There have been some whispers lately that a new GoPro camera would be coming out at the end of this year. The company that makes the chips for GoPro has recently updated their site with a brand new chip. If this is indeed the Hero 4, I don’t think anyone is going to be disappointed.
The most exciting things the new supposed GoPro Hero 4 chip offers are 4K at 30 FPS, 120 FPS at 1080, 240 FPS at 720, and HDR.
Here are the specs from Ambarella:
Overview
The Ambarella A9 SoC enables development of the next generation of mirrorless, sports, and digital still cameras (DSCs) with leading-edge video features and exceptional still image quality.
In addition to 4K Ultra HD video resolution at 30 frames per second, the A9 supports high frame-rate video for capturing fast-action sports with 1080p video at 120 frames per second or 720p video at 240 frames per second.
The A9 includes dual-core ARM® CortexTM-A9 CPUs providing the performance required for advanced applications including wireless connectivity to smartphones for video streaming or image sharing.
Key Features
4K Ultra HD H.264 Encoder
• High Profile with B-frames for high efficiency
Super High Frame Rate Modes
• 1080p120 and 720p240 for action videography
Advanced Imaging
• 700Mpixels/s oversampling performance
• Multi-exposure HDR and WDR tone mapping
• Electronic image stabilization (EIS)
• Improved MCTF with advanced sharpening
Advanced Imaging
• 700Mpixels/s oversampling performance
• Multi-exposure HDR and WDR tone mapping
Wi-FiTM Connectivity
• Remote viewfinder, playback
• Upload pictures and video to social media
General Specifications
Processor Cores
• Dual-Core ARM® CortexTM-A9 @ up to 1 GHz
• NEONTM and FPU acceleration
• Ambarella Image and Video DSPs
• Cryptography Engine
Sensor and Video I/O
• Dual sensor interfaces
• 12-lane SLVDS/HiSPiTM/subLVDS, 4-lane
• MIPITM, or 16-bit
• 1-lane SLVDS/MIPI
• BT.601/656/1120 video in and BT.656/1120 out
• 24-bit RGB out, HDMI® 1.4a with PHY out
• PAL/NTSC composite SD video out
Front End Sensor Processing
• 32 MPixels maximum resolution
• 700 MHz maximum pixel rate
• Lens shading, fixed pattern noise correction
• Multi-exposure HDR
• WDR local exposure
Video Encoding
• H.264 codec BP/MP/HP Level 5.1 and MJPEG
• 4K Ultra HD encode performance
• 1080p120, 720p240 modes
• Low bitrate/high-quality encoding
• On-the-fly change of multiple encoding parameters
• Flexible GOP configuration
• Multiple CBR and VBR rate control modes
Image Processing
• 3D motion compensated noise reduction (MCTF)
• Electronic Image stabilization (EIS)
• Adjustable AE/AWB/AF
• High quality polyphase scalers
• Crop, mirror, flip, 90° rotation
• Crop, mirror, flip, 90° rotation
Memory Interfaces
• DDR3/DDR3L
• 32-bit data bus
• Dual SMIO with SDXC SDTM Card Support
• NAND flash, SLC with ECC
• Boot from NAND, SPI EEPROM, USB or eMMC
Peripheral Interfaces
• GMAC Ethernet with GMII / MII
• USB2.0 HS Device or Host w/PHY
• Multiple I2S, SSI/SPI, IDC, and UART
• Multiple PWM, Stepper, and ADC channels
• Many GPIO ports, PWM, Steppers, IR, ADC
• Watchdog Timer, multiple general-purpose timers, JTAG
Physical
• 32nm Low Power CMOS
• <1W for 1080p60 encode
• <2W for Ultra HD 4K encode
• Operating temperature 0°C to 70°C
• TFBGA package with 404 balls, 15×15 mm, 0.65 mm pitch
It is speculated that GoPro will be making the announcement this month to confirm the new camera. If so, it’s likely they will have it out and available for purchase by Christmas.
For more information on how to rent the latest GoPro Action Cameras, email [email protected], give us a call or stop in for a demo. We’d love to see you!
