Intel is taking a full-scale approach to the software-defined vehicle (SDV) era by unveiling new adaptive control solutions, next-generation discrete graphics, and AWS Virtual Design Environment (VDE) at CES 2025.

At CES 2025, Intel unveiled an expanded product portfolio and new partnerships to accelerate automakers’ transition to electric vehicles and software-defined vehicles (SDVs).

Intel offers a total vehicle platform including high-performance computing, discrete graphics, artificial intelligence (AI), power management and area controller solutions, and also introduced the Intel® Automotive Virtual Design Environment (Intel® VDE), co-developed with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

With this approach, Intel helps automakers address cost and performance scalability challenges and enable faster, more efficient, and more profitable SDV development and deployment.

Intel's holistic vehicle platform reduces inefficiencies that arise from traditional, disparate vehicle architecture approaches. By optimizing the vehicle's electrical/electronic architecture, Intel drives both cost savings and performance improvements. To support this platform, Intel announced the availability of an adaptive control unit (ACU) designed for electric vehicle (EV) powertrain and zone controller applications.

The ACU U1310 is a new class of processing units that integrates multiple real-time, safety-critical cybersecurity functions, applications, and domains (X-in-1s) into a single chip. Traditional time- and sequential-based micro and domain controllers have limited deterministic processing capabilities, which limits their ability to handle multiple workloads. In contrast, Intel’s new family of ACU devices integrates flexible logic domains that offload real-time control algorithms from the CPU cores, ensuring stable performance, freedom from interference (FFI), and deterministic data delivery even when consolidating multiple microcontroller workloads onto a single domain MCU. This dual-brain approach consolidates more workloads, reduces costs, and improves safety, cybersecurity, and performance.

The ACU U310 in electric vehicle powertrains reduces the energy demand from the battery through advanced algorithm solutions, automatically adjusting the high voltage and control frequency to individual driving styles and road conditions. The ACU can recover up to 40% of the energy loss in the powertrain system, reducing the cost per kilowatt and improving energy efficiency. This realizes an efficiency increase of 3% to 5% in the WLTP (Worldwide Light Vehicle Testing Procedure). This increases the vehicle’s range, reduces charging times, provides a more agile driving experience, and significantly reduces the bill of materials (BOM) per vehicle, electric motor size, and battery costs compared to conventional approaches.

Stellantis Motorsports has selected Intel as a key technology partner to enhance performance and efficiency in competitive racing, and is introducing adaptive control technology into its next-generation inverter control. Intel technology controls electric motors and recovers energy during braking. Inverters in particular play a key role in Formula E racing, and increased efficiency directly translates into a competitive advantage.

Karma Automotive announced support for Intel’s ACU, featuring an Intel co-branded inverter that improves efficiency through the Optimal Pulse Pattern control algorithm and supports four unique driving profiles, including innovative features such as Torque Ripple Reduction and Range Boost.

The programmability of the ACU makes it the first software-defined domain controller that can be tailored to a variety of vehicle topologies and applications. This flexibility simplifies the transition to SDV, streamlines the supply chain, and reduces the complexity of the vehicle BOM.

Intel today announced its second-generation Intel® Arc™ B-series Graphics for Automotive, based on Intel’s first-generation AI-enhanced SDV system-on-chip (SoC) and expected to be in production by late 2025. The solution will deliver the high-performance compute required for advanced in-vehicle AI workloads, next-generation human-machine interface (HMI) engines, immersive in-vehicle experiences, and AAA PC gaming. Combined with Intel AI-enhanced SDV SoCs, it delivers scalable performance for complex AI workloads with support from the vast Intel AI ecosystem.

Intel and AWS have unveiled the Intel® Automotive Virtual Development Environment (Intel VDE) on AWS, a groundbreaking solution that ensures true hardware and software alignment from the cloud to the vehicle. This new solution addresses challenges across the vehicle development lifecycle, enabling engineers to seamlessly transition between virtual and physical hardware environments. It integrates Intel® Xeon® processor-based Amazon EC2 instances and, for the first time, integrates Intel’s automotive SDV SoC into the AWS environment, eliminating the need for expensive electronic control unit (ECU) simulators or developer boards. This collaboration delivers an integrated solution that accelerates innovation, reduces R&D costs, and accelerates time to market.

Intel’s holistic vehicle approach offers automakers a range of benefits, including lower costs, improved vehicle performance, simpler development, improved energy efficiency, seamless AI integration, and faster time to market. These benefits are supported by Intel’s globally balanced supply chain.