Joint launch of central computing platform scheduled
NXP Offers S32 Processor with ASIL-D
Kalay Raises ML Awareness by Providing MPPA

On the 9th, NXP Semiconductors announced a strategic alliance with Kalray, a leading company in the field of processors for intelligent systems.

The two companies are launching a safe autonomous driving platform that integrates NXP's scalable functional safety product portfolio for ADAS and central computing with Kalay's high-performance intelligent Massively Parallel Processor Array (MPPA) processors.
The new platform is significant as it can handle not only short-term market demand for performance, safety, and Level 2 and Level 3 driving, but also long-term demand for Level 4 and Level 5 autonomous driving.

Through this collaboration, both companies aim to resolve safety issues arising in pilot and experimental products currently under development in the automotive sector.

The autonomous driving ecosystem is facing technical challenges related to the safety of autonomous vehicles and consumer concerns.

According to recent research, consumers are eagerly anticipating the future of autonomous driving but have doubts about vehicle safety. Serious accidents involving prototypes and experimental vehicles reinforced this perception.

To boost consumer confidence in autonomous driving technology, dual safety systems for vehicles capable of protecting drivers are required. NXP provides over 25 years of expertise in the types of functional safety systems necessary to implement autonomous driving.

NXP and Kalay jointly developed a secure central computing platform through a partnership.

NXP provides the high-performance S32 processor, equipped with safety-critical ASIL-D and ASIL-B capabilities, as the host processor for the platform. This helps address the requirements of central computing for vehicles and is intended to target path planning capabilities.

Kalay provides its own MPPA processor with world-class performance to securely process machine learning-level perceptions.

The first instance of this partnership is the integration of Kalay's MPPA processor into NXP's embedded autonomous driving platform, BlueBox.

This version is designed to utilize Arm-based technology to address power and safety challenges in autonomous driving and to support open standards.

“NXP is pleased to partner with Kalay to address performance and safety issues in the burgeoning autonomous driving technology,” said Kamal Khouri, Vice President and General Manager of NXP’s Advanced Driver Assistance business unit. “Unlike the high-risk, power-hungry consumer-grade solutions currently being tested in vehicles, the NXP platform provides the performance and functional safety required for reliable autonomous driving.”

The strategic partnership between NXP and Kalay is expected to bring several advantages to the development and industrialization of autonomous vehicles in areas such as safety, software, open standard support, performance per watt, architectural flexibility, and scalability.

The new solution provides sophisticated safety technology through a 'Safety Co-Pilot' configuration that leverages the strengths of both companies. Furthermore, the modularity and scalability of the integrated architecture will provide partners with a roadmap featuring flexible opportunities to rapidly scale performance.

Eric Baissus, CEO of Kalay, stated, “Safety issues are undoubtedly the most critical obstacle hindering the global trend toward autonomous vehicles,” adding, “Kalay is confident that both companies can leverage their respective strengths to provide the market with solutions that address safety concerns.”

At CES 2019, the two companies will demonstrate a platform demo running on a prototype of Baidu's Apollo open automotive software solution.