Lattice Semiconductor Corporation announced the availability of the first in a series of new reference designs featuring the Lattice CrossLink FPGA for video bridging applications. The MIPI CSI-2 Camera Aggregator Bridge reference design provides customers with a template combining all necessary IP and software needed to easily add CrossLink-based video bridging solutions to applications using multiple image sensors, including autonomous and ADAS-enabled cars, drones and AR/VR headsets. With CrossLink, customers can consolidate multiple video signals over one I/O port to reduce device size and power consumption.

Many automotive, industrial and consumer applications use multiple image, radar/lidar and other time-of-fight sensors to capture data about their operating environment. All of these sensors require a connection to the device’s application processor (AP), but APs often have a limited number of I/O ports available.

Lattice CrossLink MIPI bridging FPGAs combine signals from multiple MIPI CSI-2 compatible sensors into one CSI-2 output thanks to its support for MIPI CSI-2 Virtual Channels, which have the ability to combine data from dissimilar sensor sources into one channel. CrossLink is an ideal video bridging solution for AR/VR headsets and drones, where low power consumption and a small form factor are critical, as well as for smart cars where video bridging can reduce the car’s wire count and cost.

The new CrossLink reference designs can be accessed here.