Altera and Bitec deliver platform for next-generation video system development

The folks at Altera and Bitec have announced the availability of a video development kit that enables designers to rapidly develop and prototype high-performance, cost-sensitive video applications.

At the heart of the kit are Altera's Cyclone III FPGAs, which provide an ideal video processing platform given the device's large parallel processing capabilities with up to 288 multipliers, 4-Mbit embedded memory blocks, and low power consumption. The kit supports multiple video I/O formats, allowing video application developers to quickly develop, debug, and prototype designs using their lab video signals and displays.

The video development kit features a Cyclone III development board in conjunction with two High-Speed Mezzanine Connector (HSMC)-based video interface daughter-cards developed by Bitec. The kit supports composite, S-Video, DVI, and RGB video and contains the following:

• Cyclone III EP3C120F780 development board
• Quad-Video HSMC daughter-card (8 composite or 4 S-Video inputs)
• DVI HSMC daughter-card and DVI cable
• Quartus' II Web Edition software
• Access to Altera OpenCore Plus evaluation intellectual property (IP) megafunctions, including the Video and Image Processing (VIP) Suite
• A CD-ROM with a video mosaic reference design developed by Bitec

Availability
The Cyclone III FPGA-based video development kit is currently available exclusively through Bitec. Interested customers can find additional information about the kit at www.bitec.ltd.uk/ciii_video_dev_kit.html.

For additional information about Altera's Cyclone III FPGA development board, visit www.altera.com/devkits.

For additional information about Altera's VIP Suite, visit www.altera.com/vipsuite.