Xilinx Display Targeted Design platform accelerates development of super high res 4K2K displays

LAS VEGAS, USA: Xilinx Inc. announced at the National Association of Broadcasters Show (NAB), Booth #N4319, availability of the Display Targeted Design Platform (TDP) based on the ACDC (acquisition, contribution, distribution and consumption) 1.0 hardware platform from Premier Xilinx Alliance Program member Tokyo Electron Device Ltd. (TED).

The Display TDP accelerates development of 4K2K monitors and high resolution projection systems by stitching together existing 1080i or 1080p video sources into virtually seamless 4K displays. It's the latest addition to Xilinx's growing library of TDPs that allow broadcast equipment designers and manufacturers to quickly implement solutions targeting the acquisition, contribution, distribution and consumption (ACDC) areas of the video production value chain.

The Display TDP is built around Xilinx's Kintex-7 family of field programmable gate array (FPGA) devices built on industry leading 28nm technology. Broadcast equipment designers who base new equipment designs on the Kintex-7 FPGA-based Display TDP will be able to reduce power consumption, increase their system performance to 4K2K resolution and accelerate their design productivity to rapidly implement a working display or projector system.

The inherent programmability of FPGAs enables flexible adaptation throughout design and into production to meet ever evolving industry content delivery and display standards. By using the Display TDP, designers can focus on features that will differentiate their products and get to market ahead of competitors.

"Kintex-7 devices are the industry's first FPGAs to bring high speed serial performance, crucial to supporting new display interfaces, at a price point that fits within the power and system performance requirements necessary to produce high end 4K2K displays, projectors and consumer digital televisions," said Yasuo Hatsumi, vice president at TED. "By combining Xilinx's display reference designs with our hardware platforms, designers can avoid the cycles necessary to develop a video system framework from scratch."

TED is an established leader in visual display solutions and has sold more than 500 of its previous generation platforms – developed on Xilinx's Spartan-6, 45nm FPGAs – to the world's leading digital display and projector brands.

"Just as our FPGA-based solutions across the broadcast acquisition, contribution and distribution networks continue to provide leading-edge solutions for equipment makers," said Ben Runyan, director of broadcast and consumer segment marketing at Xilinx. "Our solution with TED will help customers quickly develop systems to enable 4K2K video to reach consumers at all points of the globe. We expect this TDP to help make 4K2K displays as ubiquitous as 1080p flat screen monitors in the future."
Display Targeted Design Platform

The new Kintex-7 FPGA-based Display TDP offers integrated productivity improvements for developers of super high-resolution visual display systems that allows them to seamlessly stitch together four 1920x1080 interlaced or progressive video input channels to develop 4K2K displays, digital cinema / home theatre projectors or broadcast studio monitors. The TDP includes three reference designs:
* HD-to-4K2K scalar/upconverter;
* Four HD input mosaic; and
* 4K2K frame rate converter (FRC) 60Hz to 120Hz.

Kintex-7 FPGAs have many features that make them excellent for a wide variety of ACDC broadcast solutions. These include Agile Mixed Signal (AMS) blocks that allow user to monitor and test the internal block in the design, and also integrate analog functions such as ADCs and DACs on the FPGA. This improves performance, saves board space and reduces the bill of materials in the final product.

The ACDC 1.0 baseboard with the Kintex-7 FPGA as well as the targeted reference designs will be available in Q2 2012. For information on the Kintex-7 FPGA Display Kits, which include the ACDC 1.0 baseboard and several interface-specific FMC cards supporting HDMI, SDI, LDVS and V-by-One HS.