Xilinx Powers Baidu’s Production-Ready Apollo Computing Unit

CHANGSHA, China, Dec. 19, 2019  — (Baidu 2019 Apollo Ecosystem Event) –  Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX), the leader in adaptive and intelligent computing, today announced that the Xilinx® Automotive (XA) Zynq® UltraScale+™ MPSoC (XAZU5EV) is powering Baidu’s production-ready Apollo Computing Unit (ACU)-Advanced platform for Automated Valet Parking (AVP), the industry’s first dedicated computing solution for AVP. The ACU is Baidu’s advanced in-vehicle computing platform for autonomous driving. ACU-Advanced is the first production-ready AVP controller enabled by an XA Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC.

Designed for the specific scenarios and functions of valet parking, which require sophisticated and powerful deep learning inference to handle the complex driving environment, the production-ready ACU-Advanced for AVP features the XA Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC for sensor fusion and AI processing, replacing the GPU used in proof-of-concept. In addition, the platform is fully compatible with the Baidu PaddlePaddle framework, and includes five cameras, 12 ultrasonic radars and a -40 ~ 85℃ working temperature range, which meets vehicle–level production requirements.

“Through our close collaboration with Xilinx, we are providing automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers with an adaptable computing platform,” said Wang Yunpeng, senior director of Baidu’s Automatic Driving Technology Department. “The Xilinx technology is at the heart of our ACU- Advanced platform for AVP as no other solution could provide us with the performance required for mass production.”

Xilinx is a leading automotive solution provider with over 13 years of auto industry experience. The company’s automotive solutions offer the ultimate in hardware and software partitioning flexibility combined with a variety of networking connectivity options, unique functional safety architecture configurations and security features for current and future autonomous drive modules. Cumulatively, Xilinx has shipped more than 170 million devices globally for automotive use, with 70 million used for production ADAS systems. The company works with over 200 automotive companies, comprised of major Tier 1s, OEMs, and startups globally.

“Baidu is increasingly a major player in automotive, and Xilinx is the ideal solution to solve the technical challenges associated with AVP and automated vehicle development,” said Yousef Khalilollahi, vice president, core vertical markets, Xilinx. “By providing an adaptable hardware platform, Baidu can design flexible and scalable systems that seamlessly incorporate AI compute acceleration and functional safety through diversity in processing engines. We look forward to expanding our collaboration with Baidu to take automated driving to the next level.”