The new solution kit enables system developers to evaluate functions and software in an environment that is similar to the actual development of ECUs, thereby reduces developers’ time and efforts when porting software to the actual ECUs.

The automotive market is moving rapidly to make highly autonomous driving a reality for consumers by 2020. However, this is a challenging path as autonomous driving level 3 and beyond requires high computing power while maintaining safety and ensuring quality.

(Level 3—Limited Self-Driving Automation—means that the vehicle carries out all acceleration, steering and braking, unless the system has requested the driver to take over. At level 4 (Full Self-Driving Automation), the vehicle functions as a fully automated travel system, the driver is not at all involved.)

During the initial development of autonomous driving systems, OEM and Tier-1 system developers first create prototype systems and test them using PCs. To adapt a prototype system to fit the actual vehicle, features such as low power consumption and high performance, operation under high temperature, and compliance with specific standards such as functional safety and system specifications must all be aligned. Adapting a newly developed system into the actual vehicle is challenging.

The Renesas HAD solution kit supports software development and software verification that Tier-1s and OEMs are using for automotive ECUs. This is being integrated in a robust housing with multiple interfaces that provides rich connectivity close to actual automotive ECUs.

Key features of the new HAD solution kit include:

• The solution kit simultaneously provides the high computing power required for autonomous driving, maintains a high level of safety, and ensures quality as it connects two Renesas’ market-proven R-Car H3 system-on-chip (SoC)-based starter kits and one RH850 P1H-C MCU through on-board high-speed interfaces and provides connection to peripherals using multiple external interfaces, such as CAN-FD, FlexRay and Ethernet.

  The solution kit simplifies software development for mass production ECUs by allowing evaluation of the development using the HAD solution kit in the vehicle. The robust and compact design of the housing allows testing in the lab as well as in test drives that meet automotive requirements, which are known to be demanding in relation to operating temperature, low power consumption and small implementation size.

• The implemented R-Car H3 Starter Kit Premier is based on the R-Car H3: a high-end, high-performance SoC designed for automotive applications. The SoC based on ARM® Cortex®-A57/A53 cores can be used as an automotive computing platform solution for driving safety support systems and in-vehicle infotainment systems, and achieves processing performance of over 40,000 DMIPS (Dhrystone million instructions per second) for enhanced processing power. The R-Car H3 is also ISO 26262 ASIL-B compliant.

  In addition, the R-Car H3 features powerful graphics processing units (GP-GPU) core by Imagination Technologies’ PowerVR GX6650 and Renesas’ IMP-X5 parallel programming core with optimal structure for processing of computer vision and deep learning, to enable the advanced calculation processing required for autonomous driving.

  The RH850/P1H-C is a high-end safety MCU with a built-in hardware security module (HSM) that conforms to the ISO 26262 ASIL-D safety standard. This MCU features a large capacity memory, a high-performance CPU that achieves processing performance of 1,344 DMIPS and rich communication functions for communication networks—all on one single chip. Therefore, RH850/P1H-C maintains high-level safety and ensures quality.

• The HAD solution kit supports multiple interfaces, including five 100 megabit (MB) Ethernet Broad R-Reach ports, 1 gigabit (GB) Ethernet, controller area network (CAN) with CAN-FD and FlexRay.

  In addition, up to 16 camera inputs are available to allow direct connection and image processing by the R-Car H3. The multi-interface approach enables a new generation of applications, combining data from surround view cameras with pre-processed objects from lidar, radar and front cameras to provide a comprehensive and accurate view of the vehicle’s surroundings to enable a safer driving experience.

  The datalogging function is complemented by a solid state drive (SSD) support as well as a USB 3.0 connection to enable the recording of test drive data. It also provides high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) output for the visualisation.

  The new kit solution is complemented by Renesas’ Linux Yocto-based board support package for the R-Car H3 as well as software required for the RH850/P1H-C. Additional software will be available from partners to enable system developers to increase their development efficiency even further.

Samples of the HAD solution kit are scheduled to be available in February 2017. (Availability is subject to change without notice.)