Renesas R-Car SDV platform speeds development

Vehicle OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers are faced with ever-growing software development and maintenance investments. To address the challenge, Renesas Electronics Corp. created a ready-to-use R-Car Open Access (RoX) development platform for software-defined vehicles (SDVs). The R-Car SDV platform integrates the required hardware, operating systems, software and tools to develop next-generation vehicles and achieve secure and continuous software updates.

(Source: Renesas Electronics Corp.)

Designed for the Renesas R-Car family of system-on-chips (SoCs) and microcontrollers (MCUs), the SDV platform includes comprehensive tools to seamlessly deploy AI applications.

Today’s vehicles need to have a 360-degree surrounding space with ASIL D levels of sensing, processing and control for safety and autonomy, Renesas said, and in-cabin experiences rely on software to control vehicle functions, manage real-time data networks across different ECU zones and provide customer differentiation.

With the increased complexity, it is more difficult to maintain and upgrade the software stacks and provide the highest levels of safety, Renesas said. The R-Car Open Access platform solves the challenges via a cloud-native development environment and a simulation platform, the company said, supporting both a software-first approach and parallel hardware and software development.

There are two versions of the RoX SDV platform. “RoX Whitebox” is an open, easily accessible software package that includes royalty-free OS and hypervisor software such as Android Automotive OS, FreeRTOS, Linux, Xen and Zephyr RTOS, and reference applications that are designed for specific domain systems. “RoX Licensed” is based on industry-proven commercial software solutions, including QNX and Red Hat In-Vehicle Operating System, AUTOSAR-compliant software and SAFERTOS. Pre-integrated and tested to run on Renesas’ R-Car SoCs and MCUs it includes pre-validated software stacks from STRADVISION for ADAS and Candera CGI Studio for in-vehicle infotainment (IVI).

The Renesas R-Car SDV platform delivers hardware, software and a cloud-native AI development environment. (Source: Renesas Electronics Corp.)

The platform enables automotive system engineers to start building their software immediately, even before the hardware is available thanks to the cloud environment and virtual development platform. Developers design, debug in simulation and verify their software before deploying on live SoCs and MCUs. The platform includes the Renesas Fast Simulator (RFS) and partner solutions for a broad coverage of simulation speed, features and use cases, the company.

For AI development, RoX includes the AI Workbench to enable developers to validate and optimize their models and test their AI applications in the cloud, either on the virtual development platform or on Renesas board farms, Renesas said. A wide range of AI models are available to support the deployment of the R-Car heterogeneous compute platform across generations of SoCs.

The platform is designed for current generation R-Car SoCs, the upcoming R-Car Gen 5 MCU/SoC Family and future devices.  OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers gain the flexibility to 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.

According to Renesas, the R-Car Gen 5 is currently the only hardware architecture in the industry to accommodate the full range of processing requirements, from zonal ECUs to high-end central compute for entry-level to luxury-class models.

The R-Car Open Access Platform is available with the option to license. Open-source OS, commercial OS, full application software stacks, virtual development, cloud infrastructure and debugging and emulation tools are available from Renesas or through partners.