Industry Expert Blogs

To some, Imagination Technologies is best known as a supplier of GPUs for the mobile market. However, our GPUs are suitable for a wide range of markets and automotive is a significant one. In fact, Imagination supplies GPU IP to two of the three top players in the automotive application processor market, making it the single largest player for market share. That’s why we’re excited to announce the launch of the XS family – a new range of GPUs designed specifically for the automotive market, and we believe they are the most advanced automotive GPUs ever created. The reason for this is because not only are these GPUs highly performant and power-efficient, but they are also designed to be functionally safe. But what does that mean?

The industry’s first functionally safe GPUs

XS GPUs are built using processes that have been independently verified to conform to ISO 26262, the safety standard for electronics in the automotive industry. ISO 26262 was created to address the needs for all electronics in vehicles to be built in a safe a manner as possible, to mitigate against the impact of any failure, however unlikely. What this means in the real world is that should such a failure occur in the system, it would not be catastrophic, and the vehicle could still be brought to a stop safely or driven directly to a repair centre. This is known as functional safety (FuSa).

ISO 26262 contains four automotive safety integrity levels (ASILs); with ASIL A at the lowest level and ASIL D the highest tier of safety. This is of vital importance. We all know that cars are becoming more advanced and sophisticated; capable of performing many tasks independently of the driver, be it detecting crashes, auto braking, self-managing cruise control speeds, changing lanes by themselves, or detecting if the driver is awake. These are known as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). Beyond ADAS, we move into the realm of autonomous driving, where electronics are used to analyse surroundings and control the car for extended periods.

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