Toshiba drives Visconti3 image recognition processor to automotive market

USA:  Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. (TAEC) has expanded its Visconti series of image recognition processors for the automotive market with the launch of Visconti3, part number TMPV7528XBG.

Visconti3 offers the superior image recognition technology that customers have come to expect from the Visconti series, while the integration of an ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore, with two A9 CPUs and single/double-precision floating point unit (FPU), improves connectivity, performance and system integration for automotive applications.

Real-time image recognition requires the performance of several desktop PC-class processors, but that's not practical for today's car applications due to cost, power and area constraints. The Visconti series uses specialized processors and accelerators to put all the processing needed into a single IC that can fit even in a severely constrained location like a rearview mirror.

The Visconti series incorporates up to four image processors and several types of accelerators enabling camera-based systems in cars to more accurately recognize lanes, vehicles, traffic lights, signs and pedestrians in real time, both day and night. The addition of the dual-core Cortex-A9 MPCore lets automotive OEMs leverage today's popular operating systems to more easily connect Visconti3 to other automotive systems like navigation, smartphone, driver assistance, and the cloud.

The A9 CPU core includes an FPU that improves performance of image processing by handling the mathematical computations required to analyze large volumes of image data from the video source, frame-by-frame in real time, in some of the algorithms whose implementation would be technically more difficult for developers to perform without an FPU.

The FPUs also simplify optimization of the imaging algorithms, so software developers can reduce their overall design time and speed time to market.

"This newest addition to the Visconti series not only demonstrates the Toshiba commitment to creating great automotive products enabling safer cars, it also complements the company's camera line giving Toshiba a bigger systems offering for the camera/image recognition market," says Andrew Burt, VP of the Analog and Imaging Business Unit, System LSI Group at TAEC.

"With the introduction of the Visconti3 device, Toshiba has expanded even further the range of choices for automotive manufacturers implementing image recognition systems in their new car designs. Advanced driver assistance systems are a key selling point in today's car market and the Visconti series gives OEMs the ability to better target price/performance points from low-end to high-end and implement cost-effective options for each tier of their product line-ups."

Samples of the Visconti3, TMPV7528XBG, will become available in April 2013. Pricing will be provided to customers upon request.