InsideDSP — In-depth analysis and opinion

CogniVue's "Opus" APEX Generation 3: Vision Processing With Implementation Flexibility

Practical computer vision (i.e. "embedded vision") is rapidly becoming a mainstream reality. Numerous processor chip and core suppliers have responded to increasing market demand with a variety of processor options. One of the first companies to target the vision processor space, Quebec, Canada-based CogniVue, has just unveiled its third-generation core architecture. CogniVue's path to the vision market involved several intermediate steps. The company was initially founded fifteen years ago by Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—What Does Semiconductor Industry Consolidation Mean for Embedded Systems Designers?

The semiconductor industry has been on a head-spinning merger binge lately. NXP is acquiring Freescale. Avago is acquiring Broadcom. Intel is acquiring Altera. Much has been written about the motivations for these mergers, and about the implications for investors in the merged firms. But so far, little has been said publicly about the consequences for customers. For designers of embedded systems, the most obvious result of these mergers is fewer suppliers to choose from. In itself, fewer Read more...

Case Study: Independent Evaluation Enables a Development Kit to Hit a Home Run

BDTI is well known for its software-related capabilities: performance- and power consumption-related benchmarking, for example, along with algorithm evaluation and development and optimization work. In such projects, BDTI frequently employs semiconductor manufacturers' evaluation boards and associated software toolsets, which are often combined to create development kits. And as noted several months ago, BDTI is no stranger to hardware development, either, partnering with chip suppliers to co- Read more...

Cadence's Tensilica Fusion: DSP for the IoT

The "Internet of Things" (IoT), one of the hottest topics in technology today, is widely anticipated to be a notable driver of both semiconductor and software demand in coming years. Key to an understanding of the IoT opportunity, as a recent article published on the Embedded Vision Alliance website notes, is its machine-to-machine aspect. Content generated at the source end of the IoT communication link is created by devices using various sensor technologies, which are forecast to experience Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—The Meaning of "Smart"

These days we all have smart phones. Smart watches recently received a big boost with Apple's entry. And there is much talk of smart cities, smart factories, smart homes, smart trash receptacles...there's even a smart pacifier for your baby. I'm starting to feel like the term "smart" is so overused, it's becoming meaningless. And that's had me thinking: What do we mean when we say that a product is "smart"? Obviously, we don't always mean the same thing. But, often, I think the essence of " Read more...

Case Study: Squeezing Code to Create Space for New Features

Semiconductor memory is increasing in capacity and becoming more cost-effective all the time. Yet, plenty of deeply embedded applications still exist for which every spare byte of RAM or flash memory is a precious commodity, especially those leveraging on-SoC storage versus discrete components. Tack on a performance-constrained DSP, intentionally speed-hampered to minimize power consumption, and a limited-capacity battery coupled with a multi-day or -week operating life expectation, and you've Read more...

Synopsys Fields Processor Core for Neural Network Computer Vision Applications

The computer vision market is in a period of dramatic expansion. Market forecasts consolidated by Synopsys attest to the burgeoning adoption of practical computer vision (i.e. "embedded vision") technology (Figure 1) in a range of high-volume products. This growth is fueled by the increasing performance and decreasing cost and power consumption of processors, and by the growing awareness of the value that can be delivered via object detection, tracking, recognition and other vision processing Read more...

Jeff Bier’s Impulse Response—Special-purpose Processors Focus on Computer Vision

It's now very clear that computer vision is becoming a mass-market technology. Modern, practical computer vision (or, "embedded vision," as I prefer to call it) is rapidly becoming essential in cars, for example, where it enables a host of valuable safety features. In smartphones, computer vision enables better photographs and image-based search. And new smart-home devices use vision to perform functions such as messaging you when your kid gets home, or when an unknown person arrives. This is a Read more...

Case Study: Chip Vendors, Walk a Mile in Your Customers’ Shoes

Let's face it: Applications are getting more complicated. Chips are getting more complicated. And engineering teams are generally getting smaller, not larger. As a result, it's incumbent on chip vendors to provide robust, easy-to-use development kits. Design engineers rely on these kits to quickly evaluate chips and prototype key portions of their systems. Clearly chip manufacturers recognize that development kits are important, and there are hundreds available. But the quality of these kits Read more...

Xilinx Previews New Chips and Tools for Heterogeneous Processing

Back in early 2010, Xilinx first began discussing its "Extensible Processing Platform" concept, followed by a formal introduction of the Zynq-7000 product family one year later (with initial sampling another year after that). Zynq-7000 wasn't the first processor-plus-programmable logic combo chip; both Xilinx and competitors like Altera had previously developed such devices. But at the time it was unique in that it embedded a full-fledged processor subsystem, including a full peripheral set, Read more...