Infineon to work with Hyundai on Automotive

Hyundai Motor Company selected Infineon as a semiconductor partner for this long term strategic cooperation in order to develop automotive electronic system solutions for Hyundai and Kia vehicles. The cooperation includes the development of automotive electronics system architecture and related semiconductors, along with enhancements of Hyundai's current automotive electronic systems, based on the synergy of Hyundai's automotive electronics technology and Infineon's semiconductor know-how. Hyundai's responsibilities will include automotive electronic system architecture development, electronic system partitioning and electronic control units (ECU) design, and evaluation with innovative cost optimization, rigorous quality control and proper time-to-market. The two companies today also opened a joint innovation center. The Hyundai Infineon Innovation Center (HIIC) will work on the functional and cost optimization of car electronics systems, as well as develop automotive electronic system architecture, including the design of ECU and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) in powertrain, safety and body applications for Hyundai and Kia vehicles. The innovation center is located at the Yangjae-dong headquarters of the Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group in Seoul and will be co-managed by both companies. At the beginning, development activities will focus on automotive electronics system architecture and related automotive electronics products in body applications, such as light modules, HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning) and door modules. The companies expect the first jointly developed products to be used in Hyundai and Kia cars starting 2010. Based on semiconductor technology, the companies will cooperatively analyze existing Hyundai and Kia applications regarding cost optimization and system quality improvement by integration of functions and reduction of components using application specific standard products (ASSPs) or ASICs. Hyundai and Infineon agreed not to disclose financial details regarding their cooperation and joint innovation center.