ECARX’s Computing Platforms Ready for SDV Era

ECARX showed off its Antora 1000 Pro, Skyland and Makalu computing platforms designed for software-defined vehicles.

April 2, 2024

John Kendall

One did not have to attend too many press conferences at CES this year to understand that the Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV) would be the big story for many automotive exhibitors.Global automotive technology provider ECARX has a particular interest in developing SDVs and has bases in China, the U.S., the UK, Germany and Sweden.

The Antora 1000 Pro digital cockpit computing platform at the ECARX booth at CES 2024. (John Kendall)

“We can make the hardware structure much simpler and really achieve the software-defined vehicle that can do things like you do on your cell phone or your consumer device,” ECARX chief operating officer Peter Cirino told SAE Media, “Whether that's bringing more voice technology into the vehicle or making it an easier environment, starting with an ADAS system at one level and then continuing over the life of the vehicle, enhancing that and bringing more feature sets to the user, it allows the whole vehicle environment to be a product that evolves over time. [It’s not a car] that you go to the dealer and buy, and the car is the car for the next seven years of ownership. Now, it can be something that changes and evolves and can be enhanced.”

One of the company’s latest developments is the Antora 1000 Pro digital cockpit computing platform, which was developed from the company’s SE 1000 SoC, designed in collaboration with SiEngine.

“[Antora 1000 Pro] is a set which is already in a number of vehicles, a solution with a single chip that could drive three or four displays, maximum, and the solution which includes two Systems-on-Chips (SOCs),” Valentin Anisimov, director of engineering for ECARX, told SAE Media.“ The main case for this solution is that it can handle up to seven displays, or it could be the combination of the number of the displays which you need for infotainment and ADAS features which you would like to integrate.”

ECARX held demonstrations of its Antora 1000 Pro digital cockpit computing platform at CES 2024. (John Kendall)

The company’s current flagship product is its Makalu computing platform, the first from ECARX to use AMD Ryzen V2000 processors. “This has double the amount of computing power of two SoCs combined,” Anisimov said, and it includes safety features. “Everything related to the vehicle and what is required for homologation and type approval, so it is fully supported.”

ECARX expects to start production of the Makalu in the middle of this year.

The company’s Skyland solution is a dedicated ADAS control unit. “This is still an eyes-on, hands-on scenario, but with the L2+ capabilities,” Anisimov said.“ Imagine blind spot detection, or automatic emergency braking, or collision warnings, all those can be done with this, and we are already in production with this one.

“For features like eyes-off, hands-off scenarios – the L3 scenarios – we are collaborating with Mobileye, and we are the first to mass produce this system as well. We are bringing it into Polestar sometime at the end of this year, and ECARX is actually the Tier One for this system.”