Connected Car News Renesas, Fixstars, Honda, VW, Wipro, Bridgestone, Tyrata & Analog Devices

In connected car news are Renesas, Fixstars, Honda, VW, Wipro, Bridgestone, Tyrata & Analog Devices.

Renesas MPUs

Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions,  announced the RZ/Five general-purpose microprocessor units (MPUs) built around a 64-bit RISC-V CPU core. The RZ/Five employs the Andes AX45MP, based on the RISC-V CPU instruction set architecture (ISA). The RZ-Five augments Renesas’ previously available Arm^® CPU core–based MPUs, expanding customer options and providing more flexibility in the product development process.

“I am delighted that Renesas is among the first to announce a general-purpose MPU built around a 64-bit RISC-V CPU core from Andes,” said Hiroto Nitta, Senior Vice President and Head of SoC Business in the IoT and Infrastructure Business Unit at Renesas. “With the introduction of the RZ/Five MPUs along with ecosystem support, Renesas is taking the lead in providing RISC-V solutions ahead of the market.”

“RZ/Five is the first general-purpose MPU on the market to be built around a 64-bit RISC-V core from Andes,” said Frankwell Lin, Chairman and CEO at Andes Technology Corp. “Andes has collaborated with Renesas first on the 32-bit RISC-V core and now on the 64-bit AX45MP, and I anticipate that this development will lead to the early adoption of customers’ devices in the global market built with Andes’ advanced RISC-V processor families.”

Ideal for IoT Endpoint Devices

Demand is increasing for IoT endpoint devices, such as gateways for solar inverters or home security systems, to collect sensor data and connect to servers or to the cloud. In response to this need, RZ/Five is optimized to provide the performance and peripheral functions required of IoT endpoint devices. Its maximum operating frequency is 1 GHz. Peripheral functions include support for multiple interfaces, such as two Gigabit Ethernet channels, two USB 2.0 channels, and two CAN channels, as well as dual A/D converter modules. Support is also provided for connecting external DDR memory with error checking and correction (ECC) and security functions.

Long-Term Linux Support via Industrial-Grade CIP Linux

As with the RZ/G Series, a Verified Linux Package (VLP) featuring Civil Infrastructure Platform™ (CIP) Linux, an industrial-grade Linux offering long-term maintenance support for more than 10 years, is available for RZ/Five. This makes the RZ/Five series an ideal product in corporate infrastructure and industrial applications that require a high level of reliability and extended service life. It also allows users to dramatically reduce future Linux maintenance costs.

Peripheral Functions and Package Compatible with the RZ/G2UL

The peripheral functions and package of RZ/Five are compatible with those of the Arm core–based RZ/G2UL, allowing for easy reuse of proven designs. The RZ/Five also comes in a smaller, compact package to address less complex designs more efficiently. As an evaluation environment, an RZ SMARC Evaluation Board Kit will be offered with a module board conforming to the SMARC 2.1 standard, equivalent to the currently available environment for the RZ/G Series. This kit allows switching and evaluating between an RZ/Five CPU module and an RZ/G2UL CPU module, enabling easy evaluation and shortening product development cycles.

Winning Combinations with RZ/Five

Renesas will provide a complete system solution for the RZ/Five CPU module including Renesas’ DA9062 power management IC, 5P35023 programmable clock generator, AT25QL128A flash memory and SLG46538 GreenPAK IC implementing peripheral functions such as system reset. These devices work together seamlessly in Winning Combinations, such as SMARC System for Single Core Cortex-A55 MPU, that can be used as reference designs to reduce product development time. Renesas has developed and made available many other Winning Combinations that combine technically compatible devices from the Renesas product portfolio to help speed the design process for customers so they can bring products to market sooner. For more information on the more than 280 Winning Combinations now available for a variety of applications, please visit https://www.renesas.com/win

Renesas & Fixstars

Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, and Fixstars Corporation, a global leader in multi-core CPU/GPU/FPGA acceleration technology, announced their intention to collaborate in the automotive deep learning field. In April 2022, the two companies will establish an Automotive SW Platform Lab tasked with the development of software and operating environments for Renesas automotive devices. The new Lab will support early development and ongoing operation of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving (AD) systems. The two companies will develop technologies aimed at software development for deep learning and building operating environments that have the ability to continuously update learned network models to maintain and enhance recognition accuracy and performance.

“Fixstars possesses both advanced software technology for deep learning and optimization technology that allows more efficient utilization of hardware,” said Takeshi Kataoka, Senior Vice President, General Manager of the Automotive Solution Business Unit at Renesas. “I am confident that our collaboration will enable us to provide strong support for software development optimized for automotive applications and allow our customers to fully leverage the superior performance of Renesas’ automotive devices.”

“After developing a deep learning application, it is not possible to maintain high recognition accuracy and performance without constantly updating it with the latest learning data,” said Satoshi Miki, CEO of Fixstars. “Fixstars plans to focus on these machine learning operations (MLOps) for the automotive field, as we work together with Renesas to develop a deep learning development platform optimized for Renesas devices.”

GENESIS for R-Car Cloud-Based Evaluation Environment

As part of their collaboration, Renesas and Fixstars are launching GENESIS for R-Car, a cloud-based evaluation environment for R-Car that supports early development of ADAS and AD systems. The new environment facilitates instant initial evaluations when selecting devices. It utilizes the GENESIS cloud-based device evaluation environment from Fixstars as its platform.

Poring over specifications is time consuming and inefficient. Evaluation based on actual use cases is essential when selecting devices. Users typically need to obtain an evaluation board and basic software to evaluate devices, and technical expertise is also required in order to build an evaluation environment. The new GENESIS for R-Car cloud-based evaluation environment does not require specialized technical expertise.

GENESIS for R-Car lets engineers confirm the processing execution time in frames per second (fps) and recognition accuracy percentage of R-Car V3H’s CNN accelerators on sample images using generic CNN models, such as ResNet or MobileNet. It also allows engineers to select the device and network they wish to evaluate and perform operations remotely on an actual board. Engineers can use the GENESIS environment to confirm evaluation results in tasks such as image classification and object detection, with the option to use their own images or video data. This greatly simplifies the initial evaluation to determine whether R-Car V3H is suitable for the customer’s system. Future plans include the rollout of a service that will allow customers to use their own CNN models for evaluations.

Availability

The GENESIS for R-Car is available now. For more information, please visit: https://www.renesas.com/software-tool/genesis-r-car-fixstars.

Renesas & Honda

-Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, announced the expansion of its collaboration with Honda in the field of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS).

Honda adopted Renesas’ R-Car automotive system on a chip (SoC) and RH850 automotive MCU for its Honda SENSING Elite system featured in the Legend, which went on sale in March 2021. Honda SENSING Elite incorporates advanced technology that qualifies for Level 3 automated driving (conditional automated driving in limited areas). Now Honda has again selected R-Car and RH850 for use in the Honda SENSING 360 omnidirectional safety and driver assistance system, which builds on the knowledge and expertise gained through research and development work on the earlier technology. The first automobile model equipped with Honda SENSING 360 is scheduled for release in China in 2022, with adoption in a broader range of models to follow.

Furthermore, for the next-generation Honda SENSING 360 system, Honda has selected the R-Car S4 as the main SoC in the electronic control unit (ECU), the core of the ADAS. Through this, Renesas and Honda are expanding their collaboration in the ADAS field to improve safety technologies.

“Renesas is proud to be able to contribute to innovation in Honda’s advanced safety technologies,” said Takeshi Kataoka, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Automotive Solution Business Unit at Renesas. “Renesas shares with Honda a design philosophy that emphasizes safety and reliability above all, and we plan to further expand our collaboration to bring sophisticated driver-assistance systems to all mass-production models in the near future.”

“Honda is a global innovator in research and development work on safety technologies aimed at the realization of a society with zero traffic collision fatalities,” said Yutaka Tamagawa, Operating Executive and Head, Electronic Control Development Supervisory Unit, Monozukuri Center, Automobile Operations at Honda. “Renesas’ semiconductor devices optimized for automotive applications are extremely reliable, backed by a solid system of software and support, and provide superior power efficiency. The expansion of our collaborative efforts will speed up the development of Honda SENSING and help lead its widespread adoption.”

In the Honda SENSING Elite flagship advanced technology system, the Renesas R-Car automotive SoC processes sensing data from cameras, millimeter-wave radar, and LiDAR as well as data for 3-dimensional high-definition maps and the global navigation satellite system (GNSS). The SoC also monitors the vehicle’s position and the road conditions, and computes route plans in real time. The RH850 automotive control MCU provides support for driving operations and collision avoidance by receiving signals from R-Car and performing advanced control of the accelerator, braking, and steering systems.

The application of Honda SENSING 360 is expected to expand globally, and Renesas’ R-Car is helping to enable omnidirectional safety and driver-assistance systems by 360-degree sensing with processing sensing data from cameras and millimeter-wave radar.

Moving forward, Renesas is committed to working with Honda on the development and widespread adoption of next-generation Honda SENSING systems.

VW TD In Wolfsburg

In its drive to become a technology company, Volkswagen is realigning its Technical Development (TD) division in Wolfsburg. This involves turning the Group’s largest engineering unit with 11,500 employees into a pace-setter for the Volkswagen brand’s transformation into a technology company. The main emphasis is on a complete redesign of the development process, making it interdisciplinary, focused squarely on software, customer requirements and SSP, Volkswagen’s electric platform of the future, and centered on functions rather than individual components. This is expected to cut development time by about a quarter, increase the speed of new software releases and also significantly accelerate manufacturing processes in production. TD will thus become an important pillar for the transformation of development for the Group.

Wipro Cloud Car

Analog Devices, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADI), a leading global high-performance semiconductor company,  announced it will invest €100 million over the next three years in ADI Catalyst, a 100,000 square foot custom-built facility for innovation and collaboration located at its campus in the Raheen Business Park in Limerick, Ireland. This latest phase of expansion will also see the creation of 250 new jobs in the Irish market by 2025 as a reflection of ADI’s continued commitment to expansion in Europe.

ADI Catalyst is a state-of-the-art collaboration accelerator where ecosystems of customers, business partners, and suppliers engage with ADI to rapidly develop industry-leading solutions. Utilizing technologies in simulated environments and real-world end applications accelerates the development and adoption of these innovative solutions. The newly created jobs at ADI Catalyst will primarily focus on the development of software-enabled solutions and artificial intelligence (AI) innovations in areas such as Industry 4.0, sustainable energy, automotive electrification, and next generation connectivity.