With the increasing popularity of Web services, content, and applications, many vendors, including automakers and service and content providers, are seeing huge business opportunities. Automakers can use this to provide an open infotainment platform that connects to the Internet in multiple ways and runs the latest and most sophisticated web applications efficiently, flexibly and securely with the support of platform hardware. This article focuses on how the x86 platform architecture provides users with a rich interactive driving experience that is difficult to achieve with non-PC-compatible platforms.
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Networked platform and rich Internet applications
Invigorate the networking platform
Every year, global car users spend billions of dollars to install the latest in-vehicle devices to keep up with information and entertainment trends, to communicate freely with friends, family and colleagues in the car, and to provide some entertainment for passengers. Automakers and consumer electronics suppliers have introduced a number of fixed-function devices such as GPS navigation systems, AM/FM/satellite radios, and entertainment devices that support CD/DVD playback. But with the proliferation of Web services, content, and applications, these devices will soon become obsolete.
Devices based on embedded processors such as ARM or PowerPC generally support only a small number of applications, which typically use hardware codecs, making it almost impossible to implement any feature updates.
In the consumer electronics, PC and Internet sectors, the pace of application innovation has never stopped. In the automotive industry, automotive electronics typically take two to four years from design to launch due to the relatively long design and verification cycle. When these inflexible fixed-function devices encounter the lag period in the life cycle of the vehicle, it will cause the in-vehicle equipment to be eliminated when it has not entered the market.
Platforms similar to PCs have the scalability and openness to reduce the life cycle of automotive and consumer products. In-vehicle devices with an open architecture can be easily upgraded with the latest applications at the factory. If the device supports running web applications, users can get new applications and new content directly without any changes to the device.
Example: Navigation and online updates
Today's car navigation devices have the following standard features: 2D and 3D rendered maps, a simple and intuitive user interface, driving directions, and the ability to guide users to find a place (such as an airport, hotel, etc.). But these are just fixed-function devices and do not have the ability to upgrade.
If these devices have web connectivity and PC-like software flexibility, then we can easily add new features to the navigation application, such as real-time traffic information. In this way, the system can dynamically adjust the driving route according to the road condition information provided by the online traffic service. With the networking function, the driver can not only find the driving route to the nearest hotel, but also check the room remaining, price information of each hotel, and even book the room by manual button or voice command. In addition, the networked navigation system is also able to monitor the amount of fuel in the car and, when the amount of fuel is insufficient, directs the driver to a gas station that is closest to the preset route or has the lowest current oil price.
The networked platform also provides access to vast amounts of audio and video content, as well as a variety of services for accessing the content. For example, an in-vehicle infotainment system can record a short segment of the radio playing music in real time under the control of the corresponding program. At this point, the user can recognize the music content through a music directory service (such as the service provided by Gracenote) at the touch of a button, so that the music can be purchased and downloaded to a playlist.
AJAX and rich Internet applications
Today's navigation app can render a map of the current location onto the screen. Web services such as Google Earth can provide real-time satellite images of the current region, greatly enhancing the usefulness of the map. The navigation system using Google Earth can display the current position as an icon on the satellite image. As the car travels, satellite images can also show landmarks along the way, such as buildings, lakes, trees, and houses, and always keep the car at the center of the screen. In addition, users can scroll through the pictures on the touch screen to see landmarks in nearby areas.
In addition to Google Earth, there are countless new generation of web applications, which are collectively referred to as Rich Internet Applications (RIA). Many RIAs are developed based on the PC environment and can only be run on x86 architecture. RIA does not need to install special software, has a safe local operating environment (also known as "sandbox"), can achieve "irregular connection" with the car inside and outside the wireless hotspot, so it is very suitable for use in the car environment.
In navigation applications that support satellite imagery, the image must be able to be refreshed as the car travels and the user scrolls. For traditional web applications, the entire screen will refresh as the image scrolls, making it almost impossible to see the image content.
Contrary to this, the conversion of images in Google Earth is smooth and fast, which is due to the development of an AJAX technology that supports RIA. AJAX technology can exchange small-scale data with the server in the background mode, thus improving the responsiveness of the web application, so that the user scrolling the image will not cause the web page to be frequently reloaded. At the same time, the technology can effectively improve the interactivity, speed and usability of web applications.
Sandbox and network connection
Sandbox and virtualization
Together with the underlying Java development environment, AJAX forms a very secure mechanism for creating a special application partition (also called sandbox). A sandbox is a security mechanism for executing unknown programs in a protected environment. During this execution, the sandbox first creates a "virtual machine", which is a tightly controlled set of resources that provides access only to the client's application. The client's application accesses other system resources under the control of the language interpreter. For example, a virtual machine might allow the application to access a small amount of active space on disk and memory, but its access to host hardware resources such as network interfaces, storage devices, and memory is severely restricted.
Sandboxing is a special form of virtualization. Virtualization is an indispensable technology for in-vehicle infotainment platforms. It provides excellent reliability for car audio bodies, while also providing users with the flexibility to run a variety of personalized web content and services. Virtualization technology achieves this flexibility by dividing hardware into protected partitions. For example, you can create user partitions where virtual machines run non-critical applications and store personalized content. We can limit user partition access to critical system resources to ensure the reliability of secure partitions (for mission-critical applications such as navigation). With the support of virtualization technology, the platform will be able to gain the flexibility and personalization advantages of the Internet PC, while having the reliability of a fixed-function audio body.
Establish a network connection
There is no doubt that cars must be connected to the Internet before running a variety of rich Internet applications. The ability to connect wirelessly varies from country to country. Future in-vehicle infotainment platforms will enable wireless networking in a variety of ways. Wi-Fi (802.11) is a short-range wireless technology that establishes a connection between the car and the Internet near the owner's residence or multiple "hot spots" (with public wireless access points installed).
In addition to Wi-Fi (requiring cars to be within the reach of wireless access points), cars can also be networked through a variety of wireless WAN technologies, such as 3G data connectivity and mobile WiMAX based on the IEEE 802.16 standard (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) ) Technology, etc.
Mobile WiMAX is based on OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) technology, which has inherent advantages in throughput, delay and spectral efficiency, and supports advanced antenna technology; WiMAX technology has significant performance compared to wide-area wireless technology Advantage. Intel is continually bringing key components required for WiMAX networks to the market, including a fixed WiMAX solution (Intel PRO/Wireless 5116 broadband interface) and a fixed/mobile dual-mode solution (Intel WiMAX Connection 2250). These new solutions will effectively accelerate the deployment of mobile WiMAX networks.
Since different regions may deploy different wireless connectivity technologies, the platform must be able to flexibly support various wireless technologies by connecting a dedicated network access device via a card (eg via an ExpressCard slot), USB interface or Bluetooth interface. to fulfill.
in conclusion
As technology continues to advance, in-vehicle infotainment systems need to support a variety of cutting-edge consumer applications. As a leading edge provider of open platforms, Intel is working with industry-leading automakers and suppliers to create scalable solutions that meet the specific needs of the automotive industry, such as small form factor, energy efficiency and high reliability designs. X86 platform. In addition, various key technology components, such as WiMAX and ultra-wideband technologies, have been introduced to enable a variety of technological innovations, such as more efficient volatile and non-volatile memory technologies. Driven by these innovations, the next-generation in-vehicle infotainment system can not only enable Web connectivity, but also be able to run a variety of Web applications flexibly and securely, with free access to a variety of Web content and services.
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