Reduce design time by half with OpenCL, ISO 26262, and AUTOSAR solutions

San Jose, California, Detroit, Michigan, October 21, 2014 – Altera (NASDAQ: ALTR) announced that it will showcase new field-programmable gate array (FPGA) solutions that enable rapid addition of functionality to automotive system designs at the 2014 SAE Convergence exhibition in Detroit, Michigan, on October 21–22 (Booth #313). Through live demonstrations, Altera will present several new solutions based on Cyclone® FPGAs for use in Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and infotainment applications.

Reduce development time by using industry-standard design flows
Altera provides solutions that reduce design time and improve design productivity by eliminating the need to write code in traditional RTL. When designing based on the Cyclone V SoC, designers can reduce development time from months to days by utilizing the Altera SDK for OpenCL, an industry-standard software-based design flow, which allows them to design using familiar software programming languages such as C instead of traditional VHDL or Verilog. Additionally, engineers can use Altera's DSP Builder tool to develop algorithms in MATLAB/Simulink and port them to FPGAs without writing RTL code.

Productivity improvement using ISO 26262 “Functional Safety” and AUTOSAR solutions
Altera takes a holistic approach to “functional safety.” By enabling Altera’s Quartus® II design tools, FPGAs, and safety diagnostic IP to meet ISO 26262 certification, designers can reduce development time by 12 to 18 months compared to using non-certified solutions. Additionally, extra features of the Cyclone V SoC, such as 16-bit and 32-bit DDR memory interfaces and hard-implemented ECC (error correction code), provide extremely low-latency and highly reliable memory interfaces, which are critical for embedded vision and video processing applications.
Furthermore, by strengthening support for “functional safety,” Altera is providing the first-ever AUTOSAR (automotive open-system architecture) version 4.0.3 MCAL (microcontroller abstraction layer) solution for programmable logic available for Cyclone V SoC FPGAs. AUTOSAR improves design productivity in automotive design by abstracting application software code from underlying hardware. This ready-to-implement MCAL, developed using the ISO 26262 ASIL B safety level methodology, provides a convenient foundation for customers to rapidly innovate and differentiate their safety applications.
Dan McNamara, Vice President of Altera’s Automotive, Industrial, and Broadcast Business Unit, stated, “Altera is making every effort to enable automotive customers to improve design productivity in automotive design and is providing flexible hardware and software solutions.” “By using our company’s comprehensive solution, which consists of AEC-Q100 certified FPGAs, CPLDs, and Enpirion® power solutions optimized for FPGAs, customers will be able to shorten design time by several months,” he said.

Altera's Live Demo at SAE Convergence 2014:
• Lucas Kanade can see an OpenCL-based implementation of high-density optical flow.
• Using a high-performance video analysis solution, it can be seen that multiple ADAS algorithms, such as lane tracking, pedestrian recognition, and traffic light recognition, are executed simultaneously based on a single Cyclone V SoC FPGA.
• It is shown that image correction, distortion correction, stereo matching, and subject detection can be performed using fewer than 75K logic elements with the Cyclone V SoC by utilizing the stereo vision IP suite.
• You can see a low-latency Ethernet video camera stream that reduces the workload on the CPU, receives packetized video, and decodes this video with an extremely low video latency of less than 2 frames.
• Shows how to interface an FPGA with the Embedded DisplayPort protocol using a VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) eDP (Embedded DisplayPort®) solution. This protocol is increasingly being used in high-resolution LCD applications.
• Demonstrate a low-cost 360-degree surround view solution for use in parking assistance applications.
More information about Altera's automotive solutions can be found at http://www.altera.com/automotive .