MediaTek has teamed up with Nvidia to develop automotive chips. The two firms will work closely to introduce a “complete range of in-vehicle AI cabin solutions” for the next-gen always-connected cars. They announced the plans during Computex 2023 earlier this week.
MediaTek’s Dimensity Auto will use Nvidia’s GPU and AI solutions, as well as its ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) technologies. The American chip firm will also lend its Drive OS, Drive IX, CUDA, and Tensor RT technologies for the planned automotive solution. These technologies will handle graphics, AI processing, and safety and security features of the chip.
The upcoming Automotive processors from MediaTek will feature C2C, an interconnected system that connects CPUs, GPUs, and SoCs for seamless communication across the platform. The chip will process data from various sensors and cameras on the car and provide the driver with relevant information through infotainment systems and displays for assisted driving. The Taiwanese firm will also offer built-in support for 5G cellular connectivity, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi.
“The combination of MediaTek’s industry-leading system-on-chip and Nvidia’s GPU and AI software technologies will enable new user experiences, enhanced safety, and new connected services for all vehicle segments, from luxury to entry-level,” said Nvidia’s CEO and founder Jensen Huang (via). The companies plan to begin the production of the MediaTek Dimensity Auto platform in 2026 and launch it in 2027.
MediaTek will be up against several established players in the automotive space. Among these are its existing semiconductor rivals Samsung and Qualcomm. These firms already compete in several areas, including chips for smartphones, tablets, wearables, and TVs, though Samsung has an in-house fab for manufacturing those chips. Samsung’s Exynos Auto and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Auto lineups offer a complete automotive solution for always-connected cars. It remains to be seen what MediaTek’s entry brings to this industry.
MediaTek and Nvidia may also launch optimized chips for premium notebooks
This partnership between MediaTek and Nvidia may not be limited to the automotive sector. There have been reports that the two companies are working closely to develop optimized chipsets for premium or high-end notebooks. MediaTek also plans to integrate Nvidia GPUs in its flagship smartphone processors.
The latter plan will not materialize this year, though. MediaTek has already confirmed that its next-gen flagship SoC will use the latest ARM tech. The new solution, presumably called the Dimensity 9300, will arrive later this year featuring the Cortex-X4, Cortex-A720, and Cortex-A520 CPU cores and the Immortalis-G720 GPU. It will rival Qualcomm’s next-gen Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
2023-05-31 15:06:33