Renesas has introduced a system on chip tailored for low-end through mid-range car information terminals, including small portable navigation devices and dashboard-mounted car navigation systems.
Microprocessor marketing manager Paul Sykes described the SH77721 as the first product in a new SH-NaviJ series. Renesas¡¯ SH-Navi processors are being used in many high-end nav system designs, according to Sykes, and the new SoC leverages the same basic architecture and bus structure, CPU, graphics processor, and IP. The SH77721 lets developers ¡°migrate desirable capabilities downward¡± into lower-priced mainstream products.
The SH77721 uses a 32-bit, 333 MHz (599 MIPS, 2.3 GFLOPS) SH-4A CPU core with cache and a floating point unit (FPU). Sykes said on-chip peripheral functions have been selected and fine-tuned for mainstream navigation, and screen displays can rival those of high-end systems.
The SH77721 also features a USB v2.0 high-speed host/function interface, SD card host interface, GPS baseband processing module, FM multiplex decoder, and CAN in-vehicle LAN interface, all to help lower component counts. It operates from -40¡ÆC to +85¢ªC.
The SH77721 is packaged in a 23mm x 23mm, 440-pin BGA. Development tools include the E10A-USB emulator, and the High-performance Embedded Workshop IDE with C compiler and project management capabilities. A new reference platform is also available The SoC is $47 in sample quantities, and should be available in Q4 of 2008.