Overview

IMAGEM Technology is a dynamic company created in 2003 by engineers animated by a strong will to bring to the market a new and pragmatic answer for embedded displays systems.

The need to find an alternative solution for Video & Graphics came from the

experimentation that conventional solutions are not able to fully satisfy the needs.

Especially in embedded industry, overall problem appears as a set of antinomic requirements which seem impossible to fulfil without unbalanced trade-off. The following figure summarizes the equation to solve.

By analogy with Human Being whose performance comes from a harmonious balance between the brain and the muscle, the ATHLET^® concept foundation is a strong mixing between intelligence (=software CPU) and strength (=hardware accelerator).

Based on a hybrid (software/hardware) approach and embodied by a IP core targeting FPGAs, the ATHLET^® solution allows resolving the complex previous equation.

Even in smallest size IP core (ATHLET^® Light option) targeting lowest cost FPGAs, ATHLET^® offers high quality and rich features to fulfill embedded multimedia requirements:

• Full color RGB pipeline.
• 6 graphics layers.
• Full transparency management.
• Full antialiasing support.
• Full mixing between objects.
• Sub-pixel and high-quality rendering for instrumentation (i.e automotive cluster) (ATHLET^® Green Light package).

Complexity is inherent to Video & Graphics technics. The ATHLET^® technology successfully hides complexity to let user focus on application and creation.

• Object Oriented MMI construction.

• High-level API in C language to develop directly application (no low-level driver).

• Full encapsulation of JPEG, PNG and True-Type decoders for direct compatibility with standard images and fonts formats.

• Unique component Wizard to handle IP scalability and material diversity. 
  

Video Vs Graphics

ATHLET^® original/patented architecture allows handling video as easily as graphics.

• Same display functionalities for both Videos and Graphics (clipping, resizing, transparency, ...).

• Full mixing between Video and Graphics.

• No dedicated Video layer.

Dynamic MMI Vs Low Power 

ATHLET^® is adapted for embedded constraints:

• Low power CPU (implemented in FPGA).
• low frequency architecture compared to ASSP.
• Intelligent frame buffer management allows huge memory footprint savings (multi-display advantage).

But overcomes the challenge to offer:

• Simultaneous Real-time Video capabilities.
• Objects animations.
• Dynamic effects.
• RTOS compatibility.

ATHLET^® IP is both an innovative solution...

• ATHLET^® IP has been adopted by Research & innovation divisions of automotive car manufacturers for :

• Concept cars
• MMI design and prototyping
• MMI demonstrators
• Reference Video&Graphics platform for RFQ.

... and an industrial product :

• ATHLET^® IP has been adopted by major automotive suppliers as reference platform for new designs and is currently under evaluation by other ones.
• FPGA is widely adopted in industry.

• ATHLET^® IP Suite is available through ALTERA development tools.

• ATHLET^® IP is in standard C language (software) and standard VHDL language (hardware). Even if ATHLET^® IP core is currently available on ALTERA FPGAs, it is possible to package the technology on FPGAs from others suppliers on request.

Production perennity is guaranteed by:

• ATHLET^® IP is instantiated in FPGAs which are the best candidates for long life-cycle products.
• ATHLET^® solution is based on FPGA On-Chip architecture and virtual FPGA components (CPU, ATHLET^® IP, memory controller)  cannot become obsolete by definition.

ATHLET^® solution allows moving from evaluation to industrial products in a very short time with few effort:

• ATHLET^® is not a classic "function" IP, but really a ”all-in-one” IP integrating all the necessary functions (Video, graphics, rendering, display) and system glue (bus connections, arbiters and controls mechanisms), to get optimised MMI display solution.
• ATHLET^® is able to adapt to any system topology (co-processing, sub-system, stand-alone system).

 Next page : Technical complexity vs Fast development