Infineon Develops Complete FlexRay Bus System for the Vehicle of the Future

Boeblingen and Munich, Germany – November 30, 2006 – At the the FlexRay® Product Day Conference in Boeblingen today, Infineon Technologies (FSE/NYSE: IFX), Europe's leading and world’s second largest semiconductor manufacturer for the automotive industry, announced it has started working on next generation FlexRay standard bus system for high-speed in-vehicle communications.  Supporting a data transfer rate of at least 10 Megabit per second (Mbps), the new FlexRay transceivers from Infineon are 10X faster than the current CAN (Control Area Network) standard used in today’s vehicles.  Combined with microcontrollers that are available today, Infineon will offer a complete bus system for communication between in-vehicle control units, sensors and actuators dedicated to automotive safety, such as breaking and steering systems, and powertrain applications.

 

The future FlexRay bus system of Infineon consists of a stand-alone FlexRay protocol controller that can be integrated with 16- and 32-bit microcontrollers for vehicle safety and engine control applications.  The stand-alone FlexRay protocol controller, which already is available, provides three interfaces: the serial and parallel interface as linkage to the SPI bus and parallel memory bus of current microcontrollers.  Furthermore, it offers the high-speed Micro Link Interface (MLI) to the the 32-bit TriCore microcontrollers of Infineon.  The bus system also includes a FlexRay transceiver, software and peripherals.  Infineon uses the FlexRay IP-based technology for this new transceiver developed by austriamicrosystems AG, an internationally leading developer and manufacturer of analog high-performance ICs.  Infineon joined the FlexRay Consortium over two years ago and has worked closely with the Consortium to develop innovative, fault-tolerant in-vehicle communications systems.

 

“The Infineon FlexRay bus system builds on our extraordinarily high product quality, extensive experience with time-triggered, highly reliable communications networks and bus protocols combined with excellent know-how in automotive power electronics and stand-alone or integrated communication interfaces,” said Georg Lipperer, Senior Director Marketing for Automotive Power in the Automotive, Industrial and Multimarket business unit at Infineon Technologies.  “In development, we work together very closely with vehicle manufacturers and their suppliers to offer standardized, complete chip solutions for the FlexRay bus system.”

 

According to recent market research, the company is currently the world's second largest supplier of CAN and LIN interfaces for automotive applications with a market share of 20 percent.  Infineon offers a wide range of products, including stand-alone transceivers and integrated system-basis chips with power electronics, such as the TLE7263E LIN and high-speed CAN Gateway chip, as well as embedded power components combining microcontrollers and power electronics as a system-in package.

 

Availability of Infineon's FlexRay transceiver

 

Infineon plans to deliver samples of the stand-alone FlexRay transceiver to key-account customers in the first quarter of 2008.  Samples of the Stand-Alone-FlexRay-Controller are available.  Volume production is scheduled to start in the third quarter 2007.

 

About FlexRay

 

As the world’s most important standardization initiative, FlexRay provides key technology for advanced high-speed communication systems in cars.  It offers a flexible, scalable and fault-tolerant deterministic solution with profound real-time performance for such safety-critical automotive applications as braking and steering systems. FlexRay has been designed as the standard for such innovative high-speed applications as X-by-wire and includes both hardware and software.

 

Further information

 

Further information on Infineon transceivers at:   www.infineon.com/transceiver

Further information on FlexRay at:   www.flexray.com  

Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions addressing three central challenges to modern society including energy efficiency, mobility and connectivity, and safety and security.  In fiscal year 2006 (ending September), the company achieved sales of Euro 4.1 billion with approximately 30,000 employees worldwide.  With a global presence, Infineon operates through its subsidiaries in the US from San Jose, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore, and in Japan from Tokyo.  Infineon is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX). Further information is available at www.infineon.com.