Automotive Ethernet switch doubles capacity over existing designs
Rapid growth in the amount of data to be processed, increasing software complexity and new E/E architectures require significantly more powerful data channels in cars. To cope with the flood of data, chip manufacturer and Ethernet specialist Marvell has introduced a family of high-performance switches.
According to the manufacturer, the chips in the Brightlane MVQ622x family offer the highest data throughput ever achieved in the field of automotive Ethernet switches: at 90 Gbps, they are almost twice as high as comparable products, the company explains. And in the area of cybersecurity, the new product’s features also go beyond what customers could previously expect from Ethernet switches.
According to Marvell, the ongoing shift towards zonal architectures will enable automakers to dramatically improve the onboard computing capabilities of vehicles for advancing safety systems, enhancing infotainment, increasing fuel efficiency and introducing software-defined services for a better driving experience. This shift, however, requires rethinking the technology used to build vehicle network platforms. Typical cars based around zonal architectures in the future will have three to up to six zones. Using a combination of zonal and central switches will provide automakers with a foundation for optimizing network performance, adding new features and services and accommodating growing bandwidth demands. Ethernet-based zonal architecture also reduces the amount of network cabling required, which reduces weight and manufacturing complexity.
Optimized for the most advanced automotive architectures the non-blocking 12-port design of Marvell’s new Brightlane MV-Q6223 switch can be configured from among the eight integrated 10G SerDes ports, four integrated 2.5G SerDes ports, and two integrated 1000Base-T1 PHYs available. The MV-Q6222 contains nine ports for 60 Gbps, with five integrated 10G SerDes ports, four integrated 2.5G SerDes ports, and two integrated 1000Base-T1 PHYs available for selection. Both the 90 Gbps and 60 Gbps MV-Q622x switches are single-chip devices to reduce cost, power and latency.
The new switch family also includes a combination of advanced security features not found together in any other automotive switch product. The Brightlane MV-Q622x family incorporates IEEE 802.1AE-2018-compliant Media Access Control (MACsec) link security on every port, up to 10G, for encrypting data traveling between automotive components to prevent man-in-the- middle and other attacks. Marvell’s patent-pending Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM) implementation for deep packet inspection (DPI) provides for wirespeed packet classification to ensure packet validity and the ability to filter and classify more than 4,000 IPv4/IPv6 flows for heightened intrusion detection. Additionally, the MV-Q622x family incorporates a hardware security module (HSM) for encryption, MACsec key management and trusted boot functionality to further secure the in-vehicle network.
According to Marvell Marketing Vice President Amir Bar-Niv, the company is collaborating with over 40 OEMs, including design wins with eight of the 10 largest, on a variety of Automotive Ethernet solutions.
The new Brightlane MV-Q622x switches are available for sampling now. Volume production is scheduled to start in about two years.
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