Chips&Media, a multimedia IP specialist, has moved to target the automotive semiconductor market. Chips&Media said on Sept. 3 its next-generation multimedia IP, WAVE6331X FuSa, obtained ISO 26262 ASIL-B functional safety certification from global certification body DNV.

The company said the certification was the result of more than 2 years of research and development. It said the milestone will expand its business from consumer multimedia devices to automotive semiconductors, including advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and in-vehicle infotainment (IVI).

As vehicles evolve into autonomous driving platforms, functional safety is becoming more important for multimedia IP that processes camera video. WAVE6331X FuSa is designed to detect hardware faults or data corruption that can occur while driving and shift the system to a safe state within a defined fault response time. This can reduce the risk of autonomous driving system malfunctions caused by frozen video frames or data corruption.

Functional safety semiconductors may require additional safety mechanisms to meet international standards such as ASIL ratings, which can increase chip area and power consumption. Chips&Media said it applied safety functions within the IP to detect data errors and abnormal chip operation in real time, based on a low-power architecture. The company said this approach quickly detects system anomalies while minimizing chip area and power consumption.

Chips&Media said it expanded its ISO 26262-based functional safety development system beyond AVC and HEVC to the latest AV1 and VP9 codec IP, which is widely used in the automotive infotainment market. The company said the SEooC certification is expected to reduce the functional safety development burden for automotive SoC developers.

Typically, automotive semiconductor firms and tier-1 suppliers must spend months and significant costs validating all blocks inside an SoC for final certification by automakers. Chips&Media said it provides a certified SEooC package to support customers' integration, verification and evaluation processes.

Chips&Media said it plans to apply the same functional safety technology framework to AV2 and VVC, next-generation video compression standards, and pursue commercialization.

Kim Sang-hyun (김상현), CEO of Chips&Media, said, "Obtaining ISO 26262 ASIL-B certification proves that Chips&Media's functional safety design capabilities are at a world-class level, and is an important milestone in our leap from a multimedia IP specialist to a global automotive functional safety technology company." He said, "Chips&Media's multimedia IP is currently adopted by 3 of the top 5 global automotive semiconductor companies, and we expect that certified safety manuals and development guides will significantly reduce development risk and development time for global customers."