Automotive systems have tended to use custom standards such as MOST, but one of the leading automotive networking chip suppliers, SMSC, has launched a high-performance single-chip 10/100 Ethernet controller.
The LAN89218 is designed specifically to meet the high reliability standards required by automotive applications such as on-board diagnostics or fast software download interfaces for central gateway and telematics modules, navigation systems, radio head units and connectivity devices. Using a high-performance Ethernet interface in today's complex vehicle electrical systems can help diagnose issues faster and lower software maintenance time and so provide shorter repair times and lower cost.
The need for higher speed interfaces is driven by the increasing size of embedded program and data memories. For example, the newly released BMW 7 Series has more than 1GByte of memory while the previous model had just short of 100Mbytes of memory. While repair shops usually diagnose and fix problems, they also update the software and data embedded in the various control devices inside the car via the On Board Diagnostics (OBD) connector.
Today this standardized connector only provides a slow communication interface so updating the software of a modern car via this interface takes hours, which significantly increases both repair times and costs. As a result, many car companies are working on an upgrade of the OBD connector to provide the car with a high-performance data interface for diagnostics and software downloads. The candidate of choice is Ethernet. This initiative is expected to lead to a new ISO/SAE standard that mandates Ethernet as part of the OBD interface for all cars.
"The LAN89218 is best suited for making the car accessible to diagnostic systems because it offers a fast mechanism to transfer software into the vehicle," said Dr. Christian Thiel, Vice President and General Manager of SMSC's Automotive Information Systems group. "Enabling an Ethernet-based diagnostic and software maintenance entry to the vehicle can significantly reduce the time required to diagnose and fix problems while a car is being serviced."
The LAN89218 provides a simple, parallel host bus interface to the typical automotive embedded microcontrollers used inside a car. It can function as a network branch to the outside world connecting the car to a personal computer, diagnostic tool or a complex Ethernet network in the repair shop with power management, wake-on-LAN support allows network to wake-up electronics devices from sleep state, multiple low-power modes and built-in flow control support.
For more information, visit www.smsc.com
