News and New Products

Video-capture card drives multiple displays

By Warren Webb -- EDN, 1/20/2005

Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing recently launched a new high-resolution PCI Mezzanine Card graphics-display controller and video-capture card for VME, CompactPCI, and PCI systems. The Topaz/PMC, powered by Silicon Motion’s 128-bit SM731 graphics accelerator, supports screen resolutions as high as 1600×1200 pixels and includes 16 Mbytes of high-speed display SDRAM memory to provide local storage for image and off-screen data, such as texture maps, Z-buffer, and backing storage (Picture).

The card can output a range of graphics and video formats and interface types, including single- and dual-channel analog and LVDS and single-channel DVI and Stanag 3350. Supported analog interlaced formats include RS-170, PAL, NTSC, and S-Video. Video inputs include noninterlaced, interlaced, and DVI formats. According to Victor Gold, Curtiss-Wright vice president, the low-cost graphics card meets the majority of nonrugged graphics applications. With an operating temperature range of 0 to 70°C, the Topaz/PMC supports Linux, LynxOS, Windows, and VxWorks operating environments. Prices starts at $750 (single quantities).

Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing, www.cwcembedded.com.