Xetal: a low-power high-performance smart camera processor

Xetal is a digital signal processor to be combined with a 30 frames per second VGA-format CMOS or CCD image sensor or any other source of digital video data. The processor is fully programmable and therefore able to run a variety of algorithms ranging from image communication to machine vision. Xetal comprises a parallel processor array and a special purpose controller to achieve high computational performances (up to 5 GOPS) with a very modest power consumption. This can go down to 30 mW for simple applications such as a digital camera for video conferencing. The Xetal chip has been realized in a 0.18 /spl mu/m CMOS process and takes up an area of 25 mm/sup 2/.