Altera's Video Serial Digital Interface Solutions
Altera provides a range of complete solutions for the Serial Digital Interface (SDI) standard as defined by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE). The solutions enable simple and fast protocol implementation, thereby reducing design risk, shortening development times and allowing you to concentrate on the core functions of the system design.
Integrated Solutions
By utilizing built-in transceivers to implement the protocol in a single device, Stratix II GX FPGAs provide a fully integrated SDI solution. The embedded transceivers are capable of auto-negotiation between the standard-definition SDI (SD-SDI) and the high-definition SDI (HD-SDI) data rates on a single transceiver. Table 1 gives an overview of the Stratix II GX device SDI solution.
| Table 1. Stratix II GX FPGA Complete SDI Solution |
| Solution |
Description |
| Device |
Stratix II GX |
| Physical Interface |
Fully integrated transceiver support for SD-SDI and HD-SDI physical. Support is offered for 270 Mbps and beyond |
| Altera Broadcast IP Cores |
Altera SDI MegaCore® Function |
| Development Boards |
Audio Video Development Kit, Stratix II GX Edition |
| SDI Characterization Report |
Contact your local Altera sales representative. |
| Reference Designs |
SDI Loopback Reference Design (shipped with development board) |
SD-SDI Solutions (Non-transceiver)
For high-volume, cost-sensitive SD-SDI applications Cyclone® II FPGAs, combined with the Altera SDI Megafunction, provide the ideal solution. The Cyclone II FPGA I/O can directly support the protocol using low-voltage differential signaling (LVDS) I/Os, which fits perfectly for the data rate requirement of SD-SDI. Equally, Stratix II FPGAs or HardCopy® II structured ASICs can be used in applications requiring the highest density and performance, using the same class of I/O.
Technology Background
The SDI standard is defined by SMPTE, and is widely used in broadcasting and video production. The SDI standard describes how to carry uncompressed serial, digitized video data between equipment in production facilities over video coax cables. There are two variations of the SDI standard, based on the data rate: SD-SDI and HD-SDI. The basic electrical specifications of these two variations are the same, but the main difference is that HD-SDI has higher data rate at 1.485 Gbps while SD-SDI data rate ranges from 143 Mbps to 540 Mbps, with 270 Mbps being the most popular rate.
Altera’s SDI solutions include advanced FPGA architectures, hardware-verified IP and reference designs, application notes, demonstration boards, and board design datasheets. Altera is focused on giving digital broadcast equipment manufacturers a competitive edge and has developed the expertise in video production and video delivery industry. By using Altera's SDI solutions, you can integrate discrete components and multiple channels into a single FPGA, substantially reducing system costs and accelerating time-to-market.
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