Infotainmentlink
Last updated: September 18, 2024
Overviewlink
Infotainment is a general term used to describe how a customer accesses vehicle settings, information, entertainment, climate controls, and audio. It has since grown to encompass navigation, connectivity, voice recognition, and (to a point) mobile app and mobile controls.
Infotainment Evolutionlink
2021+ Model S/X continue the evolution of the Tesla Infotainment system with the introduction of the AMD Ryzen system on chip and the carry-over of the gen3 Gateway. Before we delve into the operation of this new generation of Infotainment let's take a moment to review the nomenclature surrounding evolution of infotainment up to this point.
| Customer Facing / Central Processing Unit (CPU) | Model S/X NVIDIA Tegra | Model S/X Intel Atom | Model 3/Y Intel Atom | Model S/X/3/Y AMD Ryzen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Configuration Nomenclature | mcu | mcu_transition | ice | infoz |
| Toolbox Article Tag | [Info-Tegra] | [Info-Atom] | [Info-Atom] | [Info-Ryzen] |
Note
Toolbox article tags may further specify model ([Model S/X] or [Model 3/Y]) if the issue described is specific to CPU and Model.
Car Computerlink
2021+ Model X introduces Model S/X to the car computer form factor pioneered with Model 3. The car computer is mounted in the passenger front footwell and is cooled by the vehicle's cooling system.
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| Car computer location |
The car computer consist of a cold plate, top and bottom cover, and four printed circuit board assemblies:
- Quectel-GL connectivity card
- Ryzen infotainment board
- Discrete Graphics Processing Unit (dGPU)
- Autopilot hardware 3.2
Top cover is designed with serviceability in mind and allows for easy access to the only serviceable PCBA, the Quectel-GL connectivity card.
The connectivity card and dGPU are daughter boards of the Ryzen infotainment board.
The Autopilot board sits under the bottom cover and connects to the Ryzen infotainment board via a gigabit ethernet jumper.
The bottom cover also acts as the car computer's mounting bracket and ground path to the body in white.
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| Car computer main component overview |
Ryzen Infotainment Boardlink
The top of the Ryzen infotainment board is the side that faces the cold plate. This side of the board contains the following major components:
- AMD Ryzen CPU
- Gateway
- Audio Digital Signal Processor (aDSP)
- Bluetooth/Wi-Fi module
- Ethernet switch
- Gateway microSD card reader
- SIM card reader
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| Top of Ryzen Infotainment Board |
The bottom of the Ryzen infotainment board is the side facing the top cover and contains the following major components:
- Connections to vehicle harness
- Connectivity card connector and mounting
- dGPU board to board connector
- Real time clock battery
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| Bottom of Ryzen Infotainment Board |
Gatewaylink
2021+ Model X continues the evolution of Tesla Infotainment by introducing the gen3 Gateway to Model S/X. Despite its name (derived from the development name of Model 3) this is the second generation of Tesla Gateway and was first introduced in the Model 3. The gateway is a microcontroller which contains three CPU's (2 160 MHZ 32-bit and 1 80MHz 32-bit), 6MB flash memory and 768 KB of RAM. The Gateway serves many functions of not only the Infotainment System but the entire vehicle.
- Routing: Routes CAN data which enables module communication between CAN buses.
- Vehicle Configurations: Stores vehicle configuration data on in on-chip NVRAM.
- Logging: Records selective CAN signal data and stores on its microSD card.
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Update: Controls and determines required vehicle states, securely fetches and distributes packages for each updatable module, and is specific to InfoZ selection of kernel bank to boot the UI.
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Touch Via Gateway: Analyzes touch data from the Display, and forwards it to the UI.
Gateway Communicationlink
The gen3 Gateway in 2021+ Model X communicates with several modules over a variety of protocols.
- Ethernet switch via a Reduced Media-Independent Interface (RMII).
- Touchscreen over I2C to a Multiplexer which splits the signal with Ryzen.
- MicroSD card over a Secure Digital Input/Output (SDIO) connection.
- Audio Digital Signal Processor (ADSP) over a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI).
- Ryzen over a Universal Asynchronous Receiver-Transmitter (UART) connection.
The gen3 Gateway in 2021+ Model X also benefits from some dedicated wake lines:
- Ring line from the Quectel (LTE-GTW-RING).
- Wake line from the Audio Digital Signal Processor (ADSP-GTW-WAKE).
- Wake line to the Audio Digital Signal Processor (GTW-ADSP-WAKE).
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| Gateway Communication Overview |
Touch via Gatewaylink
With the loss of the stalk and the addition to select drive gears via the touchscreen, the Gateway for 2021+ Model X takes on a new responsibility of analyzing touch data. This is accomplished by routing touch-reliant data from the touchscreen over I2C to the Gateway's CPUs for analysis then sending it over UART to the Ryzen.
The touchscreen is connected to the Gateway via a I2C Bus. When touch is asserted, the touchscreen sends an interrupt via the touch interrupt line. Once Gateway sees the interrupt, touch data can be retrieved over the I2C bus.
Gear shift requests are first analyzed by the Gateway's touch core, then validated by the Gateway's main core, and sent to the CAN core where they leave the Gateway to the master drive inverter.
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| Touch Via Gateway Overview |
Gateway microSD Reader and Cardlink
The gateway uses a 16GB microSD card that is serviceable and can be accessed via a provision in the car computer's cold plate.
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| Gateway microSD Card Reader Location |
The microSD card can be formatted over a local connection while the vehicle is in Park and a Gateway alert for the microSD is present using the PROC_ICE_X_FORMAT-SD-CARD action.
The card is spring ejected by release of the locking tab. The locking tab will automatically engage during installation once the spring ejection force is overcome.
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| Gateway microSD Card Eject / Inject |
Discrete Graphics Processing Unit (dGPU)link
The dGPU enhances the gaming capabilities of the infotainment system. The dGPU is a daughter board to the Ryzen infotainment board and is mounted to the cold plate. Thermal interfacing material, a heat spreader, and a spring back plate help to transfer heat from the Ryzen infotainment board to the cold plate.
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| Discrete Graphics Processing Unit Location |
The dGPU is connected to the Ryzen infotainment board via a flexible printed circuit and mezzanine connector combination, which wraps around to the bottom of the board.
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| dGPU Connection |
dGPU Communicationlink
The dGPU communicates with the Ryzen directly over a peripheral component connection express. The Ryzen also controls two multiplexers which switch inputs between the dGPU and Ryzen for each display. A display port connection is used for the dGPU to connect with the touchscreen, and a HDMI connection is used to connect the to the rear display serializer which then connects to the rear display over a flat panel display link.
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| dGPU Communication |