Renesas R-Car M3 Starter Kit is Designed for ADAS Applications

Most boards targeting the automotive market are impossible to purchase by individual, so last year I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered Renesas R-Car M2 Porter Linux automotive infotainment development board was available for sale on Digikey, and had good documentation on eLinux.org.

The company has now introduced another automotive board, namely R-Car V3M starter kit, that’s not designed for infotainment, but instead for ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) or even AD (Automated Driving) applications. Specifically, the board is supposed to “accelerate the development of New Car Assessment program (NCAP), front camera applications, surround view systems, and lidars” leveraging the company’s R-Car V3M image recognition SoC.

Renesas R-Car V3M starter kit (V3MSK) specifications:

• SoC – Renesas R-Car V3M processor with two Cortex A53 64-bit cores @ up to 800 MHz, a dual lockstep Cortex-R7 32-bit core @ up to 800 MHz, IMP-X5-V3M image recognition engine
• System Memory – 448KB RAM on-chip; 2GB (6.4 GBytes/s) DDR3L-1600, 32-bit wide
• Storage
  • 64MB bootable HyperFlash @ 160 MHz (320MB/s)
  • 64MB bootable QSPI Flash @ 80 MHz (80 MBytes/s)
  • 32 GB eMMC flash (HS200)
• Video out – HDMI 1.4 up to 1080p60 (via LVDS to HDMI chip), no audio
• Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet
• Debugging
  • 1x mini USB type B via FT232 USB to UART bridge
  • JTAG debug – 20-pin (2.54mm) ARM_EML (“Lauterbach”)
  • JTAG trace – ETM-A53-16K/R7-4K
  • Parallel trace – On-board connector for LVDS pod (shared with LVDS)
• 440-pin COM Express interface exposing the following signals:
  • Storage – bootable parallel SRAM/ROM
  • Display – RGB888, 1-ch LVDS (shared with trace & HDMI)
  • Video in  – 1-ch 4-lane MIPI-CSI2, 2x RGB/YPbPr/Raw
  • Serial – Up 3x  SCIF , up to 4x HSCIF (High Speed Serial Communication Interface)
  • Up to 3x MSIOF (SPI/I2S)
  • Up to 2x CAN-FD -@ 8Mbps
  • Up to 5x I2C @ 400kHz, master/slave
  • DigRF
  • Up to 5x PWM
  • 8-ch ADC, 12-bit
  • GPIOs – 14x GPIOs by default, up to 105x GPIOs (shared)
  • NMI, IRQ interrupt on GPIOs
• Misc – 3x user LEDs; 4x DIP-switches at GPIOs; 8x DIP-switches at CPLD; reset button & LED
• Power Supply – 5V/3A input;  PMIC for all required voltages
• Dimensions – 95x95mm (equivalent to COM Express type 6)

Beside the board itself , the kit includes a 5V/3A power supply, an HDMI-USB? cable, a mini USB cable, and an Ethernet cable. The board is supported by a Yocto Project built Linux BSP available on eLinux.org together with WiP documentation. Other commercial operating systems will be made available in 2018 and beyond. The platform is also supported by Renesas’ open-source e2 studio IDE, and is part of the Renesas autonomy Platform that “delivers end-to-end solutions for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and automated driving”.

The eLinux page also reveals an expansion board by Cogent Embedded that connected to V3MSK’s COM Express connector and gives access to up to 4 cameras via Fakra connectors.

There’s no information about pricing or availability, but I’d expect the board to eventually sell on Digikey with the other R-Car Starter Kits. More details, including the hardware manual, can be found on the product page on Renesas website.

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