RISC-V Becomes a Reality in Automotive: How Synopsys and Quintauris Accelerate the Path to Production

This blog was co-authored by Pedro Lopez, Market Strategy Officer, Quintauris, and Rich Collins, Sr. Director, Product Management, Synopsys.

The automotive industry is experiencing a major transformation. With the rise of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), electrification, and connected vehicle technologies, automotive system-on-chips (SoCs) are becoming increasingly complex. Functional safety, reliability, and increased performance are critical requirements, while development timelines continue to compress.

RISC-V, an open standard instruction set architecture (ISA), is rapidly emerging as a key enabler for next-generation automotive systems. Its flexibility allows OEMs and SoC developers to tailor processors to specific applications, optimize performance, and reduce costs. However, adopting RISC-V at scale in automotive environments brings unique challenges, especially when it comes to system and software ecosystem integration and reusability, and standards compliance.

Synopsys and Quintauris have partnered to address these challenges, combining industry-leading functional safety processor IP with a robust RISC-V reference platform. This blog explores the challenges facing automotive SoC developers and how the collaboration effectively accelerate development while ensuring compliance and safety.

Automotive SoC development is more complex than ever, with stringent requirements driven by safety standards like ISO 26262. Engineers face multiple challenges:

1. Time-to-Market Pressure: Consumers and OEMs demand rapid innovation, but development cycles are constrained by the complexity of modern SoCs. Delays in certification or debugging can significantly impact product launch timelines.
2. High Performance Demands: ADAS, infotainment, and electrification require high-performance processing while maintaining low power consumption. Balancing speed, efficiency, and safety is a delicate act.
3. Evolving Ecosystem and Skills Gap: RISC-V is gaining traction, but the ecosystem is still maturing. Automotive developers need comprehensive reference platforms, validated tools, and expertise to accelerate adoption without compromising safety.
4. Geopolitical implications: The current global geopolitical momentum demands OEMs to secure global suppliers in the potential event of limitations due to trade legislation. 

Addressing these challenges requires a solution that not only provides high-quality RISC-V cores but also integrates functional safety support, verification frameworks, and development of best practices.

RISC-V brings several advantages to automotive SoC development:

• Customizability and Flexibility: Unlike proprietary ISAs, RISC-V allows designers to add or remove instructions to optimize specific applications, reducing silicon area and improving performance.
• Open-Source Innovation: Being an open standard, RISC-V fosters a growing ecosystem of IP providers, tools, and reference designs, enabling collaboration across the industry.
• Global-Proofing: With modular and extensible platforms, RISC-V enables automotive developers to implement scalable designs for current and next-generation vehicle platforms avoiding lock-in.
• Enhanced Security: RISC-V’s open nature allows for tailored security features to protect sensitive data and ensure safe operation of critical vehicle functions.
• Cost Efficiency: Open standards reduce licensing fees and create competitive options for software and hardware, ultimately lowering the total cost of ownership for automotive SoCs.

Despite these advantages, deploying RISC-V for safety-critical automotive applications requires robust verification and functional safety IP, along with a reference platform that demonstrates real-world system integration.

Quintauris’ RT-Europa platform and its benchmarking solutions complement Synopsys’ ARC-V functional safety processor IP, creating a cohesive solution for automotive SoC developers. Together, they address the challenges outlined above in several key ways:

1. Streamlined Functional Safety Compliance: Synopsys’ processor IP simplifies ISO 26262 certification, while Quintauris’ reference platform provides validated system integration and test frameworks. Developers can reduce time and effort spent on verification while maintaining compliance.
2. Accelerated Development: Quintauris’ benchmarking tools allow engineers to evaluate performance across different configurations quickly. Coupled with Synopsys’ pre-validated ARC-V Processor IP, this approach significantly shortens the development cycle.
3. End-to-End Integration Support: The joint solution provides comprehensive guidance for system integration, including hardware-software co-design, simulation, and testing, ensuring that SoCs perform reliably in complex automotive systems.
4. Risk Mitigation: By leveraging a validated reference platform and proven IP, developers reduce technical risks, avoid costly design errors, and gain confidence in their RISC-V-based designs.
5. Ecosystem Enablement: Together, Synopsys and Quintauris contribute to the growth of the RISC-V ecosystem by offering tools, platforms, and expertise that accelerate adoption for automotive SoCs.

This combined approach demonstrates how open-standard RISC-V technology can meet the rigorous demands of modern automotive applications without compromising performance or safety.

The automotive industry is at a pivotal moment, with increasing demands for high-performance, safe, and reliable SoCs. RISC-V's open nature fosters innovation but deploying in real-world safety-critical environments requires a shared foundation for SoC design, system performance and ecosystem integration.

The collaboration between Synopsys and Quintauris addresses these challenges head-on, combining functional safety processor IP with a validated RISC-V reference platform. By doing so, they enable automotive developers to accelerate development, streamline ISO 26262 certification, and bring next-generation RISC-V-based SoCs to market with confidence.

For automotive OEMs, Tier-1s, and SoC developers, this collaboration represents a significant step toward faster, safer, and more efficient adoption of RISC-V technology, unlocking the full potential of open-standard processors in vehicles of the future.