Product category:
Microprocessors, Microcontrollers and DSPs
News Release from: Ambarella | Subject: Ambarella A390
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 29 January 2008
SoC captures video and still images
Ambarella's A390 stores still images in either raw or compressed formats, implementing the JPEG standard at a rate of one picture per second without interrupting full HD-video recording.
Ambarella has introduced the A390, a system-on-a-chip (SoC) that simultaneously captures 8Mpixel still pictures while generating and compressing high-definition (HD) video in either1080p60 or 1080i60 formats The device stores still images in either RAW or compressed formats, implementing the JPEG standard at a rate of one picture per second without interrupting full HD-video recording
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 9 Jan 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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Working at a data capture rate as fast as 480Mpixels-per-second, the A390's speed exceeds 60 frames-per-second at 8Mpixels.
The A390 SoC is the third member in the A3 SoC platform series targeted at hybrid cameras and supports the emerging H.264 AVC video standard.
"Ambarella's A390 combines the best of still photography and HD video recording", said Les Kohn, Ambarella Chief Technology Officer.
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"Consumers will be able to capture both still photos and HD video at the same instant reaching new levels of quality and product flexibility".
The A390 captures data as fast as 480Mpixels/s, which is a rate in excess of 60 frames per second at 8Mpixels.
As is common in digital still cameras (DSC) and in most HD camcorders, a single colour filter array sensor (Bayer RGB) generates red, green and blue (RGB) primary colours.
The A390 converts data from a Bayer pattern to RGB at a very high rate, resulting in a virtually artefact-free and full-resolution video signal.
This kind of processing provides clean edges than the simple binning combination of adjacent pixels commonly used in many camcorders, and leaves no Bayer artefacts.
The A390 yields a higher-resolution output than the extrapolative techniques used with three sensors.
It integrates an H.264 codec capable of encoding full 1080p60 at 1920 pixels per line resolution - 124,416,000 pixels per second.
The A390 integrates an advanced high-performance image-processing pipeline, still image compression using both loss-less (RAW) and lossy (JPEG) formats, audio compression and all key system functions.
The programmability of the Ambarella platform enables implementation of multiple formats for HD video, such as the AVCHD specification for 1080i HD camcorders, as well as many formats commonly used on personal computing platforms.
Depending on the amount of light available, imaging sensors can have a substantial amount of noise and filtering this noise is critical for producing high-quality images.
The challenge of a full-resolution HD camcorder is to reduce the noise without causing a loss of resolution or a loss of detail, so advanced spatio-temporal (3D) filters must be used.
Most available solutions are motion adaptive and switch from a predominantly temporal to a predominantly spatial filter based on detecting the presence of motion.
Because Ambarella's A390 SoC is motion-compensated instead of just motion-adaptive, it truly tracks the motion and uses motion compensation in the filter.
The high capture rate of the A390 allows a new approach to low-light photography.
Instead of capturing a single image in low light with a long exposure that results in a blurry picture, the A390 captures image sequences with short exposures.
This approach combines, or registers, multiple images within the sequence to create a sharp, low-noise picture.
This is the still image equivalent of motion-compensated 3D noise reduction.
The Ambarella A390 SoC is designed for hybrid cameras.
The A3 platform is available in multiple configurations for various requirements.
Evaluation kits for both products are available now from Ambarella, along with pricing information.
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