Automakers are increasingly relying on chips and software to meet the growing demand for smarter, safer, and AI-supported in-vehicle experiences. This has led to a surge in the use of automotive-grade chips, with the market expected to exceed $80 billion in ten years.
However, the current vehicle system architecture cannot support the real-time, multi-modal computing tasks required for advanced in-vehicle experiences. Furthermore, while the shift to Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs) promises significant commercial value and new revenue growth points, it also presents major challenges for automakers, including increased technical costs and a higher demand for engineering resources throughout the product lifecycle.
To address the growing complexity of software, compressed development cycles, and cost pressures, automotive companies need to rethink their design, deployment, and maintenance of system architecture. They must adopt an agile collaborative engineering approach that spans “chip to system” and work with reliable partners that can provide robust integrated solutions.
Synopsys and Arm Collaborate to Reduce System Complexity and Accelerate Software-Defined Vehicle System Design
Synopsys and Arm have closely collaborated for 30 years to help customers develop dedicated chips with lower costs, reduced risks, and faster time-to-market. As early as 2023, when the Arm Total Design ecosystem was launched, Synopsys joined the system to provide end-to-end tool support for the Arm Neoverse V3 platform and Arm Neoverse Compute Subsystem (CSS). Today, both parties will continue to deepen their collaborative optimization efforts, including comprehensive support for Arm’s first-generation automotive-grade compute subsystem — Arm Zena CSS.
The AI-defined automotive era requires cloud-native support to scale and seamlessly deploy the advanced innovative features expected by drivers. With the support of Arm Zena CSS and partners like Synopsys, automotive developers can initiate the design process earlier, accelerating time-to-market while ensuring functional safety and system reliability.
Suraj Gajendra
Vice President of Automotive Product and Software Solutions
Arm
Synopsys is a trusted partner in the global automotive ecosystem, with over 50 automotive manufacturers and tier-one suppliers using Synopsys’ virtual prototyping technology to develop more than 1,000 vehicle-related virtual prototypes.
Our leadership in architecture exploration, virtual prototyping design, AI-driven chip design, and standard IP, combined with Arm’s industry-validated optimized compute subsystems, will help OEMs and tier-one suppliers deliver differentiated software-defined vehicle products on time while continuously meeting stringent cost requirements and safety standards.
Synopsys brings unique “chip-to-system” expertise to Zena CSS, including electronic digital twin (eDT) technology. Synopsys and Arm are leveraging their respective strengths to jointly modernize the automotive hardware-software co-design process in the following areas:
Software-Defined Vehicle Full System Management Using Electronic Digital Twin Technology
In the development of automotive SoCs, early and accurate performance predictions are crucial for accelerating the development process. Using Synopsys’ Platform Architect tool, automotive hardware and software architects can explore and predict KPIs such as latency, bandwidth, contention, and utilization of application workloads executed on specific Zena CSS configurations.
Synopsys’ Hardware-Assisted Verification (HAV) platform is optimized for interoperability with Zena CSS, enabling automotive companies to verify performance and power consumption early in the SoC design and system integration process. Engineers can use our HAV technology to validate and optimize until the lowest cost solution is determined to meet KPI requirements while avoiding interference between systems of different safety levels early on.
Automotive engineers use Synopsys’ electronic digital twin technology solutions, including our Virtualizer Development Kit (VDK) for Zena CSS, to simulate today’s interconnected domain-controlled and zonal control E/E architectures. With these digital twin technologies, development teams can develop and test applications in a virtual domain control environment, reducing reliance on physical hardware. This approach accelerates software delivery, reduces product defects, and optimizes the hardware-software co-design process.
Synopsys also collaborates closely with semiconductor and automotive technology ecosystem partners to provide pre-integrated solutions for seamless workflows from chip and software design to testing and deployment. For example, we are advancing the SIL Kit open-source library in collaboration with Vector Informatik, and integrating virtual prototyping technology into solutions from Continental Automotive, Elektrobit, IPG Automotive, and others.
Accelerating Software Testing and Deployment from Cloud to Vehicle
Recently, we expanded the Virtualizer tool suite to the Arm ecosystem through Virtualizer native execution technology on Arm-based hardware platforms. This technology allows automotive applications to be designed, executed, and tested directly on cloud-based Arm server CPUs without simulation. This means developers can run workloads at near real-time speeds, achieving approximately 100 times the execution efficiency compared to traditional instruction set simulators.
Virtualizer native execution technology significantly accelerates the performance of virtual prototypes running on Arm hardware platforms, greatly shortening software development, debugging, and testing cycles. The support for Zena CSS enables customers to fully leverage the end-to-end advantages of Arm architecture from cloud to vehicle.
To fully showcase the advantages of Arm’s end-to-end consistency, Synopsys and Arm, as early partners, are jointly driving the transformation of scalable cloud-native software development. Recently, both parties demonstrated a middleware and orchestration layer solution based on the SOAFEE standard, supporting software-defined vehicle workloads running on Synopsys VDK, validating how vehicle-cloud collaboration workflows simplify automotive software development and maintenance based on Arm cloud hardware platforms, thereby helping to shorten engineering cycles and reduce engineering costs and complexity.
AI-Driven EDA Solutions and Automotive-Grade IP Support Functional Safety and Cybersecurity Compliance
Our industry-leading semiconductor design solutions help automotive hardware, software, and systems engineers comply with functional safety (FuSa) and cybersecurity standards, with all development tools strictly adhering to ISO 26262 functional safety and ISO/SAE 21434 cybersecurity specifications.
Our comprehensive automotive design solutions can address complex functional safety analysis and implementation, while our HAV solutions accelerate software enablement and hardware-software integration verification across the entire automotive supply chain. Additionally, our comprehensive ASIL-compliant automotive-grade interface, safety, and foundational IP product portfolio complements Arm’s Automotive Enhanced (AE) IP and Zena CSS, providing customers with flexible interoperable solutions for automotive-grade SoCs and Multi-Die.
Combined with our chip lifecycle management IP, OEMs can assess chip health metrics in real-time, such as voltage, temperature, and margins. They can also monitor chip aging and reliability data for vehicles and fleets to provide predictive maintenance, extending the lifecycle of automotive systems and reducing total costs.
Unlocking New Opportunities Across the Full Link of Software-Defined Vehicles
While the automotive industry’s transition to software-defined vehicles requires automakers to reconstruct their engineering systems from “chip to system,” it also nurtures tremendous opportunities. By leveraging Synopsys’ optimized solutions, OEMs and tier-one suppliers can reduce development complexity and costs while enhancing product differentiation throughout the vehicle’s lifecycle. With this foundation, the full link of software-defined vehicle system design can not only improve engineering efficiency but also provide new value to automotive customers.
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