TINA - TTP Bus Controller for Safety-Critical Automotive Applications Now Available

Düsseldorf, 16 December 2002 - The new bus controller TINA from NEC Electronics (Europe) supports ideally the development of TTP systems (Time-Triggered Protocol). This standard protocol is suited especially for safety-critical automotive applications (like lane change assistant, automatic emergency brake, traffic signs recognition, autonomous tracking) and future x-by-wire applications like steer-by-wire and brake-by-wire. With TINA, NEC developed a bus controller based on TTTech's TTP-IP "C2S" which fulfils the high demands of developers on the controlling of fault-tolerant electronic systems in vehicles.

TINA is yet the first TTP controller which totally undertakes the protocol functions via an integrated sequencer core and relieves thereby the host CPU. Data transmission to the host CPU is via a versatile bus interface (8-, 16- or 32-bit). TINA can thus be used with a wide range of microcontrollers - e.g. many of NEC's 32-bit V850 family.

With x-by-wire applications, the mechanical or hydraulic fallback system is dropped, which in previous steer and brake systems has simply been complemented by electronics. With that the security and reliability requirements on the electronic systems are extremely high. The electronic system must secure that the transmission of signals (e.g. steer and brake signals) occurs within a defined time slot. Therefore a fault-tolerant, deterministic bus system like TTP is required .

TINA is an ASIC controller which fulfils these requirements. The asynchronous data rate is up to 5 Mbits/s at 40 MHz. TINA is equipped with 2 channels, 4 Kbytes RAM for CNI (Communication Network Interface) for data storage and 8 Kbytes RAM for MEDL (Message Descriptor Language) for scheduling information. Single power supply is 3.3 Volt, inter-frame gap is <5 µs. TINA is suitable for operating temperatures from -40 to +85 degrees C and is supplied in a 100-pin QFP package. Samples are available.

NEC's TTP bus controller TINA facilitates a large development flexibility for the designers at car makers and system suppliers for entirely novel innovative system concepts for future vehicles. At present safety-critical applications and x-by-wire functions are being developed which are based on TINA. TTTech AG offers a complete development suite for the development of such TTP applications.

About NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH
NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH, headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany, is a leading developer, manufacturer and supplier of semiconductor products in Europe. NEC meets customers' cost, performance and time-to-market requirements by offering a wide range of standard products, system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions and customer-specified developments. Due to its local manufacturing in Europe and the global production of its parent company, NEC Electronics Corporation, NEC meets the increased customers' demand for large number of pieces.

The Automotive Business Unit bundles all of NEC Electronics' European automotive activities. Engineers with first-class silicon know-how who talk the customers' language provide highly-competent support for car makers and system suppliers. The product portfolio includes a broad range of automotive-specific microcontrollers, PowerMOSFETs and other components for applications such as body control, dashboard, gateway, airbag, car audio and infotainment systems. For more information on NEC's automotive semiconductors visit http://www.ee.nec.de/automotive.