April 10, 2007 – Fujitsu Limited has developed and released a new large-scaled integrated (LSI) chip for in-car automotive systems, such as navigation and digital dashboards, according to Japan Electronic News. 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 is fabricated using 90nm CMOS process technology.

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 using 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 CPU core from ARM, with Fujitsu’s own automotive graphic controller also embedded on-chip. 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.