HomeProductsProducts Details

Stacked-die DMS chip packs 1.1 trillion ops/sec processing power

Date: 07/01/2021
Image sensor technology expert OmniVision has launched a stacked-die automotive driver monitoring chip. Highly integrated device packs AI neural processor, image signal processor and DDR3 memory.

This AI powered processor provides processing speeds up to 1.1 trillion operations per second which is required for eye gaze and eye tracking algorithms in driver monitoring systems. With 1K MAC of convolutional neural network acceleration, the QAZ8000 is designed to consume just one watt of power in typical conditions.

The neural processor is supported by popular TensorFlow, Caffe, MXNet, and ONNX toolchains. The other processor cores available on chip includes Arm Cortex A5 CPU cores with Neon technology for accelerated video encoding/decoding and on-chip video analytics algorithms, along with hardware for image processing, video encoding and RGB/IR processing. The video input can be both from RGB and infrared image sensors so that it supports videos taken during both day and night. To give an example, the on chip video encoder can read 5 megapixel image captures from OmniVision’s automotive image sensors, and also delivers quality output up to 2K resolution video at 30 frames per second (fps).

The delay between ignition and activation of driver monitoring system camera is significantly reduced, since boot-up time for the OAX8000 is faster. OmniVision claims boot-up time better than than its nearest competitor.

The processor also supports algorithms such as occupant detection, such as distinguishing a baby from a grocery bag, and providing alerts when objects are left behind in the vehicle.

This chip is suggested to use also as automotive video security systems to perform functions such as FaceID, as well as preset driver-comfort settings (e.g., seat position) that are activated when the DMS first scans the driver’s face.

OmniVision is sampling OAX8000 now in a BGA196 package. It is AEC-Q100 Grade 2 certified for automotive applications.

Market research study points that the demand for DMS to grow faster driven by the European Union’s Euro NCAP requirement that all new cars sold in the region have a DMS camera by 2022.

“Most DMS processors on the market today are not dedicated to this application, requiring added circuitry to perform other system functions that consumes more power, occupies more board space and doesn’t allow room for on-chip SDRAM,” said Brian Pluckebaum, automotive product marketing manager at OmniVision. “By focusing the design of our OAX8000 ASIC on entry-level DMS, we were able to create the automotive industry’s most optimized solution.”