Panasonic Automotive Systems Company of America, a Tier 1 automotive supplier, has announced that it has made Virtual SkipGen (vSkipGen) available on AWS Marketplace, to shift the automotive development lifecycle and allow engineers and developers to start earlier in the process without physical hardware.
As the latest part in Panasonic and Amazon’s ongoing collaboration to evolve the e-cockpit, vSkipGen is a virtual replica of the physical, third-generation digital cockpit solution, SkipGen, that will enable auto makers to decouple software development from the hardware development lifecycle to reduce time-to-market and help improve software quality.
According to Masashige Mizuyama, global CTO at Panasonic Automotive Systems, the vSkipGen leverages the industry-standard VirtIO-based device virtualization technology to offer several guest operating systems, including fully optimized support for Android Automotive for infotainment and Automotive Grade Linux for cluster vehicle domains.
It supports the automotive peripherals and sensor simulation needed for the development of modern cockpit systems. The virtual platform is truly cloud-native and utilizes the computing capability of the cloud servers to provide hardware acceleration for multimedia, graphic, audio and display rendering. This enables exceptional performance and helps deliver premium experiences.
“The vSkipGen on AWS has been designed for those looking to work with the most advanced software-defined vehicle features available today,” said Andrew Poliak, chief technology officer at Panasonic Automotive Systems Company of America. “Our partnership with AWS to run cockpit domains as virtual machines in the cloud is critical to ensure development teams can seamlessly work in parallel, enable third-party and app development, and conduct more predictive integration and testing earlier in the process.”
Panasonic has invested in advancing the software-defined vehicle to support market growth and work toward the company’s Green Impact mission. This automotive solution is the latest innovation to reflect the company’s environmental goals by eliminating the need for a development or prototype hardware platform, thus saving resources and components.
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