Delivering Security of Supply of

Microcontrollers

Today there is different ways to secure the supply of high complex Automotive products like microcontrol-lers. Either the supplier is organizing a second manufacturing line or the OEM is awarding two suppliers for a single component. Both approaches are costly. By far more attractive will be the new concept of STMicroelectronics and the competitor Freescale Semiconductor. They provide their customers the opport unity to purchase fully identical, jointly developed microcontrollers out of two commercially inde-pendent sources. Additionally they will set standards and offer a full scalability.

HARDWARE Purchase Strategies

1 Introduction

More and more functionality of state-of-the-art vehicles is controlled by electron-ics. It is the driver of future innovationsin the car, the value added will reach 30percent in the near future. The number of ECU’s (Electronic Control Units) is growing continuously and linked to that the number of MCU’s (Microcon-troller Units) with quite different re-quirements – from easy motor control application to high end engine manage-ment systems. All those MCU’s are con-nected through the E/E network. Theinteraction and communication re-quirements are increasing, scalability and standardization will become muchmore important. Re-use of standard mi-crocontroller platforms across the car isrequired in order to develop in time, high-quality systems while meeting the cost targets.

Besides those requirements another topic becomes more and more important – security of supply. Products like micro-controllers are one of the most complex parts in the car – each problem in thesupply chain could have serious and in-calculable consequences.

2 Joint Development Program

Guarantee security of supply and that in a more cost efficient way as in the past – that has been the ideas to start the Joint Development Program (JDP) between STMicroelectronics and his main com-petitor Freescale Semiconductor.

In January 2006 Freescale and ST an-nounced their intention to embark upona joint development project with the in-tention of delivering a roadmap of Pow-erTM Architecture based MCU’s for auto-motive applications.

Freescale and ST recently collaboratedclosely on the ‘Crolles’ R&D Alliance inSouthern France and delivered a robust 90nm logic process. Both companies con-sequently developed independent NonVolatile Memory (NVM) technology basedon this logic process in their respectiveAustin and Agrate 8-inch facilities. The companies are now bringing these sepa-rate NVM developments together in or-rrder to introduce a robust and flexible NVM based MCU family for automotive

applications. The first products would bedelivered in early 2008.

Their mission is clear; - Accelerate thepenetration of PowerPC Products in auto-motive and strengthen Power as the dominant automotive 32bit Architec-ture. Both Freescale and ST would bringtogether complimentary strengths to de-liver a compelling product roadmap of-fffering an optimal mix of cost competi-tiveness, high performance and flexibili-ty. Each company would offer absolutely identical products, allowing a new and quite unique dual sourcing propositionto Automotive Electronic Control Unit (ECU) manufacturers.

The key to architecture standardiza-tion is product availability. With both companies sharing resources, intellectu-al property and best practices, fasterproduct proliferation becomes possible. Four new products will be delivered in early 2008, with a further 4 to 6 new products planned every year until atleast 2011. This will enable the Joint De-velopment Program to strengthen theleadership position of Freescale and STin their existing strategic markets, suchas Engine Management, Car Body and In-strument Cluster. In addition both com-panies intend to deliver solutions for ap-plications that require increasingly highlevels of safety integrity such as Steering,Braking and Electronic Stability. The de-velopment of Functional Safety IP is a strong focus of the Joint Development Program.

3 Joint Development Program in Practice

Put simply, both Freescale and ST com-bine resources in order to deliver designdatabases faster, more frequently andwith higher quality than they would as separate entities, Figure 1. Once design is completed the finished database is hand-ed over to the mask making departmentsof both companies and the wafer manu-facturing process is started. Freescalemanufacture in their 8-inch Austin Tech-nology and Manufacturing Centre (AT-TTMC) in Austin, Tx and ST manufacture intheir 8-inch Rousset facility in southernFrance. Through this arrangement both companies are able to deliver function-ally identical products simultaneously.

The Authors

Allan McAuslin is Marketing Manager,

FSL-STM Joint

Development Program,

Microcontroller Solu-

tion Group, Freescale

Semiconductor UK Ltd.

in East Kilbride (UK).

Ross McQuat is General Manager

Joint Delvelopement

Program, Freescale

Semiconductor UK Ltd.

in Munich (Germany).

Carsten Demuth is responsable for

business development

program 16/32bit Auto-

motive Miocrocontrol-

ler in Central Europe,

STMicroelectronics in

Munich (Germany).

Michael Anfang is responsible for Auto-

motive Microcontroller

Marketing & Apllica-

tion in Europe. He is

member of the ST

Management Teams

in the Joint Develop-

ment Program with

Freescale Semicon-

ductor UK Ltd. in

Munich (Germany).

ATZelektronik 02I2008 Volume 3 49

4 Security of Supply

A major headache for the Automotivemarket is how to guarantee security of supply. In the past car manufacturing lines have been shut down due to the unavailability of critical components ei-ther due to quality issues or productavailability. These issues cost the auto-motive market millions of Euros every year.

One way to solve this problem in thesemiconductor world is to have backup wafer fabrication capability, either in awholly owned wafer fab or through asecond source arrangement with a wa-fer foundry. These approaches eachguarantee security of supply should one manufacturing site be affected by para-sitic quality problems or even worse,some kind of natural disaster. However both these options are extremely costly and ultimately result in increased semi-conductor product cost and therefore anegative impact in profitability for thewhole automotive supplier chain.

Another solution would be for an ECUmanufacturer to introduce two separateElectronic platforms based on quite dif-ffferent MCU architectures from two inde-pendent Semiconductor suppliers. While this brings the benefit of a healthy com-petitive Semiconductor supplier base,the cost of software and hardware devel-opment and qualification for two differ-rrent MCU architectures can often be pro-hibitive.

Through their Joint Development Pro-gram, Freescale and ST not only solve the security of supply problem, but offersome additional distinct advantages to their customers.

Freescale and ST offer their custom-ers the option of purchasing the sameproduct from two independent suppli-ers, enabling a real security of supply. Added to this is the clear advantage of asustainable and highly competitive sup-ply configuration, where two suppliers can be measured and compete uponwhat really matters to their customerbase ;- Zero Defect Quality, Top ClassSupport, On Time Delivery and of course, Price. Allied to this both suppli-

ers are committed to a strong, marketleading roadmap of products designedto offer their customers maximum free-dom of choice when it comes to impor-rrtant decisions relating to cost and per-formance. In addition to these clear du-al sourcing benefits, bringing two lead-ing automotive MCU suppliers togetherbrings the opportunity to combine Non Volatile Memory (NVM) technology, mar-rrket leading analog and digital IP to de-liver compelling, intelligent productsthat solve their customer’s biggest prob-lems. Freescale and ST will also consoli-date and standardize their roadmapsupon the e200 PowerTM core architec-ture.

Figure 2: The e200-family with scalable CPU-Architecture

Figure 1: Organization Joint Development Program (JDP)

HARDWARE

ATZelektronik 02I2008 Volume 350

Purchase Strategies

The e200 family of Power Architec-ture cores offers completely scalableperformance and code compatibility from 40MHz 4-stage pipelined cores, upto dual issue superscalar 10-stage pipe-lined machines. This high level of coreflexibility enables a family of products able to address applications such as sim-ple door window controllers up to high-ly complex engine management withmaximum cross-family compatibility.

5 Scalability

The proportion of hardware and soft-ware cost from a system point of view iscontinuously changing towards highersoftware efforts. This is a major driverfor highly scalable and standardized so-lutions, standard architectures is a mar-rrket trend in the Automotive industry, Figure 2.

The e200 family of Power Architec-ture cores offers completely scalableperformance and code compatibility from 40MHz 4-stage pipelined cores, upto dual issue superscalar 10-stage pipe-lined machines, Figure 3. Those imple-mentation are equal concerning instruc-tion set, memory map and interruptmap. This high level of core flexibility enables a family of products able to ad-dress applications such as simple door window controllers up to highly com-plex engine management with maxi-mum cross-family compatibility. This is

a major cost advantage for all systemsuppliers focusing on different applica-tions.

6 Outlook

Four products will sample in early 2008 for applications including Car Body Controller, Power Steering, InstrumentCluster and Engine Management allbased upon scalable implementationsof the e200 Power Architecture core.Freescale and ST intend to develop their product roadmap to address a widerrange of applications such as Transmis-sion Control, Complex Motor Control as well as address safety critical markets such as Dynamic Chassis Managementand Electronic Stability.

Freescale and ST are committed tocontinue to develop market leadingMCU products for the automotive mar-ket. In doing so they will significantly improve the competitive landscape by offering their customers a truly uniquesolution to their dual sourcing prob-lems.

Figure 3: CPU, with flexible performances

ATZelektronik 02I2008 Volume 3 51