FPGA IP Cores for Video Content Analysis

The Cellular Multicore Video Analytics™ (C-MVA™) processor from Eutecus is the “powerhouse” of its Multi-core Video Analytics Engine (MVE™). C-MVA™ is the newest practical application to emerge from Eutecus’ Cellular Visual Technology™ (CVT). CVT’s groundbreaking use of massively parallel cellular array structures for ultra-fast image processing received the prestigious Microprocessor Report Analysts' Choice Award for Innovation (2006).

The C-MVA™ system is composed of a cascade of highly optimized processing blocks embedded in FPGA, which takes over the computationally-intensive, pixel-level early tasks of the video processing flow (such as noise filtering and signal reconstruction, foreground-background separation, and morphological shape/structure extraction) that would otherwise be handled by the main processor inside an intelligent camera (e.g., a DSP).

C-MVA™ processes 8-bit grayscale and color (8-bit QBayer) input from the image sensor or other source and produces a black-and-white output image of salient features, which can then be streamed for higher-level on-board processing and analysis.

C-MVA™ is currently configured to run on the Spartan-3A DSP ® FPGA (with 256 MB DDR2 SDRAM and 8 MB SPI Flash) embedded in Eutecus’ Bi-i™ V401X Video Analytics Module reference design and fully integrated into Eutecus’ InstantVision™ Integrated Software Environment (IV ISE). Eutecus works closely with OEMs at all levels to help them take advantage of CVT applications on a wide variety of hardware and software platforms.

In its current implementation, C-MVA™ pre-processes 1,024 x 1,024 resolution images at a rate of 30 frames per second. Resolution can be scaled up while maintaining video frame rate. Eutecus’ multi-core CVT provides almost unlimited scope for increased pixel rate. The individual cores that constitute the C-MVA™ are also available as separate IP blocks for implementation in other FPGA configurations. For more information on the IP blocks, how to license them, and availability of future releases, contact Eutecus.

® Spartan-3A is a registered trademark of Xilinx, Inc.