“Increase test automation and mature continuous integration to ensure the earliest possible error detection.”
Mckinsey & Company¹
The McKinsey article “When code is king: Mastering automotive software excellence”¹ outlines the path and methodologies to deliver high-quality vehicle software built on a comprehensive automated software test suite. Furthermore, the article outlines the need for a robust test approach built on a standardized and modular architecture.
With the significant investment made in existing vehicle loggers and in-vehicle toolchains (based on proprietary and closed systems), evolving to an open platform that can accommodate modern software development test needs can seem risky and expensive.
Maximizing RoI in existing vehicle toolchains
Existing vehicle toolchains continue to serve a purpose, and are designed to reliably capture the data volumes required for SAE Level 1 and 2 functionality. However, incumbent in-vehicle toolchains were never designed to support today’s ADAS and AD engineering needs for:
- High-bandwidth vehicle sensors of lidar, radar, and cameras
- Evolution of wiring harnesses to support ethernet-based network architectures
- Continuous growth in software to support safer driving applications
As outlined in an earlier blog, “The future of vehicle data logging in the age of enhanced ADAS/AD functionality” ², vehicle loggers need to be smarter, scalable, and adaptable.
Leaning into the McKinsey article¹, adaptability is also highlighted in order to meet the needs of developing software environments. Therefore, today’s vehicle data logging solutions need to support existing toolchains e.g. PCIe/PXI, but also offer the flexibility to migrate to the next generation of vehicle architectures which are network-based.
Modularity is one approach to enable OEMs and test partners to extend the value of incumbent logging systems, thus maximizing the return on investment (RoI) in the existing toolchain while minimizing risk with support for future data logging requirements.
Open and Modular in-vehicle data logging systems
The TRX D8 2.0 vehicle data logger from Klas is currently the only open and modular solution that can extend the value in existing PCIe/PXI toolchains while offering a scalable processing platform to support the needs for continuous development of ADAS and AD software developers.
Figure 1: TRX D8 2.0 supports both PCIe and network-based in-vehicle logging
The flexible solution extends the storage capacity of existing PCIe/PXI toolchains with up to 240TeraBytes via the integrated Gen4 x16 PCIe transparent host/target adapter. However, by simply swapping the head unit, OEMs and test partners can add a computing platform built on the latest Intel 10th Gen Xeon-D CPU.
Furthermore, the TRX D8 2.0 supports high-speed networking interfaces of 100GbE for seamless connectivity to ADAS/AD continuous integration and development environments (CI/CD) outside the vehicle.
Not only does the TRX D8 2.0 facilitate data logging and agile ADAS/AD development environments in-vehicle, but it aligns with the Mckinsey recommended methodology of being the platform to run software automation suites in-vehicle to detect errors as early as possible.
Cloud performance R&D vehicle data loggers
With the vision for more software and an expanding automated test software suite, the TRX D8 2.0 is the only solution to offer a simple and viable path to scale to cloud compute performance for in-vehicle development and data logging, as and when needed.
The TRX D8 2.0 flexible network-based logging options support a 20x core Intel Xeon-D compute option, delivering up to 200Gbps (25GB/s) disk write speeds, with PCI-E Gen 4 RAID card for data redundancy, encryption, and offload.
To learn more about TRX D8 2.0 and Klas automotive solutions
Please visit – https://www.klasgroup.com/markets/automotive/
Resources
- https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/automotive-and-assembly/our-insights/when-code-is-king-mastering-automotive-software-excellence
- https://www.klasgroup.com/the-future-of-vehicle-data-logging-in-the-age-of-enhanced-adas-ad-functionality/
Further Reading
Accelerate ADAS/AD R&D with a secure and open in-vehicle computing platform
The future of vehicle data logging in the age of enhanced ADAS/AD functionality
