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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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12 years ago

VIP fmax for Cyclone IV device

Hi,

I have a question about the VIP fmax for CycloneIV FPGA.

The chapter 1 in VIP user guide has a fmax table with regard to each IP.

For example, the clocked video input IP has a fmax of 116.36MHz when converting a 1080p60 SDI video to avalon-st package on EP4CGX15BF14C6.

Is this fmax fast enough to handle 1080p60 video?

To my understanding, 1080p60 video is sent with a pixel clock of 148.5MHz and I think a minimal fmax should be at least 148.5MHz in order to correctly convert video to avalon-st packet.

Therefore, if I'm going to do some video processing for 1080p60 video, I may need to use other FPGA device family such as Arria.

Is my thinking correct?

Thanks.

5 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    12 years ago

    The FMax listed is what they achieved in the design that they did, but may not be representative of what you will achieve in your design, based on how full the design is, and how hard the tool has to work to complete routing.

    Since it's already stating it's below the operating frequency required, I would look at the Cyclone V or Arria II familes.

    Get your design stiched together then target the various families to see what ones work better for closing your timing.

    Arria II is a pretty good speed bump from Cyclone IV. If you want a newer generation part, Cyclone V is much lower power, and has a pretty good speed bump as well (with the latest tools).

    I've heard that Arria V is not much faster than Cyclone V. But I have not targeted a design to this yet.

    If you still are not making the performance numbers there's always the Stratix Families.

    Pete
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    12 years ago

    I've been recompiling some Cyclone 4 designs to Cyclone 5 to use with the Helio View (SoC) kit. Other than the deinterlacer, I didn't have any problems using any of the components at 1080p60 rates, although I had to move to the fastest speed grade (I have a pretty complex system). Noticed improvements with the latest Quartus version, and deinterlacer did much better when I de-selected some of the options. Arria V is faster.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    10 years ago

    How well can the Arria V (speed grade -I3) handle 1080P60 video processing path? I plan to use the Altera VIP cores i.e. deinterlacer, frame buffere, color converters, etc.