Starter kit for R-Car S4 speeds up prototyping software development
A development board for automotive gateway systems is now available from Renesas. The R-Car S4 starter kit is an inexpensive, development board for building software using the Renesas R-Car S4 SoC.
The SoC delivers high computing performance and an array of communication features for both cloud communication and safe vehicle control. The starter kit is less expensive than the earlier R-Car S4 reference board, which provides a development environment including an evaluation board and software. Engineers can use the kit to start the initial evaluation of car servers, connected gateways, connectivity modules for rapid application development.
The R-Car S4 starter kit includes essential R-Car S4 interfaces such as Ethernet TSN switch and CAN FD, as well as memory such as 4Gbyte of LPDDR4, 128Gbyte of UFS (Universal Flash Storage), and 64Mbyte of Quad SPI flash memory. Users can expand peripheral functions by using expansion connectors and customise the hardware to meet specific application requirements, advised Renesas.
The R-Car S4 Whitebox software development kit is an open source automotive development environment for the R-Car S4, which can be combined with the R-Car S4 starter kit. The software development kit consists of FoC (free of charge) software and can be used without the need for complicated license agreements. The software development kit (SDK) includes sample software, test programs, and resource monitoring tools for OTA (over-the-air software updates), IPS (intrusion prevention system), and IDS (intrusion detection system) for network security, allowing for various prototyping and evaluation.
There is also sample software which can be used as a base to develop applications. According to Renesas, the kit shortens development time and reduces energy consumption.
The R-Car S4 starter kit is available from major distributors or via a Renesas local sales representative.
The R-Car S4 whitebox SDK will be available by the end of August.
