An automotive gateway controller acts as a router between the different electrical and optical buses in a car. It supports various interfaces so that the system can communicate with the buses used by different manufacturers.Typically, the gateway controller integrates several multimedia interfaces, such as USB, FireWire, and media-oriented system transport (MOST) buses, and connects the controller area network (CAN) systems. The gateway controller can also interface with new or after-market automotive modules using computer-related interfaces such as Ethernet and Bluetooth. In some applications, a gateway controller is used to control media devices such as flash memory and CD-ROM drives. A small CPU is often necessary to control the routing function of the gateway.
Figure 1 shows a typical automotive gateway controller system. Designers use Altera's low-cost Cyclone® series FPGAs and SoC FPGAs for the next generation of embedded gateway controllers. Altera® FPGAs offer fully flexible, real SoC solutions with a number of configurable ports and types, along with hardware routing acceleration. Additionally, the Nios® II 32-bit RISC embedded processor architecture allows the easy integration of network service protocols.
All the interfaces shown in Figure 1 are available as intellectual property (IP) cores from Altera or Altera partners. Using Altera's Qsys system integration tool, you can implement a Nios II processor along with all types of IP on a flexible bus system within a few minutes.
Figure 1. Automotive Gateway Controller
