- Accelerating the development of autonomous driving and secure connected cars

- The first dedicated automotive Ethernet transceiver and scalable to flexibly respond to smart car networking requirements

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July 9, 2015, Seoul — NXP Semiconductors (NASDAQ:NXPI), a technology leader in secure connected cars and a global leader in In-Vehicle Networking, announced a complete portfolio of "truly automotive" Ethernet products that meet the stringent requirements of the automotive industry. Ethernet enables the high data bandwidth, communication speeds, weight reduction, and cost-effectiveness required for next-generation vehicles. This is expected to provide the network foundation technology for autonomous and networked vehicles.

This portfolio, consisting of two product families—the TJA1100 Ethernet transceiver and the SJA1105 Ethernet switch—is offered as a module, providing flexible and cost-effective combinations. Consequently, automakers using this portfolio can flexibly select the optimal solution for a wide range of network architectures, from entry-level to high-end vehicles. Samples are available starting today, and production of the Ethernet transceivers is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of this year.

The adoption of Ethernet is accelerating rapidly due to the emergence of secure connected cars and the resulting high demand for data transmission. According to Gartner's forecast in December 2014, the use of Ethernet nodes in passenger cars worldwide is expected to increase to 162 million and the number of ports to 242 million by around 2030.

Jens Hinrichsen, Senior Vice President of Networking and Automotive Access at NXP, stated, “NXP was a key player in introducing Ethernet to vehicles and is a founding member of the OPEN Alliance standardizing organization. We are pleased to launch the first ‘true’ automotive Ethernet transceivers and switches capable of meeting the automotive industry’s stringent requirements for EMC, quality, reliability, and mass production.” He added, “To date, NXP has supplied 6 billion CAN, LIN, and FlexRay transceivers to the global automotive industry, with 2 million transceivers being supplied daily. Ethernet will complement these existing standards.”

Reasons for introducing Ethernet to cars

NXP is a founding member of the OPEN Alliance, which recommends and defines the BroadR-Reach Ethernet standard. This Ethernet solution is cost-effective, lightweight, and highly reliable for automotive manufacturers. Future applications will require high data rates that are currently unsupported by CAN, LIN, and FlexRay systems. ADAS sensors—such as parking cameras, HD digital infotainment, and radar, which will eventually become the “eyes and ears” of future autonomous driving systems—will all be deployed on high-bandwidth Ethernet backbones. While it will still take a few more years for truly autonomous vehicles to emerge, numerous automotive manufacturers are already focusing the development of assistance and infotainment systems around automotive Ethernet. Ethernet is expected to be adopted in next-generation automobiles not to replace systems such as CAN, LIN, and FlexRay, but for parallel use in specific data-intensive applications.

Technical Key Points of Ethernet Switch SJA1105 and PHY TJA1100

NXP’s Ethernet PHY TJA1100 was specifically developed for automotive applications. It supports a low-power mode, so when the engine is off, the system enters sleep mode, keeping the Ethernet PHY partially powered and waking the system only when the network is active. Unlike existing solutions, the NXP Ethernet PHY remains 'on' even when the engine is off, without the need for additional components such as voltage regulators.

NXP developed the automotive Ethernet SJA1105 in close collaboration with TTTech, a global leader in network and safety coordination. This switch utilizes Deterministic Ethernet technology to guarantee message latency in applications requiring operational efficiency or functional safety during autonomous driving. This technology supports recent trends that ensure high reliability for network control systems and high availability for fail-operation applications as bandwidth requirements increase up to 1 Gbit. It also supports various standards such as Ethernet (IEEE 802.3), Time-Triggered Ethernet (SAE AS6802), Audio Video Bridge (AVB), and Time Sensitive Network (TSN).

Transceiver – TJA1100

Compliant with the OPEN Alliance BroadR-Reach™ (OABR) standard (IEEE: 100BASE-T1)

Designed according to the automotive development flow

Form Factor: 6x6mm² HVQFN package (minimum external component count)

Support for low voltage mode to extend battery life

Automotive-grade ESD and EMC

Digital Switch – SJA1105

5-port automotive Ethernet switch supporting network speeds up to 1Gbit

Layer 2 store and forward switch

MII / RMII / RGMII interface

Port mirroring and VLAN support (IEEE 802.1Q and IEEE 802.1P)

AVB and TSN support

Deterministic Ethernet solution available

Complies with SAE AS6802 TT Ethernet fault-tolerant clock synchronization

virtual link

Scalable, flexible, and cost-optimized configurations based on single and dual-port PHYs

Supply Schedule

The NXP Ethernet transceiver TJA1100 is available as a prototype sample starting today and is scheduled for production and supply by the end of this year. Initial samples of the NXP Ethernet switch SJA1105 have already successfully completed testing with automotive companies and will be provided upon request.