NXP and real-time innovations partner to advance autonomous driving

Real-Time Innovations (RTI), the largest software framework provider for smart machines and real-world systems, announced its partnership with NXP Semiconductors, a leader in automotive semiconductors. RTI Connext Drive^® now runs natively on NXP’s automotive-grade S32G vehicle network processors, enabling a zonal electrical/electronic (E/E) architecture through a flexible, modular and scalable platform. Connext Drive is RTI’s automotive-grade connectivity software based on the Data Distribution Service™ (DDS) Standard. Together, the companies aim to accelerate the next-generation of production-track autonomous vehicles. 

NXP’s S32G vehicle network processors are designed to address the performance, networking, security and safety needs of all levels of autonomous vehicles. The NXP S32 architecture provides a host of architectural innovations designed to allow carmakers to bring rich in-vehicle experiences and automated driving functions to market faster than ever before. Connext Drive is a standard-based framework that manages complex data distribution for real-time connectivity in autonomous systems, used globally in vehicle production environments. By running Connext Drive natively on S32G vehicle network processors, OEMs and Tier 1s gain access to a next-generation zonal E/E architecture through a real-time, scalable and safety-certifiable platform that connects the entire system from safety domain to backend, across all ecosystems.

In addition, RTI and NXP are working to integrate Connext Drive with Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) on the S32G network processor and SJA1110 network switch. This will provide highly-reliable and predictable delivery, time synchronization and bandwidth allocation for automotive applications while expanding functionality through redundancy, reliability, monitoring, a rich type system, content-based filtering and more. TSN and DDS work together at different layers of the network stack to guarantee predictable, performant, reliable and data-oriented distributed communications.

“As vehicle architectures and the associated processing requirements evolve, new service-oriented ADAS and Autonomy features with critical time constraints need a connectivity software solution that remains safe, secure and fast while allowing for scalability,” said Brian Carlson, Global Marketing Director for Vehicle Control and Networking Solutions at NXP. “Our collaboration with RTI allows us to integrate the Connext Drive platform to support multi-device system solutions with NXP devices such as the S32G and SJA1110 as well as the NXP BlueBox Automotive High-Performance Compute development platform.”

“The autonomous vehicle market is experiencing exponential growth and manufacturers face many challenges. As OEMs pivot to the autonomous future, their vehicles require a more flexible, software-driven architecture to accommodate the real-time information flow both within and surrounding the car,” said Pedro López Estepa, Automotive Market Development Director at RTI. “Together, RTI and NXP are working to solve the hard challenges related to in-vehicle communication: the need for a proven, high performance, scalable and flexible autonomous vehicle architecture that reduces the risk, high costs, and steep time commitment of in-house solutions. Through our partnership with NXP, we responded to the challenges our customers are facing by consolidating the unique value of the S32G platform and the exceptional capabilities of the proven Connext Drive connectivity framework.”