7.3 A 1000fps vision chip based on a dynamically reconfigurable hybrid architecture comprising a PE array and self-organizing map neural network

A vision chip is a high-speed and compact vision system that integrates an image sensor and parallel image processors on a single silicon die. Nowadays, high-speed vision chips with powerful recognition capabilities are greatly demanded in applications such as: industrial automation, security, entertainment, robotic vision, and human-machine interaction. Some 100-to-1,000fps vision chips have been reported [1-4]. These chips integrate pixel-parallel and row-parallel SIMD array processors to speed up low- and mid-level image processing [1,2]. Recently, microprocessors (MPU) have been embedded to carry out high-level image processing [3,4]. Although excellent in low- and mid-level processing, these systems are poor in high-level feature vector (FV) recognition tasks due to the von Neumann bottleneck of the MPU. As a consequence, these chips can no longer achieve 1,000fps system-level performance, from image acquisition to high-level feature-recognition processing.