Often our customers are confused about the difference between Hi3518C vs Hi3518E IP Camera SoCs.
These are the ARM processors used in most IP Cameras from China nowadays. They are fairly low cost as well as stable. They are made by HiSilicon which is a subsidiary of Huawei.
Advantages of Hi3518C SoC (with onboard DDR RAM)
This is a more mature SoC as it has been around for a longer time.
Costs – Comparing the cost of Hi3518C vs Hi3518E, the C model is marginally more expensive. However, additionally there is a cost to the DDR RAM it needs on board. As of now, we always produce our IP Camera boards with 16MB of RAM.
It runs cooler than the Hi3518E
Performance wise it is overall much better….
* Smooth viewing for upto 10 live clients
* Great quality nightvision
* 25fps smooth video
* Can start recording 5 seconds before an actual motion detected alert so you get the complete movement captured. (pre-recording buffer)
* 3 streams – main stream, sub stream, mobile stream
Hi3518E IP Camera SoC
This is a newer addition to this series of SoCs from Hisilicon. Its main aim was to lower costs.
No external DDR needs to be on board.
This runs a little hotter than the Hi3518C SoC. Needs a little larger enclosure to ensure clarity at all times.
* No onboard DDR RAM required
* Nightvision – maybe a little grainy or with spots. More so if the casing doesnt provide adequate ventilation. Sometimes it looks fine on initial testing and gets a little worse over a few days when the board has been on for an extended period of time.
* Maximum 3 live viewing clients
* Maximum frame rate 20fps
* No pre-recording of video prior to event
* 2 streams – main stream and sub stream
Digging through the SoC’s specifications, heres some more differences noticed.
Hi3518E Inter core Processor: ARM9 @ Max440MHz, 16KB-Cache, 16KB D-Cache
Hi3518C Inter core Processor: ARM926 @ 440MHz, 16KB-Cache, 16KB D-Cache
Hi3518C CBR/VBR Streaming bitrate : 32kbit/s~40Mbit/s
Hi3518E CBR/VBR/ABR Stream rate : 16kbit/s~20Mbit/s
Hi3518C ISP supports Anti-fog, lens Adjust, Mirroring, Image Flip, WDR and tone mapping.
Hi3518E doesn’t support the above. Thats not to say mirroring and image flip etc can’t be achieved through the app itself.
Hi3518C power consumption: 700mW
Hi3518E power consumption: 900mW
Here is a visual representation of the boards (This is a standard sized 38 x 38mm board). Both model boards have a close resemblance with the exception of the onboard DDR RAM in the case of 3518E.
