Ambarella S2 IP Camera SoC Delivers 4K Ultra HD Resolution Video

Hardware analytics acceleration combined with the dual-core CPU provide the processing power necessary to enable cameras to analyze video content and make intelligent decisions based upon it. Leveraging low-power 32nm process technology and Ambarella’s proprietary system architecture, the S2 delivers 1080p60 encoding in less than one Watt and 4K video encoding in less than two Watts.

“By delivering 4K video and multi-core CPU performance in a 32nm low-power design, Ambarella is enabling high resolution video in compact camera form factors,” said Fermi Wang, President & CEO of Ambarella. “With S2, our customers have a flexible platform to create highly intelligent IP cameras that have outstanding image clarity.”

The S2 family provides an array of IP camera design choices. The family is comprised of software and pin-compatible SoCs that range in performance from 1080p45 encode with a 500 MHz dual-core CPU to 4K Ultra HD encode with a 1 GHz dual-core CPU. Camera designers can also access advanced features including analytics hardware acceleration, panoramic lens de-warping, hardware face detection, digital Pan Tilt Zoom and electronic image stabilization. The Linux-based S2 Software Development Kit supports a wide range of image sensors and enables features such as WiFi connectivity, cloud services, local SD Card recording and transcoding. The SDK also offers comprehensive 3A and image tuning tools for customization.

S2 Feature Summary

• Image Sensor Pipeline with high-speed SLVDS/MIPI/HiSPi interfaces, up to 32 Megapixel sensor resolution.
• Wide Dynamic Range with multi-exposure fusion to improve video in high-contrast lighting conditions.
• Advanced 3D noise reduction with de-ghosting to enhance low-light performance.
• 4K video (3840x2160p30 or 1920x1080p120) H.264 encoding to support the new Ultra HD standard. Multi-streaming to enable independent resolutions, frame rate and quality. Support is also offered for video transcoding and low-latency encoding.
• Dual Core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU with NEON and a 512 KB L2 cache provides headroom for customers’ applications, as well as enhanced power efficiency and real-time performance compared to single-core architectures.
• Analytics hardware acceleration for efficient processing of tasks like object tracking, trip zone perimeter control and intelligent motion detection.
• Real-time hardware-accelerated de-warping for 180/360 degree panoramic lenses.
• AES/3DES/SHA-1/MD5 encryption engines.
• Rich set of interfaces allows for compact designs and includes 32-bit DDR3L, Gigabit Ethernet, USBG 2.0 host and device, HDMI, SDXC SD Card, and dual sensor interfaces.