August 23, 2024 The FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) Advantage

3 FPGA features that ‘drive’ functional safety in modern vehicles.

By Mark Hoopes, Director, Industrial & Automotive, Lattice Semiconductor

It wasn’t all too long ago when most cars on the road were relatively simple machines. However, they’ve since transformed into sophisticated supercomputers on wheels, packed with advanced sensors, cameras, and modular, flexible software and operating systems that leverage smartphone advancements and other next-generation applications. While this technological leap has provided unprecedented capabilities, it has also introduced new challenges for keeping passengers safe. 

The orchestra of advanced technology in today’s modern vehicles control everything from steering and braking to advanced driver assistance features. If these systems fail, consequences could be dire. As the Automotive industry continues its rapid evolution towards autonomous and connected vehicles, functional safety has become more critical than ever. It ensures active systems can detect, avoid, and mitigate failures and their harmful effects – helping to minimize the risk of operational malfunctions and hazards in modern vehicles.

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are emerging as a key solution in the Automotive industry’s pursuit for enhanced functional safety, offering three unique capabilities that make them indispensable for navigating complex challenges and meeting critical safety requirements.

Flexibility

FPGAs provide a level of flexibility that is unmatched by traditional Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). This adaptability is crucial in the fast-paced world of automotive design, where architectures, standards and requirements are constantly evolving. FPGAs can be reprogrammed on the fly, allowing for updates to systems without requiring hardware changes. As new safety standards emerge or vulnerabilities are discovered, FPGAs enable vehicles to be updated remotely, ensuring they always meet the latest safety requirements.

With inherent flexibility, automotive manufacturers can tailor FPGA configurations to meet ADAS needs for different vehicle models, optimizing performance, cost and safety simultaneously. For fault tolerance, FPGAs can be designed to implement redundant systems within a single chip or as part of a safety subsystem. If one part of the system fails, the system can maintain critical safety functions. During the vehicle development phase, engineers can also quickly implement and test new safety algorithms on FPGAs. This rapid prototyping helps accelerate the development cycle and allows for more thorough testing and refinement of safety systems before they’re deployed in production vehicles.

Parallel Processing and Low Latency

The parallel processing and low latency capabilities of FPGAs makes them well-suited for facilitating functional safety in Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). FPGAs perform multiple operations simultaneously, rather than sequentially as in traditional processors. This is possible due to the fundamental architecture of FPGAs, which consists of a large array of configurable logic blocks that can be programmed to perform different functions independently of each other.

In the context of functional safety, this is crucial for several reasons:

• Sensor Fusion: Modern vehicles are equipped with numerous sensors and cameras. These applications generate vast amounts of data that need to be processed in real-time to create a comprehensive picture of the vehicle’s environment. FPGAs can process data from multiple sensors and cameras simultaneously, enabling faster and more efficient sensor fusion processing, while simplifying the workload for downstream processors and reducing overall power consumption.
• Multiple Safety Systems: Modern vehicles have numerous safety systems that need to operate concurrently – anti-lock braking, traction control, lane departure warning, collision avoidance, etc. FPGAs can handle computations for multiple safety systems in parallel, ensuring that all systems receive timely updates and can respond quickly to changing conditions.
• Real-time Decision Making: In urgent safety scenarios, decisions need to be made in milliseconds. The parallel processing capability of FPGAs allows for complex algorithms to be executed rapidly, enabling quick decision-making in time-sensitive situations.
• Hardware Acceleration: Certain computationally intensive tasks, like image processing for object detection, can be offloaded to dedicated hardware accelerators implemented in the FPGA. These can run in parallel with other processes, significantly speeding up overall system performance.

FPGAs also support local dimming for LCD displays and infotainment systems. Local dimming allows for better contrast ratios by selectively dimming or brightening different areas of the screen. In automotive applications, this can improve the visibility of information on dashboards or infotainment systems, especially in varying light conditions. By providing clearer and more easily readable displays, local dimming greatly reduces the time a driver needs to look at the screen to gather information, potentially reducing distractions that lead to accidents.

Low Power Consumption

FPGAs’ low power consumption provides significant benefits for functional safety in automotive applications. This aspect is becoming increasingly important as vehicles incorporate more electronic systems while striving for energy efficiency. For example, in electric and hybrid vehicles, power efficiency is crucial. FPGAs’ low power consumption helps extend battery life, enabling extended range for EVs, or higher fuel efficiency for Hybrids

Lower power consumption also means less heat generation. Excessive heat can lead to component degradation and potential failures, which could compromise safety systems. By operating at lower temperatures, FPGA-based safety systems are more reliable and have a longer lifespan. With less heat generation, the thermal management requirements for FPGA-based systems are reduced. This allows for simpler cooling solutions, which in turn increases overall system reliability.

These advantages position FPGAs as a foundational technology in the ongoing evolution of automotive safety systems, promising safer and more responsive vehicles for drivers and passengers alike. As the Automotive industry races towards an increasingly modernized future, FPGA-driven advanced ADAS and functional safety benefits remain in the driver’s seat.

About the Author:
Mark Hoopes joined Lattice in April 2020 and manages the Industrial and Automotive Segments at Lattice Semiconductor. He brings more than 20 years of experience in various strategic roles – recently consulting for Software, Semiconductor and Systems companies in IoT, Machine Learning, Video Networking & Compression.

Subscribe to Industry Today