Specifications
SoC
Renesas R-Car V4H
CPU
4 × Arm® Cortex®-A76 @ 1.8 GHz
Real-Time Cores
3 × lockstep Arm® Cortex®-R52 @ 1.4 GHz
AI Performance
Up to 30 TOPS dense deep-learning inference
GPU
Imagination PowerVR AXM-8-256 @ 600 MHz, over 150 GFLOPS
Image Processing
Integrated Image Signal Processor (ISP)
Memory Option A
8 GB LPDDR5 at 6400 MT/s
Memory Option B
16 GB LPDDR5 at 5500 MT/s
Flash
64 MB QSPI NOR flash
Storage
microSD card slot
Camera Inputs
2 × MIPI CSI
Display
1 × DisplayPort, 1 × MIPI DSI
Networking
1 × Gigabit Ethernet AVB
Automotive Buses
2 × CAN-FD
USB
2 × USB 3.0 Type-A + 2 × USB 3.0 Type-C
Expansion
1 × M.2 Key-M (PCIe Gen4 x2 lanes), 2230 and 2242 modules supported, 40-pin GPIO header
Audio
3.5 mm headset jack, 3.5 mm AUX input
Debug
2 × serial debug ports, 20-pin JTAG connector
Power
USB Power Delivery — 20V, 3A to 5A (60W to 100W), no dedicated PSU required
Operating Temperature
0°C to 40°C
Dimensions
146 × 90 mm
Software
Fully open-source Linux environment; Yocto and Debian-based BSPs on Linux kernel v6.18 / U-Boot v2026.04
Overview
Sparrow Hawk is a compact, highly expandable edge AI development board built on the Renesas R-Car V4H system-on-chip. Originally an automotive platform, the R-Car V4H pairs four Arm® Cortex®-A76 application cores at 1.8 GHz with three lockstep Arm® Cortex®-R52 real-time cores, an integrated Image Signal Processor and an AI engine rated at up to 30 TOPS dense inference. An Imagination PowerVR AXM-8-256 GPU at 600 MHz adds over 150 GFLOPS of graphics and parallel compute.
The appeal for industrial and embedded developers is that automotive silicon brings interfaces and safety concepts that general-purpose SBCs lack. Sparrow Hawk exposes two CAN-FD ports, a Gigabit Ethernet AVB port, two MIPI CSI camera inputs, DisplayPort and MIPI DSI, plus a 40-pin expansion header for standard HATs and MIPI accessory boards. An M.2 Key-M slot with PCIe Gen4 connectivity accepts 2230 and 2242 NVMe modules for local storage.
Two memory configurations are offered: 8 GB LPDDR5 at 6400 MT/s or 16 GB LPDDR5 at 5500 MT/s, letting developers trade bandwidth against capacity depending on whether the target workload is camera-heavy or model-heavy. Beyond the SoC, storage and expansion come from a microSD slot and 64 MB of QSPI NOR flash.
Power is supplied over USB Power Delivery at 20V / 3–5A (60–100W), so no dedicated bench supply is needed to bring the board up. The software story is deliberately open: Yocto and Debian-based board support packages are maintained at Linux kernel v6.18 with U-Boot v2026.04, and the board boots a fully open-source Linux distribution with ongoing security patches. Note that R-Car V4H secure boot cannot be used on Sparrow Hawk due to a hardware limitation, and camera input is MIPI CSI only — automotive GMSL cameras are not supported without external conversion.
QS Compute supplies Sparrow Hawk boards and accessories for automotive, robotics and industrial vision development programmes. Contact us for volume pricing and matched MIPI CSI cameras and DSI displays.
Key Benefits
30 TOPS dense AI from the R-Car V4H AI engine. Automotive-grade interfaces — 2× CAN-FD, Ethernet AVB, 2× MIPI CSI. Heterogeneous compute with Cortex-A76 application cores plus lockstep Cortex-R52 for real-time control. Up to 16 GB LPDDR5 for larger models. Open-source Linux BSP (Yocto and Debian) on kernel v6.18 with continuous security updates. USB PD powered — no dedicated power supply required.
Applications
Automotive ADAS and automated image recognition development; industrial robotics and machine vision prototyping; intelligent transportation and roadside perception; autonomous mobile robots; vision-based inspection R&D; embedded AI evaluation and benchmarking; academic and research projects requiring automotive SoC interfaces.
Request a Quote — RETRONIX SPARROW HAWK — RENESAS R‑CAR V4H EDGE AI DEVELOPMENT BOARD WITH 30 TOPS
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