Renesas Electronics will use chiplets in its next-generation automotive SoCs and will add software and tool-compatible automotive microcontrollers.
The company revealed this as it announced the fifth generation of its 'R-Car' product range, with the first generation set to be available for sampling late next year and shipped in 2027.
Chiplets are simply chips used within a multi-chip package. They increase product yields by moving from one large chip to two or more smaller chips, and the chiplets (likely an AI accelerator in Renesas' case) can be reused in other chiplet-based ICs.
The technology also allows the combination of chips made with different optimized processes (such as memory and processor logic), and allows the combination of chips from different manufacturers - in the demonstration, Renesas Electronics did not rule out using third-party AI accelerator chips in the Among its R-Car 5th generation products.
Its fifth-generation R-Car products will be based on Arm, and it said the range of processing capabilities offered by these ICs will be wider than that offered by fourth-generation ICs, which are currently ramping up production.
For example, Renesas Electronics said that in order to expand the high-end performance range, the AI performance of the fifth-generation R-Car SoC (old language microprocessor) will be significantly higher than that of the fourth-generation SoC.
At the low end, without using chiplets, the company proposes R-Car "next generation MCU" microcontrollers for simple control tasks, plus so-called "crossover MCUs" to shrink these compatible MCUs with fifth-generation MCUs the performance gap. Next generation R-Car SoC.
"The crossover MCU family is designed to deliver the performance required for domain and regional electronic control units in next-generation automotive architectures," the company said. "As part of its roadmap, Renesas plans to offer a virtual software development environment to accommodate the automotive industry's shift to a 'shift-left' approach. These software tools will allow customers to design designs early in the development process, even before the hardware arrives. and test software.”
The level of software and tool compatibility between Gen 5 SoCs, Crossover MCUs and Next MCUs has not yet been disclosed. Batch tools are scheduled to appear in the 2024 quarter.
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