Renesas Electronics has expanded its software-defined vehicle (SDV) offerings with the introduction of the R-Car X5H, a multi-domain automotive system-on-chip (SoC) produced using 3 nanometer (nm) process technology. The R-Car X5H is designed to run advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), and gateway functions simultaneously, according to the company. Sampling of the Gen 5 silicon has begun, and evaluation boards and the R-Car Open Access (RoX) Whitebox Software Development Kit (SDK) are available for development use.
Renesas says the R-Car X5H achieves up to 35 percent lower power consumption compared to previous 5 nm SoCs. Targeting central compute applications across multiple automotive domains, it offers up to 400 tera operations per second (TOPS) of AI performance, with scalability enabled by chiplet extensions for increased acceleration. The SoC features 4 tera floating-point operations per second (TFLOPS) of graphics processing power, 32 Arm Cortex-A720AE CPU cores, six Cortex-R52 lockstep cores with ASIL D functional safety support, and employs mixed criticality technology to ensure safe execution of advanced functions across domains.
To accelerate development cycles, Renesas has introduced the open RoX Whitebox SDK, supporting Linux, Android, and XEN hypervisor, alongside partner operating systems including AUTOSAR, EB corbos Linux, QNX, Red Hat, and SafeRTOS. The SDK integrates AI and ADAS software stacks for real-time perception, sensor fusion, generative AI, and large language models. It also includes production-grade application software from partners like Candera, DSP Concepts, Nullmax, Smart Eye, STRADVISION, and ThunderSoft. According to Renesas, this platform supports the development of ADAS, L3/L4 autonomous driving, smart cockpits, and gateway systems for next-generation EV architectures.
Renesas reports that the R-Car X5H and RoX platform support integration of ADAS and IVI stacks, real-time operating system (RTOS), and edge AI functionality, all managed under Linux and Android with XEN hypervisor virtualization. The platform handles input from eight high-resolution cameras and up to eight displays at 8K2K resolutions, supporting complex visualization and sensor integration required for SDVs. Demonstrations of these capabilities, in partnership with Bosch and ZF, are planned for CES 2026, where applications such as video perception and radar localization for ADAS will be showcased.
“At CES 2026, we look forward to showcasing this powerful solution with Renesas X5H SoC, demonstrating its fusion capabilities across multiple vehicle domains, including video perception for advanced driver assistance systems,” said Christian Koepp, Senior Vice President Compute Performance at Bosch’s Cross-Domain Computing Solutions Division.
Source: Renesas Electronics
