TI rolls out edge AI vision processors

Texas Instruments (TI) has unveiled a new vision processor family that delivers scalable edge artificial intelligence (AI) performance to smart cameras. The integrated system-on-chips (SoCs) deliver improved vision and AI processing capabilities with greater energy efficiency and at a lower cost to vision-based designs, according to TI, supporting up to 12 cameras.

(Source: Texas Instruments Inc.)

The six new vision processors are supported by open-source and evaluation model development tools. In addition, common software is programmable through application programmable interfaces (APIs), frameworks and models. The processors together with software and tools help designers develop and scale edge AI designs across multiple systems, providing faster time to market, said TI.

Key features of the SoCs include an Arm Cortex-A53 or Cortex-A72 central processing unit, a third-generation TI image signal processor, internal memory, interfaces and hardware accelerators. The SoCs deliver from 1 to 32 tera operations per second (TOPS) of AI processing for deep learning algorithms.

The new vision processors include the AM62A3, AM68A3-Q1, AM62A7 and AM62A7-Q1, which support one to two cameras at less than 2 W for applications such as video doorbells, security cameras, driver monitoring, front cameras, dashcams, lawn robots and smart retail systems. The AM62A3 is claimed to be the lowest-cost 1-TOP vision processor.

The AM68A enables one to eight cameras for applications such as machine vision, with up to 8 TOPS of AI processing for advanced video analytics, while the AM69A delivers 32 TOPS of AI processing for one to 12 cameras in applications such as edge AI boxes, autonomous mobile robots and traffic monitoring systems.

Designers can accelerate time to market for edge AI applications with a public beta of TI’s free open-source tool, Edge AI Studio. This tool enables designers to develop and test AI models using user-created models and TI’s optimized models, which can be retrained with custom data, said TI.

The AM68A processors are currently available in production quantities through TI and authorized distributors, while pre-production samples of the AM62A and the AM69A are available through TI. Pricing for the AM6xA processors starts at $12 in quantities of 1,000. Starter lots are available from TI for the AM62A ($249), AM68A ($249) and AM69A ($299).