New Delhi, April 5, 2014: Freescale Semiconductor and Broadcom have joined to create  the industry's first  fully-integrated, packaged microcontroller (MCU) and physical layer transceiver (PHY) solution for use in 360 degree camera systems for cars.
Camera size is increasingly important to automotive OEMS, as manufacturers prefer peripheral cameras to be miniaturized and unobtrusive to maintain vehicle aesthetics. Smaller cameras can be more easily hidden within design features of the car, such as a front grill, bumper or wing mirror. Featuring a compact 8x8mm package, the Freescale  Qorivva MPC5606E device is designed to reduce the size of automotive camera modules by up to 50 percent, while helping speed time to market and reduce the overall bill-of-material. Fundamental to the size and performance advantages of the Qorivva MPC5606E is the incorporation of Broadcom’s BroadR-Reach automotive Ethernet PHY. The integrated Ethernet solution enables compact vision compression and rapid transmission of video data throughout the vehicle.
Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are quickly growing in popularity among consumers, driven in large part by a strong affinity for the functionality enabled by surround view cameras such as park assist and blind spot detection. According to ABI Research, Inc, the global ADAS market is forecast to reach US$261 billion by 2020, establishing ADAS as one of the fastest growing segments in the automotive sector.
Ethernet has emerged as a mainstream automotive network technology, allowing multiple in-vehicle systems to simultaneously access information over a single unshielded twisted pair cable at speeds of up to 100 Mbps. By eliminating cumbersome, shielded cabling, automotive manufacturers can reduce connectivity costs up to 80 percent and cabling weight up to 30 percent (source: Broadcom). These cost and weight reductions pave the way for the incorporation of surround view camera systems beyond the luxury class into higher volume, mid-range and economy vehicles.

Freescale and Broadcom are both founding members of the OPEN Alliance Automotive Special Interest Group (SIG) (One-Pair Ethernet). The OPEN SIG is a non-profit industry alliance of automotive and tech industry leaders dedicated to establishing Ethernet as the networking technology of choice in automotive infotainment and ADAS applications.