Complete FPGA-Based MIPI Video Demonstration System Now Available

Update: Rambus Completes Acquisition of Northwest Logic, Extending Leadership in Interface IP (Aug. 27, 2019 )

July 9, 2013 --  Altima Corporation, Northwest Logic, and Meticom announce the immediate availability of a complete MIPI video demonstration system using Altera's Cyclone IV and V FPGAs. This demonstration system takes an HDMI video stream, processes it in an Altera FPGA and then streams it to a MIPI-compatible display.  This system demonstrates a complete MIPI Display Serial Interface (DSI) solution for small to medium-sized, high-resolution panel applications.  A video of this demonstration system in operation is available below.

DSI and Camera Serial Interface 2 (CSI-2) are becoming the industry standard for connecting to low cost embedded displays and cameras.  These standards are developed and promoted by the MIPI Alliance (www.mipi.org).  MIPI designs are now beginning to use FPGAs.   However, the current generation of FPGAs does not generally support MIPI from an I/O perspective.  The combination of the Meticom FPGA Bridge ICs and the Northwest Logic MIPI Controller Cores enable complete FPGA-based MIPI solutions to be created.

Altima distributes a broad range of devices including Altera FPGAs.  Altima has taken the Meticom and Northwest Logic components and created a complete video demonstration using the Cyclone IV and V FPGAs.  This demonstration includes an Altima-developed FPGA design and Meticom-based interface card.  The MIPI portion of the design was created using a DSI Controller Core from Northwest Logic in combination with the MC20002 FPGA Bridge IC from Meticom.   Contact Altima (www.altima.co.jp/en) for more information.  "The Northwest Logic DSI Controller Core and the Meticom FPGA Bridge IC enabled us to very quickly create this demo system.  This demo system shows that low cost, FPGA-based MIPI systems can be developed quickly and reliably," said Toru Saito, Executive Vice President at Altima.

Northwest Logic provides a complete set of DSI (Host and Peripheral) and CSI-2 (Tx & Rx) Controller Cores.  These full-featured cores support high speed MIPI data rates in both FPGAs and ASICs and are fully available.  Contact Northwest Logic (www.nwlogic.com) for more information. "Altima has put together a very impressive demonstration system in a minimal amount of time.  This clearly demonstrates that customers can create FPGA-based MIPI systems quickly with minimal risk.  It has been a pleasure working with our close partner Meticom to support Altima in this effort," said Brian Daellenbach, president at Northwest Logic.

Meticom provides a range of high-speed interconnect solutions including the MC20001 and MC20002 FPGA Bridge ICs.  These ICs convert between MIPI and FPGA LVDS (high speed) and LVCMOS (low power) signals.  They can be used to implement low-cost. FPGA-based MIPI designs and are fully production available. Contact Meticom (www.meticom.com) for more information.  "Altima's demonstration system shows that the combination our FPGA Bridge ICs and the Northwest Logic cores provide a solid platform for creating FPGA-based MIPI designs.  Altima's high-quality design team created this design in a minimal amount of time with a minimal amount of support," said Wolfgang Schambeck.

About Altima Corporation

Altima Corporation, founded in 1991, provides sales, service and technical support for semiconductors and other global leading-edge high-performance products in the Japanese market. Since its establishment, Altima has been one of the world's leading distributors of ALTERA (U.S.) CPLD/FPGA products. Altima provides total support services, from developmental support for products that utilize ALTERA products, to technical support and programming services. For more information, visit www.altima.co.jp/en/

About Northwest Logic

Northwest Logic, founded in 1995 and located in Beaverton, Oregon, provides high-performance, silicon-proven, easy-to-use IP cores including high-performance Memory Interface Solution (DDR4/3/2, LPDDR3/2/1, RLDRAM 3/II), Expresso Solution (PCI Express 3.0/2.1/1.1 cores and drivers including DMA support), and MIPI Solution (CSI-2, DSI). These solutions support a full range of platforms including ASICs, Structured ASICs and FPGAs. For more information, visit www.nwlogic.com.

About Meticom

Meticom is a specialized high-speed interconnect company that designs, manufactures and markets customized high-performance, active interconnects for a variety of industries, including Industrial, Medical, Test & Measurement, Automotive, and Defense.

Our product portfolio includes customized active optical interconnect cables, ASIC interconnect solutions and extensive technical support in these fields. For more information, visit www.meticom.com.