Which dev kit for video processing (3G-SDI)

Altera_Forum · ‎05-31-2016

Hi everyone (I am French, sorry for my mistakes),

If I am here today, it is because I am completely lost, in the fog, burried in the ground. I may need some help :o

So I would like to retrieve the data from a 3G-SDI signal (BNC Cable) and store the data of every pixel from two consecutives frames (updated at each new frame). The thing is... I don't know anymore where I should start. I have already used FPGAs when I was in school (few years back) but the Dev Board was provided, everything was written in our book and we didn't have to bother with economics or perfomance aspects (welcome to the real world !).

Anyway, it's been two weeks now that I am making some research in order to understand how I can achieve that. I "figured" it out how to do it on the paper (clock recovery, deserializing....). In Altera website and thanks to its "Product Selector", I have some.... ideas. But honnestly, the more I try to understand, the more I am lost. I can feel myself drowning. The FPGA catalog is.... huge. Sometimes I think I understood something but actually I think I didn't.

Since I need to retrieve the data from a 3G-SDI signal, what would be the best option ? Is a Cyclone IV GX a good choice ?

I mean, is there any board Dev that can achieve what I am trying to do ? I have seen the DES part from SERDES allows to achieve, in a way or partly, what I am trying to do.

Is the SerDes a part of the FPGA (IC) or is it integrated as a IC on the board ?

Altera_Forum · ‎06-02-2016

if you use "full" 3G-SDI directly through the serdes you need an FPGA with Transceivers (for Cyclone) this are the GX devices or the GT devices, but the GX will be enough for that. For lower Speeds, such as HD-SDI also the "normal" devices without dedicated tranceivers would be enough!

Altera_Forum · ‎06-06-2016

Hi Taz1984 and thanks for your answer !

Yeah indeed it is a full 3G-SDI signal (2.97 Gbits/s bitrates). The thing is I don't really know which development board I should choose or, at least, I don't know if I am thinking the right way for what I am trying to achieve.

For example, there is the "Cyclone IV GX Transceiver Starter Kit". In my opinion, I tihnk this dev kit may be suitable for my project since I need to store at all time 2 frames from my SDI signal to compare them. According to the specs of the 3G-SDI, one frame is 59.4 Mbits. So if I want to compare two successives frames I need, at least, 120 Mbits memory. The specs of this dev kit says it has 16MB flash memory (128 Mbits). It is a bit more than I need but I need to be sure on this point so... am I right if I say that this dev board is not the best choice (not "enough" memory) ? I mean, am I thinking right ?

On the other hand, I have seen a project to process a 3G-SDI signal with a cyclone III based board (DK DEV 3C120N) and a HSMC daughter card (SDALTEVK). There is a thing I just want to be sure. If I understand well, the combination "DK DEV 3C120N (Clycone III) + SDALTEVK (SerDes)" is now "equivalent" with using a Cylcone IV GX since the transceiver is now integrated in the FGPA ?

Thanks !

EDIT: Sorry if it is a stupid question but... where do I plug my BNC cable ? I don't see any BNC connector on the boards for Cyclone IV GX (Shall I have to add a SDI-HSMC card ?)

Altera_Forum · ‎06-07-2016

You may also think about using a cyclone V - Board, the chips are more cheap than the Cyclone IV and even more powerfull.

And I won't use Flash-Memory for Framebuffering, but some DDR2 or DDR3 RAM, they are faster.

Altera_Forum · ‎06-09-2016

OK thx for your answer !

I'll consider using a Cyclone V.