OmniVision Technologies, a developer of advanced digital imaging solutions, has launched its new OAX4000, a companion image signal processor (ISP) that it claims offers design flexibility for next-generation automotive single- and multicamera architectures. This, the company says, will enable OEMs to futureproof their designs for added functionality as market demands change.
Targeted at automotive applications including surround-view systems, e-mirror, interior and autonomous driving cameras, the OAX4000 consists of an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) capable of processing data streams from up to four cameras at 3MP or one at 8MP. It supports multiple color filter array (CFA) patterns and provides the option to output stream for both machine vision and human viewing pipelines independently. Additionally, OmniVision says the imaging pipeline has been upgraded to provide superior image quality. This includes the next-generation tone-mapping algorithm.
“Our mission is to help automotive OEMs by understanding the problems they need to solve now, as well as in the future,” said Andy Hanvey, director of automotive marketing at OmniVision. “The new OAX4000 ISP offers the design flexibility and compact size to fit into a wide variety of camera architectures, reducing development complexity and cost. Additionally, this high-performance ASIC has the processing capacity for a wide variety of camera use cases.”
The OAX4000 acts as a companion ISP for the OmniVision HDR sensors, designed to provide a complete multicamera viewing application solution with fully processed YUV output. It is capable of processing up to four camera modules at 140dB HDR, along with the LED flicker mitigation (LFM). The system supports multiple CFA patterns, including Bayer, RCCB, RGB-IR and RYYCy. Additionally, the company claims the OAX4000 offers more than 30% power savings over the previous generation.
OmniVision also notes that while electronic control modules traditionally required two ISPs, only one is needed when using the OAX4000, reducing design complexity and space, and improving overall reliability.
