Hi all. I'm looking for FPGA for real-time video processing. The requirements are not yet fixed, but I think something like Xilinx Virtex-II Pro from XC2VP7 to XC2VP30 would be a good choice. PCI interface would be nice so that I could plug the card in and transfer uncompressed video frames into the card and get compressed frames back. Something like, say 100 Mbit/s Ethernet, might also work but then it would use pretty much all of the bandwidth.
Also, I want to do development on Linux (Debian) host, so the tools should run on that. Running Linux on the FPGA PowerPCs sounds like a nice idea too.
My question is: what hardware and software do I need? Looks like I need:
- The development board. Prospective candidates are Alpha Data's ADM-XPL and Amirix boards. Something from Avnet might also do, except that it appears they don't support Linux. Not sure about Alpha Data either. And then there's Xilinx's ML310 which appears to be a complete computer with PCI slots and Ethernet. But it might have some bandwidth problems, unless I connect camera directly into the PCI slots in the board.
- Hardware development tools. Are there other alternatives than ISE Foundation/BaseX? And are there differences between the two except that the latter supports devices only up to XC2VP7?
- Software development tools. Should I get them from the board vendor or is it possible to use them from third party? I have found EDK from Xilinx and the TimeSys SDK. What is the difference between the two? Other alternatives?
- Operating system for the PowerPC inside the FPGA. Does this come with the development kits or would I need to get one separately?
- Something else?
I hope the questions were not too silly, but I haven't done any work with FPGAs before.