FPGA card supports camera/image processing development efforts

Microsemi Corporation, a leading provider of semiconductor solutions differentiated by power, security, reliability and performance, today announced the availability of a new imaging/video solution for the development of low power and reliable video processing applications. The new platform is comprised of a field programmable gate array (FPGA) mezzanine card (FMC), a comprehensive intellectual property (IP) suite and graphical user interface (GUI). The FMC plugged into the SmartFusion™2 Advanced Development Kit demonstrates Microsemi’s IGLOO™2 FPGA andSmartFusion2 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 easily reused across multiple platforms using Libero SoC Design Suite, a comprehensive, easy to learn, easy to adopt development toolset for designing with Microsemi’s power efficient FPGAs and SoC FPGAs. The imaging/video IP suite is available now in the company’s Libero SoC IP vault. Designers can leverage the kit for numerous camera and display applications across medical, industrial, automotive, defense and aerospace markets. With features like low power, reliability and design/data security, the solution becomes ideal for a variety of applications, including drones, machine vision, robotics, infrared cameras, head-up display, target acquisition systems, medical imaging, surveillance and automotive imaging.

“Microsemi’s imaging/video kit and IP suite are central to our ongoing efforts to build a robust portfolio of solutions for video and imaging applications which are differentiated from competitors with our expertise in low power,” said Chowdhary Musunuri, senior director, SoC Products Group, at Microsemi. “We are pleased to offer customers this initial kit to speed their adoption of Microsemi FPGAs and SoCs in camera and display-based designs, and we look forward to announcing additional image design solutions to serve this market’s specific needs.”

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 signaling (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.

“The machine vision system market is growing at a significant rate of 12.6 percent and likely to reach $8.6 billion by 2021,” said Dependra Lal, senior analyst at market research firm IndustryARC. “A shift towards the integration of advanced vision systems with autonomous robots, in order to guide robots’ arms and navigate them in production lines, is further fuelling the growth of machine vision system in industrial and medical applications.”