MediaTek Helio P90 SoC With New AI Engine, Support for 48-Megapixel Cameras Launched

MediaTek on Thursday announced the launch of the Helio P90 system-on-chip (SoC), which it claims features an enhanced AI engine capable of delivering an AI experience four times more powerful than the Helio P70 and Helio P60 chipsets. The company claims the SoC will give OEMs “the ability to offer outstanding camera features, battery life, performance and top of the line AI capabilities, while making devices accessible to mass-market consumers.” The Helio P90 SoC follows the launch of the Helio P70 SoC, which also featured a dedicated AI engine, and is expected to be available globally in consumer devices in the first quarter of 2019.

The MediaTek Helio P90 SoC is an octa-core offering, bearing two ARM Cortex-A75 cores clocked at up to 2GHz and six ARM Cortex-A55 cores clocked at up to 2.0GHz. These are arranged in a big.LITTLE configuration, and the SoC also features an Imagination Technologies PowerVR GM 9446 GPU. It employs MediaTek's CorePilot technology, which is said to ensure processing is done in the most efficient way possible. The SoC also supports 2-channel 1866MHz LPDDR4x RAM (up to 8GB) and 21:9 full-HD+ (1080x2520 pixels) displays.

The company claims that its new APU 2.0 fusion AI architecture allows the Helio P90 SoC to support faster and more complex AI experiences such as human pose detection which can track and analyse different body movements. The SoC also supports deep learning facial detection, real-time beautification, deep-learning facial detection, and object and scene detection. Support for common frameworks such as TensorFlow, TF Lite, Caffe and Caffe2, allows developers to create AI-based applications.

The MediaTek Helio P90 SoC features three image signal processors (ISPs) and supports up to 48-megapixel single cameras, or 24+16-megapixel dual cameras. The ISP AI engine can accurately detect faces and scenes in real-time under low light and motion conditions, MediaTek claims. The SoC supports dual-SIM dual VoLTE, 2x2 Wi-Fi 802.11ac, and Bluetooth 5.0 as connectivity options.

“The Helio P90 is an AI processing powerhouse with ultra-fast performance and a host of AI-powered imaging improvements. This chip will reset consumer expectations of what a smartphone can do, and usher in a new era of super high-resolution smartphone photography to the market,” said TL Lee, General Manager of MediaTek's Wireless Communication business unit.