IVI System for Luxury Cars: Architecture Design & BSP Development

Project in a Nutshell: We started software design and development for a next-generation IVI system commissioned by a multimedia system provider for luxury car brands. The team focused on hardware testing, BSP development and software architecture design for Linux and QNX operating systems, adhering to strict ASPICE standards throughout the process.

Client & Challenge

Our client, a supplier of IVI systems for luxury cars, asked us to enhance their existing system and upgrade it to the next generation. 

Our customer was looking for a partner with deep experience in designing and developing in-vehicle middleware and infotainment systems. One of the main criteria for choosing our company was compliance with ASPICE — a process assessment model specifically designed for the automotive industry. 

Promwad's development processes comply with ASPICE and include strict requirements for project management, system and software design, development, and testing phases.
 

Solution

To realise the client's tasks, we have assembled a team of the following specialists: 

• system software engineer responsible for setting up and testing the equipment; 

• software architect; 

• HMI engineer; 

• project manager. 

All work is carried out in strict accordance with ASPICE standards, ensuring a clear distribution of roles, areas of responsibility, fundamental practices, and necessary artefacts.
 

1. Hardware Testing & BSP Development

The client's device is based on the SA8155 SOM from Qualcomm. The Promwad team developed software for testing the hardware and created a board support package (BSP) to work with it. As part of these tasks, we did the following: 

• configured the Linux operating system to test all components of the device;  

• ported the QNX and Linux operating systems for use in the final version;  

• adapted the audio system to the client's equipment, including support for inputs and outputs;  

• ran the video subsystem on QNX and configured drivers for serial data transmission from the cameras;  

• developed drivers for controlling audio codecs — chips that convert digital audio to analogue and vice versa;  

• customised the interface for working with cameras;  

• developed drivers for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth;  

• resolved the issue with GPIO interrupts to ensure the operating system responds correctly to hardware signals;  

• added support for GPIO expanders in QNX to increase the number of I/O ports.
   

2. Software Architecture Design

The second direction of our team's work in this project is to analyse the software requirements and develop its architecture for Linux and QNX. The architecture was developed in accordance with ASPICE: SWE.2. 

As part of the architecture design, we performed the following tasks: 

• Defining architectural elements: This involved identifying applications, services, and libraries, specifying the subsystems they will operate on, and detailing their interactions with each other and the system's components. 

• Defining the required and provided interfaces for each component. 

• Building diagrams of architectural elements and components, specifying the relationships both within these elements and with external components, including internal and third-party applications, libraries, and services. 

• Preparation of documentation: description of the functionality of the interfaces. The documentation should contain information about the data types used in functions or classes. In addition, you should describe which external interfaces the component needs for correct operation, i.e. which other modules or systems it uses. 

• Creating sequence diagrams that show how the architecture is used in practice. The diagrams show the order in which the functions or methods of the components are called to fulfil specific system scenarios. 

Reach Out

More of What We Do for Automotive Embedded Systems

• Software-Defined Vehicle: explore our services for the development of customised software-defined vehicle solutions. 

• IVI Hardware & Software: a case study on the development of a hardware & software platform for IVI systems commissioned by Alpine Electronics of America, Inc. 

• What's New in ASPICE 4.0: read our study on key updates and improvements to the ASPICE 4.0 standard.