Microchip introduces solutions based on PolarFire FPGas

     To ensure that systems can capture and display information and high-resolution images, today's video and image processing requires the development of complex computer algorithms. Because designers need high-performance computing, storage, and connectivity resources to achieve detailed, vivid, high-resolution images, field-programmable gate arrays (FPgas) perform thousands of tasks while ensuring maximum data throughput, making them the best platform to do so.

     Microchip Technology's new PolarFire™ FPGA image and video solution, which supports resolutions up to 4K, has significant advantages over other technologies in the industry and can be used in a wide range of image and video applications with its small size and extremely low power consumption.

     Microchip's award-winning PolarFire FPGA family of solutions was first introduced in February 2017 by Microsemi Corporation, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Microchip. Not only do these solutions consume as little as 50% of their static random access memory (SRAM) -based counterparts at their lowest, but they also have large storage space and digital signal processor (DSP) resources, making them ideal for medium bandwidth (4K / 2K) image/video applications.

     The latest image and video solutions provide customers with a complete ecosystem of comprehensive application-specific hardware, intellectual property suites optimized for image processing, sample reference designs, demo designs and supporting materials to provide designers with the hardware and software needed to achieve 4K resolution based on PolarFire FPgas.

     The video and image suite uses dual camera sensors for high-performance evaluation of 4K image processing and rendering, and is suitable for designing video stitching and presentations of static and dynamic object insertion, as well as true depth of field calculations based on parallax maps. Its modular intellectual property suite provides customers with prototyping capabilities, accelerates time to market, and can be applied to multiple projects simultaneously, saving customers cost, time and investment.

     The suite also includes an industry-standard graphics interface that supports double data rate on-chip fourth-generation 4 GB memory (DDR4) and 1 GB flash memory for frame buffering and user configuration, respectively. The solution offers a bidirectional Mobile Industrial Processor interface (MIPI) as a sensor interface, as well as an optional high-definition Multimedia interface (HDMI) and Display Serial interface (DSI) for on-screen display, and a Serial digital interface (SDI) for broadcast-grade video.

     The kit also includes reference designs for evaluating picture-in-picture (PiP) and edge detection, with configurable resolution and image signal parameters. These capabilities enhance the applicability of PolarFire's FPGA image and video solutions to a wide range of markets, including surveillance and Internet Protocol (IP) cameras, in-vehicle and other wireless and mobile use cases, machine vision and medical, smart home, and other applications in the industrial, aerospace and aerospace and defense sectors.

     Shakeel Peera, vice president of marketing for Microchip's FPGA business unit Microsemi, said: "Our PolarFire image and video solutions provide you with a one-stop shop for evaluating multiple image protocols and developing high-resolution image and video processing applications in heat, power and space constrained environments. "With a scarcity of customizable development platforms for current applications, this suite provides a flexible, easy-to-test and design development platform that is the best choice for IP development for applications such as stereo video."