Sondrel launches SFA 350A platform delivering faster time to market for ADAS ASICs

Sondrel has launched the SFA 350A quad-channel, IP reference platform which aims to speed up time to market for ADAS ASICs. The platform has been architected specifically for ISO26262 applications and to accelerate the integration of customer IP.

The FSA 350A simplifies and speeds up the creation of the required evidence bundle so the final product can swiftly achieve ISO26262. This semi-custom platform approach, which Sondrel calls Architecting the future, is said to be able to cut design cost and time to market by up to 30%.

The platform has been specifically designed for ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) that are used to support driverless or automotive vehicle applications. It has four channels for sensors that can be either passive, such as optical via camera inputs, or active using LASER or RADAR. This is a more cost-effective solution when compared to having a dedicated, one channel chip for each sensor. Uses can include collision avoidance, detection of crossing the central white line or gathering 3D information via a pair of cameras.

The SFA 350A has been designed to be scalable due to its framework architecture design. This enables the processor units for the chip’s four channels to be selected according to the processing power required by the application without requiring any changes to the interconnects and I/O to the rest of the chip.

This modular approach makes the platform very versatile and scalable and more powerful solutions can be created by ganging identical, SFA 300 quad-core chips together to form a cluster, which is less expensive than creating a similar solution on one multi-channel chip. Communication to the vehicle’s central unit is via dual redundant links based on standard protocol such as Ethernet or PCIe.

To further reduce risk and time to market, Sondrel is also offering a full turnkey service that turns designs into fully tested, shipping silicon.