Cadence Introduces New DSP for High-End and Always-On Applications

     Cadence Electronics (Cadence, USA) today announced that it has expanded its popular Tensilica Vision DSP product line with two new DSP IP processors for embedded vision and AI applications. Compared to its predecessor, the Tensilica Vision Q7 DSP, the flagship Cadence Tensilica Vision Q8 DSP features an industry-leading 3.8 trillion operations per second (TOPS), providing dual capabilities for high-end vision and imaging applications in the automotive and mobile markets. times the performance, memory bandwidth and energy efficiency. The Tensilica Vision P1 DSP, on the other hand, is optimized for always-on and smart sensor applications in the consumer market, providing a very energy-efficient solution.

     There has been strong customer interest in the Vision Q8 and Vision P1 DSPs and several evaluations are currently underway. The new DSP products complement Cadence's mature vision and AI DSP portfolio, offering customers greater design flexibility through best-in-class technology.

     The Vision Q8 and Vision P1 DSPs are based on similar SIMD and VLIW architectures found in existing Tensilica Vision DSPs and feature an N-way programming model. The model retains software compatibility, allowing easy software porting from previous generation Tensilica Vision DSPs with different SIMD widths. Like the rest of the Tensilica Vision DSP family, the Vision Q8 and Vision P1 DSPs support the Tensilica Instruction Extensions (TIE) language so customers can customize the instruction set. Both DSPs also support Xtensa® Neural Network Compiler (XNNC) and Android Neural Networks API (NNAPI) for neural networks. In addition, the new product supports over 1700 OpenCV-based vision library functions, OpenCL and Halide compilers for computer vision and imaging applications. Both products are ASIL certified, ASIL-B for hardware random failures and ASIL-D for systemic failures, making them ideal for use in the automotive industry.