Automotive Applications Projected to Account for More Than 3% of Total DRAM Bit Consumption in 2024, Says TrendForce
Publish Date :2021/03/10
There are four major categories of automotive DRAM applications, including
infotainment, ADAS, telematics, and D-clusters (digital instrument clusters),
according to TrendForce’s latest investigations. Of the four categories,
infotainment applications require the highest DRAM content, although DRAM
consumption per vehicle across all four categories remains relatively low at the
moment. In contrast to ADAS, infotainment applications present a lower barrier
to entry for companies, since current legislations and automotive safety
standards governing infotainment are not as stringent, making infotainment a
highly attractive market for various semiconductor companies and memory
suppliers. TrendForce expects infotainment to remain the primary driver of
automotive DRAM consumption through 2024, while all four automotive DRAM
applications will together likely comprise more than 3% of total DRAM
consumption as autonomous driving technology progresses toward higher levels. As
such, automotive DRAM applications represents an emerging sector whose potential
for growth should not be underestimated.
TrendForce further indicates that the safety requirements of automotive parts
are far higher than those of consumer electronics in terms of both quality and
durability. As a result, the release of new vehicle models may take up to 3-5
years from development and verification to release. Vehicles still under
development are therefore likely to greatly surpass existing models in terms of
both memory content and specifications.
Infotainment will comprise the majority of automotive DRAM consumption,
while total automotive DRAM consumption is still relatively low
Infotainment applications represent the highest bit consumption among the
major automotive DRAM applications, due to the computing demand of basic media
entertainment functionalities in vehicles now. However, most vehicles with these
functionalities require only about 1-2GB (gigabytes) of DRAM, which is the
current mainstream, since infotainment applications are still relatively basic.
As infotainment systems evolve towards higher image qualities and higher video
bitrates, solutions requiring 4GB in DRAM content are also under development,
with high-end systems transitioning to 8GB in DRAM content. On the other hand,
given the close viewing distance involved in automotive infotainment, video
bitrates must be sufficiently high to minimize lag. DRAM specifications for
infotainment applications are therefore gradually shifting from DDR3 2/4Gb
(gigabits) to LPDDR4 8Gb in order to satisfy the high data transfer speed and
bandwidth required to achieve a sufficiently high video bitrate and optimal
viewing experience.
With regards to ADAS, development is currently divided into two
architectures: centralized vs. decentralized (or distributed) systems.
Decentralized systems include such devices as reverse parking sensors, which
require about 2/4Gb of DRAM. Centralized systems, however, require 2/4GB of
DRAM, since data collected from various sensors located throughout the vehicle
are transferred to and computed in a central control unit in centralized ADAS.
Most vehicles with autonomous driving capabilities currently available on the
market are still equipped with ADAS levels 1-2 and therefore require relatively
low DRAM content. Going forward, as the development of autonomous driving
technologies moves to level 3 and beyond, along with the potential inclusion of
AI functionalities, vehicles will need to be able to integrate and process
enormous amounts of data collected from sensors in real-time, as well as perform
immediate decision-making with the collected data. Given the high bandwidth
required for such operations, there will be a corresponding increase in
automotive demand for higher-spec DRAM as well, and automotive DRAM for ADAS
applications is expected to transition from DDR3 to LPDDR4/4X and even LPDDR5 or
GDDR5/HBM later on, though this transition will require more time before it can
take place, due to existing regulations.
The mainstream memory products used for telematics, or automotive
communication systems, are MCP (Multi Chip Package) solutions. Due to the
frequency and compatibility requirements of baseband processors contained in
these systems, all telematics applications require the use of LPDRAM. As V2V and
V2X gradually become necessities in the auto industry, automakers will place a
high importance on memory bandwidth, meaning automotive DRAM for telematics will
gradually shift from mainstream LPDDR2 solutions to LPDDR4/LPDDR5. Even so, the
growth of telematics will depend on the pace of global 5G infrastructure
build-out, since telematics requires 5G networks for fast peer-to-peer
connections. As for D-clusters, DRAM bit consumption per vehicle for this
application category comes to either 2Gb or 4Gb, depending on the individual
vehicle’s degree of digitization for its instrumental panel. However, DRAM
consumption for D-clusters is not expected to undergo significant future
growths, and D-clusters may potentially be merged with infotainment into a
single centralized system going forward.
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