Commercial, Embedded Avionics

Aitech Graphics System Uses Single Core for Video Processing

By Juliet Van Wagenen | April 20, 2016
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Aitech’s new graphics system
Aitech’s new graphics system. Photo: Aitech

[Avionics Magazine 04-20-2016] Aitech Defense Systems and CoreAVI are exhibiting a new graphics system with an extremely low latency of two frames at the Aviation Electronics Europe (AEE) show this week. The M596 graphics and video system runs all video throughput under VxWorks on a single core of a 12-core T4240 processor, keeping the remaining 11 cores free to perform other processing tasks.

Aitech developed the processing capabilities for the M596 to handle intense video demands from cockpit display computers across a wide range of different aircraft.

Graphics and video are generated using CoreAVI’s safety-critical OpenGL SC software, then rendered by the M596’s GPU. The fourth generation Universal Video Decoder (UVD) within the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) uses CoreAVI’s E8860 H.264 video decode drivers to decode the H.264 video, a task typically handled by the CPU. The GPU incorporates the decoded H.264 video and displays it through CoreAVI’s video capture API. This allows for easy integration with 2D or 3D graphics-video overlays, while using a single or even multiple independent graphics display heads.

The M596 can simultaneously process up to four different types of analog and digital video inputs and outputs over a wide range of resolutions. The C112’s large memory arrays and broad I/O range allows it to meet many mission requirements right out of the box.  The inherent secure boot and trust architecture, encryption capabilities of the T4240 processor provides added security needed in defense and aerospace applications.

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