FASTFRAME1303 PCI BOARD
Alacron introduces the FastFrame1303. Available in both analog/digital and digital-only configurations for greater flexibility and cost savings, FastFrame1303 uses the Nexperia (formerly TriMedia) PNX1302 microprocessor from Philips Semiconductors.
The Philips PNX1302 Processor
The Philips developed PNX1302 is a high-performance programmable single-chip processor that delivers real-time processing of audio, video, graphics, and communications datastreams. The TriMedia TM1302 employs a typical Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW) architecture capable of 720 MFLOPS/900 MIPS peak and has a 32-bit CPU that connects instruction and data caches at rates of 4 GB/sec and 1100MB/sec peak. By incorporating the TriMedia processor into Alacron’s new FastImage, customers and developers can significantly increase their processing power enabling them to work more efficiently and cost effectively.
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PNX1300
Datasheet (
409 KB)
FastFrame1303 Features
- Half length PCI board with no or one TriMedia processor with 8-32 MB of dedicated high speed (572MB/s) SDRAM, capable of over 720 MFLOPS of computational power
- Collects data from up to four asynchronous analog cameras and one NTSC/PAL/SECAM or up to four digital cameras
- Digital capture, 32 data bits (RS-422, LVDS) with control and clock
- Two 85 MHz Camera Link (Channel Link) inputs
- Programmable FPGAs for I/O interface configuration
- 16-128MB SDRAM frame buffer memory
- 64/32 bit external PCI bus
- Supported by standard software development tools, including fully optimized microcoded signal and image processing libraries (FOIL)
- Optional TriMedia software development environment (SDE) for Windows® 9X/NT/2K and Solaris™ and Linux
- Fast Channel:
- 80 MHz 32 bit persistent channels in 4 bit increments for intra- and interboard communication
- Point to point connections at up to 320 MB/s via cross bar interconnect
- Data traffic does not affect host CPU or PCI bus
- For more information on Fast Channel click here.
Camera Link Specification(287MB)
National Semiconductor
Channel Link Datasheet (
343 KB)
Technical Specifications
 Block Diagram |
| NTSC/PAL Composite Video Capture (4 channels) | |
| Input levels | 1V peak-to-peak nom., 0.3 to 1.2V peak-to-peak max. |
| Input impedance | 75 Ohms |
| Channel crosstalk | -50 dB max. |
| Resolution | 8 bits |
| Formats supported | PAL BGHI, PAL N, PAL M, NTSC M, NTSC N, NTSC 4.43, NTSC-Japan, SECAM |
| Digital Video Capture | |
| Common mode input range | -5V
to +5V (0 to 2.4V with LVDS option) |
| Input sensitivity | 250mV
differential (100mV with LVDS option) |
| Input hysteresis | 50 mV typical |
| Max. clock rate | 80 MHz |
| Max. input data width | 32 bits |
| Formats supported | ITU-R
BT.656 (4:2:2 interlaced color), 8/10-bit mono. variable/line scan, 8/10-bit raw data, 8/10-bit RGB,16-bit raw at 20 MHz (40 MB/sec.) |
| Input Levels | RS-422, LVDS signaling |
| Camera Control | |
| Serial port | Asynchronous RS-232, 600-19,200 Baud |
| Frame/line start outputs | 2 RS-422 |
| Exposure control out. | 2 RS-422 |
| Master clock out. | 2 RS-422 programmable in 0.07 Hz steps up to 40 MHz |
| General purpose out. | 4 RS-422 |
| Pixel clock inputs | 2 RS-422 |
| Line/frame valid in. | 4 RS-422 |
| External trigger in. | 2 RS-422 |
| Gen. purpose in. | 4 RS-422 |
| Power | No camera power provided by card; use an external supply |
| RS-422 input | RS-422, LVDS signaling |
| PCI Interface | |
| Clock rate | 33 MHz max. |
| Data width | 64/32 bits |
| Peak DMA rate | 256/132 MB/sec. |
| Standards compliance | PCI Rev. 2.1 |
| PMC Interface | |
| Clock rate | 33 MHz max. |
| Data width | 32 bits |
| Peak DMA rate | 132 MB/sec. |
| Standards compliance | PCI Rev. 2.1 |
FastChannel
Alacron's FastChannel is a mechanism for the FastSeries components to communicate with the processing environment without impacting the PCI bus.
Alacron has acknowledged the need for a non-bussed form of data transfer within any high performance DSP or Imaging application. Bussed communication schemes are subject to bus saturation and contention, limiting their usefulness. The ideal interconnection scheme is to allow point to point communication from a data source to one or more data sinks. Each interconnection supports its data transfer and is isolated from any other data transfer, preventing bus saturation and contention.
FastChannel is Alacron's implementation of a point to point or point to many points connection between a data source and its sinks. FastChannel is available on Alacron's FastImage product and supports connections between the FastImage's internal resources - on the P4 connector of the PMC locations and on two ribbon cable connections for interboard communication.
FastChannel Diagram
In addition to its support for the one to many data transfers, FastChannel is configurable at startup. During operation the interconnections are static. Alacron has found that the need for an interconnection between a data source and sink is not dynamic in real-time and in high performance data processing applications - especially when the data rates are high. This fact allows for a significantly lower cost interconnect solution, and at the same time a simplification in software. No special hardware is required for source and destination addresses, arbitration, and control of the channel. Very simple software protocols can be implemented as the only operation allowed is the transfer of one 'word' of data.
The FastChannel is made up of three things, a parallel data path from 1 to 32 bits, a clock, and a data valid. In the current implementation, clock speeds are limited to 80 MHz and below, making the highest peak data transfer rate between a source and its sinks of 320 MB/s. The many connections in the FastChannel make it difficult to report an "overall" performance of the FastChannel - one specification that is often quoted is the cross section band-width, which is the sum of all active channels (non-blocked) data rates in the best cast. The cross-section bandwidth is 2.4 GB per second per FastImage board. Interboard communication is limited to 320 MB/s
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FastFrame1303
Frame Grabber(
222 KB)
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