TIER IV, a pioneer in open-source autonomous driving (AD) technology, has successfully partnered with Axell Corporation, a Japan-based computer hardware company, to conduct a collaborative research project to create a new application-specific system-on-chip (SoC) and software platform for autonomous vehicles. The project culminated in a demonstration showcasing the power and performance advantages of the Autoware Accelerators. These hardware accelerators are custom-designed specifically for the Autoware architecture.
The “Innovative AI Chip and Next-Generation Computing Technology Development” project, sponsored by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO), funded these collaborative research efforts.
The new SoC has been specifically optimised to integrate with Autoware, a widely acclaimed open-source software for autonomous driving championed by TIER IV. Designed to execute a diverse range of AD algorithms with exceptional efficiency, the SoC sets the stage for developing a complete Robo-Taxi system with an estimated power consumption of less than 150W (utilising the latest state-of-the-art semiconductor process). Additionally, the system features hardware accelerators that expertly manage high-load sensor data processing, achieving close to a tenfold reduction in power consumption compared to existing environments. To ensure seamless execution of control system processing, a dedicated real-time operating system (RTOS) is seamlessly integrated with many-core processors, effectively mitigating fluctuations in execution time. With its focus on AI edge computing, the SoC aims to provide more efficient and reliable AD functions.
