FPGA Mezzanine Card + IP Forms Imaging/Video Engine

By Graham Prophet ,EETimes, Jul. 27, 2016 – 

The FMC plugged into the SmartFusion2 Advanced Development Kit demonstrates Microsemi's IGLOO2 FPGA and SmartFusion2 system-on-chip (SoC) FPGA capabilities to support configurable and scalable camera, imaging and video designs.

In addition to its modular IP suite and hardware kit, the new imaging/video solution includes a flexible image sensor interface connector as well as graphical user interface (GUI)-based software, enabling users to configure sensor display demonstrations in real time. Designs can be reused across multiple platforms using the company's Libero SoC Design Suite: the imaging/video IP suite is available now in the company's Libero SoC IP vault, and the kit can be adapted for camera and display applications across medical, industrial, automotive, defence and aerospace markets. With features such as low power, reliability and design/data security, the solution suits drones, machine vision, robotics, infrared cameras, head-up display, target acquisition systems, medical imaging, surveillance and automotive imaging.

The company's new kit features an FMC-based imaging/video card with flexible image sensor interface, a display interface for 7:1 low-voltage differential signalling (LVDS), HDMI connections and an audio processor. The initial image sensor board offers an AR0330-based image sensor module with a parallel bus interface. Future image sensor boards will offer other interfaces such as Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) camera serial interface (CSI-2), and high-speed serial pixel (HiSPi). In addition, because the hardware is FMC-based, the kit, which plugs into the M2S150-ADV-DEV-KIT, could also be used with future Microsemi FPGAs and SoCs.

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