WHAT’S IN THE BOX? – In-vehicle infotainment systems at a glance

Twice a month, Yole SystemPlus analysts share the noteworthy points from their automotive Teardown Tracks. Today, Benjamin Pussat and Morgan Collin, Technology & Cost Analysts at Yole SystemPlus, take us to the heart of digital cockpits, infotainment processors and microcontrollers.

In addition to safety features, drivers and passengers are looking for an enhanced user comfort experience, enabled by increasingly advanced high-tech applications which require more powerful cockpit processors and microcontrollers. What’s more, cockpit architecture is no exception to the centralization strategy being pursued and already implemented by car manufacturers. According to Yole Intelligence, the merging of the main IVI unit, audio controller, wireless gateway, instrument cluster and head-up display into a centralized cockpit controller is expected to continue in high-end cars within the next few years.

Yole SystemPlus and Yole Intelligence are part of Yole Group.

The teardowns carried out on two smart cockpit controllers developed by HSAE and Desay, and a head unit from Harman, confirm the centralization trend of infotainment applications identified by Yole Intelligence(1). More functions such as advanced graphic capabilities and audio processing tasks are being integrated into one main system, using more powerful processors and microcontrollers provided by some of the key leaders of the cockpit processor and microcontroller market – Qualcomm, Renesas, NXP and Intel.

After the teardown of the last generation of Tesla’s Autopilot driver assistance system(2) , Yole SystemPlus highlights two key points in the evolution of both the infotainment and ADAS boards. Compared with the previous generation(3):

More in-depth analysis on the hot topic of processor chips in infotainment systems are to come.

Stay tuned for our next What’s in the box? review!

Yole SystemPlus Automotive Teardown Tracks are the result of detailed physical and costing analyses. They are carried out by experts with academic and industrial backgrounds in the semiconductor domain. Yole SystemPlus Automotive Teardown Tracks offer a clear and fruitful understanding of the technical choices made by the leading manufacturers. It also reveals accurate insights related to manufacturing costs.

The company covers the overall supply chain from the components to the system. Based on daily technical and industrial monitoring, Yole SystemPlus has significant expertise to support innovation.

Benjamin Pussat is a Technology & Cost Analyst at Yole SystemPlus, part of Yole Group. With solid expertise in electronic systems and with a specific focus on automotive systems, Benjamin produces reverse engineering & costing analyses while also working on custom projects for the electronic systems teams. Benjamin identifies and analyzes the overall manufacturing process and determines the technical choices made for the system components. The objectives of this analysis are to understand the structure of the device, identify all the relevant components and determine the final manufacturing cost.

In addition, Benjamin updates internal tools and runs custom training sessions and demos with industrial organizations. He has also published some articles in the press.

Prior to Yole SystemPlus, Benjamin worked as an Engineering Technician at SEIA.

Benjamin holds a University Diploma in Technology in Electrical Engineering and Industrial Computing (Université de Nantes, France).

Morgan Collin serves as a Technology & Cost Analyst at Yole SystemPlus, part of Yole Group.

With solid expertise in the analysis of electronics boards, Morgan produces reverse engineering & costing analyses while also working on custom projects for the electronic systems teams. His mission is to identify and analyze the electronic boards and mechanical components of devices during the disassembly process. The objectives of these analyses are to understand the structure of the device, identify all the components, and determine the final manufacturing cost. In addition, he works on the construction of the block diagrams for the different reports and monitors the display software. Prior to Yole SystemPlus, Morgan worked as a production technician, purchasing and stock management, at Fougerolle.

Morgan holds a BTS Digital Systems degree (Ecole Jeanne d’Arc, France).

This article has been developed in collaboration with John LORENZ, Senior Technology and Market Analyst, Computing & Software within the Semiconductor, Memory & Computing division at Yole Intelligence, as well as Ying-Wu Liu, Technology & Cost Analyst at Yole SystemPlus.