The solutions inside

Cypress Technology

Building one of the world’s most-technically advanced muscle cars is not a project for the faint of heart. The biggest obstacle, says El-Khoury, is “scope creep.” There are many great ideas of things to put into the car, but after the adrenaline settles, the production deadline keeps everyone honest, and the good ideas are put on hold until Phase Two. “I refer to this project as a platform on wheels,” said El-Khoury, “because once we have it, and it’s 3D printed, we can actually make an entire replica of the dashboard without the car, and continue adding more technology to it.”

Hassane’s Vision: A Transformative Driving Experience

All displays and controls will be touch-sensitive, powered by Cypress. There will be no mechanical buttons or switches. The car will be powered on by a Cypress fingerprint sensor, and unlocked with a cell phone app. The dashboard instrument cluster will feature 2D and 3D graphics powered by Cypress’ Traveo automotive MCU. And Cypress F-RAM memory will perform data logging.

“I wanted the look and feel of a modern car,” said Cypress’ CEO, Hassane El-Khoury. “When you get in, the whole center stack will be capacitive touch. Every button that was once mechanical will be touch controlled.” The switches will have the look and feel of a mechanical toggle switch, but instead of holding the knobs between two fingers to shift them up or down, you’ll be able to shift them with one.

The dashboard will have the look and feel of a traditional modern display, but with a lot more information, as it can easily be reconfigured from race mode, to traffic mode, to normal driving. The screen interfaces are all designed on computer using our PSoC Creator IDE, then ported to the displays.

All of the data needed to ensure the car is running at optimal performance will be saved in a Cypress F-RAM device. A Cypress RSDB Wi-Fi/Bluetooth combo chip will enable high-bandwidth connectivity, and a Cypress USB-C port is being added for device charging.

What's Inside

Check out the graphic below to see where Cypress technology is being used inside the vehicle.

CapSense®

Programmable microcontroller with on-board Wi-Fi

PSoC™ 6®

Programmable microcontroller with on-board Wi-Fi

Excelon™ F-RAM and Semper™ Flash -Memories

Used for fail-safe data storage and data logging

Traveo® MCUs

Powers the instrument clusters.

Automotive TrueTouch®

Enables touch-sensitive screen displays

RSDB™ Wi-Fi w/ Bluetooth

Enables simultaneous, high - bandwidth Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity

“The mix of classic and modern is what makes this car very special, and the technology allows us to stretch our imagination. This project has led to a lot of changes about how we document things and how we expose things to customers. If there’s something that isn’t clear the first time, we update it. This is certainly one of the most-complicated example projects we’ve built, but it’s also been a great training.”

- Hassane El-Khoury

Cypress’ Automotive Leadership

Cypress offers a broad automotive product portfolio that includes AEC-Q100 qualified microcontrollers, flash memories, PMICs, and Human Machine Interface devices. Cypress complements this portfolio with proven system software that has been deployed in production vehicles around the globe.

Instrument Cluster

The intersection of human vision and machine performance to create the driving experience

Learn more

Body & Comfort Electronics

The transformation from the mechanical car to the electronic world is almost complete

Learn more

Infotainment

Safe multitasking to ensure a destination is achieved with passengers entertained and informed

Learn more

ADAS/Safety

This inflection point in the long history of our driving culture will see a dramatic reduction in collisions

Learn more