Renesas

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Before the Yocto Project, Renesas worked hard to support its customers using various Linux build systems and OS implementations. On small scale projects the effort was manageable, but with larger Linux systems, such as used in Automotive Infotainment, these methods became unwieldy and costly. By using the Yocto Project, Renesas is now able to prepare a single and open board support package (BSP) for all our customers, and continuously improve the feature support using a streamlined process to distribute updates. The same open BSP is used on prototyping projects based on low cost developer boards running the GENIVI Demo Platform (GDP) all the way to commercially supported OS platforms provided to Tier1s by Operating System Vendors (OSVs) such as Wind River, Mentor Embedded, and a wide range of specialized developers now engaged in the open automotive ecosystem.

GENIVI Alliance and Linux Foundation Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) represent the majority of customers around the world that desire to build an IVI Head Unit based on Renesas R-Car silicon. Compatibility with the full spectrum of OSVs participating in these projects ensures quick adoption of our technology into series production designs and products. Also the Yocto Project helps us with liability management since we do not redistribute or export licensed code and tool chains from others. This significantly reduces the number of legal agreements we need to maintain. Finally, we are able to deliver the highest quality optimized code since our binary enhancements (graphics, specialized DSP, etc.) are easily combined with open source code we maintain. The Yocto Project is well prepared to support cross-compilation without compromise directed by any single SoC vendor.

Going forward, we look for increasing community support, including other SoC providers which will make it possible for Renesas to validate our code and better support more customers. As an active Silver member of the project Renesas maintains multiple code branches using a global team of engineers from Japan, Vietnam, and Europe:

1. Yocto Project recipe for Renesas BSP (meta-renesas) to distribute BSP
http://git.yoctoproject.org/cgit/cgit.cgi/meta-renesas

2. Customer branch for specific projects
https://github.com/renesas-devel/meta-renesas.git