Programmable video interface card

As the industry moves towards open architecture standards, current image processing systems need to exploit the high computing throughput of commercially available parallel processing architectures in order to implement increasingly complex algorithms and systems. Adapting the inputs from a variety of visible and infra-red sensors to the unique requirements of multi-processing systems is essential for development of high performance real-time image processing systems. This paper describes the architecture of the Hughes Video Input Card (VIC) which provides a programmable hardware interface between imaging sensors and a high-speed parallel processor interconnect bus. In addition to providing the sensor electrical interface, the VIC supports important video processing functions by pre-conditioning the video data by image windowing, floating point data conversion, and pixel decimation. These programmable features, combined with the VIC's interface to the high-speed RACEway(R), far exceed the capabilities of any front panel data port (FPDP) input.