By Greg Gao

(JW Insights) Apr 11 -- Black Sesame Technologies(黑芝麻智能), a leading Chinese autonomous driving solutions provider, unveiled its smart car cross-domain computing platform Wudang and latest in-house AI chip C1200 on April 7 at its “BEST TECH Day 2023” conference held in Wuhan of central China’s Hubei Province.

With the rapid innovation of automobiles, it is an industry consensus that autonomous driving will become a standard feature of cars. Black Sesame aims to bring disruptive and innovative products and technologies to the industry to meet the needs of the domestic market.

Shan Jizhang, founder and CEO of Black Sesame, officially announced that Black Sesame Smart would upgrade the company’s positioning from “the leader of autonomous driving computing chips” to “the leader of smart car computing chips.”

Shan also released the Wudang series, the world’s first cross-domain computing chip platform for intelligent cars, after 24 months of research and development by Black Sesame’s team. The company’s product line covers two major areas: autonomous driving and cross-domain computing.

Its in-house autonomous driving chip, the Huashan series, can well support the latest BEV algorithm and meet the needs of Level 3 and below autonomous driving scenarios, said the company.

As the industry’s first smart car cross-domain computing chip platform, Black Sesame’s Wudang series can perfectly cover the needs of multiple domains in intelligent cars, such as cockpit and smart driving, and has the capability of multi-domain integration, according to the company.

Ding Ding, vice president of Black Sesame Smart Products, said: “The computing needs of smart cars mainly include seven types: general-purpose CPU, AI neural network processing, image rendering, dedicated CV computing, audio and sound effects processing, and efficient and safe real-time computing power. The Extreme Speed Data Exchange Infrastructure (ESDE) developed by Black Sesame can provide an efficient, safe, and reliable database. It can safely isolate the computing power combinations required by different functional safety levels; On the other hand, low-latency processing and transmission of large-flow data it provides can make full use of computing power,” added Ding.

Its latest AI chip C1200 realized the hard-isolated independent computing subsystem, independent rendering and display, meeting the requirements of high security and fast dashboard startup. At the same time, this subsystem can also be flexibly applied to computing scenarios that require independent systems, such as autonomous driving and head-up display, according to the company.

C1200 can flexibly support various architecture combinations in the industry. A single chip can meet requirements including digital rearview mirrors system, driving and parking integration, vehicle computing, infotainment system, smart headlights, and in-car perception systems, bringing customers high-value and cost-effective chip solutions, said Black Sesame.

The company plans to provide the C1200 sample in 2023 and will cooperate with automakers, tier 1 suppliers, and strategic partners in software and hardware development.

Additionally, Black Sesame released the “Huashan Developer Program” to help its ecosystem partners quickly develop and launch products.

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Shanghai, Black Sesame Technologies is an AI company focused on image processing, perception algorithm, and SOC design. Since its start, Black Sesame has established strategic cooperation with many tier-1 Chinese automobile manufacturers, including SAIC Motor (上汽集团), BYD (比亚迪), and NIO(蔚来汽车).