Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation (“Toshiba”) has added “TC9563XBG” to its line-up of Ethernet bridge ICs, to provide support for 10Gbps communications in automotive information communications systems and industrial equipment. Sample shipments have started and volume production will start in August 2022.
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Automotive networks are evolving toward zone architecture[1], where communications between zones use real-time, multi-gig[2] transmission via Ethernet at a rate of 1Gbps or higher. The new bridge IC has Toshiba’s first 2-port 10Gbps Ethernet, and the interface can be selected from USXGMII, XFI, SGMII, and RGMII[3]. The two ports support Ethernet AVB[4] and TSN[5], which facilitate real-time processing and synchronous processing, respectively. They also support “simplified” SR-IOV (virtual functions)[6]. The combination of these features in the new product delivers solutions suited to next-generation automotive networks.
As the speeds of communications devices continue to increase, the new IC can be used not only for zone architecture but also for various automotive applications such as IVI and telematics, and also in industrial equipment. It is also postioned to be a successor to current TC9560 and TC9562 series products supporting 1Gbps Ethernet.
In recent years, more and more devices have been equipped with PCIe interfaces for device-to-device communications, such as Wi-Fi®, and the host SoC tends to run short of PCIe interfaces. TC9563XBG has three PCIe Gen 3 switch ports for communications with the host SoC and connection to devices equipped with PCIe interfaces. The PCIe switch part is configured with one 4-lane upstream port for connection with the host SoC and two 1-lane downstream ports for connection to devices with a PCIe interface. Using the 3-port PCIe switch function for connections to such devices can help mitigate PCIe interface shortages.
TC9563XBG will be AEC-Q100 Grade 3[7] qualified.
Notes:
[1] Zone architecture: A network configuration expected to be used for next generation automotive networks, in which a vehicle is divided into multiple zones that communicate with each other at high speeds for collaborative operation.
[2] Multi-gig: Multi-Gigabit Ethernet (2.5Gbps to 10Gbps). Recent automotive networks require a bandwidth larger than 1Gbps.
[3] USXGMII, XFI, SGMII, RGMII: Standards for Ethernet interfaces. USXGMII = Universal Serial 10 Gigabit Media Independent Interface; XFI = 10 Gigabit serial Interface; SGMII = Serial Gigabit Media Independent Interface; RGMII = Reduced Gigabit Media Independent Interface.
[4] Ethernet AVB: IEEE802.1 Audio/Video Bridging. A standard for handling audio and video data using Ethernet standard technology.
[5] Ethernet TSN: IEEE802.1 Time-Sensitive Networking. A standard for data transmission with lower latency than AVB.
[6] SR-IOV: Single Root I/O Virtualization. A standard that supports virtualization on PCI devices.
[7] AEC-Q100 Grade 3: Test standards formulated by the automotive industry for certifying reliability of ICs.