e² studio with Toolchain, Simulator and Libraries Now Simplifies R-Car-Based Software Development and Accelerates Time-to-Market

October 19, 2017

TOKYO, Japan, October 19, 2017 – Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723, Renesas), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced that the Renesas e 2 studio integrated software development environment now has been expanded with new features to support the R-Car V3M system-on-chip (SoC) for in-vehicle infotainment and advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS). e 2 studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) based on the open-source Eclipse C/C++ Development Tooling (CDT) software and already supports other Renesas devices including the RZ/G Family and the Renesas Synergy™ microcontrollers (MCUs). Expanded to support the R-Car V3M, the e 2 studio can now be used as a core tool for automotive SoC software development. The e 2 studio-based R-Car V3M solution is part of  Renesas autonomy™, which was announced in April 2017.

“We are excited to provide our open-source e 2 studio IDE along with our automotive SoC for ADAS and automated driving. The e 2 studio has been upgraded for R-Car V3M with various features to boost the performance of ADAS and automated driving applications,” said Akiya Fukui, Vice President, Software Development Division, Broad-Based Solution Business Unit, Renesas Electronics Corporation. “With the new e 2 studio, we enable our customers to achieve improved development efficiency and faster time-to-market.”

Renesas’ low-power, high-performance R-Car SoCs consist of a heterogeneous architecture with various types of intellectual properties (IPs), including central processing units (CPUs) and accelerators, to optimize power efficiency. Each IP uses its own programming languages, toolchain, trace interface, and debugging protocols, which enable system developers to maximize the functionality and performance of the IP to optimally develop various software and applications for ADAS and automated driving.

To make full use of the computing performance and low-power performance of each IP, including the integrated IMP-X5 image recognition engine, Renesas has added various new features to e 2 studio. System developers using e 2 studio for R-Car V3M can develop software for various IPs installed in the R-Car V3M with a comprehensive and unified graphical user interface (GUI) to accelerate time-to-market for ADAS and automated driving systems.

Key features of the e² studio for R-Car V3M

Enhanced ADAS software development support

Multithreaded programming environment: The e² studio includes a unified GUI provided by Eclipse that supports programming for the IMP-X5’s built-in 64 thread processor. The e2 studio for R-Car V3M incorporates the newly developed IMP-X 5-dedicated ccimp C compiler which enables development in C programming language. It also provides a feature that debugs the operation of threads on a step-by-step basis from the GUI, which contributes to reducing the man-hours required for program development to approximately one-tenth.

Image viewer: The IDE with a simple UI configuration enables system developers to check the image generated by IMP-X5 directly from the GUI. This eliminates the need to store the image for image verification, making it easier to check images.

IP tracer: The e² studio visualizes the interaction between subcomponents in IMP-X5, which enables software developers to solve complex software errors linked to a specific IP at an early stage. This contributes to a shorter software development period.

Bus Traffic Monitor: The IDE monitors the amount of data being transferred through the complex bus structure in the SoC. In the past, data transfer delays were identified by trial and error. With the e² studio, developers can pinpoint the bottleneck, reducing the time required for software tuning by half.

Complete one-stop solution for developing software on the R-Car V3M

The e² studio provides in one-stop image recognition libraries for the tool chain, PC simulator, and IMP-X5. This frees system developers from setting up and updating complicated individual development environments and allows them to focus on development to further add value to their product. Furthermore, since all developers can use the same tool chain, simulator, and libraries, it contributes to securing the quality of the software developed.

Various development environments can be developed by using tools created by the Eclipse community

The e² studio makes it easy for system developers to incorporate a variety of plug-ins provided by the Eclipse community. This allows system developers to add and optimize the basic functions of the integrated development environment including source code creation, building and debugging when necessary. In addition, Renesas’ partner tool vendors who specialize in Eclipse can create new tools using the new features of the e² studio. Based on these tools, system developers can further expand their development environment.

Availability

The e2 studio for R-Car V3M will be available in Q1 2018.

Renesas plans to further expand the e2 studio to support additional automotive devices.

The e2 studio-based R-Car V3M solution will be displayed at the EclipseCon Europe 2017, October 24-26 at Ludwigsburg, Germany, https://www.eclipsecon.org/europe2017/.

About e² studio

The Renesas e² studio is an IDE based on the Eclipse CDT, providing both build (editor, compiler, and linker control) and debug interfaces. It also supports the RZ Family of microprocessors (MPUs) and Renesas Synergy™ MCUs. A wide range of compilers can be integrated into e² studio. Combined with the extremely powerful editor functionality and project management tools of Eclipse CDT, e² studio offers a state of the art coding environment for Renesas embedded controllers. Visit https://www.renesas.com/e2studio for more information on the e 2 studio.

About Renesas Electronics Corporation

Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) delivers trusted embedded design innovation with complete semiconductor solutions that enable billions of connected, intelligent devices to enhance the way people work and live. A global leader in microcontrollers, analog, power, and SoC products, Renesas provides comprehensive solutions for a broad range of automotive, industrial, infrastructure, and IoT applications that help shape a limitless future. Learn more at renesas.com. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

(Remarks) Renesas autonomy and Renesas Synergy are trademarks of Renesas Electronics Corporation. All registered trademarks or trademarks are the property of their respective owners.


The content in the press release, including, but not limited to, product prices and specifications, is based on the information as of the date indicated on the document, but may be subject to change without prior notice.

Share this news on