Smartphone chip giant enters the automotive industry for the first time with a full-chip platform called MediaTek Dimensity Auto.
After Qualcomm, which debuted in the automotive sector about twenty years ago, it is finally up to MediaTek to bring its platform for smart and connected cars to the market: MediaTek Dimensity Auto. It comprises several modules with different roles, which Qualcomm says will be able to integrate with the electronic systems of all major automakers.
MediaTek Dimension Auto: The Platform
The MediaTek Dimensity Auto platform consists of the Dimensity Auto Cockpit, Dimensity Auto Connect, Dimensity Auto Drive and Dimensity Auto Components modules, which automakers can use in packages or individually.
Dimension Auto Cockpit, as the name implies, deals with the car’s dial and the screens, which can resolve 8K. Dimension Connect, as the name still says, deals with connections: 5G, WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS.
Finally, Dimensity Auto Drive and Dimensity Auto Components are the components that manage the ADAS, i.e. the Advanced Driving Assistance System. In practice assisted driving, systems such as adaptive cruise control or the automatic lane-keeping system.
Top Technology For Connected Cars
MediaTek has stated that some of the components of the Dimensity Auto platform, in particular those of the Dimensity Cockpit, will be made with a 3-nanometer production process. That is an even more advanced process than the Apple M2 and A16 Bionic chips, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and the MediaTek Dimensity 9200.
Therefore, these chips will be produced by TSMC in Fab 18 in Taiwan, where the new 3 nm production line went into operation a few months ago. Therefore, MediaTek’s solution for smart and connected cars starts from excellent technical foundations and promises low consumption, great efficiency and very low heat generation.
All things that absolutely cannot be underestimated in the automotive world, where quality standards are very high and rigid: if a smartphone chip crashes while the user plays PUBG Mobile, no one dies. But if a car’s chip crashes when overtaking it on the freeway, the dead man may get away with it.
MediaTek is an electronics behemoth; it is the world’s largest maker of chips for smartphones and certainly has decades of experience behind it. But it is the latest arrival in the automotive sector, where trust between companies greatly counts. We will see, as early as next year, how many cars will be equipped with the MediaTek Dimensity Auto platform; there are no statements on the matter either from MediaTek or the car manufacturers.
Also Read: AMD Will Make A Smartphone Chip Alongside MediaTek