (ECUs) into one unified system that seamlessly manages connectivity, displays and touchscreens, digital instrument clusters, infotainment and driver assistance features.

Enter NXP’s i.MX 95 applications processor family. This high-performance system-on-chip (SoC) platform provides a highly integrated domain controller solution for today’s eCockpit designs. Its heterogeneous multicore architecture can control both the head unit and digital cluster, as well as a heads-up display, with remarkable efficiency and sophistication. This consolidation simplifies the eCockpit architecture, reduces the cost of cables and connectors and eases design complexity.

Three Automotive Trends Driving eCockpit Design

The evolution of automotive cockpits into advanced eCockpits reflects a shift from mechanical controls to digital displays that enhance driver experience with customization, wireless communication, internet access and smartphone integration. Three key trends are reshaping eCockpit design:

• Vehicle Electrification: As electric vehicles (EVs) become more affordable due to reduced supply chain issues and competitive pricing, cost-effective eCockpit designs are essential for accelerating the shift from internal combustion engines to electric power.
• Software-Defined Vehicles (SDV): Cars are evolving into software-upgradable networks that support rapid feature updates and enhancements through over-the-air (OTA) technology, moving away from fixed hardware designs.
• Advanced Safety Systems: Modern vehicles are equipped with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) such as lane departure and adaptive cruise control along with driver monitoring systems (DMS). eCockpit designs must meet the latest safety standards to ensure functional safety.

Choosing the Right Cockpit Domain Controller Solution

As the auto industry shifts toward a future defined by affordable EVs, SDV technology and advanced safety systems, the need for cost-optimized eCockpit solutions is more critical than ever. The i.MX 95 applications processor addresses this market with an integrated multicore architecture, including up to six Arm Cortex-A55 cores, along with graphics, machine vision and video acceleration, providing excellent scalability of computing power for eCockpit designs. The processor’s independent safety domain features an Arm Cortex-M7 processor, which provides a safe processing context for applications required to meet the ISO 26262 ASIL-B safety standard while eliminating the need for a companion MCU. Combining low-power, real-time and high-performance processing in a single, flexible SoC, the i.MX 95 processor provides a powerful, scalable platform with all the essential technologies developers need to simplify eCockpit designs. This integrated approach reduces system cost and simplifies OTA software updates while minimizing weight and power consumption, which are increasingly important design factors for EVs.

A Highly Integrated Alternative to Hypervisor Software

A hypervisor is a layer of software that runs at the lowest level of an SoC to support guest operating systems. In typical eCockpit designs, a hypervisor enables multiple operating systems, such as Android OS for the head unit and Linux RTOS for the instrument cluster, to run simultaneously on a single processor. Traditional hypervisor-based systems require this extra software layer to manage multiple operating systems, adding cost and complexity to the design and potential performance bottlenecks.

In contrast, the i.MX 95 processor’s heterogeneous multicore architecture eliminates the need for hypervisor technology. It can run safety-related functions such as the cluster display and audio chimes on a safe RTOS running on the Cortex-M7 core, while the Cortex-A55 cores are dedicated to running non-critical tasks on a rich OS such as Android. By allowing different cores to run separate operating systems directly, developers can avoid the performance impact and additional cost and complexity of implementing a hypervisor. The processor’s Cortex-M7 core can also perform safety monitoring for other critical tasks such as the DMS. At the same time, other cores can run Android OS, providing a rich, driver-friendly interface for infotainment systems, without interfering with safety-critical functions.

State-of-the-Art Machine Vision and Graphics Processing

Machine vision has become a must-have feature for eCockpit systems, as features such as DMS, surround view and traffic sign recognition (TSR) become prevalent. The i.MX 95 processor’s eIQ Neutron neural processing unit (NPU) can drive machine vision as part of a unified vision processing pipeline comprising multiple camera sensors or network-attached smart cameras. The embedded NXP image signal processor (ISP) supports a wide range of imaging sensors, including infrared-capable devices, for machine vision applications.

The i.MX 95 processor’s graphics processing and multimedia capabilities are particularly useful for immersive eCockpit experiences. An integrated Arm Mali GPU enables developers to deliver rich, vibrant 3D graphics, scaling from eCockpit digital clusters to multi-display infotainment systems.

Functionally Safe by Design

When it comes to functional safety, the i.MX 95 processor covers all the bases by enabling ISO 26262 ASIL-B compliant automotive designs with its functional safety domain. The processor can support a wide array of safety-critical functions such as audible alerts, instrumentation lights and camera displays to meet the high-reliability standards set by automotive OEMs.

Future-Proof Your Next eCockpit Design

As the automotive industry continues to evolve and innovate, the i.MX 95 family stands out as a powerful, highly integrated processing solution that can reduce the cost and complexity of eCockpit designs. As a one-stop supplier of automotive silicon and software solutions, NXP also offers a comprehensive portfolio of power management ICs (PMICs), tuners, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless SoCs, CAN/Ethernet transceivers, SDV platforms and HMI design tools to streamline the development of feature-rich automotive infotainment systems.

Explore how NXP’s i.MX 95 processor can enhance your eCockpit experience, ensuring cost-effective implementation through a streamlined architecture. For more information on the i.MX 95 processor family and other NXP automotive products, contact NXP Sales worldwide.

Author | Jim Bridgwater

Jim Bridgwater leads NXP’s product marketing team in Automotive Cockpit & Telematics applications. He previously led NXP’s Digital Networking marketing initiatives in Enterprise and Home Gateway applications, and before that was responsible for European marketing activities in Automotive Infotainment applications for more than five years, in a number of roles. During his more than 25 years at NXP, Jim has also been involved in marketing Microprocessors, DSPs and Radio Frequency solutions for industrial and consumer applications. Previously he was a Systems Engineer at Texas Instruments.Mr. Bridgwater received a B.Sc. honours degree in Electronics from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in the U.K. Mr. Bridgwater is a co-author of several system bus architecture patents relating to power saving, and has written articles on Security, Infotainment, Graphics, Mobile TV and Wireless communications.