Starter kit accelerates vision-based ADAS application development

Renesas has introduced its smallest R-Car-based development kit to date - the ADAS Starter Kit - based on Renesas’ high-end R-Car H2 System on Chip (SoC) and developed to help simplify and speed up the development of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) applications. Complementing Renesas’ current R-Car V2H-based ADAS development boards, the new ADAS Starter Kit will enable users and partner companies to experience the enhanced computer vision performance of Renesas SoCs and accelerate the development of dedicated hardware and software solutions for future ADAS applications. The ADAS Starter Kit provides cutting-edge computer vision performance with OpenCV and high-performance graphics power based on OpenGLES, allowing customers and partners to develop their ADAS applications on a robust and high-performance platform. The new kit is powered by Linux, based on the Yocto distribution that is also used for other R-Car evaluation boards. The new starter kit is the smallest Renesas R-Car development kit to date, measuring only 10cm x 10cm, and features pre-implemented interfaces and peripherals, which eliminates the need for any additional hardware. The core board comes with 2 GB of DDR3 RAM, 64 MB of QSPI flash and a Micro SD card slot. This small form factor board also includes Ethernet, an HDMI output and a connector for a camera module. With the integrated extension connector, it is designed for easy customization. Users can easily design add-on boards that enable new use cases with little effort. The extension connector supports interfaces like PCI Express (PCIe), further display outputs, and four channels for cameras as needed for surround view applications. The new ADAS Starter Kit features Renesas’ successful R-Car H2 SoC, which is capable of delivering more than 25,000 DMIPS and provides state-of-the-art 3D graphics capabilities and powerful vision processing cores. The R-Car H2 is powered by the ARM CortexA-15 quad-core configuration running an additional ARM CortexA-7 quad-core. It also features the Imagination Technologies PowerVR Series6 G6400 Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). This GPU supports open technologies, such as OpenGL ES 2.0 and the OpenGL ES 3.0 standards. The IMP-X4 core provides real-time image processing that enables system manufacturers to support computing intensive vision operations. OpenCV support for IMP-X4 will also be offered. The R-Car H2 also supports up to four independent input camera channels, allowing easy implementations of 360° camera views and object recognition – to cite just one example of the possible driver assistance functions. With these features, the R-Car H2 offers the highest level of integration of advanced safety concepts and enables developers to implement high performance ADAS features, says the company.