ISP differences between Genio 510/700 and Genio 520/720

The ISP (Image Signal Processor) is one of the most significant hardware changes between the first-generation Genio platforms (510/700) and the second-generation (520/720). If your product depends on camera input, the ISP generation affects MIPI lane configuration, virtual channel support, 3A pipeline depth, and which NDA BSP components you need to configure.

Key Insights

• Genio 510/700 use ISP Gen 1 — up to 2 concurrent camera inputs, no virtual channel support
• Genio 520/720 use ISP Gen 2 — up to 4 concurrent camera inputs, virtual channel support, improved 3A
• 520 and 720 share the same ISP — camera tuning files and libcamera pipeline handlers transfer directly
• Camera sensor drivers are largely portable, but ISP pipeline configuration (libcamera handler, tuning JSON) must be updated when moving between ISP generations
• For time-of-flight sensors or any camera using MIPI CSI-2 virtual channels, Genio 520/720 is required

What changed between ISP Gen 1 and Gen 2?

Feature	Genio 510/700 (Gen 1 ISP)	Genio 520/720 (Gen 2 ISP)
Max concurrent camera inputs	2	4
MIPI CSI-2 virtual channels	Not supported	Supported (up to VC3)
Max input resolution	16 MP	32 MP
Max framerate at 4K	30 fps	60 fps
3A algorithms	Gen 1 (basic AE/AF/AWB)	Gen 2 (improved convergence)
libcamera pipeline handler	mtk-isi-gen1	mtk-isi-gen2
ISP tuning file format	JSON v1	JSON v2
NDA BSP layer	meta-mediatek-bsp-private (Gen 1)	meta-mediatek-bsp-private (Gen 2)

The pipeline handler difference is the practical blocker when porting a camera design between generations. The libcamera IPA (Image Processing Algorithm) modules are separate binary blobs in the NDA BSP, one per ISP generation.

How does the MIPI CSI-2 configuration differ?

On Genio 510/700 (Gen 1), the MIPI CSI-2 receiver accepts up to 4 lanes per port but does not implement virtual channel demultiplexing in hardware. Each physical port maps to one sensor.

On Genio 520/720 (Gen 2), the CSI-2 receiver implements virtual channel (VC) demultiplexing. A single physical MIPI port with 4 lanes can carry streams from up to 4 virtual channels simultaneously. This enables:

• Time-of-flight sensors that output IR and depth on separate VCs
• Camera modules with embedded metadata on VC1
• Multi-exposure HDR sensors that send short and long exposures on separate VCs

The device tree binding also changes. On Gen 2, each virtual channel is a separate v4l2-subdev node with a vc-id property.

Example device tree fragment for a Gen 2 dual-VC sensor:

&mipi_csi0 {
    sensor@0 {
        compatible = "vendor,sensor-name";
        reg = <0x36>;
        port {
            sensor_out: endpoint {
                clock-lanes = <0>;
                data-lanes = <1 2 3 4>;
                link-frequencies = /bits/ 64 <800000000>;
            };
        };
    };
};

&seninf {
    ports {
        port@0 {
            vc0: endpoint@0 {
                vc-id = <0>;
                remote-endpoint = <&sensor_out>;
            };
            vc1: endpoint@1 {
                vc-id = <1>;
                remote-endpoint = <&sensor_out>;
            };
        };
    };
};

This device tree syntax is not valid on Gen 1 ISP — the seninf binding does not support per-VC endpoints.

What stays the same between platforms?

The sensor driver itself — the kernel module that controls the image sensor over I2C — is largely platform-independent. It configures the sensor’s register map, controls exposure and gain, and sets the MIPI output format. This part of the code does not interact with the ISP directly.

What must change when moving from Gen 1 to Gen 2:

1. ISP pipeline handler — The libcamera IPA binary and pipeline handler source are separate per ISP generation. Use the Gen 2 handler from the NDA BSP.
2. Tuning JSON — The JSON schema changed between generations. A Gen 1 tuning file will not parse correctly on Gen 2.
3. Device tree — MIPI CSI-2 bindings changed, particularly if using virtual channels.
4. seninf node — The sensor interface node binding differs between Gen 1 and Gen 2.

The sensor characterization data (optical center, noise model, lens shading) carries over, but it needs to be re-expressed in the Gen 2 JSON format.

Which platform should you choose for a new camera design?

For any new product that includes a camera:

• Genio 520 — cost-optimized, Gen 2 ISP, good for 1-2 sensors at moderate resolution
• Genio 720 — performance, Gen 2 ISP, up to 4 sensors, suitable for multi-camera AI vision systems
• Genio 1200 — maximum compute, Gen 2 ISP, dual MDLA for processing multiple camera streams through AI inference simultaneously

Avoid designing new products on Genio 510/700 if your camera requirements include virtual channels, 4K at 60fps, or more than 2 simultaneous inputs. For the full device tree and kernel driver setup for MIPI CSI-2, see MIPI CSI camera driver setup on MediaTek Genio.

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Working on camera integration on MediaTek Genio and need help with ISP bring-up, sensor driver porting, or libcamera configuration? ProventusNova specializes in embedded Linux and camera software on Genio. See our CSI camera driver service or get in touch.