Oct 27 2015
Qualcomm Incorporated today announced that its subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., unveiled the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 618 IP camera reference design and development platform.
This new camera platform combines Qualcomm Technologies' leading processing, connectivity, imaging and analytics technology to support more powerful and intelligent professional security cameras. The Snapdragon 618 platform includes a reference design and IP camera SDK, supporting 4K HEVC video, comprehensive connectivity and heterogeneous computing for video analytics.
"Qualcomm Technologies continues to drive meaningful value across the IoT ecosystem, and we're seeing tremendous traction in the use of our platforms across many vertical segments," said Raj Talluri, senior vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "We're tapping into our immense portfolio to build custom platforms for key segments within the IoT, and connected cameras are one of these areas that can benefit from our industry-leading connectivity and processing solutions."
A "Conscious Camera"
The Snapdragon 618 IP camera platform combines a powerful six-core, 64-bit CPU, next generation GPU, embedded DSP together with advanced video analytics to move beyond the smart camera to a "conscious camera," that not only streams 4K HEVC, but can perform on-camera video analytics such as object detection, facial detection and recognition, multi object tracking, and Qualcomm® Zeroth™ object classification. With such intelligence on the camera, customers can move from expensive, server-based video analytics in the cloud to more reliable camera-based analytics. By only streaming data when qualified events happen, the new Qualcomm Technologies camera platform is designed to reduce network bandwidth requirements and cloud storage costs for customers using cloud-based security services.
"Moving the video analytics processing from the server to the camera at the point of capture will open up a new class of big data applications," said Anthony Murray, senior vice president and general manager, IoE, Qualcomm Technologies International Ltd. "Qualcomm Snapdragon processors already power over 500 smartphone designs with 4K UltraHD video capability, so it's natural for us to bring this same technology leadership into IP camera space."
The Snapdragon 618 IP Camera platform is a comprehensive reference design for a 4K HEVC IP camera with incredible computation power and robust connectivity. Built around the 64-bit Snapdragon 618 processor, it features:
- Six-core, 64-bit CPU with dual 1.8GHz ARM® CortexTM-A72 + quad 1.2GHz Cortex-A53 cores
- Integrated X8 LTE with Global Mode and advanced Carrier Aggregation up to 2x20 MHz in both downlink and uplink
- LTE Cat 7 with support for peak speeds of 300 Mbps download/100 Mbps upload
- Comprehensive, fast connectivity including 802.11/a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi®, GPS, Ethernet, and Bluetooth® Smart 4.1
- Next generation Qualcomm® Adreno™ GPU and Qualcomm® Hexagon™ DSP together with the six-core 64-bit CPU to provide complete, heterogeneous computing platform for conscious camera advanced analytics and imaging
- Dual image signal processors (ISP) to offer support for up to 21MP images and 4K video with dedicated hardware h.264 and HEVC encoding, offering as much as a 50 percent reduction in bandwidth
- Power management IC with integrated audio codec supports efficient battery operation
Qualcomm Technologies is a recognized technology leader in the mobile industry, and is now embracing the multi-billion dollar connected camera ecosystem. The Snapdragon 618 IP camera has been developed in collaboration with Thundersoft, who will also provide global distribution and support.
"Thundersoft designed this IP camera platform in collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies to take full advantage of the Snapdragon 618 processor's advanced features including 4K@30fps HEVC video support, 4G LTE connectivity, and high performance heterogeneous processing enabling advanced video analytics," said Larry Geng, chief executive officer, Thundersoft. "We are excited to introduce the world's first 4K IP camera reference design incorporating the Qualcomm Snapdragon 618 processor to the IP camera ecosystem and bring new value to connected camera devices targeted for security, surveillance, commercial and even consumer applications."