Keynote addresses: Can EDA solve the problems of electronics designs for the cars of the future?

Electronic systems in modern cars contribute with more than 80% to the innovation of the Automotive industry — probably being already the most complex systems in products of today. This complexity is not due to the sheer number of components in each device, but by the number of devices, and their heterogeneous nature combining analogue and digital circuits with sensors, actuators and software. In addition the very high demand on robustness and reliability to assure safety and availability at any time and everywhere under rough working conditions requires specific effort in the quality management of the electronics. While in the past a car was more or less a closed system today the use of any kind of multimedia, the communication with the internet and — increasingly — with all parts of the surrounding traffic has becoming a key asset of the development of modern cars. All these aspects have to be addressed by an EDA system which is essential for an electronics design in due time with respect to continuously shorter design cycles in parallel to larger product spectra and high pressure on the development costs due to the increasing competition on the world market. A further challenge for an EDA environment in the automotive design chain is the management of a large number of players with a different background over a broad spectrum of abstraction levels.