NEC Introduces Second-Generation Image Processor Series for Automotive Safety Systems

The second generation of NEC’s innovative IMAPCAR offering, the new scalable processors execute up to 270 giga (or billion) operations per second (GOPS) and can be used to detect nearby objects such as vehicles, pedestrians and lane markers in real time, enabling the development of obstacle-detection, forward-collision warning, lane-departure warning and other automotive safety systems that require intensive computing.

With support for both single-instruction multiple-data (SIMD) operations and multiple- instruction multiple-data (MIMD) operations, the IMAPCAR2 processors provide flexibility and performance for the effective implementation of advanced safety systems that combine multiple applications with different computation requirements simultaneously.
“Safety is an objective shared throughout the automotive industry. Passive safety technologies, including seat belt, child restraint and airbag systems, have dramatically improved automobile safety by protecting passengers in an accident,” said Shinichi Iwamoto, vice president, Microcomputer Operations Unit, NEC Electronics Corporation.

“Going beyond these protections, we believe there is a tremendous need for active safety systems that can detect hazardous conditions and help prevent accidents. These advanced safety systems will benefit from the real-time vision processing capabilities of our IMAPCAR2 devices.”