News and New Products

Video, graphics module drives dual displays

By Warren Webb, Technical Editor -- EDN, 8/13/2008

With advanced-sensor-fusion, image-manipulation, and tactical-moving-map applications in mind, Aitech Defense Systems recently introduced the M590 graphics and video PMC (peripheral-component-interconnect-mezzanine-card) module that simultaneously outputs information from two independent data streams to two analog or digital displays. The new M590 supports 2- or 3-D-video displays plus image capture with overlay and underlay features to provide man-machine interfaces with resolutions as high as 1536×2048 pixels at 30- to 200-Hz refresh rates and as many as 32 bits per pixel.

An AMD ATI M9 graphics processor with an on-chip 64-Mbyte frame-buffer array and dual RAMDAC (random-access-memory-digital-to-analog-converter) units power the M590, which performs high-speed 2-D line, 3-D polygon, and texture acceleration. The module also supports multiple video-input and -output formats, including NTSC (National Television System Committee) and PAL (phase-alternating line) for both interlaced and noninterlaced monitors. For advanced video-display applications, the M590 provides video overlay and underlay functions that generate images, superimpose an input from one of the various video formats, and drive the result to a monitor. The module’s software package supports all onboard capabilities and features OpenGL drivers for both VxWorks and Integrity real-time operating systems. The M590 is available in commercial-, rugged-, and military-temperature ranges and in either conduction- or air-cooled versions. The price for an M590 starts at $3440 (OEM quantities).