Hardware abstraction layers to enable software defined vehicles

Different abstraction layers are required to enable decoupling of hardware from the software in vehicles. Standardized application programming interfaces (API) enable communication between the different abstraction layers and allow applications source code to be reused in multiple distributed ECUs. The lowest abstraction level is the Microcontroller Abstraction Layer (MCAL).

The MCAL, which plays an important role in SDV, provides APIs that abstract the complexities of the underlying hardware peripherals. It acts as a bridge between the hardware integrated in the central compute SoC like a TDA4VH-Q1 processor, including timers, ADCs, Ethernet subsystem, and the higher-level software layers. The MCAL ensures that application software can interact with the hardware without being tied to specific hardware details. This abstraction is crucial for achieving software portability across different vehicle platforms, enabling OEMs to reuse software components across multiple models and variants with minimal modifications.

To interface between the higher-level software and the MCAL, there is the ECU Abstraction Layer (ECUAL). The ECUAL provides all the available ECU hardware, including the MCU and peripheral devices (for example, CAN transceiver, Ethernet PHY and SerDes devices) access to higher-level software via standardized APIs.