Aitech debuts AMD-powered PMC board for high-performance video, graphics

CHATSWORTH, Calif., 25 Feb. 2016. Aitech Defense Systems Inc. in Chatsworth, California, has expanded its line of AMD-driven solutions with the M598 video and graphics PCI mezzanine card (PMC), designed to drive several independent video streams simultaneously. The versatile PMC uses the AMD Radeon E8860 (Andelaar) graphics processing unit (GPU), providing six independent graphics heads with 2 gigabytes (GB) of GDDR5 synchronous graphics random access memory (SGRAM) operating at up to 1125 megahertz (MHz).

The M598 provides independent video stream capture and advanced video overlay functionality. Once the E8860 processor generates the graphics images, an input from one of the video formats is superimposed and the final image is sent to a monitor, officials describe. Used in civil or military aviation systems, the M598 is well suited to graphics-intensive display computing environments, such as: fixed- and rotary-wing mission and cockpit display computers and heads-up displays (HUDs), as well as electro-optical (EO) video camera, EO night vision and infrared (IR and EO/IR) video frame grabbing, multirole tactical mission displays found in advanced 2D and 3D command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) and electronic warfare (EW) video processing systems. The 4^th generation unified video decoder (UVD) within the GPU decodes H.264, VC-1, MPEG2, and MPEG4 formats. Up to 128 megabytes (MB) of DDR3 memory for real-time image conversion and data manipulation supports full 2D/3D video processing capabilities in the M598. The resultant videos and images can be routed to the PMC's various analog and digital output channels, available standard on the AMD GPU or to the optional sophisticated FPGA for output. Standard I/O includes: DVI, HDMI, RGBHV, and composite/S-Video outputs as well as STANAG 3350 and composite/S-Video inputs. High-speed data transfer is assured thanks to the 64-bit PCI-X link with the host system. The board offers enhanced graphic and video support, including DirectX 11.1, OpenGL 4.2, OpenCL 1.2, and Shader 5.0 as well as video resize, formatting, and conditioning options facilitate easy customization. Multiple video signal formats are supported for TV, VESA, SMPTE/HDTV, and STANAG 3350 video standards. Windows, Linux, VxWorks, and INTEGRITY operating systems are supported. An on-board temperature sensor and configurable thermal shutdown options on the M598 provide added security for working in harsh environments with extreme temperature ranges from -40 degrees Celsius to +85 degrees Celsius. Military-grade versions of the M598 can withstand altitudes of over 70,000 feet as well as shock and vibration per VITA 47 specifications. The board comes in standard air-cooled and conduction-cooled versions. Typical power consumption at idle is 15.7 watts (W) and max 33.8 W when running at 625 MHz.

Technical Specifications:

· AMD Radeon E8860 Andelaar processor

· Multiple independent video stream capture and overlay functionality

· Optional FPGA for additional supported video protocols and formats

· High-performance video and graphics processing and high-speed transfers