OMAP3530: Processor selection

Hi,

thanks for the hint!

I took a look at the AM57 datasheets. I see H.264 Codec mentioned, but they do they contain a hardware H.264 decoder?

Best regards,

Thorsten

This looks good.

We want to connect the processor to the host-PC using PCIe. Data transfer to the video decoder has to be fast/efficient. Is it possible to transfer data from host-PC to AM57x using DMA? If we copy data using MMU, the CPU in the host-PC has to do the work. That is not acceptable in our case, so we need to have DMA.

Hello, 

I agree with Biser that AM57x can be a good starting point. To confirm if the device can meet your decoding capability and power goal, could you confirm:

1. What is the preferred pixel data format to be sent to the host via PCIe? Since you like to do some graphics processing, I assume you need to send RGB888?

2. For decoding, you need 4ch 1080p60 H.264 decoding?

3. Required to be a single-chip solution?

Jian 

Hi Jian,

1. The idea is like this: H.264-video data is sent to host-PC. Data is transfered to H.264-decoder using DMA and decoded. Image is rotated and data is rearranged/coded in a special format (no ordinary format). Data is transfered back to host-PC using DMA. Therefore, I was asking about DMA, because we need a fast data transfer without utilising the CPU of the host-PC. Do you know if DMA is possible this way?

2. Four FullHD-Videos need to be processed in parallel.

3. We only need hardware H.264-decoder and some simple image processing (rotation, rearranging data). The image processing can be done on the ARM. Thermal dissipation is critical in this application. That's why we can't use a huge CPU in the host PC and want to offload the image processing in another processor. Because of the temperature, a FPGA also is no option.

For 4x FHD on a single chip, you would need a device similar to TDA4VM:

  https://www.ti.com/product/TDA4VM?keyMatch=TDA4VM&tisearch=Search-EN-everything&usecase=part-number

But the actual part number and corresponding SDK will not be available on ti.com till ~ 1 month. If you need advanced information, please send me a email to jian-wang@ti.com, I will connect you with the business team. 

Also I can confirm PCIe on the device can DMA data to the host. The device will have 4 ports of 2L Gen 3 bandwidth that is sufficient.  

Power may not achieve your target. We will have to estimate power based on your utilization. 

Regards

Jian