Fujitsu Launches LSI Chip for Car Navigation Systems and Digital Dashboards

Tokyo, April 10, 2007

Fujitsu Limited today announced the development and release of a new large-scaled integrated (LSI) chip for in-car automotive systems, such as navigation and digital dashboards. The new System-on-Chip (SoC), the MB86R01, integrates various functions on a single chip, such as ARM™ core, 2D and 3D graphic capabilities, in-car networking features, and support for various media interfaces. The chip includes an embedded graphic-display controller from Fujitsu, of which over 12 million units have been shipped, for in-car automotive applications. This will enable low-cost, compact, in-car systems that feature high-resolution graphics, while continuing to leverage existing software resources.

In recent years, the market for in-car electronic systems has been expanding globally, in particular for car navigation systems. To further expand the market, there is a need for further improvements in display quality and improved cost performance. At the same time, with the aim of facilitating safer driving, dashboard panels are becoming increasingly digitized and equipped with higher-performance functions in order to gather various types of information quickly, and display the information in a driver-friendly manner.

The new chip features the ARM926EJ-S™⁽¹⁾ CPU core from ARM, with Fujitsu's own automotive graphic controller also embedded on-chip which boasts a proven track record of a high number of shipments. This chip also features interfaces that support various media, such as for multimedia, in-car automotive networking, hard-drive connection, and software storage. Functions to protect programs are also included in the chip, thereby realizingon a single chip, a finely-balanced combination of functions required for next-generation in-car automotive systems. The chip is fabricated using 90-nm CMOS process technology.

Utilizing this new chip from Fujitsu will make it possible to realize low-cost, compact in-car automotive systems with graphics, while maintaining high-performance system functionalities.

Sample Pricing and Availability

Sales Target

Key Features

1. CPU core ARM926EJ-S, from ARM
   The ARM926EJ-S CPU core from ARM, is ideal for multimedia applications, and can also be used for in-car automotive systems. Use of this core enables global-standard software development environments to be utilized.
2. Fujitsu high-performance graphics display controller
   With over 12 million units sold for use in in-car automotive equipment such as car-navigation systems, Fujitsu's graphics display controller can drive two displays simultaneously and can capture two streams of video. In addition to enabling smooth and high-resolution 2D and 3D video and graphics, it makes it easier to construct rear-seat entertainment systems.
3. Wide range of external interfaces
   The chip features various peripheral I/O, such as CAN and Media-LB⁽²⁾ as in-car automotive networking interfaces, USB as a multimedia interface, IDE66 (Parallel-ATA/ATAPI-4) as a hard disk interface, and 12S as an audio interface. The new chip also supports DDR2 high-speed memory access.
4. Program protection support
   The chip can process encrypted program codes, to help prevent unauthorized changes or access to the in-car system.

Key Specifications