Mentor.com :: Vehicle System Design Resources

News Article:Mentor Graphics Expands Automotive Linux Infotainment Business

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 12:00:00 GMT

WILSONVILLE, Ore., February 21, 2013—Mentor Graphics Corporation today announced that is has expanded its automotive business unit by purchasing certain assets from MontaVista, LLC.

News Article:GENIVI 3.0-Compliant Infotainment Product Available from Mentor Embedded

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 21:00:00 GMT

Wilsonville, Ore., November 19, 2012—Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ: MENT) today announced the availability of a GENIVI 3.0 specification-compliant Linux®- based Infotainment (IVI) product.

Blog Post:U.S. DOT launches large V2V and V2I test

John Day — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 00:09:28 GMT

This week the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) launched Safety Pilot Model Development, which they said is the largest real-life test to date of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) communication. The year-long study, in the Ann Arbor, Michigan area, involves 2,880 cars, trucks and buses. The

Technology Overview:AUTOSAR Development (Part 4): Early Testing of AUTOSAR-based ECUs and Subsystems

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 07:00:00 GMT

One of the AUTOSAR standard's key points is to enable reuse of application SW, which leads to shorter development time and enables early validation of software components in the virtual environment. But, when it comes to validation in the physical environment, connecting to real sensors/actuators, and communicating with real ECUs, the availability of the ECU HW is often a limiting factor, especially given the fact that the HW development is typically initiated by an ECU supplier company only after being nominated for a project. In addition to the virtual validation of software components provided by Mentor Graphics' VSI tool, an interesting and fully compatible alternative or next step is to use a rapid prototyping ECU such as the MBtech Virtual AUTOSAR Platform (VAP): a highly configurable system based on industry PC standards and equipped with AUTOSAR BSW and tooling from Mentor. The VAP can be used to validate the complete ECU's functionality, from its application SW via the AUTOSAR BSW to real sensor/actuator or communication interfaces. In this session we will see how the VAP prototype ECU can be used for proof of concept, validating ECU configurations and integration with real ECUs.

Technology Overview:AUTOSAR Development (Part 3): ECU SW Design and Configuration

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 07:00:00 GMT

After the system-level design is completed and the SW development is at least initiated, the ECU design and configuration can start. The task is to configure the AUTOSAR Basic SW (BSW) modules to operate according to the needs of the application SW. The AUTOSAR BSW provides a complete embedded SW platform, with services such as task scheduling, memory protection, NVRAM management, communication, diagnostics, cryptographic services, etc. - more of less every service the application SW of an automotive ECU needs. Configuring an ECU's BSW can be complex and error prone unless supported by adequate tooling and the appropriate methodology. In this session we will see how to configure the BSW of the ECU according to the needs of the application, using input from the previous design steps. We will demonstrate the power of a top-down development approach combined with design automation for the ECU configuration task.

Technology Overview:AUTOSAR Development (Part 2): SW Development and Virtual Validation

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Application SW development in an AUTOSAR context means that algorithms are partitioned into connected SW components, which in turn contain executable functions (called runnable entities in AUTOSAR). This structured definition of how the application SW is partitioned and executed enables simple relocation and reuse of application SW components inside or between ECUs. It also includes what can be called virtual validation - execution and verification of the SW components individually or in a system using a typical PC. However, to reach these benefits the application SW components require a detailed model description that can only be designed with appropriate tools. In this session we will see how to refine the system-level design from the previous session into detailed SW implementation for a selected set of SW components. We will define the internal structure of SW components and execute the SW components on top of a real AUTOSAR operating system in order to verify functional correctness.

Technology Overview:AUTOSAR Development (Part 1): Requirements and System-level Design

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 07:00:00 GMT

This session focuses on the first steps in the development of an AUTOSAR example system, starting from requirements, defining the SW architecture and the ECU/network topology, allocating SW to ECUs, and ending with communication design. We will see how Volcano VSA is used to architect the system, allocate functionality, and design the communication matrix. This includes validation against timing requirements and consistency checking of the entire design before generating AUTOSAR ECU extracts, which will be the input to next phase of the design process. In addition, this session shows how the Volcano VSx tool chain can be used in large projects with distributed, iterative development and gradually increasing functionality, leading up to increased efficiency of development throughout the supply chain.

News Article:Volcano Network Architect from Mentor Graphics Verifies and Improves Network Bandwidth Usage at Mazda

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 13:00:00 GMT

WILSONVILLE, Ore., July 30, 2012—Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ: MENT) today announced that Mazda Motor Corporation has chosen the Volcano™ Network Architect (VNA) software to verify their network bandwidth usage. The VNA is a tool to design primarily CAN, but also LIN, networks in a vehicle and facilitate a mathematical way to calculate the worst case scenario on a CAN bus. Mazda’s use of VNA has enabled significant improvements in network efficiency and reliability.

Blog Post:Did you know this?

John Day — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 19:03:11 GMT

In his presentation at IESF Detroit, Paul Hansen, editor and publisher of The Hansen Report on Automotive Electronics, quoted a Bosch forecast that of 103 million vehicles to be produced in 2020, 100 million will have a combustion engine. At the Freescale Technology Forum (FTF) in San Antonio last week, Ray Cornyn, VP and General Manager of Freescale’s automotive microcontrollers group, said that

Blog Post:Why aren’t tools from different suppliers easier to integrate?

John Day — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 02:45:02 GMT

That question about the difficulties involved in integrating development tools from different suppliers was asked rhetorically during a presentation at IESF Detroit by Paul Hansen, editor and publisher of The Hansen Report on Automotive Electronics (hansenreport.com). “Why the lack of integrated tool solutions?” Hansen asked Mentor Graphics VP Serge Leef. It’s because there are no standards, Serge