Denso and BlackBerry develop world’s first integrated HMI Platform

Denso Corporation and BlackBerry have teamed up to develop what they claim is the first integrated HMI (Human Machine Interface) platform in the world. Intel Corp also played a role in this major achievement.

The integrated HMI platform will power a system which has the capability to coordinate various HMI components like display and sound inside the vehicle cabin in an optimal manner. The new integrated HMI platform will be seen in models that will make their debut after 2019.

Automobile safety and convenience has advanced by leaps and bounds in recent years and the driver now gets access to a large amount of data from the vehicle. Most vehicles today have multiple HMI systems, each of which require several device-specific operating systems (OSes) to work together. With each OS being independently controlled by multiple microcontrollers, so far it had not been possible to cooperate and coordinate them such that they display content and sound uniformly.

The integrated automotive HMI platform that has now been developed is the first of its kind and was developed by Denso and BlackBerry using BlackBerry’s QNX Hypervisor for virtualization and the Intel Atom processor A3900 series. It comes with hypervisor technology that facilitates the independence of several OSes with different characteristics and controls the integration with one microcomputer.

The design of the system is such that various HMI products can cooperate and allow necessary information to be displayed to the appropriate devices with appropriate timing. For example, information obtained through the heads-up display can be conveyed through easy-to-understand expressions on the display with the appropriate timing. It would also be possible to update the performance of one microcomputer such that the processing performance for screens of both the navigation system and the instrument cluster devices is updated. This enhances R&D productivity and helps reduce cost.

Commenting on the collaboration, Yukihiro Kato, senior executive director, Information & Safety Systems Business Group of Denso said that Denso has developed several HMI products, like instrument clusters, car navigation systems and head-up displays which advance the safety and the convenience of automobiles.

He added, “Leveraging the technology and know-how acquired through the development of these products, we have developed an information management HMI technology that will support the evolution of automobiles in collaboration with BlackBerry QNX and Intel.”

John Wall, SVP and GM of BlackBerry QNX said that while cluster, head unit, infotainment, and entertainment screens are all components of a new digital user experience in a vehicle, they all need to work in tandem and not in isolation. He said that with input from Denso and Intel, BlackBerry QNX will be able to provide a highly functional, virtual cockpit including a safety-certified digital instrument cluster that is likely to emerge as new gold standard in the automotive industry.

Intel’s contribution to the integrated HMI is a pathbreaking graphics sharing technology, which it optimized for the Intel Atom processor A3900 series. The technology is used to prioritize and operate 3D workloads which are important for safety and 3D workloads of less importance on the same processor.

The new integrated HMI platform will be displayed at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) which is scheduled to be held in Las Vegas from January 9-12, 2018.