AMD has landed a major Chinese partner that plans to leverage the company’s Ryzen processors and Radeon GPUs as part of a full-stack, in-vehicle computing platform for electric vehicles scheduled for rollout late next year.
The new strategic collaboration is with ECARX, described in an AMD press release as a global mobility tech company, but more significantly is backed by China-based automotive giant Zhejiang Geely Holding Group and has plans to go public in a massive SPAC merger announced a few months ago.
ECARX reportedly has ambitions to challenge China’s Huawei in the vehicle computing business. It already has seen its technology deployed in 3.2 million cars across 12 brands. The company is crafting a digital cockpit that will be the first in-vehicle platform to use AMD Ryzen Embedded V2000 processors and AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series GPUs along with ECARX hardware and software, AMD and ECARX said in a statement.
Combining ECARX’s extensive experience in automotive digital cockpit design of the advanced computing power and visual graphic rendering capabilities inherent will allow the companies to support advanced features that will include driver information mode, heads-up display, rear seat entertainment, multiple-displays, multi-zone voice recognition, high-end gaming and a full 3D user experience, the statement said.
“The global automotive industry is transforming towards an intelligent future at an unprecedented pace with demand for computing power and graphics capabilities rapidly increasing,” said Ziyu Shen, Chairman and CEO of ECARX. “With this collaboration, we will further enable OEMs and tier 1 suppliers to enhance their digital cockpit experiences as they seek to create greater consumer value through intelligent connected cars.”
“As car companies seek to deliver immersive experiences and intelligent features for their next-generation electric vehicles, the AMD-powered ECARX digital cockpit will address these needs for the global automotive market,” said Rajneesh Gaur, corporate vice president and general manager, Embedded Business, AMD. “We are excited to work with ECARX as our first strategic ecosystem partner in China for the digital cockpit using our Ryzen Embedded V2000 processors and Radeon RX 6000 Series GPUs.”
Asif Anwar, executive director – PBCS and EVS, with the research firm Strategy Analytics, was quoted in the press release from AMD, stating, “EV adoption is now a key underlying factor for growth in the automotive semiconductor market ,and the associated semiconductor demand is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 31% over 2021 - 2026. The EV revolution is here, with next-generation EV platforms at the leading edge of domain- and zonal-based architecture driving adoption of the digital cockpit, ADAS and the connected vehicle.”