Intelligent radar having deep learning accelerator and random access memory

A method, comprising:

• transmitting, from a radar, electromagnetic waves;
• receiving, in the radar, reflections of the electromagnetic waves;
• generating, in the radar, data representative of a radar image based on the reflections of the electromagnetic waves received in a transceiver of the radar;
• executing, in the radar, instructions implementing matrix computation of an artificial neural network to generate an output of the artificial neural network responsive to an input containing the data representative of the radar image, the artificial neural network configured to recognize features in the radar image;
• and
• transmitting, from the radar to a host system, data representative of a description of the features identified via the artificial neural network from the radar image;
• capturing, using an image sensor of the radar, an optical image of a scene corresponding to the radar image;
• writing data representative of the optical image into random access memory of the radar as part of the input to the artificial neural network, the random access memory and the image sensor being configured in a same integrated circuit device;
• writing the data representative of the radar image into the random access memory of the radar as part of the input to the artificial neural network in parallel with the writing of the data representative of the optical image into the random access memory;
• storing the input into the random access memory of the radar for a predetermined period of time after the transmitting of the data representative of the description to the host system;
• receiving, within the predetermined period of time, a request from the host system;
• transmitting the input to the host system;
• and
• erasing the input from the radar after the predetermined period of time.

A device, comprising:

• a radar, having:
• random access memory;
• a circuit configured to generate data representative of a radar image based on reflections of electromagnetic waves and write the data to the random access memory as an input to an artificial neural network;
• a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) having:
• a memory interface to access the random access memory;
• and
• at least one processing unit configured to execute instructions having matrix operands to implement computations of the artificial neural network, the artificial neural network configured to identify one or more features in the radar image in an output;
• an image sensor configured in an integrated circuit device containing the random access memory;
• and
• a host interface configured to output, to a host system, data representative of attributes of the one or more features;
• wherein the image sensor is configured to:
• capture an optical image of a scene corresponding to the radar image;
• and
• write data representative of the optical image into the random access memory of the radar as part of the input to the artificial neural network;
• wherein the circuit is configured to write the data representative of the radar image into the random access memory of the radar as part of the input to the artificial neural network in parallel with the image sensor writing of the data representative of the optical image into the random access memory;
• and
• wherein the radar is configured to:
• store the input in the random access memory of the radar for a predetermined period of time after transmission of the data representative of the representative of attributes the host system;
• receive, within the predetermined period of time, a request from the host system;
• transmit the input to the host system;
• and
• erase the input from the radar after the predetermined period of time.