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Black Sesame Huashan A1000 (Huashan A1000)

Product Overview​

Black Sesame Technologies (HKEX 02533.HK) was founded in 2016. Founder and CEO Shan Jizhang previously served as R&D VP at a world-leading CMOS image sensor company, specializing in image processing and visual perception for 20 years. The core team hails from Bosch, OmniVision, NVIDIA, Ambarella, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Huawei, ZTE, and others; the company positions itself as a Tier 2 automotive-grade intelligent driving compute chip supplier. Its two proprietary core IPs are the NeuralIQ ISP (Xingmou image signal processor) and the DynamAI NN engine / Jiushao NPU (automotive-grade low-power neural network accelerator).

Black Sesame's automotive chips are split into two product lines: the Huashan series targets compute height, and the Wudang series targets cross-domain breadth. In August 2019 it released its first automotive-grade driving chip, the Huashan A500 (5–10 TOPS); in June 2020 it released the second-generation "Huashan A1000", the first Chinese automotive-grade SoC that can support L2+ assisted driving and, on a single chip, a driving-and-parking integrated domain controller.

The A1000 uses a 16nm FFC automotive-grade process, integrating an 8-core Arm Cortex-A55 @1.5GHz, a five-core high-performance vision DSP, a CV hardware acceleration engine, an H.264/H.265 4K codec, and a proprietary NPU: a mixed-precision 4bit/8bit MAC array with INT8 compute of 58 TOPS and INT4 compute of 116 TOPS, an average convolution-layer MAC array utilization of about 80%, and support for sparse acceleration plus fixed-point 8/16bit and floating-point 16bit GEMM and nonlinear function acceleration. Typical power is only 18W, in an FCBGA 25×25mm package with passive cooling support. The NeuralIQ ISP supports real-time processing of 16 high-definition, high-dynamic-range image streams (1.2 Gpps), with a 3-exposure HDR dynamic range of up to 140dB, plus low-light offline noise reduction and LED flicker suppression.

Automotive grade and safety: The A1000 is the first domestic driving chip to pass both ISO 26262 ASIL-B functional safety certification and AEC-Q100 Grade 2 reliability certification, integrating an independent functional safety island and a cybersecurity island, a dual-core lockstep safety processor, ECC/Parity protection, secure boot, and on-chip OTP key management, operating from -40°C to 105°C.

Same-generation derivative models: the A1000L (16nm, 16 TOPS INT8, up to 8 cameras, for L2/L2+) and the A1000 Pro (announced April 2021, taped out successfully in July; 16nm, 106 TOPS INT8 / 196 TOPS INT4, up to 20 cameras, for L3/L4, and China's first autonomous driving chip exceeding 100 TOPS). All three chips have entered mass production.

Market adoption: The A1000 has entered passenger and commercial vehicle domains with stable supply to multiple mainstream automakers; deployment achievements include mass-production passenger models such as the Geely Lynk & Co series, Geely Galaxy series, and Dongfeng eπ series, plus the FAW Hongqi parking controller, the Shaanxi Automobile light-truck domain controller, commercial-vehicle PA2.0 domain controllers, and domestically produced integrated sensing-communication-compute units. According to Frost & Sullivan, by 2022 shipments of automotive-grade high-compute SoCs (>50 TOPS), Black Sesame held 5.2% and 4.8% share in China and globally respectively, making it the world's third-largest high-compute autonomous driving chip supplier. In 2025, the Huashan A1000 was selected as one of the third "Hubei Premium" products.

Core Specifications​

ParameterValue
ArchitectureProprietary DynamAI NN engine / Jiushao NPU (mixed-precision 4bit/8bit MAC array) + NeuralIQ / Xingmou ISP
Process Node16nm FFC Automotive automotive-grade process
CPU8 × Arm Cortex-A55 @ 1.5 GHz, multi-level cache, TrustZone support
FP16 / BF16 ComputeNot disclosed (the NPU supports FP16 GEMM and nonlinear function acceleration, but no official FP16 TFLOPS figure is published)
INT8 Compute58 TOPS
INT4 Compute116 TOPS
FP32 ComputeNot disclosed
Memory CapacityNot disclosed (selected by the domain controller solution)
Memory TypeAutomotive-grade 64-bit LPDDR4
Memory BandwidthNot disclosed
TDP18 W (typical power)
InterconnectPCIe Gen3 × 4 lanes (configurable as 1×4 or 2×2, as RC or EP) → supports multi-chip cascade expansion
InterfaceSoC onboard (FCBGA 25×25mm, 0.8mm pitch); PCIe Gen3 ×4, USB 3.0 DRD, USB 2.0, and other rich peripherals
ISPNeuralIQ ISP, 16 HD camera inputs, 8MP support, 1.2 Gpps high-dynamic processing, 3-exposure HDR dynamic range of 140dB
Other Compute UnitsFive-core high-performance vision DSP, CV hardware acceleration, H.264/H.265 4K video codec
Functional Safety / Automotive GradeISO 26262 ASIL-B + AEC-Q100 Grade 2; independent functional safety island and cybersecurity island; dual-core lockstep CPU; ECC/Parity; secure boot + on-chip OTP
Operating Temperature-40°C ~ 105°C
CoolingPassive cooling supported
Launch2020-06
Mass Production/AvailabilityCompleted all automotive certifications and entered mass production from 2021; deployed at scale in Geely Lynk & Co/Galaxy, Dongfeng eπ, FAW Hongqi, Shaanxi Automobile, and other models and domain controller products

⚠️ Specification uncertainty: Memory capacity and bandwidth are not officially published (the chip only defines a 64-bit LPDDR4 interface; capacity is selected by the domain controller vendor). FP16/FP32 floating-point compute is not disclosed — officially it is only stated that the NPU supports "fixed-point 8/16-bit, floating-point 16-bit GEMM and nonlinear function acceleration", with no TFLOPS figure given. On the compute figure discrepancy: the official and mainstream reported figures are 58 TOPS INT8 / 116 TOPS INT4, but a few 2023 broker research reports recorded the A1000 as "40–70 TOPS"; this card follows the vendor's official website parameters. On the mass production timeline: Black Sesame's public statement is that "the A1000/A1000L/A1000 Pro have all entered mass production", but the specific SOP month of the first passenger model carrying the A1000 was not consistently disclosed officially; verifiable large-scale vehicle integration mainly occurred after 2023 (e.g., loading the A1000 in Geely Group models through the ECARX-affiliated JICA partnership), so "mass production in 2021" is understood here as completion of automotive certifications and achieving mass-production status.

Key Features​

  • China's first single-chip driving-parking integrated automotive-grade SoC: through a non-time-division multiplexed design, a single chip processes driving and parking functions simultaneously, greatly simplifying the domain controller architecture
  • First domestic chip with dual certification: passed both ISO 26262 ASIL-B functional safety and AEC-Q100 Grade 2 reliability certification
  • High performance, low power balance: 58 TOPS INT8 / 18W typical power with passive cooling support, reducing domain controller thermal design and cost
  • Two proprietary core IPs: NeuralIQ ISP (imaging) + DynamAI NN / Jiushao NPU (inference), with software-hardware co-design
  • Strong multi-sensor integration: 16 HD cameras + LiDAR + millimeter-wave radar seamless integration; 140dB HDR handles backlight/night/tunnel conditions
  • Cascade expansion: PCIe Gen3 ×4 supports multi-chip cascading for progressive L2 → L3+ upgrades
  • BEV model capable: integrated matrix computation units, nonlinear computation units, and DSP, supporting L2++ NOA navigation and 3D surround view
  • Shanhai AI development platform: 50+ AI reference model library conversion use cases, supporting combined QAT and post-training quantization optimization, dynamic heterogeneous multi-core task scheduling, and custom operator development
  • Cost target: Shan Jizhang has stated the goal of keeping the BOM cost of a driving-parking integrated domain controller with 10 cameras and NOA under 3,000 RMB
  • Passenger + commercial vehicle dual-track deployment: passenger domain controllers, parking controllers, light-truck domain controllers, roadside integrated sensing-communication-compute units

Vendor Information​

ItemDetails
CompanyBlack Sesame Technologies Inc. (HKEX 02533.HK)
HeadquartersShanghai, China (offices in Silicon Valley, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Chongqing, and Singapore)
Founded2016
Founder / CEOShan Jizhang (former OmniVision R&D VP)
Business PositioningTier 2 automotive-grade intelligent driving compute chip and solution supplier
Core Proprietary IPsNeuralIQ / Xingmou ISP, DynamAI NN / Jiushao NPU
Product LinesHuashan series (compute height), Wudang series (cross-domain breadth), SESAMEX (embodied AI compute platform)
Key PartnersFAW, Bosch, SAIC, Geely (Lynk & Co/Galaxy), Dongfeng, JAC, SAIC-GM-Wuling, Shaanxi Automobile, ECARX/JICA, Thundersoft
Market PositionBy 2022 >50 TOPS automotive-grade SoC shipments: No. 3 globally (4.8%) and No. 3 in China (5.2%) (Frost & Sullivan)
Websitehttps://www.blacksesame.com.cn

Use Cases​

  • ✅ Single-chip driving-parking integrated domain controllers (L2+ / L2++)
  • ✅ Highway NOA / navigation-on-autopilot assistance
  • ✅ Automated parking, memory parking, 3D surround view
  • ✅ BEV perception model deployment (matrix + nonlinear units + DSP synergy)
  • ✅ Commercial vehicle ADAS domain controllers, light/heavy truck assisted driving
  • ✅ Roadside perception computing (vehicle-road cooperation FAD Edge platform, integrated sensing-communication-compute units)
  • ✅ Mass-production projects sensitive to passive cooling, low power, and low BOM cost
  • ❌ One-stage end-to-end large models for advanced urban NOA (insufficient compute; requires an A2000-class platform)
  • ❌ Large-parameter Transformer / VLA / world model edge inference
  • ❌ L4 Robotaxi single-chip solutions (requires multi-chip A1000 Pro or the A2000 family)
  • ❌ Data center training / general AI inference

References​