Marelli and Infineon Collaborate to Showcase Marelli’s Zone Control Unit at the 2024 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition

Marelli, a leading mobility technology supplier to the automotive sector, will showcase its latest zone control unit (Zone), built in collaboration with Infineon, at the upcoming Auto China show in Beijing.

Marelli Zone Control Units (Zones) are advanced electronic control units, that are placed in specific zones of the vehicle and manage various functions, consolidating electronic control units (ECUs) from multiple domains – including lighting, body, audio, power distribution, propulsion, thermal management, chassis control, and vehicle diagnostics – leveraging Marelli’s industry-leading cross-domain expertise. They form an integral part of the company’s scalable hardware solutions, which revolutionize the concept of software-defined vehicles. These solutions, combined with service-oriented software and cloud virtualization, enable a new era of vehicle customization and personalization.  By decoupling hardware and software, Marelli Zones offer unmatched flexibility, scalability, and compatibility with any original equipment manufacturer’s architecture, while also enabling a reduction in hardware complexity and cost.

The adoption of Infineon’s AURIX™ TC4x microcontrollers in the Zones brings significant benefits to OEMs. The special data routing engine (DRE) within Infineon AURIX™ microcontrollers ensures extremely low latency levels when connecting CAN and Ethernet, enabling the Zones to consolidate numerous electronic computing units into a single piece of hardware. This consolidation doesn’t compromise performance, providing a robust foundation for centralized architecture. Additionally, Infineon’s microcontrollers support hardware virtualization, another key element of next-generation zonal architecture, enabling parallel execution of multiple virtual machines and therefore disparate domain and safety applications within the same Zone.

“Marelli and Infineon have a longstanding collaboration, and the joint development of our Zones is yet another significant step forward,” said Nate Sladek, Vice President of Strategy and Product Management within the Electronic Systems division at Marelli. “Thanks to Infineon’s key contribution, Marelli is well-positioned to strengthen its primary role as a partner to OEMs venturing into zonal architectures. This collaboration allows us to offer cutting-edge solutions that enhance the driving experience and build upon our industry-leading position in zonal architectures.”

“Together with innovation drivers like Marelli, we are shaping the mobility of tomorrow. Zone controllers will play a significant role in enabling ECU consolidation, E/E architectures and the software defined vehicle.” said Lars Wemme, Vice President Product Line ADAS, Chassis, E/E architecture at Infineon. “By leveraging the benefits of Infineon’s AURIX™ TC4x microcontrollers, OEMs can achieve greater efficiency in system design, implementation, and operation.”

Visitors to Marelli’s booth at Beijing International Automotive Exhibition, located at W1-W01 in the Temporary Hall, can see the company’s Zone demo and other innovations that support the transition to software-defined vehicles. With a commitment to innovation and engineering excellence, Marelli continues to push boundaries in the mobility technology sector.