Researchers from Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) have developed a high performance processor for autonomous vehicles called Aldebaran. Increased focus by the automotive and IT industries on enhancing autonomous vehicle technology has increased the market for dedicated core processors customized for autonomous vehicles. Aldebaran is a high performance processor designed using all-Korean technology for autonomous vehicles. It consists of four superscalar processors and an object recognition vision engine integrated to meet all functional safety requirements as specified by ISO 26262.

Electronics components are indispensable to new cars as they play vital roles in critical functions. The proliferation of electronic components integrated into cars have spotlighted reliability issues regarding electrical circuits, as malfunctions can directly affect the safety of passengers. Moreover, several factors natural to typical vehicle operating conditions – including temperature, radiation, etc – can potentially cause malfunction in electronic devices posing great risk.

Processor IC chips are central computing components that can collect information from peripheral input components (e.g. radar, lidar, ultrasound, etc.) and process the information to control the system. Needless to say, the processor is an integral component of the autonomous vehicle and its malfunction could result in catastrophic results to passengers.

ISO26262 is an international standard concerning the functional safety of electrical/electronic systems in production automobiles that was developed by the International Organization of Standardization (ISO). ISO26262 defines functional safety for electronic parts including electronic system hardware, software and production. Furthermore, the second edition of the standard includes material regarding the development and production phase of semi-conductor devices.