Aldebaran5, Next Generation Autonomous Vehicle Computing Platform in a Single Chip

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The Processor Research Group at ETRI has announced the development of Aldebaran5, a processor for self-driving cars. Aldebaran5 features 9 cores to provide high computing power as well as safety mechanisms to ensure reliability for automotive applications, while exhibiting industry leading power efficiency (~1 watt) and a tiny form factor (smaller than the size of a nail head.)

Codenamed Aldebaran5 after the brightest star in the constellation of Taurus, the chip is a significantly upgraded version of its predecessor. Nine cores provide ample computing power, 4 of which are dynamically programmable to operate for performance or for reliability. Safety features adhering to international standards ensure reliability with 99% detection coverage of faults and malfunctions and includes recovery mechanisms to mitigate potential negative effects.

Dedicated custom-designed acceleration circuitry for image recognition and HEVC (high efficiency video coding) as well as CAN bus communication hardware and an image signal processor (ISP) are integrated into the SoC, all combining to provide a robust and streamlined computing platform designed for autonomous vehicle applications.

A wide range of applications have been demonstrated on Aldebaran5 attesting to a powerful, efficient, robust, yet reliable computing platform tailor-made for autonomous vehicle applications. These include real time pedestrian and vehicle recognition, lane detection/warning/keeping system, ultra high definition black box functionality (dash cam), interfacing and processing of various sensor data (radar, GPS, etc) and vehicle maneuvering via CAN bus control, among others.

Research and development to integrate neural network acceleration hardware in order to provide artificial intelligence capabilities are near completion and expected to be announced within the year.

About ETRI, the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute

Established in 1976, ETRI is a non-profit Korean government-funded research organization that has been at the forefront of technological excellence for about 41 years. In the 1980s, ETRI developed TDX (Time Division Exchange) and 4M DRAM. In the 1990s, ETRI commercialized CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) for the first time in the world. In the 2000s, ETRI developed Terrestrial DMB, WiBro, and 4G LTE Advanced, which became the foundation of mobile communications. As a global ICT leader, ETRI has been advancing communication and convergence by developing SAN (Ship Area Network) technology, Genie Talk (world class portable automatic interpretation; Korean-English/Japanese/Chinese), and automated valet parking technology. As of 2017, ETRI has about 2,000 employees where about 1,800 of them are researchers.