Core Insights - The automotive industry is entering the "AI-defined car" era, which significantly increases the demand for computing power in vehicles [1][2] - Arm has launched the Arm Zena Compute Subsystem (CSS), a standardized and pre-integrated computing platform that can help automakers shorten development cycles by up to 12 months [1][8] - Over 10 global partners, including automakers and chip designers, are collaborating with Arm, with some having obtained technical authorization for Zena CSS [1][2] AI-Defined Cars - The current phase of AI model development is early, leading to a gradual accumulation of functionalities in automotive applications [2] - Features previously exclusive to high-end models, such as real-time driver monitoring and adaptive in-vehicle infotainment systems, are becoming standard in new models [2] - The complexity of automotive development is increasing, necessitating a modular, secure, and high-performance computing platform to meet evolving safety standards and reduce integration risks [2][4] Zena CSS Features - Zena CSS is built on the Armv9 architecture and includes 16 Cortex-A720AE cores, with scalability options allowing for configurations up to 32 cores [3][9] - Arm emphasizes the importance of software capabilities, ensuring that AI tools, workflows, and software libraries are in place to support the latest AI applications [3][4] - The Arm KleidiAI software library has been expanded to optimize the performance of large language models on Arm CPUs [3] Accelerating Time to Market - The speed of vehicle updates has increased compared to traditional fuel vehicles, making it crucial to accelerate the commercialization of new models [5][8] - Arm has introduced virtual prototyping technology to allow software developers to begin work on platforms as soon as Arm IP is released, effectively reducing development delays by two years [5][8] - Zena CSS integrates hardware and firmware components, which can reduce chip development cycles by up to 12 months and lower overall development costs by decreasing the number of engineering resources required by approximately 20% [8][9] Chiplet Architecture - The chiplet architecture is seen as a key direction for reducing costs and accelerating the update and launch of automotive chips [8][9] - Zena CSS supports chiplet architecture and provides necessary standard interfaces for customers and partners to design based on this architecture [9][12]