It's no surprise that the MOST automotive infotainment network remains number one, since it's been in development for nearly a decade. MOST is a multi-organizational cooperative effort based on a partnership of carmakers, audio/video set makers, system architects, and key component suppliers. Together, they define and adopt a common multimedia network protocol and application object model.
The origins of MOST materialized during the mid-1990s. That's when Oasis Silicon Systems (acquired by SMSC in March 2005), auto maker BMW, and Harman/Becker (a manufacturer of high-end audio systems) discussed the need for a feature-rich bus in automotive infotainment systems. Those discussions led to the MOST concept.
To standardize the technology, BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Harman/Becker, and Oasis Silicon Systems founded the MOST Cooperation in 1998. The Cooperation has since expanded into a worldwide organization featuring a large list of associated partners, including a dozen leading car makers as well as more than five dozen major automotive electronics suppliers. This development background gives automotive designers using MOST the advantage of easy implementation in cars, and it avoids the more difficult design approaches needed for other networking options.
So far, about 40 European car models have implemented MOST. Expect that number to grow as car models from the U.S. and other countries join the fray.