CES: Mobileye’s 5nm SoC for autonomous driving

Author: EIS Release Date: Jan 12, 2022

Mobileye today introduced the EyeQ Ultra, a 5nm IC designed for autonomous driving to be put into silicon in 2023.

 

 EyeQ Ultra, at 176 TOPS, will be the seventh generation of EyeQ architecture.

 

EyeQ Ultra integrates the performance of 10 EyeQ5s in one package.

 

Leveraging 5nm process technology, EyeQ Ultra can handle all the needs and applications of Level 4 (L4) autonomous driving without the power consumption and costs related to integrating multiple SoCs together.

 

Like its EyeQ predecessors, EyeQ Ultra has been engineered in tandem with Mobileye software.

 

EyeQ Ultra uses an array of four classes of proprietary accelerators, each built for a specific task. These accelerators are paired with additional CPU cores, ISPs and GPUs in a device capable of processing input from two sensing subsystems – one camera-only system and the other radar and lidar combined – as well as the vehicle’s central computing system, the high-definition map and driving policy software.

 

The introduction of EyeQ Ultra comes at the same time as two EyeQ SoCs for ADAS – the EyeQ6L and EyeQ6H.

 

Mobileye’s EyeQ architecture lays the foundation for EyeQ Ultra. Designed to make consumer AVs accessible, EyeQ Ultra fills a void in the automotive market as the EyeQ family of SoCs has done before it.

 

As an extension of the EyeQ family, EyeQ Ultra will also be informed by Mobileye’s Road Experience Management (REM) mapping technology.

 

Gathered via millions of vehicles on the road already equipped with Mobileye, REM captures packages of road data to create the Mobileye Roadbook, which is accessed via the cloud to provide, in real time, up-to-date information on the drivable paths ahead.   

 

The EyeQ6L will be the successor to the EyeQ4 SoC in a package that is just 55 percent the size of the EyeQ4. This one-box windshield solution delivers more deep-learning TOPS at ultra-low power for highly efficient entry and premium (L2) ADAS. It began sampling last year and is due to reach start of production by the middle of 2023. 

 

The EyeQ6H will support premium ADAS or partial AV capabilities with full surround. It is equivalent to two EyeQ5 SoCs in terms of computing power but more importantly supports visualization and performs better under heavy artificial intelligence workloads.

 

This centralized solution will provide all ADAS L2+ functionalities, multi-camera processing (including parking cameras), and will host third-party apps such as parking visualization and driver monitoring. This most advanced ADAS SoC in the EyeQ family will begin sampling this year and is due to begin production by the end of 2024. 

 

Both EyeQ6 SoCs will be manufactured on 7nm process technology.