intoPIX-powered automotive & autonomous driving solutions
The growing demand for building cost-effective and efficient Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) or Autonomous Driving (ADS) is requiring a new class of compression IP-cores to simplify the imaging pipeline from the sensors to the processing unit. intoPIX offers the solutions that reduce transmission bandwidth and increase storage capacity in the design, test and deployment of ADAS / AD systems.
Incorporating the latest image sensor performances, running with an extremely low complexity, low latency and lossless image quality for multiple vision-based algorithms, intoPIX TicoRAW and TicoXS IP-cores, are ideal to address these challenges.
The challenges of the automotive industry
For autonomous driving, multiple sensors are combined and their data transmitted to a so-called ECU (Electronic Central Unit) in which the data from the sensors are jointly analyzed and related actions calculated. Data from these sensors need to be processed with maximum responsiveness, therefore implying a very low latency along the whole dataflow.
In terms of implementation and given the number of sensors, power consumption needs to be constrained as much as possible. The cabling inside the car is also critical. High-resolution cameras and limited interface bandwidths require smart compression to reduce the bandwidth during low-latency transmission and/or aggregating multiple sensor streams on one port/cable. Our solutions are suitable any protocols such as MIPI or Automotive Ethernet and runs on FPGA, ASIC, CPU or GPU.
The in-car transmission - or infotainment - is a collection of hardware and software in automobiles that provides audio or video entertainment as automotive navigation systems, video players, USB and Bluetooth connectivity, Carputers, in-car internet, and WiFi. intoPIX enables to transmit video with lossless quality & microsecond latency, with new technology such as JPEG XS (see TicoXS)
Automotive always requires more cameras that generate an incredible amount of data and thus heavier bandwidth.
Our objective with new RAW CFA compression (see TicoRAW) is to avoid the multiplication of heavy cables that would imply extra cost, extra space requirement and extra power consumption. Furthermore, in this kind of extremely sensitive use, we cannot afford to neglect the latency; the slightest delay could have catastrophic consequences.
intoPIX automotive solutions overview
TicoRAW for automotive sensor data
Our TicoRAW solutions enable to optimize RAW Bayer (& other CFA data) during the capture, transfer, storage and machine learning at the speed of light. Low power in camera, it enables to capture, store and stream RAW (CFA, Bayer), including HDR at the 10X reduced size and bandwidth. Our range of FPGA & ASIC cores (encoder/decoder) supports high resolution (from 2MP to 64MP or more), at 30, 60, 120 fps (or beyond), handling RGGB, RYYCy, RCCC, and other CFA pattern from 8 to 16bit.
Lossless (mathematically) compression capability is also an intrinsic feature. Our encoding / decoding software libraries target x86-64 CPU , ARM64 CPU & Nvidia GPUs with unbelievable performances! The software capability is also a key benefit for the data acquisition in the vehicle for development purpose.
TicoXS (JPEG XS) for automotive video connectivity
intoPIX has a large range of JPEG XS implementations from IP-cores for FPGA & ASIC to software libraries. The new lightweight low-latency ISO standard is design to replace uncompressed video, preserving a microsecond latency, a lossless quality with a minimal encoding/decoding complexity, which perfectly answer the needs of the automotive industry.
The ultimate benefits of intoPIX automotive solutions
| TicoRAW | TicoXS | |
|---|---|---|
| Extremely low latency |  | |
| Pristine Quality Lossless for Human or Machine Vision | | |
| Lower bandwidth | | |
| Reduced cost and power consumption in devices | | |
| High resolution supported | | |
| Compliant with MIPI interfaces or Automotive Ethernet | | |
| Less interfaces, Less cables, Less storage | | |
TicoRAW Bandwidth-reduction example
for Sensor data interfacing over MIPI or over Auto Ethernet
With a TicoRAW sensor compression at 4:1 for example (as in the tables hereunder), it will use (at least) 4x less bandwidth or support (at least) 4x more resolution on same bandwidth, same number of MIPI lane, or transport 4x more sensors on the same wire.
Note that TicoRAW could compress down to 10:1 and go below 1 Gbps for many formats mentioned hereunder.
| < 2.5 Gbps |
| < 5 Gbps |
| < 10 Gbps |
Regular RAW (in Gbit/sec)
| Format | Fps | 8 bit | 10 bit | 12 bit | 14 bit | 16 bit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1MP/720p | 30 | 0.22 | 0.28 | 0.33 | 0.39 | 0.44 |
| 1MP/720p | 60 | 0.44 | 0.55 | 0.66 | 0.77 | 0.88 |
| 2MP/1080p | 30 | 0.50 | 0.62 | 0.75 | 0.87 | 1.00 |
| 2MP/1080p | 60 | 1.00 | 1.24 | 1.49 | 1.74 | 1.99 |
| 4MP | 30 | 0.91 | 1.13 | 1.36 | 1.59 | 1.81 |
| 4MP | 60 | 1.81 | 2.27 | 2.72 | 3.1 | 3.63 |
| 4K UltraHD | 30 | 1.99 | 2.49 | 2.99 | 3.48 | 3.98 |
| 4K UltraHD | 60 | 3.98 | 4.98 | 5.97 | 6.97 | 7.96 |
| 10MP | 30 | 2.26 | 2.83 | 3.40 | 3.96 | 4.53 |
| 10MP | 60 | 4.53 | 5.66 | 6.79 | 7.93 | 9. 06 |
TicoRAW (in Gbit/sec)
| Format | Fps | 8 bit | 10 bit | 12 bit | 14 bit | 16 bit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1MP/720p | 30 | 0.06 | 0.07 | 0.08 | 0.10 | 0.11 |
| 1MP/720p | 60 | 0.11 | 0.14 | 0.17 | 0.19 | 0.22 |
| 2MP/1080p | 30 | 0.12 | 0.16 | 0.19 | 0.22 | 0.25 |
| 2MP/1080p | 60 | 0.25 | 0.31 | 0.37 | 0.44 | 0.50 |
| 4MP | 30 | 0.23 | 0.28 | 0.34 | 0.40 | 0.45 |
| 4MP | 60 | 0.45 | 0.57 | 0.68 | 0.78 | 0.91 |
| 4K UltraHD | 30 | 0.25 | 0.62 | 0.75 | 0.87 | 1.00 |
| 4K UltraHD | 60 | 1.00 | 1.25 | 1.49 | 1.74 | 1.99 |
| 10MP | 30 | 0.57 | 0.71 | 0.85 | 0.99 | 1.13 |
| 10MP | 60 | 1.13 | 1.41 | 1.70 | 1.98 | 2.27 |
