CSR adds Wi-Fi to its automotive-grade family of offerings to drive connected car platforms

Pre-integrated and validated on CSR’s automotive grade SiRFprima reference platform, CSR6000 is also designed for easy integration into our customers’ preferred host application processor platforms. Truly designed just for this market, CSR6000 offers high RF performance across the automotive temperature range and a QFN package facilitating chip on board designs. In addition, CSR offers a Wi-Fi software suite supporting all of the major automotive operating systems.



The increasing adoption of Wi-Fi in smartphones and other consumer devices has led to a growing demand for automotive OEMs to support and interact with these devices inside vehicles. The CSR6000 offers automotive customers the easiest route to adding Wi-Fi into their existing designs. Customers can take their designs based on CSR’s market leading BlueCore automotive grade chipsets and CSR Synergy software and complement this already-validated, compatibility-tested solution with Wi-Fi. The CSR Synergy software suite includes the widely used Bluetooth stack alongside the host Wi-Fi software for the CSR6000 chipset family. This provides a simple, single software component to customers, with support for both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, allowing for easier integration, co-operation and coexistence of these technologies.



CSR6000 host software for Wi-Fi will support a number of operating system automotive and PND platforms: Linux, Genivi Linux, QNX, Windows Automotive as well as Android.



CSR has already engaged many of our leading automotive tier one and tier two customers in CSR6000-based programmes planned for production launch in 2012. These programmes cover a number of application use cases, which are discussed in the Notes for Editors below.



CSR’s complete automotive platform:



“With Bluetooth attach rates exceeding 40% and Wi-Fi attach rates expected to reach 14% by 2012 according to iSuppli, CSR is well positioned to service the market need for seamless connectivity between the next generation infotainment systems and the Wi-Fi-enabled consumer devices being brought into the vehicle,” commented Thomas Carmody, Head of Connectivity Marketing in CSR’s Automotive and PND Business Unit.



“As part of our automotive platform strategy, CSR is now able to combine the AEC-Q100 qualified SiRFprimaAutoTM System on Chip (SoC), CSR’s automotive-grade Bluetooth solutions, the automotive-grade CSR6000 Wi-Fi family of devices and associated CSR Synergy connectivity host software, overcoming a major challenge faced by systems integrators in terms of both the time required for connectivity integration and the associated cost of software design, debugging and testing,” added Carmody.



To further the goal of supporting rapid adoption and deployment of the infotainment systems using our products, CSR has recently joined the Genivi Alliance, a non-profit automotive industry alliance driving the broad adoption of in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) reference platforms. CSR recognises the emerging trend in automotive infotainment to reuse software where possible thereby reducing development costs, speed time to market and increase the pace of innovation in automotive electronics. We expect to actively contribute to the Genivi efforts in future, ensuring our connectivity (including CSR6000 chipset family), location and SoC technologies make the best use of the Genivi IVI reference solution.