Software giant Synopsys’ focus was firmly on the automotive sector at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The company, based in Sunnyvale, California, showcased an array of AI-driven offerings and collaborations aimed at enhancing automotive engineering while keeping costs down, reducing complexity and accelerating development times.
The time it takes to develop new vehicles is one of the most significant challenges that the auto industry faces, but Synopsys Chief Product Management Officer Ravi Subramanian, explained how simulation and the virtualization of silicon and software development can play a key role in tackling this.
“The rise of software-defined mobility and the introduction of AI into the car necessitate a foundational shift in automotive engineering,” Subramanian said in a press release. “Synopsys is empowering automakers to innovate at the pace that software-defined, intelligent platforms demand. By virtualizing design, integration, and prototyping, we are helping automotive customers accelerate development, reduce costs and time to SOP (Start of Production), and deliver next-generation performance and safety.”
The financial benefits could be vast, with virtualization of vehicle electronics development cutting costs by 20% to 60%, according to Synopsys — a sizable sum considering that annual testing bills for OEMs can stretch to hundreds of millions of dollars.
In addition, the availability of Synopsys virtual development kits (VDKs), which use virtual prototypes of systems on a chip months before silicon is available, can bring car models to the market up to a year faster than has previously been the case.
The developments announced at CES included Samsung’s ISOCELL Auto 1H1 automotive image sensor for high-fidelity simulation under real-life conditions in Snyopsys subsidiary Ansys’ AVxcelerate Sensors.
There was also confirmation of further tie-ups with the U.K.’s Arm and IPG Automotive, and San Francisco’s Sim.ai, with the latter focused on developing software to support driving assistance systems and infotainment features. New VDKs with the Netherlands’ NXP Semiconductors and Texas Instruments were revealed, too.
Several big names, including Audi and Samsung, are already using Synopsys products, and the German automaker’s CTO Geoffrey Bouquot hailed the company’s automotive program, saying in the release: “With Synopsys’ simulation solutions, our teams leverage AI-driven models to accelerate design exploration and scale virtual validation across programs. This approach reduces physical prototyping and shortens development cycles while ensuring greater reliability and customer benefit.”
Synopsys also used CES to announce a tie-up with the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the global governing body for motorsport, including Formula One.
The tie-up will see Synopsys assist the FIA in further improving safety standards for single-seat race cars via the use of digital human body models to process thousands of parameters during development.
