At CES, Intel unveiled an expanded product line and new partnerships designed to accelerate automakers’ transition to electric vehicles and software-defined vehicles (SDV). Intel now offers a platform for the entire vehicle, including high-performance computing, discrete graphics, artificial intelligence (AI), energy management and zonal controller solutions, alongside the Intel Automotive Virtual Design (VDE) co-developed with Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Intel’s approach addresses automakers’ challenges around cost and performance scalability, enabling faster, more efficient and cost-effective development and deployment of SDV. The importance of a whole-vehicle platform: Intel’s whole-vehicle platform reduces the inefficiencies of traditional fragmented approaches to vehicle architectures.
By optimizing the electrical/electronic architecture of the entire vehicle, Intel can significantly reduce costs and improve performance. To support this platform, Intel introduced the availability of the Adaptive Control Unit (ACU), designed for electric vehicle powertrains and zonal controller applications. About the Adaptive Control Unit: The ACU U310 is a new type of processing unit that supports the consolidation of multiple functions, applications and domains in real-time, safety-critical and cyber-secure (X-in -1) in a single chip.
Traditional time-based and sequential processing-based microcontrollers and zonal controllers struggle to handle multiple workloads due to their limited deterministic processing capabilities. In contrast, Intel’s new ACU family of devices incorporates a flexible logic area that offloads real-time control algorithms from CPU cores, ensuring reliable performance, freedom from interference (FFI), and data delivery deterministic, even when consolidating multiple microcontroller workloads into a single zonal MCU. This dual-brain approach further consolidates workloads, reduces costs, and improves security, cybersecurity, and performance.
When used in an electric vehicle powertrain, the ACU U310 supports advanced algorithmic solutions that reduce energy demand from the vehicle’s battery, by automatically adapting high voltage and control frequencies to styles individual driving habits and road conditions. The ACU reduces the cost per kilowatt and improves energy efficiency, allowing the vehicle to recover up to 40% of energy losses from the transmission system, resulting in an efficiency gain of 3 to 5 % under the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP). This results in greater range, faster charging and a more responsive driving experience, while significantly reducing per-vehicle nomenclature, electric motor size and battery costs compared to traditional approaches.
Stellantis Motorsports: Selected Intel as a key technology partner and adopts Adaptive Control technology in its next-generation inverter to improve performance and efficiency in competitive racing environments. In this application, Intel technology will control the electric motor and recover energy during braking phases. The inverter plays a crucial role during a Formula E race, where any efficiency gain turns into a valuable competitive advantage.
Karma Automotive announced support for Intel’s ACU, introducing an Intel co-branded inverter featuring Optimal Pulse Pattern control algorithms to improve efficiency and enable four unique driving profiles, including functions innovative technologies such as Torque Ripple Reduction and Range Boost. The ACU’s programmability allows it to serve as the first software-defined zonal controller, adapting to different vehicle topologies and applications. This flexibility facilitates the transition to software-defined vehicles, simplifies supply chains and reduces the complexity of vehicle nomenclature.
How next-generation architecture is enhanced with AI: Building on the first-generation AI-enhanced SDV systems-on-chip (SoC), Intel announced the upcoming second-generation Intel Arc graphics cards? B for automotive, with production scheduled for late 2025. This solution provides the high-performance computing needed for more advanced embedded AI workloads, human-machine interface (HMI) engines ) next-generation, immersive in-vehicle experiences and AAA-type PC games.
Paired with an Intel AI-enhanced SDV SoC, it delivers scalable performance for complex AI tasks, supported by the broad Intel AI ecosystem. How Intel and AWS are revolutionizing automotive software development: Intel and AWS introduced the Intel Automotive Virtual Development Environment on AWS, an approach that ensures true hardware and software parity from the cloud to the car. This new proposition addresses challenges throughout the vehicle development lifecycle, allowing engineers to seamlessly switch between virtual and physical hardware configurations.
It integrates Amazon EC2 instances based on the Intel Xeon processor and, for the first time, incorporates Intel’s automotive SDV SoCs into the AWS environment, eliminating the need for electronic control unit (ECU) simulators or expensive development boards. This collaboration provides a unified solution that accelerates innovation, reduces R&D costs and accelerates time to market. About Intel’s system-level advantage: Intel’s whole-vehicle approach offers many benefits to automakers, including reducing costs, improving vehicle performance, streamlining development, improving energy efficiency, seamless integration of AI and accelerating time to market (…).
All supported by Intel’s balanced global supply chain.
