MIPI Alliance targets Indian auto industry for interface specs to enhance connectivity

MIPI Alliance, an international organisation that develops specifications for mobile and mobile-influenced industries, recently held MIPI Devcon 2017 for the first time in India at Bangalore. The event provided an education, technical training and a networking forum for implementers of MIPI specifications. The event, which was attended by system architects, engineers and engineering managers, witnessed the participation of over 200 companies.

Speaking at the inauguration, Peter Lefkin, managing director, MIPI Alliance, said, "MIPI has been in existence for 13 years now and has evolved with the mobile industry and beyond. MIPI specifications are being extended to the automotive industry as well.”

Addressing a specific session on the automotive sector, Matthew Ronning, chair, MIPI Alliance’s Automotive sub-Group, said, “Manufacturers are already using MIPI Alliance specifications as they develop and implement applications for passive and active safety, infotainment and advanced driverless systems. MIPI interfaces such as Camera Serial Interface and Display Serial Interface are ideal for a variety of low- and high-bandwidth applications that integrate components such as cameras, displays, biometric readers, microphones and accelerometers. MIPI specifications help automotive systems designers minimise the complexity, cost and development time for products that use multiple sensors in a space-constrained form factor. MIPI specifications for the automotive industry are gaining popularity as they provide High Bandwidth, allow 4x 1080p cameras on a single processor, a multi-camera/multi-modal architecture, allow efficient use of virtual channel and data types and cater to high levels of quality and safety. This trend is expected to continue and gain momentum in the years to come.”

He elaborated that with the modernisation and electrification of vehicles, electronics as a percentage of the BOM (bill of materials) of the car has skyrocketed. This will only become a higher percentage as piloted and self-driving vehicles start to become more commonplace. The complexity of automobiles and specifically car electronics will increase the demand for sophisticated data solutions to manage bill of materials (BOM) and related product data.

Touching upon MIPI’s extended support to the automotive industry, Ronning said, “Telematics and in-vehicle infotainment, advanced driver assist systems, intelligent transportation systems and autonomous driving systems among others are some of the MIPI applicable sub-systems that we are actively working on today. “

Other speakers highlighted how developers can apply MIPI specifications to achieve significant performance and integration advantages while shortening time to market and lowering component costs.