Infineon Unveils RISC-V-Based Automotive Semiconductors, Accelerating SDV Era Strategy

Industry's First RISC-V-Based Automotive MCU Unveiled
Development Time Reduced Through Use of Virtual Prototypes

Infineon Technologies has announced plans to launch a lineup of vehicle microcontrollers (MCUs) based on RISC-V, a next-generation semiconductor design asset, signaling its intent to secure technological leadership in the automotive semiconductor market.

Thomas Boehm, Senior Vice President of the Infineon Automotive Microcontroller Division, is speaking at a press conference held on the 20th in Songpa-gu, Seoul. Infineon Technologies

On April 20 in Songpa-gu, Seoul, Infineon held a press conference and stated that it will introduce RISC-V-based automotive MCU products within the next few years. This announcement marks the industry's first public disclosure of an automotive RISC-V MCU lineup.

Thomas Boehm, Senior Vice President of Infineon's Automotive Microcontroller Division, said, "Infineon is committed to establishing RISC-V as an open standard for the automotive industry. In the era of software-defined vehicles (SDVs), real-time performance, enhanced safety and security in computing, flexibility, scalability, and software portability are more important than ever."

Boehm further emphasized, "RISC-V has already become a reality, and there are customers developing products based on it. RISC-V-based MCUs will not only meet complex requirements but also reduce the complexity of vehicle design and shorten time-to-market."

Infineon currently holds a 36.0% share of the automotive semiconductor supplier market, securing the number one position in the automotive MCU sector. Boehm stated, "Infineon remains the global leader in both the automotive semiconductor and automotive MCU fields. Our MCUs are utilized in various high-performance computing and controller applications, laying the foundation for industry-wide transformation toward software-defined vehicles (SDVs)."

Choi Jaehong, Executive Vice President of Technology at Infineon Korea Automotive Division, is speaking at the Infineon press briefing held in Songpa-gu, Seoul on the 20th. Photo by Jang Bokyung

The newly announced products will be added to Infineon's automotive MCU portfolio, AURIX. Choi Jaehong, Executive Vice President of Technology at Infineon Korea Automotive Division, explained, "As the industry moves toward SDVs, automotive companies need innovation for new functionalities. If instruction sets are limited to specific vendors, it hinders scalability. To accelerate innovation, standardized hardware and languages that allow companies to define and design desired features themselves are essential."

To facilitate the seamless adoption of its next-generation product lineup, Infineon is working closely with software and tool partners to build a comprehensive ecosystem. In particular, partners can start developing software and tools using virtual prototypes even before the actual MCU hardware becomes available. These virtual prototypes are expected to evolve into digital twins for future MCU lineups, significantly reducing time-to-market.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.