BRThe MIPI Alliance announced the release of MIPI A-PHY v2.0, the next version of the automotive high-speed asymmetric serializer-deserializer (SerDes) physical-layer interface.
Version 2.0 doubles the maximum available downlink data rate from 16 Gbps to 32 Gbps on a single channel, as well as adds an additional uplink gear with an eight-fold speed boost to support up to 1.6 Gbps. These enhancements are designed to support the higher bandwidth requirements for zonal and other emerging architectures in next-generation vehicles.
MIPI A-PHY was purpose-built to provide high-performance links between automotive image sensors and displays and their associated electronic control units (ECUs). It was developed to simplify the integration of greater numbers of onboard sensors and displays for applications such as advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), modern digital cockpits, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) and autonomous driving systems (ADS).
A-PHY offers a reach of up to 15 meters, unprecedented reliability with an ultra-low packet error rate of 10-19 over a vehicle’s lifetime, high noise immunity and ultra-low latency, along with very low bandwidth channel requirements. It also forms the foundation of MIPI’s Automotive SerDes Solutions (MASS), an end-to-end framework for connecting cameras, sensors and displays with built-in functional safety, security and data protection.
Key Features of A-PHY v2.0
MIPI A-PHY v2.0 features forward-looking enhancements in recognition of the increasing bandwidth and performance requirements needed for software-defined vehicles (SDVs), and zonal and other emerging vehicle architectures:
- PAM4 support now extends up to gear 5 (up to 16 Gbps).
- The addition of two new gears, G6 and G7, with PAM8 and PAM16 encoding, for speeds 24 and 32 Gbps, respectively.
- A faster 1.6 Gbps uplink gear, more than 8 times the data rate of the previous uplink gear, providing support for symmetrical 1 Gbps Ethernet channels over A-PHY links for command and control of automotive peripherals.
