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Ambarella (AMBA) Introduces CV3 AI Domain Controller SoC

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Ambarella (AMBA - Free Report) recently unveiled CV3 artificial intelligence (“AI”) domain controller system-on-chips (“SoC”). The platform is ideal for implementing autonomous driving for vehicles from Level 2+ to Level 4, single- and multi-camera advanced driving assistance system (“ADAS”), Driver Monitoring System (“DMS”) and in-cabin solutions, single- and multi-channel electronic mirrors with blind-spot detection, and intelligent parking assistance systems.

The single-chip provides up to 500 eTOPS, i.e., Graphic Processing Unit (“GPU”) equivalent trillion operations per second of CVflow AI processing for neural network (“NN”) computation. The system includes a general vector processor (“GVP”), an advanced image processor, a dense stereo and optical flowengine, up to 16 Arm Cortex-A78AE Central Processing Units (“CPU”), and an automotive GPU, in a single SoC. It will reduce the cost and complexity of software development by providing an alternative to the fragmented ADAS SoC offerings from Ambarella’s peers.

Additionally, the CV3 family accelerates automakers’ development timelines and simplifies the deployment of new features by providing the headroom for a single, robust over-the-air update implementation.

Its neural vector processor (NVP) is enhanced to support the latest advancements in NN inference and offers 42x improvements over Ambarella’s prior family of SoCs. This is complemented by the new floating-point GVP, designed to offload classical computer vision and radar processing from the NVP engines and floating-point intensive algorithms from the Arm CPUs.

Ambarella’s CV3 delivers high-resolution video recording and streaming at very low bit rates with efficient encoding in H.265 and H.264 video formats. It includes a hardware security module, which provides isolation of different domains, secure software provisioning, a suite of advanced cybersecurity features such as asymmetric/symmetric crypto acceleration, secure storage and key provisioning, encrypted CVflow tasks, true random number generator, one-time programmable memory, dynamic random access memory (“DRAM”) scrambling and DRAM virtualization.

The CV3 simultaneously processes in-cabin sensing applications, including driver and occupant monitoring, along with covering the whole AD stack. It supports the full range of viewing, recording, sensing and path planning applications. Automakers can utilize this unified CVflow platform across all models unlike developing different software stacks for entry-level, mid-range and premium vehicles.

The system has multiple options to meet the product strategies of original equipment manufacturers and Tier 1s. It is expected to be available for sampling during the first half of 2022.

With all automakers developing self-driving cars, there has been a high demand for camera-based SoCs and computer vision technology in recent times. Ambarella, being an AI silicon company, has deep technical knowledge in camera-based SoCs and enhanced computer vision capabilities. Growing demand for ADAS is a key catalyst for the company’s near-term growth.

Ambarella continues to expand its CVflow family of AI processors through consecutive global collaborations. In December 2021, it collaborated with Israel-based Autobrains to develop a scalable range of ADAS solutions for the automotive mass market. In September, it partnered with China’s DongfengFengshen (Aeolus) to build DMS for the Yixuan Max vehicle.

In August, it announced that Moscow-based Yandex’s new SignalQ2 LTE-enabled DMS camera is based on the company’s CV25 edge AI vision SoC. In the same month, KeepTruckin, a fleet management company, selected CVflow’s CV22 edge AI vision SoC for its new AI Dashcam.

Ambarella has been benefiting from solid momentum in CV2, CV22 and CV25. In fiscal 2020, these products generated production revenues from 1,000 customers.

Automotive and Internet of Things cameras are also driving Ambarella’s top line. During the third quarter of fiscal 2022, the company’s revenues increased 64% to $92.2 million, primarily driven by improvement in the automotive and security camera businesses.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Ambarella currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks from the broader computer and technology sector include the largest global Customer Relationship Management vendor Salesforce (CRM - Free Report) and Hewlett Packard (HPE - Free Report) , each flaunting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), and CACI International (CACI - Free Report) carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Salesforce’s fourth-quarter fiscal 2022 earnings has been revised downward by 7.6% to 73 cents per share over the past 60 days. For fiscal 2022, earnings estimates have moved upward by 0.43% to $4.68 per share in the last 60 days.

Salesforce’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the preceding four quarters, the average surprise being 44.2%. CRM stock has appreciated 14.9% in the past year.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for HPE’s first-quarter fiscal 2022 earnings has been revised downward by 6.1% to 46 cents per share over the past 60 days. For fiscal 2022, earnings estimates have moved north by 1.5% to $2.03 per share in the past 90 days.

HPE’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the preceding four quarters, the average surprise being 14.4%. Shares of HPE have rallied 39.8% in the past year.

The consensus mark for CACI’s second-quarter fiscal 2022 earnings has been revised downward to $3.99 per share from $4.43 over the past 90 days. For fiscal 2022, earnings estimates have been revised downward by 8.9% to $16.42 per share in the last 90 days.

CACI’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the preceding four quarters, the average surprise being 18.8%. Shares of CACI have increased 16.7% in the past year.

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