For me it is not terribly clear why one needs high-definition video in a car’s dashboard, since one is not supposed to watch the newest Coen brothers movie there and even a Sat Nav doesn’t need 1080p, much less the »virtual« tachometers. However, nowadays it’s even being installed in mid-range cars, so there seems to be some kind of demand. A good thing for semiconductor manufacturers.
The R-Car M1 series are the first members of the R-Car series, which represent the integration of the SH-Navi series and EMMA Car series products. They have been developed for mid-range systems which are expected to become the highest volume segment in the market and include the R-Car M1A and R-Car M1S.
They share the following key features:
(1) Integration of the dedicated circuitry for intelligent multimedia processing saves approximately 92% of power in full 1920 × 1080-pixel HD video decoding relative to executing the same function in software on previous products;
(2) Dedicated power supply IC for use in a voltage regulator reduces power consumption by approximately 20% from Renesas’ existing products;
(3) The POWERVR SGX graphics core from IMG enhances 3D rendering performance, allowing designers to create »realistic« graphical user interfaces and improved user operability;
(4) Incorporation of ARM Cortex-A9 and Renesas’ SH-4A CPU cores operating at a maximum 800 megahertz (MHz).
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