dSpace introduces more power and flexibility for in-vehicle prototyping
A variant of dSpace’s MicroAutoBox Embedded PC has a quad-core, 6th generation Intel Core i7 processor, 16Gbyte RAM and 128Gbyte flash memory. According to dSpace, this version provides even more power for demanding and computation-intensive in-vehicle prototyping applications, such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and functions for automated driving.
The embedded PC can still be used in combination with MicroAutoBox in a compact and robust housing and additionally as a standalone system without MicroAutoBox. It can be used as a dedicated platform for Windows- or Linux-based applications like RTMaps, a software development environment for multi-sensor applications. dSpace claims that this combination of high-performance hardware and software results is particularly suitable for prototyping of complex algorithms for ADAS and automated driving, as well as for the time-synchronous recording and playback of large volumes of sensor and vehicle network data.
To record large volumes of data, e.g., from cameras as well as radar and lidar sensors, the Embedded PC includes an external SATA interface (four x SATA 3.0). The company offers a MicroAutoBox Embedded DSU (data storage unit) with up to four SSDs and several terabytes of storage capacity that can be used with Embedded PC.
Embedded PC has the option to add up to three mPCIe plug-in cards. The system can thus be equipped with dSPACE-qualified extensions for WLAN, CAN, CAN FD, and BroadR-Reach Ethernet, for example. For the first time, the Embedded PC is also available in a dSPACE Automotive Ethernet Embedded PC bundle. It contains the Embedded PC, a PCIe Mini Card with two Ethernet controllers and two BroadR-Reach interfaces, and a software package for Ethernet configuration. In this setup, MicroAutoBox II can be directly used in service-oriented (SOME/IP) ECU networks. A media converter is not required, says the company. The SOME/IP communication can be conveniently configured on the basis of AutoSar and Fibex 4 network description files on the Embedded PC. The latter is automatically synchronised with the real-time application implemented on MicroAutoBox II. By adding further BroadR-Reach cards, it is possible to implement up to six Ethernet channels in one compact system.
