Mastering AI Chip Complexity
Explore challenges and solutions in AI chip development
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Automotive electrical/electronic architecture (EEA) is evolving for both hardware and vehicle software applications. Hardware is being rearchitected into a more centralized and zonal layout, ultimately integrating High Performance Computing (HPC) units with zonal nodes sharing a high bandwidth network connection. On the application side, the evolution to the Software Defined Vehicle (SDV) must enable an overall eco-system for application development and deployment. Mobility is the ultimate application.
Renesas' 5th-Generation R-Car SoC Family
Renesas is developing its fifth-generation (Gen 5) R-Car SoC Family to serve multiple automotive domains including Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), Cockpit/Dashboard, and Gateway application. In November 2024, Renesas announced the R-Car X5H SoC, the first device from the Gen 5 R-Car family, with the highest performance level and cross-domain integration capabilities (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Renesas automotive cross-domain R-Car X5H in the Gen 5 lineup
SDVs Enabled by “Vehicle Software Platform”
SDVs have been the industry’s answer to the explosion of software content to be developed and deployed in vehicles, relying on a “Vehicle OS” (or sometimes called “Automotive Software Platform”). The Vehicle OS is a software layer to ultimately control the entire vehicle. The “Vehicle Software Platform” is hiding most of the complexity of the underlying EEA and allows for more practical and easier development, deployment, and management of a large number of applications. SDVs also enable OEMs to connect to their cloud services (Figure 2).
Figure 2: SDV layers - Vehicle OS enables applications
Standard bodies such as SOAFEE, AVC Consortium, or OASIS are also looking to harmonize common technology. Several software suppliers are providing pieces of the overall platform, either commercial solutions or service solutions based on open-source software (OSS)
Renesas with the R-Car Open Access Platform (RoX) is providing key components for the R-Car SoC. It enables Tier 1’s and OEMs to more efficiently develop their next generation HPC solutions based on R-Car.
Vehicle OS is a differentiation factor for OEMs. OEMs need to integrate, maintain, and deploy their own customized Vehicle OS on their vehicles. Each major OEM is aiming to develop their own: VW.os for Volkswagen group, Arene OS of Toyota group, ASIMO OS for Honda, etc. An OEM’s Vehicle OS is implemented by a collection of APIs (OASIS,..), OS (Autosar, QNX, Android Auto,…), some generic & common, and some extensions and customization specific to the OEM.
OEMs need to integrate, maintain, and deploy their own customized “Vehicle OS” on their vehicles.
Engineering Cloud & Electronics Digital Twins for Automotive Software
SDVs also bring the concept of “Engineering Cloud” to enable the automotive software and system development & testing of applications in the cloud and then deploy in the vehicle.
At a high level the flow is well described and agreed by all players, including OEMs, standardization bodies, semiconductor manufacturers, and SW suppliers. The main concepts are borrowed from the Mobile/consumer market such as a software Emulator (i.e.: Google’s Android Emulator) which has been used for many years.
When targeting the application development, the complexity lies in the details. Various software and use cases require different capabilities and features on the underlying simulator (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Engineering Cloud implemented by a collection of simulators for different software under test and use cases
Synopsys is offering a large portfolio of solutions for Engineering Cloud to enable electronics digital twins (eDT) for automotive software and system. Synopsys’s R-Car SoC virtual prototype is a key component specific to the Renesas R-Car SoC.
Synopsys' R-Car Virtualizer Development Kit for Automotive Software Platform
Synopsys’ R-Car Virtualizer development kit (VDK) is a simulation model specific to Renesas’ R-Car SoC and software. Synopsys’ R-Car SoC virtual prototype primary targets include:
The development, integration, and testing of the Vehicle Software Platform on top of the R-Car SoC based HPC/ECU
The full binary SW stack validation on R-Car SoC based HPC/ECU, especially the safety critical software within the mixed-criticality EEA System.
Figure 4: Renesas R-Car Gen 5 VDK
Synopsys’ R-Car virtual prototype is tightly coupled with Renesas’ software development kit (SDK). Synopsys R-Car SoC Virtual Prototype is a simulator of R-Car as part of Renesas SDK allows to build the software itself, while the Synopsys R-Car virtual prototype enables software execution, debugging, and testing (Figure 5).
Figure 5: Renesas SDK tightly interfacing with R-Car SoC Virtual Prototype
“Within Renesas we have been able to leverage R-Car X5H virtual Prototype by Synopsys to port and test our SDK, including several OSS software and Renesas original drivers and software. All of these software and drivers are available at a pre-silicon stage, allowing us to deliver a quality SDK to our early customers”, said Ren Imaoka, Director of HPC Application & Framework Development at Renesas.
Summary of Synopsys’ R-Car Virtual Prototype Enabled Use Cases
Several use cases can be enabled by Synopsys’ R-Car virtual prototype:
Bottom-up SW porting, when a specific version of R-Car silicon is not yet available. Start by porting drivers (complex device driver) & hypervisor, then custom Middleware.
Optimization of hardware dependent software to fully use R-Car HW capabilities. For instance, optimizing gateway to use efficiently the ethernet & CAN HW processing capabilities.
Software pre-testing for ISO26262 certification; FMEA/FMEDA testing, fault injection testing, coverage-based testing, and mixed criticality stack SW testing.
Customer SW testing which relies on the other MCU/ICs around R-Car and part of the HPC/ECU.
Custom HW chiplet verification, by relying on Zebu® hybrid solution.
Integration of a DevOps pipeline to enable continuous testing on the overall SW stack.
“The automotive industry is increasingly turning to cloud-based tools to jump-start programs and reduce time-to-market by allowing development to begin well in advance of the availability of physical SoCs”, said Romain Saha, Senior Director Strategic Alliances at QNX. “Together with the QNX SDP 8 Operating System, silicon simulation platforms like the Synopsis R-Car X5H Virtual Development Kit (VDK) are foundational elements supporting the evolution towards a true “shift-left” development philosophy.”
Availability & Versions
The Synopsys R-Car X5H virtual prototype is available today and is closely aligned with the Renesas SDK version and roadmap.
For full feature details including the latest updates, further explanation, and a demo, please contact Synopsys Virtual Prototyping Team.
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