Robert Hoof

Undoubtedly one of the largest automotive manufacturers, Volkswagen has faced unique challenges when designing infotainment systems. With brands ranging from low-cost Seat and to premium-class cars such as Bugatti and Lamborghini, there is no single system that fits all. Or is there?

TI collaborated with Volkswagen and their suppliers, Delphi and TechniSat, on the MIB II infotainment platform, to help VW increase the breadth of scale of infotainment features to a broader span of vehicles with TI’s “Jacinto” processors, power management, and FPD-Link III serializers and deserializers.

So together we struck out to create a platform that enables systems that span from entry (compact Škoda Fabia) to mid-range (VW Golf or VW Jetta), and to the premium (compact Audi A3).

Would you aim for the high end? Carry the extra cost for a premium platform down to the budget variants?

Or would you rather aim for the low end, struggling with the performance and bandwidth required for high end applications in premium cars?

Certainly you would not do either. So the optimum is a mid-range base, right? Sitting right in the middle, balanced like a seesaw. Doesn’t sound stable? Carrying some price premium and still not being able to bring the full performance probably is not the best idea, either.

An ideal solution allows for minimum hardware/software discontinuity in a platform to able to balance and leverage investments across a broader range of performance and price points. In the MIB II infotainment system, TI’s “Jacinto” family is well-suited to exactly this type of flexbility. For example, the 3-D graphics performance increases from the lowest to the highest variant by over 600%.

This is a solid base to build a broad platform on.