In the second half of automobile intelligence, what is the focus of competition among automobile companies? The answer is undoubtedly the new generation of vehicle electronic and electrical architecture of central computing + regional control.
Under the central computing + regional architecture, computing power is gradually concentrated in the center, from the integration of multiple ECUs in a single domain into domain controllers, to the cross-domain integration of multiple domain controllers, and ultimately forms a central computing platform + N regions Control architecture.
This can be seen from the actions of major car companies in the past two years. Previously, a number of car companies such as Xpeng, Aian, Ideal, Leapmotor, Zhiji, Nezha, and Great Wall have disclosed their implementation plans. A new generation of "central computing" "Architecture" will also enter the large-scale mass production cycle.
In July this year, the Aion Hyper GT was officially launched and delivered for the first time with the AEP 3.0 platform and Protoss architecture. According to the data, GAC Xingling architecture consists of 3 core computing units + 4 regional controllers, becoming the industry's first mass-produced car-cloud integrated centralized electronic and electrical architecture.
(GAC Xingling Architecture)
What needs to be faced squarely is that during the mass production and development process of the new generation of vehicle electronic and electrical architecture, the scale and difficulty of software development have surged, and it also faces multi-dimensional challenges such as technical complexity, organizational system, development model, and development cycle.
For OEMs, during the critical window period for the mass production of centrally integrated electronic and electrical architecture, how to improve the efficiency of collaborative research and development under the entire vehicle architecture, reduce the difficulty and cost of software development, increase the speed of application innovation, etc., has become a top priority. At the same time, the industry is also in urgent need of new development platforms and development models. By providing integrated and stable software development platforms and tool chain products, we can jointly build an efficient and innovative development ecosystem.
The implementation of central integrated architecture urgently requires an integrated development platform
The Xingling architecture was officially released at the end of last year, and mass production and delivery of flagship models were achieved by early July this year. GAC Aion took the lead in this round of competition by virtue of its mass production efficiency. It is reported that orders for the new car exceeded 20,000 units in a short period of time after it was launched.
The electronic and electrical architecture is equivalent to the brain and neural network of the entire vehicle. Its advanced level will directly determine the intelligence level of the vehicle model and its future evolution space.
Compared with the previous generation of electronic and electrical architecture, the Xingling architecture has 50 times more computing power, reduces wiring harness loops by about 40%, and reduces controllers by about 20. It also brings comprehensive upgrades in computing power, transmission efficiency, safety performance, energy efficiency and other aspects.
In terms of function implementation, it can be quickly expanded to high-end autonomous driving at L4 level and above; in addition, the Xingling architecture introduces the SOA software design architecture to realize plug-and-play hardware and frequently used software.
The centrally integrated electronic and electrical architecture not only solves the software deployment of multi-core heterogeneous chips, but also involves the development of software for multiple domain controllers involving cross-domain integration. In order to reduce the difficulty of development and greatly improve development efficiency, it is necessary to change the development view from domain to domain. The controller level is migrated to the vehicle level, and an integrated development platform, development view and development method are provided.
And this also requires a "bridge" to connect the previous and the following . According to the data, Xingling Architecture is the first domestic development based on the ASF (AUTOSEMO Service Framework) technical specification. The ASF technical specification standard solves the problem of domain problems by providing developers with service functions and interfaces based on a unified view of the entire vehicle in the middle layer. The problem of unified development view of multi-core heterogeneous chips under control architecture.
(ASF framework diagram)
Among them, Neusoft Reach, as a founding member of AUTOSEMO, took the lead in promoting the ASF technical specifications. Its software platform that supports multi-domain integration, NeuSAR 4.0, fully supports the mass production of "centralized" SOA architecture through cross-domain middleware, vehicle message bus, and new tool chains, and can efficiently help car companies control applications in different domains. Dynamic migration in the server and accelerating large-scale development progress have played an important role in the development and mass production of the Protoss architecture.
In order to further solve the development problems under cross-domain integration, Neusoft Reach has further launched SOA middleware that is compatible with the ASF standard - NeuSAR SF (Service Framework), which will be the key component and implementation architecture that supports the vehicle SOA.
NeuSAR SF adds a message bus function based on ASF, provides a unified communication interface, communication capabilities and basic services, encapsulates and abstracts different hardware, operating systems, communication buses, and communication protocols to achieve heterogeneity within threads, processes, and domain controllers. With the consistency of service calls between the core and the car cloud, developers can realize development under a unified view of the entire vehicle based on the message bus, shielding underlying differences, realizing dynamic migration of applications, and reuse of software assets.
NeuSAR SF provides low-code modules and tools for data-driven scenarios, provides mapping functions for data sent by various buses, and provides automatic synchronization of data between different domains for vehicle status tables, thereby achieving global data synchronization. At the same time, NeuSAR SF provides static configuration and dynamic discovery methods for message channels. NeuSAR SF supports the service discovery mechanism of SOME/IP and DDS to avoid application redevelopment.
Obviously, only this kind of cross-platform, cross-model reusable development model can truly bring leap-forward advantages in development costs, development efficiency, innovation and upgrades, etc., thereby helping the central integrated architecture of the OEM to accelerate the implementation of mass production. , to achieve leadership in “innovation speed” and “cost”.
For example, the adaptation cycle between Juefei Technology and Neusoft NeuSAR can be calculated in "weeks", and it can basically enter the quasi-mass production stage of vehicle testing in half a year. At present, the project cooperated by both parties is about to be put into mass production, and iterative migration of cross-model functions at zero cost can also be carried out in the future, truly realizing the universal use of multiple models after one development.
In addition, the centralized electronic and electrical architecture is also the prerequisite for realizing "software-defined cars". Based on software layered decoupling and layered iteration, the OEM only needs to develop rapidly for the application layer, which greatly reduces innovation efficiency and OTA efficiency. Only then can intelligent automobiles be realized for all people.
Subverting the innovation and speed behind consumer perception
At the same time, it will be equipped with the Aian Hyper GT for mass production, as well as the GAC Rubik's Cube scene co-creation platform.
According to official information, GAC’s Rubik’s Cube scene co-creation platform has serviced more than 2,000 functions of the entire vehicle, allowing functions to be arranged and combined at will in the graphical interface like “building blocks”, truly realizing the implementation of “user-defined cars”. This includes all vehicle-side capabilities, including vehicle control, intelligent driving, ecological applications, etc.
(GAC Rubik's Cube is open to provide official scenes and user scene customization)
For users, they only need to click and drag the Rubik's Cube cards to develop scenarios as they wish, create unlimited personalized scenarios, and achieve a user experience for thousands of people.
After the scene code is verified by digital mirror cloud simulation, it can be synchronized to the vehicle engine to achieve minute-level scene iteration. Based on cloud sharing, you can also share the scenes you create with other users and participate in scene co-creation.
It can be said that only by allowing consumers to perceive personalized functions, applications and services more conveniently, intuitively and quickly is the core of maintaining brand competitiveness and enhancing user stickiness and satisfaction.
This is first of all due to the SOA software architecture of the Prototype architecture. Through the layered and decoupled basic software architecture platform, standardized layered interfaces, software modularization, function atomization, function remote configuration, etc. are realized, thereby meeting the requirements of hardware replaceability, It is pluggable, the software can be upgraded and iterated, and new scenarios can be implemented in the future just by adding new application modules.
It is understood that Neusoft Ruichi has built an integrated software development platform and tool chain for complete vehicles, empowering GAC to build a complete, efficient and easy-to-use software development framework and system software platform products and services.
(Neusoft Reichi provides an integrated software development platform)
Based on the standard basic software platform and middleware that decouples software and hardware, through software intensification and centralized development, car companies can quickly adopt modular combinations to achieve application innovation; in addition, they can also use the car cloud express channel NXMQ (service Chemical communication gateway) to quickly establish connections. Based on a complete and integrated software platform and tool chain, car companies can realize their own application development of massive scenarios in a cloud virtual environment.
As we all know, whether it is the rapid upgrade of intelligent driving functions, the development of diversified scenarios for human-computer interaction in intelligent cockpits, or the realization of innovative applications for thousands of people, all require massive amounts of data in real application scenarios generated by large-scale mass production. Achieved through continuous training of models, the data-driven model integrating car and cloud will become the key to intelligent automobile racing.
Neusoft Reach's integrated software development platform creates data synergy by connecting "car" and "cloud" and forms a data cloud closed loop, fully mobilizing cloud platform services to empower the continuous iteration of vehicle-side intelligent systems and functional innovation. At present, the data upload process of its software platform can realize value data triggering and data desensitization, and can integrate functions such as "test analysis, monitoring and early warning, design evaluation, experience optimization, loss analysis", etc., by creating "1+N" data application research and development model to fully support intelligent application innovation.
Behind this, building an open and shared application software innovation ecosystem has become the key.
A truly open innovation ecosystem under "software first"
It is understood that during the R&D process of Protoss architecture, Neusoft Reach software team was stationed in Guangzhou Automobile throughout the whole process to help OEMs design software architecture, discuss long-term development plans together, and promote the decoupling of software and hardware across models and components. Construct a new software development system oriented to abstract hardware, and form a long-term and stable cooperation model, which has become GAC's "associated" partner.
The implementation of multi-domain integration architecture upgrades and the efficient realization of application innovation all depend on an open, innovative, and collaborative software ecosystem.
Previously, Cao Bin, general manager of Neusoft Reach, clearly pointed out that only by fully decoupling software and building an open innovation ecosystem can the business logic of software-defined cars be realized.
This first requires solving the problems of the current domain control architecture, especially in the cross-domain integration stage, high software development costs and innovative development thresholds, etc.
Neusoft Reach advocates the development concept of "software first". Based on the integrated software development platform, the development of upper-layer application software is independent of the hardware, and the hardware can be flexibly upgraded or replaced according to mass production requirements. Migration can also be reused across models and brands, and can be allocated through mass production, cross-models, and cross-platforms. First, it can quickly reduce software costs.
The benefit of this type of development model is that the vehicle architecture not only achieves software and hardware decoupling, but also achieves soft-soft hierarchical decoupling. This is the basis for realizing the free building-block combination of functional modules and the flexible development of application components in the future.
In addition, the integrated software platform development model represents a more open development method and innovation ecology, which greatly reduces the threshold for third-party innovative companies to develop applications. It is open to more third-party application developers to jointly create a richer application ecosystem.
Behind this, a brand-new development model has gradually become the mainstream. The close cooperation model of horizontal intensification and collaborative division of labor among vehicle manufacturers, chip manufacturers, and software suppliers will exert great value. In the future, all ecological participants can enjoy development efficiency. Improvement, development cost reduction, large-scale mass production, and huge benefits brought by the prosperity of the application ecosystem.
As an eco-friendly company, Neusoft Reach has more than 100 ecological partners . The integrated software development platform of Neusoft Reach has been well adapted to many localized algorithms, communications, security, chips, microkernels and other enterprises and integration to form an ecosystem of software and hardware collaboration, which is used in the vehicle software platforms of domestic car companies and the domain controller products of component suppliers.
At the same time, Neusoft Reach is also more aware that under the trend of multi-domain integration, the industry needs to maintain a collaborative and open attitude, and actively promote the construction of basic software technical specifications. At present, technical specifications such as ASF (AUTOSEMO Service Framework) and car-cloud integration promoted by Neusoft Reach as the team leader unit are gradually being applied in the mass-produced models of car companies.
With the further evolution of the electrical and electronic architecture, from intra-domain concentration to cross-domain integration + central computing, from the combination of different chips to the concentration of computing power of a single SoC, the single-chip solution will become the mainstream of the market in the future.
Large computing power SoC chips have massive virtualized data resources, but issues such as the mixed use of resources between different components in heterogeneous architectures, communication collaboration, and processor application deployment all need to be resolved at an early stage.
The Neusoft Ruichi integrated software development platform can solve such problems very well. The NeuSAR SF message bus provides an open data definition interface and is compatible with the ProtoBuf format. Developers can develop application software for the entire vehicle on the standardized software interface and data interface, so that Application development reaches a state of full decoupling during the integration process.
Based on the fully decoupled SOA platform, the electronic and electrical architecture can not only realize the continuous evolution and iteration of software, but also realize the continuous upgrade of hardware platform.
Next, based on large-scale mass production, Neusoft Reach's software development platform will continue to upgrade and innovate, making application development easier and vehicle development more efficient. Based on a broader application ecosystem, developers will not need to compile and jointly debug together in the future . The deployment of applications can be realized , and the "software-defined car" based on the new centralized architecture can accelerate the implementation.