OmniVision Brands 4K Video Processor as Lowest Power Consuming SoC of Its Kind

HEVC is a popular video compression standard because its reduced storage requirements make it practical to stream 4K videos over wireless connections. The drawback is that the compression routine is computationally intensive, consequently requiring more power. 

 

Omnivision’s OA804 video processor. Image (modified) used courtesy of  (PDF) Omnivision

 

The OA805 from Omnivision is a system-on-chip (SoC) that makes HEVC possible for battery-powered devices such as security cameras and video doorbells because of its power efficiency.

 

Notable Features

Security. The SoC offers support for AES/DES/3DES encryption and decryption and secure boot with firmware image authentication. The device also limits JTAG accesses to authenticated users. 

Display Interface. The video processor supports a MIPI two-lane transmitter, a 10-bit digital video output port (DVP) port, on-screen display, and scaling.

 

Block diagram for the OA805. Image used courtesy of (PDF) OmniVision

 

The OA805 comes in an 11mm by 11mm package and can operate over a -30°C to +85°C temperature range.

 

Fast Turn-On Time

The OA805 boots up in 100 milliseconds, which, OmniVision asserts, is significantly faster than its nearest competitor. Moreover, the boot-up only occurs after motion is detected with no need for a standby or sleep mode.

Because the unit draws no power when it is off, the company expects the device to have two years of battery life.

David Ho, product marketing manager at OmniVision, explains the conundrum of HD video streams and power consumption: 

“High-end surveillance cameras need video processors that can cope with high-definition 4K resolution video streams. However, high-resolution video translates into high-power consumption, and manufacturers have had to either settle for lower resolution video to conserve power in their battery-powered systems, or rely on a hard-wired solution."

Ho explains that the OA805 solves this trade-off.

"Its support for both HEVC and H.264 video compression, in combination with the industry’s lowest power consumption and fastest boot-up time, allows designers to incorporate leading-edge performance into products that their customers can quickly and easily install anywhere, so they never miss a thing.”

 

Image Processing

This video processor is designed to process up to 30 frames per second (fps) at 4K resolution using HEVC encoding and decoding. With the H.264 video compression standard, the unit can process 60fps at 1080 p resolution.

The OA805 also supports the HDR and RGB-IR standards.

 

Omnivision claims that the 4K video processor offers the industry's lowest power consumption and HEVC compression capability. Image (modified) used courtesy of (PDF) Omnivision

 

The OA805 incorporates dual embedded Arm Cortex-A5 CPU cores as well as Arm’s Neon technology to accelerate audio and video encoding/decoding. The OA805 is said to accept input from RBG/IR image sensors due to its high dynamic range (HDR) processing capabilities.

This video processor can operate at night and day and with contrasting dark and bright images.

 

Computing Power

The OA805 incorporates dual embedded Arm Cortex-A5 CPU cores as well as Arm’s Neon technology to accelerate audio and video encoding/decoding.

The two cores serve as the CPU and as the secondary processing units, respectively. They both support a 32kB instruction cache and a 32kB data cache. 

There is also a secondary 32-bit RISC MCU serving as a media processing unit. This MCU supports an 8kB instruction cache and an 8kB data cache. 

The OA805 will be displayed at CES 2020 in Las Vegas from January 7–10.