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Devlopment kit from CEVA for creating software for HD media processing

Date: 05/08/2013
Media processor IP provider CEVA has released new application developer kit for developing software modules for the CEVA's HD digital media-signal-processing processor IP cores. This application developer kit allows developers to quickly develop modules which are less power consuming and works with low memory bandwidth.

The CEVA's application developer kit features a standard library of more than 600 programming functions for computer vision processing based on openCV and fully optimised for CEVA-MM3000 processor IP platforms. CEVA says the standard library named CEVA-CV allows developers to use the pre-optimised standard open CV kernels for the target application. The new video stabilizing software module released today has leveraged some of the functions in this developer kit which includes Harris Corner, KLT feature detection, RANSAC, Kalman and Affine Transform.

The developer kit features a software tool called SmartFrame to handle all of the system resource requirements, including data transfers, DMA transactions and the execution of kernels, thereby abstracting the system architecture and automating frame handling for the application developer. The SmartFrame tool also supports kernel tunneling, whereby multiple functions can be linked together, minimizing memory bandwidth and overall system power consumption.

The kit is provided with DSP task management and scheduling software module, handling task prioritization and task switching. To abstract the CPU DSP interface for the programmer, a set of communication channels and system drivers for both the CPU and DSP platforms is also available in this kit. Automatic task offloading from the CPU to the DSP occurs through this Link.

Another interesting feature in this kit is: Software APIs on the CPU are provided for a wide range of computer vision functions, including the CEVA-CV library, enabling the CPU programmer to easily utilize any module running on the DSP, while completely abstracting it.

The above said software tools are provided in source code format by CEVA to its customers/licensees, so that they can use for specific requirements.

Erez Bar-Niv, CTO of CEVA, commented: "Our multimedia product offerings leverage the full breadth of engineering expertise at CEVA, bringing together our processor, algorithm and tools engineering teams to deliver the most robust, end-to-end IP platform for developing advanced computational photography, computer vision and augmented reality applications in the industry. Following several major customer design wins, the growing community of developers creating software for our CEVA-MM3000 platforms is constantly seeking ways to simplify the software development flow in increasingly complex systems environments. The CEVA Application Developer Kit successfully addresses these challenges, bringing new levels of efficiency and productivity for software developers, including those who are traditionally used to working at the CPU level."

CEVA has also made available software module for digital video stabilisation for its imaging processor CEVA-MM3000. The DVS module process the video data in real-time by using low memory bandwidth on the CEVA-MM3000 platform . CEVA's CEVA-MM3000 consumes 35 mW of power while running the software to process a video of specifications 1080p30 fps. The DVS module can scale up to process Ultra HD video stream with resolution of 4K.

DVS software stabilises the video by reducing the shakiness resulting from motion when using the video feature in mobile devices and cameras. The image stabilisation features include rolling shutter (Jell-O effect) correction, and multiple axis correction. These features makes the image looks less shaky when panning, zooming and rotating under different light conditions.

Eran Briman, vice president of marketing at CEVA, commented: "Mobile device manufacturers are constantly on the lookout for differentiating features, most of which are aimed at enabling unique computational photography and vision applications. But even more important is the need to quickly implement such new features to meet product life cycles shorter than six months. Our DVS software module clearly illustrates the added value that the programmable CEVA-MM3000 family of imaging and vision platforms brings to OEMs, who can leverage the inherently low power consumption of DSPs to integrate advanced computational photography capabilities, in a timely and cost-efficient manner. Furthermore, our DVS module can be easily coupled with additional imaging software modules on the fully programmable CEVA-MM3000 platform such as Super-Resolution, Color Enhancement and High Dynamic Range."

You can find more details on DVS at http://www.ceva-dsp.com/DVS.

The Application Developer Kit (ADK) is available for CEVA-MM3000 platform licensees now.