Marvell has announced the world’s first automotive-grade system-on-chip (SoC) to integrate the latest Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) capabilities. The 88W8987xA is a highly sophisticated wireless combo chip that supports in-car Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5 and 802.11p.
Connected cars have an unprecedented need for reliable and high-performance wireless connectivity. In-vehicle infotainment (IVI), secure telematics, in-car wireless gateways, and enhanced safety capabilities are dramatically increasing costs and complexity across every automotive segment. Marvell’s 88W8987xA family of footprint-compatible solutions enables car manufacturers to simplify wireless enablement and quickly offer market-leading capabilities to their customers. Built on Marvell’s experience in delivering reliable, robust and secure automotive technology, the fourth generation of wireless combo solutions has been feature-optimized for the automotive market and meets the highest quality AEC-Q100 grade 2 standards.
The 88W8987xA family of wireless products complements their previously announced 88Q2112 automotive Ethernet physical layer (PHY) transceiver to provide a complete wired and wireless connectivity solution for the connected car. The 88Q2112 enables 1000BASE-T1 gigabit Ethernet over a single twisted pair copper cable, making it an ideal, lightweight solution for distributing HD video, audio and voice for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and IVI applications.
In addition to supporting the growing needs of IVI and emerging screen projection technologies, the 88W8987xA’s 802.11p features will enable a new era of safety and autonomous driving by supporting pending National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)/Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) and Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) requirements. The 88W8987xA is also the first wireless combo solution supporting Bluetooth 5 including Bluetooth Low Energy Angle of Arrival and Departure (AoA/AoD) and 802.11mc which will enable new and exciting use-models for automakers with wearables and phones to support new access, personalization and car location services.
The 88W8987xA provides flexibility for system design and is interoperable with a wide selection of host SoCs, hardware HSMs, WAVE (1609.x) stacks and operating systems. 88W8987xA drivers are readily available for the Android™ platform, Linux® and QNX®.
The 88W8987xA family of footprint-compatible wireless solutions include:
802.11ac + Qualified Bluetooth 5 Functionality (88W8987A)
802.11p + Qualified Bluetooth 5 Functionality (88W8987PA)
Switchable 802.11ac/802.11p + Qualified Bluetooth 5 Functionality (88W8987SA)
Benefits of the 88W8987xA family include:
Bluetooth 5.0 Support: Bluetooth® Low Energy Angle of Arrival and Departure (AoA/AoD) and 802.11mc for multi-modal enhanced intelligent distance and location detection for the automotive market
802.11p: WAVE (1609.x) stack independence
Wi-Fi
- 1x1 802.11ac Wave 2
- MU-MIMO
- Virtual dual-MAC
Multiple Coexistence Mechanisms ensure optimized performance in various applications
- Bluetooth 5 and WLAN Coexistence – Physically & Logically Optimized and Self-Managed
- WLAN and LTE/LTE-A Coexistence – Logically Optimized via Mobile Wireless Coexistence Interface
Integrated power amplifiers that operate at AEC-Q100 Grade 2 temperatures (-40°C to +105°C) degrees providing the highest levels of integration while still allowing for the use of external amplifiers for ultimate system flexibility in higher power systems.
The 88W8987xA family of wireless solutions is sampling today and will be in production in Q4’17. It was recently demonstrated at TU Automotive in Detroit and integrated with Commsignia’s ITS-OB3 platform showcasing a variety of use cases.
