What is the Vision Processing Unit (VPU) powering Helio dual camera smartphones?

The new Vision Processing Unit (VPU) is a fast 500MHz DSP paired to the Image Signal Processors (ISP) within select MediaTek Helio SoC's. It provides a dedicated processing platform for numerous exciting camera features, like real-time Depth of Field, freeing up the CPU and GPU to save power and compute resource.

Key advantages

• Programmability and Flexibility: The VPU provides a platform that allows brands the ability to customize camera functionality and drive product differentiation. MediaTek has already gathered considerable 3^rd party application support, giving great product differentiation opportunity.
• Huge Power Savings: The VPU is a dedicated camera-assisting hardware unit that can perform real-time processing functions. They were typically assigned to CPU or GPU before, but the VPU only uses a tenth of the power for the same task.
• Performance Boost: The VPU can still be used in isolation or as part of a team with the CPU/GPU; a true heterogeneous computing environment on the same memory subsystem for advanced multi-application or multi-function tasks.

Where is it?

You'll find the VPU in MediaTek Helio P30 and Helio X30 powered smartphones