Image processors perform real-time detection

Demonstrating its commitment to helping automobile manufacturers easily implement safety mechanisms and collision-prevention systems, NEC Electronics Corp. and NEC Corp. introduced the IMAPCAR2 image processors, which are available in four different configurations to meet a variety of customer requirements and provide the best cost/performance ratio.

The second generation of NEC's innovative IMAPCAR offering, the new scalable processors execute up to 270 giga (or billion) operations per second (GOPS) and can be used to detect nearby objects such as vehicles, pedestrians and lane markers in real time, enabling the development of obstacle-detection, forward-collision warning, lane-departure warning and other automotive safety systems that require intensive computing.

With support for both single-instruction multiple-data (SIMD) operations and multiple- instruction multiple-data (MIMD) operations, the IMAPCAR2 processors provide flexibility and performance for the effective implementation of advanced safety systems that combine multiple applications with different computation requirements simultaneously.

The IMAPCAR2 lineup is the successor to NEC's IMAPCAR processors. The main features of the new IMAPCAR2 include:

?#nbsp;An increase from 8bits to 16bits in the data processing capabilities of the 128 processing engines, as well as an increase from four to six instructions in the variable-length instruction word (VLIW) to enable faster processing speeds.
?#nbsp;A new multicore architecture that enables high-speed parallel processing of multiple algorithms, compared to only SIMD operation—in which all processing engines were focused on the same operation—in the previous generation
?#nbsp;The four IMAPCAR2 devices offer a wide range of features designed for high-end as well as general systems. The lineup includes a device that runs three times faster than the previous generation IMAPCAR, as well as one that is priced 80 percent lower than previous products.

Samples of the first device, IMAPCAR2-300, are scheduled to be available in 1H 09. Availability is subject to change.

- Henri Arnold
EE Times Europe