Rocksolid Core by Basemark combats automotive chip shortage

Automotive software enterprise Basemark announced a key capability of its Rocksolid Core software platform for software-defined vehicles. Applications authored with Rocksolid Core can run on multiple different underlying hardware, enabling automotive OEMs to hedge the risk of semiconductor availability during mass production.

The world is currently experiencing an unprecedented semiconductor shortage, 7.7 million units of auto industry production worldwide will be lost in 2021 alone, according to CNBC. Car manufacturers are dropping features like start/stop, wireless charging, heated seats, touchscreens, and satellite navigation systems.

Cars include more than 85 different processors and software modules from 50 different suppliers. Car manufacturers are looking to minimize complexity by reducing the number of processors.

Car applications are developed specifically to only run on a hardware platform. This is a risky strategy as it’s difficult to migrate the applications to different hardware should there be issues in the supply chain, or a desire to utilize more efficient newer chips.

Applications developed on Rocksolid Core by Basemark can be deployed to target hardware. This “code once, deploy to multiple platforms” approach makes it easier for OEMs to use alternative chips or use fewer chips overall by utilizing software to a greater extent across their entire portfolio of cars. Rocksolid Core architecture requires fewer processors compared to conventional models, resulting in savings in both electronics and software. With Rocksolid Core, ADAS functions, the digital instrument cluster, and heads-up display can be run with just one processor. 

“A large OEM can have a software team of several thousands of engineers developing car applications like ADAS functions, instrument cluster, heads up displays, and more. What’s crazy is that oftentimes these teams are using one chip-specific development tool and their code only runs on that chip. Now, what happens if there’s a chip supply shortage, or a new chip comes along two years into the development that’s twice the performance and half the price? The OEM can’t migrate all that developed code to the new chip and is therefore vulnerable to bring out non-competitive solutions to the market,” says Tero Sarkkinen, CEO and founder of Basemark.

“We’re developing a base software layer and hardware agnostic libraries that enable OEMs to develop code that runs well on many different processors. This layer doesn’t differentiate a car from another. It’s the actual car applications that do differentiate. No OEM should have to spend time on developing non-differentiating software. Rocksolid Core is designed to do that job while increasing road safety, automated and smart mobility, and improving sustainability by reducing transport emissions.”