News Releases

TOKYO—Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) today announced it will launch the Visconti^TM[1]2 (TMPV7500) series of image recognition processors for automotive applications. Toshiba will start sample shipments of this series in November this year, and mass production in September 2012.

The Visconti2 (TMPV7500) series, the image recognition processors for automotive applications, recognize lanes, vehicles, pedestrians, traffic signs and so on using camera-based vision systems.

The TMPV7506XBG, incorporates Toshiba's original image processing accelerators suitable for human recognition, and is able to detect pedestrians in the daytime in addition to conventional detection of pedestrians at night. Supporting color cameras, the new processor recognizes not only the tone of the target object but also the color, enabling recognition of traffic lights and signs. As it can connect up to four sets of cameras simultaneously, the TMPV7506XBG is applicable for a bird’s-eye view parking assistance system that uses images synthesized from image data captured by four cameras.

Another line-up within the Visconti2 series is the TMPV7504XBG. Supporting up to two color cameras, the TMPV7504XBG is suitable for a forward monitoring system simultaneously detecting multiple targets, including vehicles, lanes and traffic signs.

Toshiba intends to expand the image recognition processor business by enhancing these devices for industrial and consumer applications as well as for automotive applications. The target is to sell 2 million units annually of the total Visconti processors series in fiscal 2015.

Outline of the new products

Part number	Sample price (tax included)	Sample shipment	Mass production	Production volume
TMPV7506XBG	6,000 yen	November 2011	September 2012	500,000 units a year
TMPV7504XBG	4,000 yen	November 2011	September 2012	1,000,000 units a year

Background

In line with the diffusion of advanced driver assistance systems and digital signage, the market for image recognition processors is expected to grow to 75 to 100 billion yen in fiscal 2015, which is about 1.5 to 2 times the market size in fiscal 2010^[2]. Toshiba commercialized an image recognition processor, Visconti, in 2004, which is incorporated in in-vehicle equipment for recognizing pedestrians at night and in surveillance cameras. The Visconti2 (TMPV7500) series offer enhanced performance.

Main features of the new products

1. Incorporate Toshiba's original image processing accelerators suitable for human recognition (TMPV7506XBG)
The TMPV7506XBG of the Visconti2 series incorporates Toshiba’s original image processing accelerators using HOG (Histogram of Oriented Gradients) features, enabling real-time pedestrian detection both in night-time and daytime. HOG features are suitable for detection of humans due to its robustness against lighting changes and small deformations.

2. Support of high-resolution color cameras
Whereas Visconti supports grayscale cameras, the Visconti2 series also support high-resolution color cameras of up to 1.3 million pixels. As well as improving the object recognition rate, the new products are suitable for applications requiring color recognition, such as detection of traffic lights and signs.

3. Up to 4 cameras connectable (TMPV7506XBG)
Up to four cameras can be simultaneously connected to the TMPV7506XBG of the Visconti2 series, whereas only three were able for previous Visconti, making it suitable for a bird's-eye view parking assistance system that uses images synthesized from image data captured by four cameras.

4. High-performance image recognition at low power consumption
Whereas Visconti incorporate only three sets of MPE (media processing engine) operating at 0.15 GHz and one image processing accelerator, the Visconti2 series incorporate four sets of MPE operating at 0.266 GHz, and up to six image processing accelerators, enabling object detection with enhanced performance. The new processors with operating frequency of 0.266 GHz achieve computing performance equivalent to that of processors of 3 GHz class for notebook PCs and realize low power consumption.

Main specifications of the new products

Part number		TMPV7506XBG	TMPV7504XBG
CPU core		Toshiba original 32-bit RISC CPU "MeP"[3]
Image recognition engine		Toshiba original multi-core media processor "Venezia" (incorporating "MPE" x 4)
Image processing accelerators	Affine transform	1ch
	Filter	2ch
	Histogram	1ch
	Histogram of oriented gradients (HOG)	1ch	-
	Matching	1ch
On-chip memory		Mask ROM: 64 Kbytes SRAM: 2080 Kbytes
On-chip peripheral functions	Video input I/F	4ch	2ch
	Video output I/F	1ch
	Main memory controllers	DDR2 SDRAM controller NOR Flash/SRAM controller
	PCI Express	1 lane	-
	CAN controller	3ch
	I2C I/F	4ch
	UART I/F	5ch
	SPI I/F	4ch
	PCM I/F	2ch
	Timer/Counter	11ch
Power supply voltage		Core: 1.1 V, I/O: 3.3 V and 1.8 V
Operating frequency		Max. 266 MHz
Operating temperature		Ta=-40 to 85 oC, Tj=-40 to 125 oC
Package		BGA 516 pins, 27 mm × 27 mm, 1.0 mm pitch ppipitch

Note:

[1]

"Visconti ^TM" is a trademark of Toshiba Corporation.

[2]

Survey by Toshiba

[3]

MeP: Media embedded Processor