Elektrobit (EB), a leading supplier of embedded and connected software products for the automotive industry, has unveiled EB xelor, which it says is an industry-first software platform designed to streamline the development of next-generation automotive electronics architectures based on high-performance computing (HPC).

EB xelor provides car makers and Tier 1 suppliers with a secure, stable, and easily upgradable software foundation for connected and intelligent vehicles, which it says allows them to focus less on automotive infrastructure and more on innovation and profitability: developing differentiating features and functions for their vehicles.

The platform brings together production-proven software from EB, open-source and third-party software, plus tools and services that are absolutely critical for HPC environments but won't necessarily differentiate one vehicle from another. According to the company choosing EB xelor, car makers and Tier 1s can save the time, resources, and staff required to source and integrate these elements on their own. Based on its experience with OEMs on production projects involving software for HPC architectures, EB conservatively estimates savings of up to 30 percent in overall engineering costs.

The software integrates a high-performance functional safety software stack based on Linux and Adaptive AUTOSAR, a real-time and safety software stack based on Classic AUTOSAR using EB tresos—a hypervisor—plus software for HPC updates and platform health management capabilities. It also includes tools and services to automate builds and facilitate integration. The EB xelor platform is optimised for HPC environments using leading system-on-a-chip (SoC) devices from NXP Semiconductors and Renesas. Vehicle manufacturers can then add their own vehicle-specific software on top of these stacks.

Maria Anhalt, CTO, Elektrobit said: "The automotive industry is undergoing a major paradigm shift. Every car maker is grappling with how to deal with the increased complexity of vehicle electronics engineering systems. It is requiring them to effectively 'reinvent' their vehicle architectures and become experts at procuring and integrating non-differentiating software, unnecessarily draining resources and pushing budgets to their limits. With EB xelor, EB draws upon its decades of expertise to do the heavy lifting for the car maker. We're providing pre-integrated, production-proven software that will jump-start the process."

The company says while EB xelor is a new product, it is based on software and technology used in vehicles on the road today.

Ian Riches, VP – Global Automotive Practice at the research firm Strategy Analytics said: “Elektrobit is currently the only company that has all the pieces of the puzzle to make a platform like EB xelor possible. OEMs and Tier 1s can certainly try to source these elements on their own, but Elektrobit has already done that work for them, with pre-integrated and production-proven software that is already on the road today. Using such a platform could be a significant boost in terms of overall savings and time to market.”