Dusseldorf, September 29, 2011 – Renesas Electronics, a premier provider of advanced semiconductor solutions, and its subsidiary, Renesas Mobile Corporation, an innovative supplier of advanced cellular semiconductor solutions and platforms, today announced the availability of the new automotive system-on-chip (SoC), the SH7769, for high-end automotive display systems (graphics cluster, multifunction graphics display) supporting advanced human machine interfaces (HMI).
The new SH7769 SoC enhances functions such as video input, display output and high-reliability systems present in Renesas’ existing SH-Navi3 (SH7776) SoC, which has been widely adopted for high-end automotive infotainment systems. The SH7769 SoC implements functions essential for automotive display systems such as 3D graphics meters and central displays, markets that are expected to grow rapidly.
Due to the recent increase in demand to process enormous volumes of information through in-car network and multimedia systems, car information systems are required to deliver this information to the driver clearly and safely. The SH7769 SoC implements a high-function 3D graphics engine and display units, which allow 1600 x 480-pixel high definition (HD) video decoding. A graphical user interface (GUI) display can be used to deliver a realistic instrument-cluster system and in-vehicle information to the driver. This GUI allows realistic 3D graphics display and improved operability.
Up to three video data streams can be processed simultaneously to provide a driver with information from external vehicle cameras, navigation systems, and night vision devices at the same time. The SH7769 SoC also contributes to the reduction of system costs by reducing the number of external components as it integrates functions like an NTSC decoder and an image render (IMR) function, which perform the compensation of fish-eye images.
Key features of the SH7769 SoC
(1) Implementation of high-performance 3D graphics engine, supporting realistic 3D images
The SH7769 SoC incorporates Imagination Technologies’ advanced 3D graphics IP core, the POWERVR SGX530, in the 3D graphics engine. The new SoC also supports an intelligent graphics processor unit (GPU) that supports OpenGLES2.0 for the rendering of realistic 3D objects and high-quality GUIs, which makes it suitable for multimedia applications such as HMIs.
CPU core: The SH7769 SoC implements Renesas’ 32-bit RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) CPU core, the SH-4A, and operate at up to 533 MHz. The integrated floating-point processing unit (FPU) supports both single-precision and double-precision processing, and achieves a performance of up to 7.46 GFLOPS (giga floating operations per second) with single precision. This allows high-speed codec processing of still and moving images.
(2) Advanced image compensation and transformation circuitry
The SH7769 SoC implements two channels of image compensation. One channel, the IMR-LSX, is dedicated to the compensation of camera-image distortion, and the other channel, the IMR-X, dedicated to the compensation of a given image. The IMR-LSX channel can flatten the distortion of a fish-eye image. This hardware processing can achieve lower power consumption and higher speed operation compared to the same function implemented on the CPU. The IMR-X channel can transform the image data into a given form and can be used as a head-up display (HUD) image conversion.
The SH7769 SoC is also capable of converting one digital-image input channel and one digital-image output channel for HUD simultaneously.
(3) Ultra-high-speed data transfer with DDR3-1067-supported memory interface
A DDR3-SDRAM interface (16-bit dedicated bus at 533 megahertz [MHz]) with a capability of 1067 mega words per second (M words/s) is implemented on the SH7769 SoC, which achieves an ultra-high-speed data maximum transfer rate of 2.13 gigabytes per second (Gb/s).
(4) Kit solution with dedicated power-supply IC contributes to low system power consumption and quicker time to market
Each device in the R-Car series will be provided with a newly developed, dedicated power-supply IC, the R2A11301, known as a multi-voltage regulator. This power-supply IC delivers highly accurate output voltage within one percent of voltage variation, with two outputs implemented for the CPU core and for DDR (DDR2/DDR3) as a depressor. An integrated adaptive voltage scaling (AVS) function enables optimum control of the output voltage to the SoC, which saves up to 20 percent (estimation with an AVS [35 mV]) of power. As it is a finished and tested solution, system designers can reduce the time needed for developing complex, discrete power systems, and speed their time to market. Cost reduction also can be achieved by reducing the number of parts.
(5) High-reliability system
The PAM (Physical Address Management) and DISCOM (Display Compare Unit) are integrated onto the SH7769 SoC to detect system malfunctions and to ensure high reliability. PAM limits and monitors accesses from the CPU or GPU to the memory or peripherals. In cases where an unexpected access has occurred, the function can invalidate the access and generate an interrupt to the CPU.
The DISCOM monitors and compares every frame of data to be output and the actual output data.
The technologies of the new SH7769 SoC will continue to be applied to Renesas’ future R-Car series of SoCs for car infotainment systems.
Please refer to the separate sheet for the detailed specifications of Renesas’ SH7769 SoC.
Remarks
POWERVR and SGX are trademarks or registered trademarks of Imagination Technologies Limited. (UK). Other product and service names that appear in this press release are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
About Renesas Electronics Europe
Renesas Electronics Europe with its Business Operations Centre located in Dusseldorf, Germany, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723), the world’s number one supplier of microcontrollers and a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions including microcontrollers, SoC solutions, secure MCU applications and a broad-range of analog and power devices. Renesas Electronics’ European structure is comprised of three dedicated business groups serving the region’s key markets: automotive, communications & consumer and industrial. The business groups are supported by the Engineering Group, which itself includes the Engineering Design Centre; the European Quality Centre that provides technical support to local customers in Europe; and the European Technology Centre to design leading-edge products specifically for the European market. Further information about Renesas Electronics Europe can be found at: www.renesas.eu.
