Accelerating an Open Chiplet Ecosystem for Automotive with Foundation Chiplet System Architecture

By Suraj Gajendra, VP Product and Solutions, Automotive Line of Business

October 16, 2025

The automotive industry is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by the evolution of software-defined vehicles. As these cars become more AI-defined, the underlying automotive systems demand greater compute performance, energy efficiency, and design flexibility, all while balancing costs and accelerating time-to-market. 

Chiplets have emerged as one of the most promising solutions to these challenges. By breaking down traditionally monolithic systems-on-chip (SoCs) into smaller, modular components, chiplets enable OEMs and their partners to accelerate innovation, reuse IP, and scale designs across multiple vehicle platforms. 

But without common standards, the benefits of chiplets may never be fully realized. To enable their full potential for the automotive industry, the ecosystem needs to work together on frameworks that allow for true interoperability. 

Earlier this week, we took a major step forward in that approach by contributing a vendor-neutral version of the Arm Chiplet System Architecture (CSA), known as Foundation Chiplet System Architecture (FCSA), to the Open Compute Project (OCP) under their permissive open licensing policy. 

As an active contributor within OCP, Arm continues to help advance open standards that are reshaping the data center. While OCP is best known for its leadership in cloud and hyperscale infrastructure, its mission extends beyond those domains.  

As vehicles integrate advanced driver assistance, centralized domain controllers, and engaging in-cabin experiences, the underlying compute requires data center class performance. The same principles that are transforming data center design – collaboration, transparency, and shared innovation – are critical for addressing the growing complexity of automotive compute.  

With deep expertise in both markets, Arm is continuing this work through OCP to help bridge these ecosystems and bring open development practices to the automotive chiplet ecosystem, push for deeper industry collaboration, and accelerate the adoption of chiplets across the industry.  

Creating a common foundation 

FCSA is designed to provide the entire ecosystem with universal standards for chiplet integration. 

Critically, FCSA is ISA-neutral. Any company, regardless of their processor architecture, can adopt this specification, ensuring that chiplet ecosystems remain open, collaborative, and inclusive, unlocking new innovations at every layer of the automotive value chain. 

By advancing FCSA through OCP, Arm is extending the principles of open collaboration that have long fueled innovation in the data center into the automotive domain. Through this engagement, we are helping to establish the foundation for a robust and open chiplet market that supports OEMs, tier-1 suppliers, and semiconductor vendors alike. 

Building on a legacy of standards 

FCSA is the continuation of Arm’s commitment to enabling greater system interoperability through open standards.  

From AMBA, which has become the backbone of SoC design across markets, to SOAFEE, which is establishing open standards for cloud-native software-defined vehicle architectures, Arm has consistently delivered frameworks to align and unify complex ecosystems. 

FCSA will establish similar open principles for the next phase of automotive innovation – chiplet-based system design. 

In parallel, Arm CSA will continue to build on FCSA, ensuring full alignment with additional architecture-specific rules for implementations using Arm. 

The path ahead 

No single company alone can deliver all the technology needed to enable AI-defined vehicles. 

Collaboration and broad alignment are necessary to maximize the benefits of chiplets. That’s why Arm is working closely with partners, such as BMW Group, imec, and LG Electronics to advance FCSA and shape a standard that benefits the entire industry through reducing fragmentation, increasing reusability and making chiplets more accessible in automotive design. 

The introduction of FCSA is not the final destination, but an important step in a longer journey as the automotive industry continues to drive toward centralized compute and AI-defined functionality. 

We believe that an open chiplet standard is essential for delivering the safety, performance and scalability required for the next generation of vehicles, and with FCSA, we’re laying the foundation to achieve that vision.

Supporting quotes:

“Chiplets simplify the integration of new functions through their modularity—making it easier to keep pace with the rapid innovation cycles in automotive. Unlocking this potential, however, requires a shared industry effort. That’s why we consider Arm’s Foundation Chiplet System Architecture an important enabler: it contributes building an open interoperable chiplet ecosystem.” – Jörn Ole Godbersen, Director, Robert Bosch GmbH

“As the automotive industry transitions to chiplet technology to build cost-effective, state-of-the-art high-performance compute platforms, a major risk is the emergence of proprietary interface standards from individual chiplet vendors. This could undermine the core promise of chiplets — scalability, reusability, reduced cost, and faster time to market. At imec, through our Automotive Chiplet Program (ACP), we are committed to collaboration and strongly support initiatives like Arm’s launch of the FCSA, which aims to ensure chiplets can truly reach their full potential.” – Bart Plackle, VP of Automotive Technologies, imec

“Chiplet-based innovation marks a pivotal moment for the automotive semiconductor industry. At LG Electronics, we see this as a strategic opportunity to expand our SoC footprint. One of the biggest challenges in building an open chiplet ecosystem is achieving interoperability across multiple vendors. Arm’s Foundation Chiplet System Architecture (FCSA) directly addresses this need. With proven leadership in AMBA-based SoC design and successful deployment of CSA, Arm is well-positioned to drive industry-wide collaboration. We fully support this initiative and believe FCSA will accelerate the adoption of standardized chiplet architectures.” – Jeong Hyu Yang, VP, Director of SoC Fundamental Technology Lab, LG Electronics