© 2015 BDTI 1

Jeff Bier – President, BDTI

12 May 2015

Choosing a Processor for Embedded

Vision: Options and Trends

© 2015 BDTI 2

Processors Enable Vision Everywhere

© 2015 BDTI 3

The Processor Landscape

© 2015 BDTI 4

• CPU

• CPU + GPU

• CPU + DSP

• CPU + vision co-processor

• CPU + FPGA

• CPU + DSP + vision co-processor

• Mobile application processor

• …

Numerous, Diverse Processor Chip Options

© 2015 BDTI 5

Processors come in a surprising variety of forms:

• Silicon IP core (for chip designers)

• Chip

• But not all chips are for sale to all buyers

• System-on-module (SoM)

• Board (development, reference design, production)

• System

Processor Delivery Forms

macrumors.com

© 2015 BDTI 6

Processing Efficiency vs. Development Effort

Performance/$

Performance/W

Development

Effort

© 2015 BDTI 7

Trend: Heterogeneous Architectures

Performance/$

Performance/W

Development

Effort

© 2015 BDTI 8

Recent Trends

© 2015 BDTI 9

Licensable vision-specific silicon IP co-processor cores:

• Apical Spirit core

• Cadence (Tensilica) IVP core

• CEVA second-generation XM-4 core (announced 2015)

• CogniVue second-generation “Opus” core (announced 2015)

• Synopsys EV52 core (announced 2015)

• videantis v-MP4xxx0HDX vision and compression cores

Trend: Vision-specific Silicon IP

Co-processor Cores

© 2015 BDTI 10

• Analog Devices BF609

• Freescale S32V

• Inuitive NU3000

• MobileEye EyeQ4

• Movidius Myraid 2

• Texas Instruments TDA3x

Trend: Vision-specific Processor Chips

Inuitive M3 Reference Design

Movidius Myraid 2

© 2015 BDTI 11

Trend: Convolutional Neural Networks

Degree of Specialization

Software Packages/

Libraries, Frameworks

Architecture Enhancements

Dedicated

Co-processor

None

Architecture Focus

© 2015 BDTI 12

How much of a processor’s potential performance is ultimate realized,

and how much skill, time and risk is required to develop an application

Depend not only on the processor architecture, but also on the:

• Programming model

• Development tools (availability, quality, performance)

• Optimized software libraries

• APIs (e.g., OpenVX)

• Choice of programming languages (e.g., OpenCL)

Trend: Growing Importance of Tools,

Libraries and APIs

© 2015 BDTI 13

What You’re Buying

Processor IP,

Cores

Modules

Development

Boards

SoCs

“Processor”

© 2015 BDTI 14

What You’re Really Buying

Processor IP,

Cores

Modules

Development

Boards

SoCs

Complete Hardware/Software Solutions and

Reference Designs

High-Level CV

Components

Tools,

Lang-

uages,

OSs Drivers &

Accelerators

Application Software

Training, Support, and Development Services

Ecosystem

“Processor:”

Low-Level CV

Components

© 2015 BDTI 15

• New Khronos standard API for acceleration of

vision applications

• Promises portability across heterogeneous

processors (CPU, vision co-processor, GPU,

DSP, etc.)

• Developer specifies data flow graph of vision

algorithm kernels

• Kernels may be implemented in any language

• OpenVX framework partitions the graph

among processing engines, handles memory

transfers, etc.

• Designed for mobile, useful in other domains

Trend: OpenVX API for Mobile Vision

Vision

Accelerator

Application

Application

Application

Application

Vision

Accelerator Vision

Accelerator Vision

Accelerator

Khronos Group

© 2015 BDTI 16

• There are many, diverse processor options for embedded vision

• The landscape is evolving rapidly

• Each vision product is unique

• Selecting a processor is a multi-dimensional optimization problem with

incomplete data

• Allow time to identify and evaluate your options

• A processor is only as good as its tools, libraries, etc.

• Trends to watch:

• Vision-specific processor cores and chips

• CNN-oriented processors

• Tools, libraries and APIs “arms race”

Lessons Learned

© 2015 BDTI 17

For Product Developers:

• Processor Selection

• Algorithm Design

• Software Optimization

For Technology Suppliers:

• Competitive Analysis

• Sounding Board Service

• Independent Reports

• Demo Development

Meet us at the Embedded Vision Summit Technology Showcase

Or visit www.BDTI.com

BDTI Services

© 2015 BDTI 18

• www.Embedded-vision.com

• www.BDTI.com

• “Vision: Promise & Challenge of Heterogeneous Processing,”

http://bit.ly/1rjdBT5

• “Processing Options For Implementing Vision Capabilities in Embedded

Systems,” http://bit.ly/1wq16oW

• “Targeting Computer Vision Algorithms to Embedded Hardware,”

http://bit.ly/1nY2wkD

• “Using Heterogeneous Computing for Mobile and Embedded Vision,”

http://bit.ly/1nY2wkD

Resources