Microsemi is ahead of the game with their low power, secure, and instant-on imaging and video solution. It comes with a complete IP suite with imaging and video IP cores, reference designs using the Parallel and MIPI CSI2 Interface, and a software GUI —all powered by Microsemi’s optimized IGLOO2 and SmartFusion2 SoC FPGAs.
Hi, I’m Kristen Chonowski, application engineer with Arrow.com, and today I want to chat about a unique imaging and video solution from Microsemi that got my attention. It leverages the best features of their FPGAs, namely up to 50% lower power, design IP security and instant on.
These days more and more applications are using cameras and displays. Imaging designers are often challenged to extend battery life by reducing power consumption. Securing the design intellectual property is also critical as is the ability to power up instantly. Microsemi is right out front in all three with their imaging and video solution. It comes with everything you need, including a complete IP suite with imaging and video IP cores, reference designs using the Parallel and MIPI CSI2 Interface, and a software GUI too.
But the heart of the kit is Microsemi’s SmartFusion2 SoC FPGAs. Here’s how the solution works. The imaging and video FPGA Mezzanine Card (FMC) and camera sensor module with parallel interface are used in conjunction with the SmartFusion2 Advanced Development Kit. The IP cores and reference designs are optimized for Microsemi’s general purpose FPGAs, and used to implement the camera and display signal chain architecture blocks. First, the sensor interface block, which supports multiple sensor interface types and formats the image data. Next is the image processing block, which supports 8, 10, 12, and 16 bits per color component input and output as well as 3x3 2D median filtering. The display interface block then takes over with LVDS 7:1 support as well as a host of personalization options. IP design security is a major concern in imaging applications, and the SmartFusion2 imaging solution has you covered. Your firmware is protected by the built in DPA (Differential Power Analysis) countermeasures that are resident in the IGLOO2 and SmartFusion2.
This design security protection makes it ideal for companies that need to protect their IP. End products like drones and scanners, as well as industrial, prosumer cameras and automotive applications can all secure their IP just by designing with these devices. The SmartFusion2 offers a 166Mhz ARM Cortex-M3 processor with additional hard IP such as USB, CAN, Triple Speed Ethernet MACs, DMA engines, DDR3 memory controllers and up to 512KB of embedded Flash built in. The logic element range for this family spans from 5k LEs to 150k LEs. The IGLOO2 is available in the same 5k to 150k LEs range, and supports the same FPGA memory blocks, PCIe endpoints and secure flash. Both the IGLOO2 and SmartFusion2 families offers more resources than any other low density FPGAs. These FPGAs together with Microsemi’s complete IP suite and GUI result in a comprehensive, easy to use video processing ecosystem that’s low power, reliable, and secure. The total package.
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