Lattice has announced an improved version of its CrossLink video bridge FPGA which adds instant-on capability.

CrossLinkPlus is an FPGA with a hardened MIPI-DPHY that can be used as a MIPI bridge, or to aggregate multiple sensors, pre-processing the data to offload the processor. It offers 12 Gbps total MIPI-DPHY bandwidth (two 6 Gbps ports) with power consumption as low as 300 µW standby power, or 5 mW operating power.

The 2 Mb embedded flash memory accelerates device configuration. Using embedded flash as configuration memory, CrossLinkPlus enables a display to boot in less than 10 milliseconds. As the human eye can’t detect an image in less than 15 milliseconds, any display artifacts or glitches at boot is invisible to the human eye. The flash also enables flexible device reprogramming in the field.

To facilitate use of MIPI ecosystem components, CrossLinkPlus ships with two hardened MIPI D-PHY IP blocks. These blocks can support two MIPI D-PHY ports at a combined speed of 12 Gbps, plenty of bandwidth to support multiple MIPI connections. CrossLinkPlus also supports up to 11 lanes of programmable I/Os so the device can be configured to bridge connections between MIPI and non-MIPI interfaces (Sub-LVDS, LVDS, CMOS, SLVS200, etc.).

Additionally, Lattice provides IPs and reference designs to accelerate implementation of CrossLinkPlus FPGAs in common embedded system architectures used in industrial, automotive, computing, and consumer products. These architectures including sensor and display bridging, aggregation, and signal splitting. By leveraging CrossLinkPlus FPGAs and its hardware and software tools (a complete list of both are available on the CrossLinkPlus product page), designers avoid much of the work around enabling basic connectivity between embedded vision system components.

Lattice first mentioned the CrossLinkPlus product concept back in May 2019 at its Financial Analyst Day, the company forecasted the device would be sampling in Q4 2019. But it is available now ahead of schedule.

The adoption of MIPI in the smartphone space is increasing the number of image sensors, displays and SoCs that support the MIPI standard, while MIPI tools and the rest of its ecosystem is developing quickly. Now reaching volumes that permit economies of scale, MIPI components are seeing increased uptake in industrial and automotive markets.