Ambarella Uses Samsung 5 nm Technology for New Automotive AI Central Domain Controller

Samsung Electronics Co. and Ambarella Inc. yesterday announced that Samsung's Foundry business unit is providing 5-nanometer process technology for Ambarella's new CV3-AD685 central domain controller. The partners said they will bring new levels of artificial intelligence processing performance, power, and reliability to autonomous vehicle safety systems.

“Samsung brings 5-nm EUV FinFET technology to automotive applications for unprecedented ADAS [advanced driver-assistance systems] and vision processor performance,” stated Sang-Pil Sim, executive vice president and head of Foundry corporate planning at Samsung. “With Tier 1 automotive suppliers already adopting the technology, we believe other automotive companies will also consider using the Ambarella CV3-AD SoC product family manufactured in Samsung’s 5-nm process.”

Samsung claimed that it is a world leader in semiconductor innovation. The Seoul, South Korea-based company's technologies are in televisions, smartphones, wearable devices, tablets, and more. Through its Samsung Ventures arm, it has invested in ADAS startups such as Phantom AI.

Ambarella now producing CV3-AD

Ambarella said a wide variety of human vision and edge AI applications, including video security, ADAS, autonomous driving, and robotics, use its products. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company added that its low-power systems on a chip (SoCs) offer high-resolution video compression, advanced image and radar processing, and deep neural network processing to enable intelligent perception, fusion, and planning.

The CV3-AD685 is the first production version of Ambarella’s CV3-AD family of automotive AI central domain controllers, according to the company. Tier 1 automotive suppliers have announced that they will offer systems using the CV3-AD product family, it said.

Ambarella said the SoC integrates its next-generation CVflow AI engine, which includes neural network processing that is 20 times faster than the previous generation of CV2 SoCs. The CV3-AD685 also provides general-vector and neural-vector processing capabilities to deliver the overall performance required for full autonomous driving (AD) stack processing.

It includes computer vision, 4D imaging radar, deep sensor fusion, and path planning, Ambarella noted.

“Ambarella and Samsung Foundry have a rich history of collaboration, and we are excited to bring their world-class 5-nm technology to our new CV3-AD685 SoCs,” said Fermi Wang, president and CEO at Ambarella. “Samsung’s proven automotive process technology allows us to bring new levels of AI acceleration, systems integration, and power efficiency to ADAS and L2+ through L4 autonomous vehicles.”

The global market for SoCs could expand from $131.83 billion in 2021 to $197.8 billion by 2027 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7%, predicted Research and Markets.

CV3-AD685 to rely on Samsung 5-nm technology

Ambarella said it will rely on Samsung’s 5-nm technology’s maturity and solid track record. Samsung said it is optimized for automotive-grade semiconductors, “with extremely tight process controls and advanced IP [intellectual property] for reliability and outstanding traceability.”

Samsung said it has applied its extensive experience in automotive foundry processes, high-performance computing (HPC) and service package development to its 5-nm technology. The goal is to enable manufacturers to create innovations in assisted and automated mobility.

The CV3-AD685 will be the first in the CV3-AD product family to use Samsung’s 5-nm process. The SoC integrates advanced image processing, a dense stereo and optical flow engine, ARM Cortex A78AE and R52 CPUs, an automotive GPU for visualizations, and a hardware security module (HSM).

Samsung said its SoC features an “algorithm-first” architecture that provides support for the entire autonomous vehicle software stack.

“The high-performance, power-efficient, and scalable CV3-AD family, which is built specifically for ADAS, complements a wide range of solutions for assisted driving, while advancing vehicle automation.” said the companies. “The integrated CV3-AD685 SoC enables information from various sensors to be fused for robust L2+ to L4 autonomous driving.

The Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem (SAFE) program also supports Samsung's 5-nm process. The SAFE program is designed to ensure close collaboration between Samsung Foundry, ecosystem partners, and customers.

SAFE enables them to deliver robust SoC designs based on certified key design components including process design kits (PDK), reference flows with design methodologies (DM), a variety of IP, and on-demand design support, said the company.