Continental Cooperates with Semiconductor Manufacturer Infineon

Continental is developing a server-based modular platform for electrical/electronic architectures. The cooperation concluded with Infineon enables the use of the Aurix TC4 microcontroller. 

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Continental will cooperate with semiconductor manufacturer Infineon Technologies in the future. In the development of server-based vehicle architectures, Continental is relying on a tidy electrical/electronic (E/E) architecture with central high-performance computers (HPC) and a small number of powerful zone control units (ZCU). These are to replace the up to a hundred or more individual control units that have been used to date. Continental is now using the Aurix TC4 microcontroller from Infineon for the ZCU platform. Thanks to special RRAM (resistive random access memory) technology in the Aurix TC4, the vehicle software is on standby: functions such as parking assistance, climate control, heating and suspension are thus ready within fractions of a second when the vehicle is started. Over-the-air updates of software components should be faster and more reliable.

The Zone Control Unit ECU platform to be developed as part of the cooperation with Infineon forms the middle level of the electrical/electronic architecture between the server level (HPC) and the basic level with numerous sensors and actuators. In the E/E architecture of the future, one zone control unit each bundles all electronic and electrical connections in a local subarea of the vehicle. For example, zone control units handle all actuation as well as data and communication management tasks in the vehicle's front right, front left and rear areas. The cybersecurity functions were developed in accordance with the ISO/SAE 21434-certified process. Functional safety is met up to ASIL D in accordance with the ISO26262 standard. The new architecture is designed to accommodate the growing variety of functions in the vehicle with ever more computing power and more complex software applications.