Texas Instruments Showcases Cutting-edge Automotive Technologies at Convergence 2008

(Business News & Technology News, 15 Oct 2008)

Continuing to help customers develop electronic products that make cars safer, more efficient, more comfortable and more fun, Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) will showcase the latest automotive solutions at the Convergence 2008 on October 20 to 22, 2008, in Detroit, Michigan. TI will exhibit automotive complete signal chain solutions from embedded processing, RFID and analog components for safety critical applications, tire sensing, battery and powertrain, audio, remote entry, and security and automotive vision.

Among the highlights from TI are the following:
- TI's Automotive Safety group, along with ARM Ltd will show a steering demonstration using a graphical user interface (GUI) that communicates to the MCU over a serial interface. Motor speed can be set and parameters such as actual speed, torque, phase currents and CPU loading are displayed dynamically in gauge or graph formats. The TMS570 MCU is based on two identical ARM Cortex R4 cores for enhanced performance and safety redundancy.

- TI's Mixed Signal Automotive group will demonstrate how to maintain stable supply voltage levels during battery voltage drops caused by cold crank or start-stop operation, as well as power supply solutions for next-generation hybrid electric vehicles. Making cars more fuel efficient requires not only electronics for new features like start-stop function or hybrid powertrains, but also poses challenges for existing infrastructure like 12A Battery-based boardnet.

- TI's Automotive Vision Group will showcase two demonstrations. The first, a high performance digital media processor based on DaVinci technology running a field-tested Lane Departure Warning algorithm uses only 10 percent of the digital signal processors' (DSPs) processing power. The second is a new automotive hardware tool called the Automotive Vision Development Platform (AVDP), which enables uncompressed video record and playback functionality for algorithm development and troubleshooting on the target DSP/SoC. The AVDP demo will showcase a function from TIs new Embedded Vision Library, which will also be announced at the show.

- TI's Automotive Audio Group will demo the TAS5412 and the TAS5422 amplifiers, which extend TI's TAS54xx family and offer greater integration and channel flexibility, saving OEMs up to 50 percent system cost.

- TI's Application Specific Signal Processor group will feature a tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) demonstration. TPMS is a direct-pressure, stem-based in-tire sensing solution based on TI mixed signal technology that is enabled with technology partner Pacific. The TPMS solution exists within each tire and operates when the tire is in motion by sending a radio-frequency (RF) signal to a chassis base-station receiving device where warning conditions for a low-pressure reading are registered and then reflected on the dash cluster.

- TI third party, ETAS, will demonstrate their line of ASCET tools, used to develop embedded software for TI's TMS570 MCU. ASCET tools specify a graphical model of the electronic control unit (ECU) application software, configure the OSEK operating system (RTA-OSEK) and generate the executable for the TMS570 MCU target with a single click.

- The automotive RFID group will showcase the latest in immobilization, car access and wireless technology being used by leading manufacturers around the world and has made TI the leading supplier of passive systems.

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