Arm Announces Arm Zena CSS, Accelerating The Development of AI-Defined Vehicles
June 05, 2025
News
Arm announced the Zena CSS, the company's first pre-integrated and pre-validated platform for AI-defined vehicles built on Armv9 Automotive Enhanced (AE) technology.
According to the company, Zena CSS reduces chip development time by up to 12 months and cuts silicon engineering effort by up to 20% per project, helping OEMs and silicon providers bring new vehicle models to market sooner with intelligent voice and touch interfaces, immersive digital cockpit experiences, driver assistance and automation, and real-time awareness.
Features of Zena CSS include:
- 16 Armv9-based Cortex-A720AE cores, performance optimized for ADAS and IVI applications.
- Cortex-R82AE-powered Safety Island, unique to Zena CSS and used for real-time ASIL D processing capabilities such as fault management, safety monitoring, system control, and SoC boot.
- Runtime Security Engine with safety-capable Hardware Root of Trust (RoT), leveraging Arm TrustZone technology to manage SoC-level security.
- CPU coherency and chip-to-chip connectivity provided by CMN S3AE.
- Optional Image Signal Processing powered by Mali-C720AE and Mali GPU for ADAS use-cases, including surround view and driver-monitoring.
- Support for integration of accelerators and partner-specific logic to meet workload demands for advanced, AI-capable SoC design.
(Image credit: Arm)
The standardized compute platform is designed to provide OEMs and silicon providers with the ability to reuse architectures and software. Zena CSS also allows partners to innovate and differentiate on top of a standard platform.
Partners can begin software development on Zena CSS using cloud-based virtual platform support from AWS, Cadence, Siemens, and Synopsys.
Arm's developer ecosystem of more than 20 million developers – including Denso, GitHub, Green Hills, Mapbox, Red Hat, Panasonic Automotive, and many more – can now build and test across the full software stack and on a common compute platform. Zena CSS is built on open standards, including AUTOSAR, COVESA, eSync, and Virtio, and is backed by SOAFEE, with 150+ members such as General Motors, CARIAD, Continental, and Tata Motors.
For more information, visit: https://newsroom.arm.com/blog/arm-zena-css-ai-defined-vehicle-compute-platform
Tiera Oliver is the assistant managing editor at Embedded Computing Design. She is responsible for web content editing, product news, and story development. She also manages, edits, and develops content for ECD podcasts, including Embedded Insiders.
She utilizes her expertise in journalism and content management to oversee editorial content, coordinate with editors, and ensure high-quality output across web, print, and multimedia platforms. She manages diverse projects, assists in the production of digital magazines, and hosts company podcasts by conducting in-depth interviews with industry leaders to deliver engaging and insightful discussions.
Tiera attended Northern Arizona University, where she received her bachelor's in journalism and political science. She was also a news reporter for the student-led newspaper, The Lumberjack.
