​CEA-List spinoff Alkalee, which was founded in late 2020, develops scalable automotive E/E architectures to respond to market demand for new software capabilities. The company is scaling up a technology developed as a result of an R&D partnership between CEA-List and car maker Renault. Initially, Renault turned to CEA-List for a solution to exponential growth in the number of systems, services, sensors, and ECUs in the average vehicle.

The objective of the joint R&D project, called FACE[1], was to completely rethink the E/E architecture to facilitate integration and, in the process, obtain a substantial reduction in the total number of ECUs. Alkalee is leveraging several of the technologies developed under the FACE project. One of these is Koreel, a scalable computer that works by adding daughterboards to augment processing power as needed. Another is Euphilia, a modeling and implementation software suite used to design new vehicle systems and services and test how they will be integrated. Euphilia is built on a mathematically-sound calculation model (Polygraph[2]) and a software environment that ensures safe execution.

These tools were developed in response to well-identified needs in the automotive industry. However, Alkalee will also find opportunities in embedded AI, Industry 4.0, and other applications that require the design of powerful and scalable computers.

[1] See: https://www.cea-tech.fr/cea-tech/Pages/cr_2019/face-booste-l-innovation-dans-l-automobile-en-revolutionnant-son-architecture-electrique-et-electronique-systeme-numerique.aspx

[2] See Dubrulle, P., Gaston, C., Kosmatov, N., Lapitre, A., Louise, S.: "A data flow model with frequency arithmetic." In: Hähnle, R., van der Aalst, W. (eds.) Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering, pp. 369-385. Springer International Publishing, Cham (2019) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16722-6_22