Microchip targets 4K video with PolarFire FPGA dev kit

By Gina Roos, editor-in-chief

The new PolarFire FPGA imaging and video solution   from  addresses the challenges of high-resolution video and imaging processing applications in thermal, power and space-constrained environments. Supporting resolution as high as 4K in small, low-power form factors, the PolarFire FPGAs from Microsemi Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Microchip, target mid-bandwidth (4K/2K) imaging/video applications.
 

Thanks to their memory and digital signal processor (DSP) resources in addition to 50 percent lower power consumption compared to competing SRAM-based devices, together with the capability to perform thousands of tasks in parallel to maximize data throughput, the imaging and video solution supports a wide range of imaging and video applications. These include surveillance and Internet Protocol (IP) cameras, automotive, mobile use cases, machine vision/medical, smart home and other applications in the industrial, aerospace/aviation and defense markets.

The development kit, intellectual property (IP) suite, sample reference designs, demonstration designs and collateral are included as part of the solution’s complete ecosystem, along with dedicated hardware to evaluate multiple imaging and video protocols on PolarFire FPGAs. In addition, the modular IP suite allows designers to leverage the kit for multiple projects, saving time and costs.

Providing all the hardware and software needed to implement 4K resolution designs with PolarFire FPGAs, the video and imaging kit enables the evaluation of 4K image processing and rendering using dual-camera sensors suitable for demos of video stitching, static and dynamic object insertion, as well as real depth estimation based on disparity maps. Designers also can evaluate reference designs for picture-in-picture (PiP) and edge detection with configurable resolution and image signal parameters.

Other key features include industry-standard imaging interfaces, 4 GB on-chip DDR4 and 1 GB flash memory for frame buffering and user configuration, respectively; a bidirectional MIPI as a sensor interface and the choice of HDMI, DSI for display and SDI for broadcast-grade video.

Pricing for the PolarFire FPGA imaging and video kit, MPF300-VIDEO-KIT, starts at $949 per unit. It includes a free one-year gold license to Microchip’s Libero SoC Design Suite.