Software development for car information systems is increasing in scale and complexity in recent years, in order to accelerate the development of autonomous driving and to develop new functionality to attractively differentiate vehicles. As more companies are starting automotive software development, there is an urgent need to secure skilled and specialized engineers as well as the development environment required for automotive applications. Renesas has developed R-Car starter kits for supporting automotive software development. These kits enable users to easily build automotive Linux platforms that are standardized by the Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) and GENIVI®open source communities and that are highly extensible and can be used for wide variety of applications.
Since the hardware used has high computing capabilities for automotive and the latest open source software can be used, by having one kit on hand per engineer from the professional community, the engineer can concentrate on advanced development of specialized software allowing for the realization of new automotive computing systems quickly.
R-Car M3 Model R-Car Starter Kit Pro
This pro R-Car starter kit features the latest HMI computing environment and system flexibility with abundant peripheral functions. It can be used for integrated cockpit applications in global vehicle models.
R-Car H3 model R-Car Starter Kit Premier
The premier R-Car starter kit supports best-in-class computing performance for automotive and offers a powerful computing library to provide the ultimate automotive computing environment.
Specifications
| Class | Function |
|---|---|
| CPU | R-Car Starter Kit Premier (employing the R-Car H3): Arm CA57 (Armv8) 1.5GHz quad core, with NEON/VFPv4, L1 cache I/D 48K/32K, L2 cache 2MB Arm CA53 (Armv8) 1.2GHz quad core, with NEON/VFPv4, L1 cache I/D 32K/32K, L2 cache 512K Memory controller for LPDDR4 4GB in 2 channels, each 64-bit wide R-Car Starter Kit Pro (employing the R-Car M3): Arm CA57 (Armv8) 1.7GHz dual core, with NEON/VFPv4, L1 cache I/D 48K/32K, L2 cache 2MB Arm CA53 (Armv8) 1.3GHz quad core, with NEON/VFPv4, L1 cache I/D 32K/32K, L2 cache 512K Memory controller for LPDDR4 2GB in 2 channels, each 32-bit wide Three-dimensional graphics engines Video processing units 3 channels display output 6 channels video input SD Card host interface USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 interfaces CAN interfaces Ethernet AVB PCI Express Interfaces |
| Memory | Internal 384KB system RAM 64MB HyperFlash™ 16MB QSPI flash 8GB eMMC microSD card slot |
| Connectors | CN1 expansion connector 440-pin CN2 QSPI flash module CN3 debug JTAG CN4 HDMI CN5 USB 2.0 CN6 push-pull microSD card socket CN7 Ethernet connector RJ45 CN8 LINE out CN9 MIC input CN10 debug serial CN11 CPLD programming JTAG CN12 debug serial CN13 main power supply input (5 V DC) CN14 CPU fan |
| Board Specifications | Dimensions: 100mm × 100mm Height: 57mm (with FAN) External power supply 5V/4A-8A, ripple and noise (Vp-p) full load 200mV |
Kit Resources
Buy or Sample
Other R-Car Starter & Solution Kits
V3M Starter Kit
The V3M Starter Kit simplifies the development of automotive software and enables new advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and automated driving (AD) applications such as for front cameras, surround view and light detection and ranging (lidar).
RazorMotion Solution Kit
RazorMotion supports an efficient integration process for complex, highly automated driving systems. The platform can be used by Tier 1s and OEMs to immediately prototype their functions in an embedded automotive ECU.
Features
- Lineup of two kits with compatible interfaces, one with the R-Car H3 and one with the R-Car M3
- Simplifies the process of establishing open-source automotive Linux environments.
- The R-Car starter kits are designed to simplify the task of setting up automotive Linux environments for engineers who are new to the development of automotive software, and are competitively priced so that each developer can be provided with their own kit.
- Powerful computing libraries are provided with support for cutting-edge HMI software and cognitive computing. They also support the QNXR real-time OS with its proven track record in the automotive field. With this robust environment, the R-Car starter kits are well suited as development platforms for automotive software created by highly specialized professional communities of open-source developers.
- High level of extensibility for use with a wide range of automotive computing applications.
- The primary peripheral interfaces essential to automotive computing development are provided. There is also a 440-pin expansion port that enables use of all the peripheral pins of the R-Car SoC, enabling the kits to be employed for a wide range of computing applications, from a simple advanced computer vision development environments to prototyping of large-scale systems such as integrated cockpits.