Green Hills Software, a leading supplier of embedded safety and security solutions and Tata Elxsi, the design and technology services provider have partnered to deliver the next-generation of software-driven, highly integrated automotive cockpit solutions.

The companies will showcase the first result of their cooperation, Tata Elxsi’s eCockpit solution running on Green Hills Software’s safe and secure Integrity, real-time operating system (RTOS) and Integrity Multivisor secure virtualisation, at embedded world 2020.

Tata Elxsi says its eCockpit solution addresses all the requirements of a full feature vehicle cockpit, supporting infotainment, instrument cluster, HUD and ADAS functionalities on a single SoC (system on a chip), while maintaining the highest levels of safety, security and performance.

The demonstration pairs Tata’s eCockpit with the Green Hills ASIL-certified Integrity RTOS and its Multivisor secure virtualisation architecture to safely and securely consolidate mixed-criticality applications on a single, automotive-grade Renesas R-Car H3 processor.

The Integrity Multivisor uses Linux and Android in independent, secure virtualised partitions, while the Tata Elxsi infotainment is based on automotive Android and the instrument cluster is running on Linux. The infotainment features are shown through a 2D/3D custom HMI on Automotive Android. In addition, the V2X features are also integrated and displayed on the instrument cluster as warning messages. The Linux guest OS is partitioned using Linux Containers to accommodate sub-domains like ADAS. A separate Linux Container runs Tata Elxsi’s Sensor Fusion ADAS IP over Tata Elxsi’s own Adaptive AUTOSAR. The complete vehicle interface functionality is based on Tata Elxsi’s own classic AUTOSAR 4.3.

The partners say the Integrity RTOS microkernel architecture is designed for critical embedded systems demanding proven separation, security, and real-time determinism. Its separation architecture helps software teams to safely and securely partition software running at different levels of criticality on the Renesas R-Car H3 processor while guaranteeing applications the system resources required for their proper execution. This enables safe and secure execution of applications running graphics and multimedia, while at the same time ensuring the safe operation of critical functions, such as the tell-tale status and warning lights.

Dan Mender, vice-president, Business Development, Green Hills Software said: “Tata Elxsi’s eCockpit, combined with Green Hills Integrity Multivisor, is platform agnostic and it provides automotive makers with a complete single-ECU solution for instrument cluster, infotainment and ADAS functionalities that delivers real-time performance on a single multicore automotive-grade microprocessor. Tata Elxsi’s software development and system integration for cockpit systems is driving the industry and we will continue to work together for providing safe and secure systems while supporting the cost and space reduction demands that are driving the trend of ECU consolidation.”

Nitin Pai, chief marketing officer and chief strategy officer, Tata Elxsi said: “Green Hills Software’s years of production program experience in mixed-criticality, safety-certified system design, coupled with their advanced MULTI toolchain, significantly simplified our integration effort and reduced development time without requiring compromises in performance, safety or security in the system. Our collaboration with Green Hills on this type of mixed-criticality platform consolidation allows us to provide customers with truly unique value propositions as the automotive industry looks to our joint, proven, production-ready capabilities.”