OpenSynergy, today announced its yearlong collaboration with Google and 
Qualcomm on a reference platform with a virtualized Android Automotive OS 
instance running on top of OpenSynergy's COQOS Hypervisor SDK and Qualcomm's 
Snapdragon SA8155 automotive System on Chip (SoC). 

Google has announced collaborations with several vehicle manufacturers to power 
in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems with Android Automotive OS, Google's 
open-source Android platform. 

The automotive sector is moving towards consolidating increasingly complex and 
heterogeneous hardware subsystems such as the Instrument Cluster, Infotainment, 
Head up display etc. onto a single System on Chip (SoC) with mixed-criticality 
(safety-critical and non-critical) requirements. This enables tighter software 
integration between the subsystems, and allows for cost and weight savings. 
Hence, Google is working on virtualization of Android Automotive OS by 
leveraging and extending VIRTIO, an established virtualization standard 
maintained by the OASIS consortium, which Google is a member of. Virtualization 
allows multiple operating systems ("guests") with mixed-criticality 
requirements to share the same hardware ("host") managed by host software 
("hypervisor"). Android Automotive OS will be supported as a guest virtual 
machine on automotive industry standard based hypervisors.

Last year Google, OpenSynergy and Qualcomm decided to collaborate on the 
implementation of this reference platform. Goal of this platform, which is 
planned to be released soon, is to show how Android Automotive OS can be safely 
and securely integrated on a powerful System on Chip (SoC) using open standards 
based virtual platform.

The VIRTIO standard

VIRTIO, a device-sharing standard popular in the cloud domain, provides the 
transport layer and device models for essential computing devices such as 
Block, Network, Console, GPU, Input, etc. The DMA-like nature of the devices 
allows high-performance implementations as an alternative to hardware assisted 
I/O virtualization models while still providing ease of implementation and 
safety. 

OpenSynergy joined the OASIS consortium in 2019 to pioneer the expansion of 
VIRTIO in the automotive domain. At the same time the company contributed with 
several VIRTIO devices to the Linux kernel. Thanks to the expertise gathered in 
the open source domain, OpenSynergy currently provides the most mature 
open-standard-driven virtual platform in the automotive industry.

Regis Adjamah, CEO of OpenSynergy: "Embracing VIRTIO was a major milestone for 
our automotive-grade COQOS Hypervisor SDK. It is good news for all our 
customers currently in the process of upgrading their IVI programs. We are 
complementing our lean, OS- agnostic, type 1 hypervisor with the open-standard 
device sharing technology VIRTIO. We aggressively pursue the adoption of open 
standards by investing in open source. We believe the time has come for the 
automotive industry to abandon proprietary solutions, to embrace open standards 
and compete on the quality of their implementation."

By showing how Android Automotive OS can be deployed and ported without further 
modification on different SoCs and different hypervisors, the reference 
platform will help VIRTIO to expand its scope to the automotive domain. VIRTIO 
provides maximum flexibility to OEMs and Tier 1 partners, enabling them to 
easily switch between SoCs, hypervisors and host/guest operating systems, to 
best match their needs. 

Google and Android are trademarks of Google LLC.

About OpenSynergy 

OpenSynergy provides embedded software products for the next generation of 
vehicles. Our hypervisor and communication products pave the way for an 
integrated driving experience. 

The virtualization platform COQOS Hypervisor SDK supports the convergence of 
software-based vehicle functions with different requirements on safety and 
security. It is designed for multi-display cockpit controllers, smart antennae 
or powerful domain controllers using a mix of AUTOSAR technology and open 
solutions, such as Linux and Android.

OpenSynergy is active member of several standardization bodies relevant in the 
Automotive industry, such as OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of 
Structured Information Standards), AUTOSAR, GENIVI Alliance and Linux 
Foundation (Automotive Grade Linux).

Our engineering services complement the products.

Read on www.opensynergy.com.

Contact: 
OpenSynergy GmbH 
Sabine Mutumba
Director of Marketing 
Rotherstr. 20 
D-10245 Berlin 
Tel.: +49 (0)30.60 98 540-41 
Email: marketing@opensynergy.com

Source: OpenSynergy GmbH