First-pass silicon success for MFP SoC

By using Synopsys' programmable ARC EV Processor, Kyocera has successfully integrated high-performance artificial intelligence (AI) processing capabilities such as super resolution, with the flexibility to support future AI models. In addition, Kyocera deployed Synopsys' HAPS FPGA-based prototyping system to accelerate ARC EV software development, SoC integration, and system validation.

"Implementing advanced AI functionality into our MFP SoC required high-performance, low-power processor IP with a high-quality tool chain, allowing us to find and test AI algorithms while developing the SoC in parallel," said Michihiro Okada, General Manager, Software Development Division at Kyocera Document Solutions. "Only Synopsys' DesignWare ARC EV Processor IP and mature MetaWare EV Toolkit met our extensibility, performance, and area requirements."

The DesignWare ARC EV6x Processor family integrates scalar, vector DSP, and CNN processing units for highly accurate and fast vision processing. The EV6x Processors support popular convolutional neural networks including SR-GAN, MobileNET, Yolo, GoogLeNet, SSD, and ResNet. To simplify software application development, the EV6x processors are supported by the DesignWare ARC MetaWare EV Development Toolkit, a comprehensive suite of tools and software.

The toolkit includes the MetaWare NN Compiler that analyses neural networks trained using popular frameworks like Tensorflow or Pytorch and automatically generates the executable for the programmable CNN engine.

"As new artificial intelligence applications incorporate the latest high-performance neural networks, designers require superior hardware technology and software tools to deliver SoCs on schedule," said John Koeter, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Strategy for IP at Synopsys. "With our AI-optimised IP solutions that enable fast, accurate vision processing, companies like Kyocera can build competitive products faster and with significantly less risk."