OpenSynergy has announced the introduction of its new automotive reference platform for virtual Android 11 based on Trout. With technology from Google and Qualcomm Technologies, the reference platform features the integration of the Virtual I/O (VIRTIO) framework into Android Automotive OS, which allows Android to run on any hypervisor supporting the upcoming VIRTIO devices and any system on chip (SoC).
According to the company, the reference platform contains Android 11, a board support package (BSP) from Qualcomm Technologies, and the VIRTIO-based COQOS Hypervisor SDK - running on a Snapdragon Automotive Development Platform (ADP).
The reference platform showcases an Android Automotive OS-based Cockpit Domain Controller (CDC) architecture. Similar to other CDCs, the underlying hypervisor guarantees the secure coexistence of Android (typically a QM system) with systems of higher criticality, such as the real-time OS displaying the telltales on an Instrument Cluster (typically ASIL B).
The novelty lies in deploying a fully virtualised Android Automotive OS (Trout), an Android version with no hardware dependency. Instead of directly accessing the hardware devices, Android accesses these devices using the standardised VIRTIO framework provided by the underlying virtual platform, the company stated.
Jonathan Siegel, Portfolio Manager, OpenSynergy, said, 'After intense years of development, the day has come in which we at OpenSynergy are finally releasing the virtual Android Automotive OS reference platform to the community. We are confident that this will ignite a new dynamic features we did not think of will be developed; easier deployment processes will be implemented. And we look forward to what comes next for VIRTIO-based Android.'
NB: Photo is representational.