ADI Blackfin DSP Roadmap to Machine Vision

Recently Analog Devices, inc. released the latest additions to its Blackfin family of DSPs.  The BF60x family is a high performance dual core design targeting high end embedded applications.  Two members, BF608 and BF609, integrate hardware processing for machine vision.  This recent product launch introduces ADI’s Pipelined Vision Processor (PVP). ADI’s PVP is a new dedicated vision accelerator.  The company touts this feature for sophisticated, multi-function analytics.  It can perform up to 25 billion math operations per second.  The BF608/9 is well suited for many embedded vision applications.  The PVP along with the dual 1GHz Blackfin DSP cores offers customers a flexible architecture for them to develop specialized algorithms.  The target applications are ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System), industrial machine vision, and security & surveillance. ADI’s PVP has several functional blocks.  It provides acceleration in such key areas as object detection, object tracking, and object identification.  The PVP architecture is able to run up to five vision algorithms simultaneously.  This enables vision systems to monitor and process data from several sources and off load work from a main processor.  This is particularly important in automotive applications where so many things are going on and driver safety is critical. Semico Spin ADI is offering a powerful and sophisticated product at a very competitive price.  The BF60x family pricing starts at $15 in 1K units.  In addition, ADI is offering a rich development suite of software tools and development boards.  Machine vision has had a long history but its growth has been hampered by complexity and cost.  There are about 65 million vehicles (passenger and commercial) produced annually worldwide.  The ADI BF60x opens up opportunity in automotive and other applications.  The flexible architecture and development ecosystem will enable innovation. Tony Massimini Chief Technology Officer Semico Research Corp. tonym@semico.com 602-997-0337 X3