Ambarella Boosts On-Device Computer Vision Performance, Efficiency with the New CV7
New SoC offers double the CPU and video encoding performance, more memory bandwidth, and support for ambient lighting down to 0.01 lux.
Energy-efficient on-device machine learning and artificial intelligence (ML and AI) specialist Ambarella has announced its next-generation computer vision system-on-chip, boasting considerably improved performance over its predecessor: the Ambarella CV7.
"Joining our wide portfolio of edge-AI SoCs, with more than 39 million shipped to date, the CV7 enables consumer and enterprise security camera developers to deliver the most advanced imaging features and the highest edge AI performance, for improved video analytics and higher image quality in their next-generation products," claims Ambarella president and chief executive officer Fermi Wang of the company's latest design. "Additionally, this new SoC's extremely low power consumption reduces thermal management requirements for smaller form factors and longer battery life across a broad range of AIoT [Artificial Intelligence of Things] applications, thanks to its 4nm process technology and Ambarella's proprietary AI SoC architecture, which is purpose built for the edge."
The chip is designed as a successor to the company's CV5, launched back in 2021, targeting the same edge-vision on-device processing workloads. According to Ambarella's in-house benchmarks, the new chip draws 20% less power than its last-generation equivalent — an efficiency gain chalked up "in part" to a shift to Samsung's 4nm semiconductor fabrication node. Inside the chip is the company's in-house proprietary CVflow AI accelerator, an image signal processor, and hardware accelerators for video encoding in H.264, H.265, and Motion JPEG (MJPEG) formats — running, the company claims, at twice the speed of the CV5 to provide support for real-time encoding of a single 4k240, two 8k30, or "over four" 4k30 video streams.
The image signal processor, meanwhile, includes improved High Dynamic Range (HDR) support, automatic fish-eye dewarping for ultra-wide-angle lenses, 3D motion-compensated temporal filtering, and support for ambient lighting down to 0.01 lux. All this specialized hardware is under the control of a quad-core Arm Cortex-A73 central processor, delivering a claimed doubling of CPU performance over the CV5 while a shift to a new 64-bit memory interface increases the available DRAM bandwidth. The one thing Ambarella isn't sharing yet, though: pricing and general availability, though samples are available now.
Ambarella is demonstrating the CV7 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week; additional information is available on the company's website.