Ambarella Launches New Edge AI Computer Vision Chips, Boasts of Major Performance Gains
The company's two new parts come with some impressive performance claims, including a fourfold boost in AI compute.
Edge computer vision specialist Ambarella has announced the impending release of two new system-on-chip (SoC) families, the CV5S and CV52S, with the promise of multi-sensor support or improved AI performance from each.
Ambarella extended its CVflow family of edge AI parts late last year with the launch of the multi-sensor CV28M, then earlier this year announced the launch of the 8K-capable CV5. Now it's back, and it has two new parts to show off: The CV5S with multi-sensor support; and the CV52S, which supports only a single sensor but boasts improved AI performance.
"The global security industry is rapidly moving to higher 4K resolutions while increasing AI algorithm capabilities, to achieve better recognition of people and objects, along with multiple imagers for a wider field of view and longer range," claims Ambarella's Jerome Gigot.
“Our new CV5S and CV52S security AI vision SoC families respectively support 4K multi-imager or high-frame-rate 4K single-imager designs with high performance edge AI processing, allowing the development of cameras that do not need to compromise between image resolution and AI processing accuracy."
Both parts include dual Arm Cortex-A76 processing cores running at 1.6GHz, offering twice the compute performance of the company's previous-generation equivalent chips, an enhanced image signal processor (ISP) with boosted HDR, low-light, de-warp, and rotation performance, an on-chip privacy masking system, and new PCI Express and USB 3.2 interface options.
The CV5S aims at multi-sensor projects, offering support for simultaneous processing and encode of four channels of eight megapixel or 4K resolution at 30 frames per second — and at a 30 percent power reduction compared to the company's last-generation equivalent.
The CV52S, meanwhile, supports a single 4K sensor at 60 frames per second with a claimed fourfold boost in computer vision performance, twice the CPU performance, and a 50 percent gain in memory bandwidth over its predecessors.
Ambarella is aiming to begin sampling the two new 5nm parts in October with support for LPDDR4x, LPDDR5, and LPDDR5x RAM options — but has not yet committed to a formal launch date for general availability.