Simultaneous UAV video streaming maximized
ProductOctober 17, 2011
Alice Moss
Military Embedded Systems
As UAVs rapidly gain traction as a viable means of intelligence gathering and transmission, being able to capture and process multiple video sources simultaneously is imperative.
As UAVs rapidly gain traction as a viable means of intelligence gathering and transmission, being able to capture and process multiple video sources simultaneously is imperative. Thus, GE Intelligent Platforms’ GFG500 3U OpenVPX-REDI GbE video processor caught our eye. Designed for tucking into UAV and ground vehicle systems, the GFG500 can provide 30 Hz processing of ten 1,392 x 1,024 GigE Vision video streams from GbE-based video sources simultaneously. And that’s not all. The GbE video processor is powered by a 700 MHz Tilera TILEPro64 processor packed with 64 general-purpose processor cores configured on an 8 x 8 grid to render high-performance networking and image processing. The processor also brings four banks of 512 MB DDR2 800 SDRAM to the table.
Meanwhile, it doesn’t stop there; other notables of the GFG500 include two 4-lane PCIe interfaces, in addition to 2x XAUI full-duplex 10 GbE ports. Linux OS support is also included, as are direct camera control proffered by GigE Vision Ethernet, in addition to a programmable user interface. The interface allows users to configure myriad provided video-processing options such as video compression and sampling, as well as Bayer decoding. And GFG500 comes in conduction- and convection-cooled variants. So basically, this video processor is a real keeper.
