Automotive

Renesas 4th-generation R-Car automotive SoCs

24th September 2024
Harry Fowle
0

Renesas Electronics has expanded its popular R-Car Family of system-on-chips (SoCs) for entry-level Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS).

The new devices, the R-Car V4M series and the expansion of the existing R-Car V4H series, deliver robust AI processing capability and fast CPU performance, while carefully balancing performance and power consumption. Their exceptional TOPS/W performance and power-optimised features make them ideal for entry-level, cost-sensitive ADAS applications such as front smart camera systems, surround-view systems, automatic parking and driver monitoring systems.

Based on the same advanced 7-nm manufacturing process technology as the powerful R-Car V4H series, the new R-Car V4M series delivers deep learning performance of up to 17 TOPS and boasts high-speed image processing and precise object recognition using on-board cameras, radar and LiDAR. With the addition of the new R-Car V4M and R-Car V4H devices, customers can now select the best suited SoC option in a scalable Renesas ADAS portfolio. These devices offer advanced AI technology, performance and power efficiency to meet a diverse array of ADAS application requirements. The new devices maintain pin compatibility within the same series and software compatibility with existing R-Car products, allowing OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers to reuse existing software and reduce engineering costs.

“We are extending our ADAS offerings to meet the increasing demand for Level 1 and Level 2 ADAS solutions for mass-market vehicles,” said Aish Dubey, Vice President & General Manager, High Performance Computing SoC Business Division at Renesas. “At the same time, we are developing our new 5th Generation R-Car SoCs, which will further bolster our offerings in ADAS, cockpit, gateway, and infotainment segments. We are committed to offer the broadest range of automotive embedded processor solutions for all vehicle classes -- from entry-level to luxury-class models -- all under a single development platform.”

The R-Car V4M and R-Car V4H series feature up to four Arm Cortex-A76 cores delivering up to 81K DMIPS performance for application processing. It also comes with three Arm Cortex-R52 lockstep cores with up to 25K DMIPS performance for real-time operation. The new devices are extremely power efficient, providing 9 TOPS/W performance, thanks to their highly integrated design and leading-edge manufacturing process technology. In a typical full-feature smart camera with an 8-megapixel sensor, the R-Car V4M consumes around 5 watts of power – 50 percent less than similar devices on the market.

To date, Renesas has shipped over 450 million automotive-grade R-Car devices, including those meeting ASIL D quality rating, which represents the highest rating for risk reduction.

R-Car open access (RoX) platform available for SDV development 

Automotive engineers developing with the R-Car V4M series and R-Car V4H series can enjoy the latest features of the full SDV development environment offered by Renesas. The newly launched R-Car Open Access (RoX) SDV platform integrates all essential hardware, operating systems (OS), software and tools needed for automotive developers to rapidly develop next-generation vehicles with secure and continuous software updates. RoX allows OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers the flexibility to virtually design a broad range of scalable compute solutions for ADAS, IVI, gateway, and cross-domain fusion systems as well as body control, domain, and zone control systems. The platform comes with a Software Development Kit (SDK) and the AI Workbench, which enables developers to validate and optimise their models and test their applications all in the Cloud.

Key features of the R-Car V4M series and R-Car V4H series

  • Up to four Arm Cortex-A76 cores for application processing 
  • Up to three Arm Cortex-R52 lockstep cores to support ASIL D real-time operation without external MCUs
  • Dedicated Deep Learning & Computer Vision IP
  • 3D Graphic processor Unit (GPU)
  • Image Signal Processor (ISP) with parallel processing for machine and human vision
  • Image renderer (IMR) for fisheye distortion correction or other mathematical operations   
  • Low power consumption
  • Fast boot for camera display (Less than 1 second)
  • Expandable memory size AUTOSAR software partition
  • Dedicated automotive interfaces: CAN, Ethernet AVB, TSN and FlexRay
  • BOM optimised for NCAP, GSR2, L2+ with a single chip SoC without external MCUs
  • Scalability across the R-Car Family
  • Dedicated power management ICs (PMIC) and power transistors available

Availability

Renesas is sampling the R-Car V4M and R-Car V4H devices to leading automotive manufacturers now, with mass production scheduled in Q1/2026.

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