Denver, CO—October 22, 2024—System76, the leading US-based manufacturer of Linux computers, has collaborated with chipmaker Ampere to create Thelio Astra, an arm64 developer desktop for autonomous vehicle (AV), automotive safety systems (ADAS), and software-defined vehicle (SDV) development. Software development, testing, and simulation natively on the same architecture as arm-based automotive ECUs is faster, cost-effective, consumes less power, and promotes safer roads with smarter prototypes.

Engineered around the intense demands of autonomous driving, advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), and software-defined vehicle (SDV) development, Thelio Astra brings automakers closer to delivering their vision for self-driving vehicle, with arm-native development on the Ampere® Altra® family of processors and lifetime in-house support from a reputable Linux shop. System76’s nimble team of production, QA, mechanical engineers, software engineers, and support technicians—all under the same roof in their factory in Denver—operates as a well-oiled machine, serving industry-leading clients around the world with their expertise.

Software-defined vehicles, ADAS and autonomous vehicles rely on arm64 embedded systems. Until now, such software testing relied on inefficient arm emulation or limited performance automotive ECUs. System76’s Thelio Astra changes the game, offering arm64 and NVIDIA GPU support out of the box.

“System76 is revolutionizing modern computing first with their Thelio Mega AI/ML power desktop, and now with Thelio Astra, an arm developer desktop engineered to meet the demands of autonomous vehicle development,” said Tony Rosella, Product Manager of System76. “We’ve created this optimized workstation built around the powerful Ampere processors, and designed for the unique challenges of automotive developers.”

“End-to-end native parity is what the automotive industry needs to deliver better quality software faster. This 128-core desktop runs dozens of virtual ECUs executing thousands of unit tests.” says Joe Speed, Head of Edge at Ampere, adding, “System76 is democratizing AV and SDV development by putting this power into the developer’s hands, right on their desk.”

Thelio Astra: Designed for AI-Driven Autonomous Vehicles

Developers require specialized tools to ensure peak performance, compatibility, and reliability when developing and testing the software that powers AVs, ADAS, and digital cockpits with SOAFEE. Thelio Astra’s custom design optimizes the relationship between its thermal systems and Ampere® Altra® processors, offering:

● Compatibility: arm64 and NVIDIA GPU support out of the box, eliminating the need for arm emulation.

● Power: The thermal system is meticulously engineered to prevent thermal throttling, ensuring reliable, sustained performance during the most intensive workloads.

● Support: System76 offers lifetime in-house support, highly rated for its expertise and responsiveness, giving developers peace of mind when working on critical projects.

● Cost-Effective: More powerful and cheaper than bare metal cloud GPU instances. It pays for itself in months. The Ampere® Altra® CPUs which power Thelio Astra yield much faster arm64 software testing than arm64 emulation on x86 workstations and servers — and it does this while consuming a fraction of the power.

Thelio Astra can be configured with up to:

● 128-core Ampere® Altra® (3.0 GHz)

● 512GB 8 channel DDR4 ECC memory (3200 MHz)

● NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada GPU

● 16TB PCIe 4.0 M.2 NVMe storage

● Dual 25 Gigabit ethernet SPF28

Empowering Automotive Developers

Automotive software should be developed and tested natively on arm64 architecture to minimize cross-compilation, cross-platform debugging, and avoid unexpected behaviors. With accelerated development and testing on native hardware, Thelio Astra gets us closer to ubiquitous autonomy and our software-defined vehicle future. Developers can greatly simplify their environments, “shift-left” their testing with “arm virtual hardware” instead of emulation. You can see the difference for yourself with qemu-coremark. Thelio Astra offers an all-in-one solution, taking care of compatibility and performance so developers can focus on reshaping the future of transportation.

Release Information

Thelio Astra is scheduled for release November 12th, 2024—opening up new possibilities for developers in the automotive AV, SDV, ADAS space and arm enthusiasts.