Advancements to 1394 Automotive Specifications Lead to Step Next in Securing AMI-C Endorsement; 1394 Trade Association and AMI-C to Test Automotive Grade Components

    SANTA CLARA, Calif.--June 8, 2001--Two significant advancements to the 1394 Automotive Specification Set have caught the attention of the Automotive Interface Collaboration (AMI-C), fueling the establishment of a joint working relationship.
    At a meeting held in early May at the AMI-C Central Facility in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, AMI-C Technical Team members learned that the 1394 Trade Association is ready to produce automotive grade components, such as fiber optic transceivers, silicon, cables and connectors, against the new 1394b network structure.
    "It appears that 1394 specifications have come a long way toward meeting automotive requirements for in-vehicle use," said Mike Noblett, Program Manager of AMI-C.
    The 1394 Trade Association and AMI-C are planning to develop a test environment to verify the automotive grade products this year, sometime during the fourth calendar quarter.
    Trade Association representatives said recent vehicle demonstrations have already been completed by Ford, Toyota and others that prove that the 1394b automotive network structure operates consistently and effectively for embedded and mobile 1394 devices.
    "We have made excellent progress on the specification, from the completion of the physical layer to the power management section," said Max Bassler, chairman of the 1394 Trade Association. "The Trade Association leadership believes that because the cost of 1394 silicon is moving down and because the 1394 standard is completely open, it is an excellent choice for in-vehicle multimedia applications."
    At the meeting, Trade Association representatives also reported that they are very close to getting their unshielded copper network to operate at 100 megabits in an automotive environment without susceptibility to EMI and EMC. Because the copper wire option is less expensive, Noblett said this feature would be very attractive to automakers.
    If interoperability and EMC concerns can be resolved, Noblett said the 1394 automotive specification should move toward AMI-C endorsement.
    "We look forward to continuing our formal liaison with AMI-C and expanding it by summer," said Bassler.
    According to the Trade Association, vehicle manufacturers who implement the 1394 Automotive specification, version 0.9, will benefit from using 1394b as a network backbone, which supplies high bandwidth for multiple multimedia applications.
    Over the past 15 months, the Trade Association's Automotive Work Group and Connector and Cable Work Group (CCWG) have created and revised the 1394 Automotive specification to include two physical layers -- plastic optical fiber for the backbone and a customer-convenience port for mobile consumer products, which consists of system topology, power management and necessary protocols.
    A significant number of 1394 protocols have been defined for use with the specification. The specification is strongly supported by the 1394TA membership, which is represented by world leaders in audio, video, computer and industrial products.

IEEE 1394 in Automotive

    The 1394 Trade Association created the Automotive Work Group in January 2000 together with the IDB Forum, an industry group of more than 88 members working to develop an open architecture for in-vehicle networking. Formation of Auto Work Group led to the creation of the IDB-1394 specification, which defines the automotive grade physical layers, including cables and connectors, power modes, and higher-layer protocols required so all 1394 devices can interoperate with embedded automotive IDB-1394 devices.
    The in-vehicle architecture is divided into an embedded network and a customer convenience port. The embedded network consists of the fiber optic physical network. Residing on the network are various auto components, such as DVD players, video displays, navigation systems, radio head units (telematic devices) and other multimedia applications. The network supports 1394 products running at 400 Mbits/second, even though speeds of 800 Megabit/second and higher supported under the 1394b non-automotive version. This definitely leaves room for future expansion.
    The customer convenience port includes an automotive grade bilingual 1394b physical layer and connector. The customer convenience port allows users to bring portable consumer electronics devices into their car or truck to access audio and video services over the IDB-1394 interface. The system topology consists of an embedded plastic optical fiber vehicle network, the embedded devices, one or more customer convenience port interfaces, and the ability to attach hot-pluggable portable devices.

About the Trade Association

    The 1394 Trade Association consists of more than 160 computer, consumer products, peripheral and software companies worldwide, dedicated to the advancement and proliferation of the IEEE 1394 standard. For more information please visit the Trade Association web site at www.1394ta.org or call the association offices at 1-408-748-9419.

    Note to Editors: FireWire is a trademark of Apple Computer i.LINK is a trademark of Sony Corp.