Numato Opsis is an Open Source Hardware FPGA Board with 6 Video Inputs and Outputs (Crowdfunding)

Numato Lab is a Bangalore based company specializing in MCU and FPGA boards such as the low cost Mimas V2 Spartan 6 board, and their latest board is also based on a Spartan 6 FPGA, but a more powerful part with LX45T FPGA, and targets video applications with two HDMI inputs, two HDMI outputs, one DisplayPort output, and one DisplayPort input, among other interfaces.

Instead of simply listing specifications of Numato Opsis, I’ll reproduce a table – drawn by Numato – showing Opsis features and specifications against some other FPGA video platforms.

&lttd>

	Opsis	miniSpartan6+	Mixxeo	Atlys	Nexys	Anvyl	CVK 2.0	AVDB
Make	Numato	ScarabHardware	MLabs	Digilent	Digilent	Digilent	TED	OmniTek
License	Open	Open	Open	Closed	Closed	Closed	Closed	Closed
Cost	USD $349	USD $105	no stock	USD $419	USD $499	USD $539	USD $2,995	USD $999
FPGA
Fab	Xilinx	Xilinx	Xilinx	Xilinx	Xilinx	Xilinx	Xilinx	Altera
Family	Spartan6	Spartan6	Spartan6	Spartan6	Artix7	Spartan6	Spartan6	Cyclone V
Part	LX45T	LX25	LX45	LX45	XC7A200T	LX45	LX150T	GT
Memory
Type	DDR31600	166MHz SDRAM	DDR1400	DDR2800	DDR31600	DDR2800	DDR31600	DDR31600
Size	256MB	32MB	2 x 64MB	128MB	256MB	128MB	128MB	2 x 128MB
HDMI
Inputs	2	1	4	2	1	1	1	1
Outputs	2	1	4	2 [1]	1	1	1	1
CEC Support	All Ports	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Hotplug Ctrl	All Ports	No	All Inputs	No	No	No	No	No
VGA Out	Expansion	0	1	Expansion	Expansion	0	Expansion	0
DisplayPort
Inputs	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
Outputs	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
Dual mode [2]	Yes	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	?	Yes
USB 2.0
Device	FX2 [4] and UTMI OTG	No	No	FX2[3]	No	FX2[3]	No	No
Host	UTMI OTG	No	HID only	HID only	HID only	No	No
JTAG	Yes [4]	Yes	Yes	Yes [3]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
UART	Yes [4]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Ethernet
Speed	Gigabit	None	100Mbit	Gigabit	Gigabit	100Mbit	Expansion	Gigabit
Unique MAC	Yes	N/A	No	No	Yes	No	N/A	Yes
microSD	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No
Config Storage	16 Mbyte SPI	8 Mbyte SPI	32 Mbyte PROM	16 Mbyte SPI	32 Mbyte SPI	16 Mbyte SPI	16 Mbyte SPI	2 x 32 Mbyte SPI
Audio	Expansion	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Expansion	Yes
High-Speed Expansion	TOFE	No	No	VHDCI	FMC LPC	No	3 x FMC LPC, 1 x FMC HPC	No
PMOD Connectors	Expansion	0	0	1 [1]	5	7	0	0

The mini-ITX board has been designed using KiCad open source software tool, and hardware design files can be found on github. The default firmware, also free and open source, is called HDMI2USB.tv and allows users to record video from HDMI or DisplayPort inputs to a computer (the board emulates a UVC webcam), while simultaneously outputting the input to multiple video outputs, which can be very useful for conferences. A more advanced scenario would be to have two video inputs with one HDMI camera capturing the speaker, with the other HDMI input connected to his laptop to show the presentation slides, and the system would switch between the two inputs as needed, while broadcasting the video to various outputs.

Beside being used as a video platform, the board can also be used for various other tasks as a Xilinx FPGA development board with high-speed transceivers, expansion I/Os and more.

The project has launched on Crowdsupply platform, where the company aims to raise a mere $8,725. Numato Opsis board requires a $349 pledge with free shipping to the US, and $15 to the rest of the world. Delivery is scheduled for December 2015.

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