A 51.2 GOPS programmable video recognition processor for vision-based intelligent cruise control applications

This paper describes a 51.2 COPS video recognition processor that provides a cost effective device solution for vision-based intelligent cruise control (ICC) applications. By integrating 128 4-way VLIW (Very Low Instruction Word) processing elements and operating at 100MHz, the processor achieves to provide a computation power enough for a weather robust lane mark and vehicle detection function written in a high level programming language, to run in video rate, while at the same time it satisfies power efficiency requirements of an in-vehicle LSI. Basing on four basic parallel methods and a software environment including an optimizing compiler of an extended C language and video-based GUI tools, efficient development of real-time video recognition applications that effectively utilize the 128 processing elements are facilitated. Benchmark results show that, this processor can provide a four times better performance compared with a 2.4 GHz general purpose micro-processor.