Various multimedia applications need very low end-to-end latency so that the quality of experience (QoE) is kept high and the application remains useful. You’ll probably have been in a video conference where there is a noticeable delay between you speaking and the receiver hearing it – it creates a poor experience and makes it difficult to hold a conversation. Or imagine a live football broadcast where you hear your neighbors cheering for a goal while they watch the game on over-the-air TV, and then you frustratingly see the same goal 30 seconds later because you’re watching an Internet stream. For live coverage or interactivity, keeping latency as low as possible is a must. Similar low latency streaming is required during live events, news gathering, e-sports/game streaming, and KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) control systems. 

Video folks often refer to terms such as “4:2:2 10-bit”, “full 4:4:4” or “8-bit 4:2:0”, but what do these numbers mean? The 8- and 10-bit refers to the number of digital bits per colour component (bpcc), with 10-bits used to represent each of the red, green, and blue pixel values. So, 10-bit will have a vastly bigger palette to choose from than 8-bit. Higher numbers of bits per colour not only means more accurate representation of the scene in the digital domain, but also affects video quality when representing smooth transitions.

We have all come to expect high-quality video when viewing video streams for work or play. The delivery of media using IP networks, known as AV-over-IP, helps to quench an insatiable demand for content, equipment, and bandwidth. Whether for live streaming your latest game challenge or attending virtual events, the expectation is that compressed video is delivered with higher detail, greater contrast, and a wide array of lifelike colors. Ultra high-definition (UHD) video as defined by the Ultra HD Forum combines improvements in resolution, wide color gamut (WCG), increased frame rates, higher bit depths, and high dynamic range (HDR) to deliver a more realistic visual experience.

Two new downloadable apps that can significantly cut development time of certain industrial applications are now available from AMD’s Kria™ App Store. Used in conjunction with AMD’s modestly priced Kria KR260 Robotics Starter Kit (US$349), these apps that were developed for the Ubuntu 22.04 LTS certified KR260 boards, help developers build complex, hardware-accelerated industrial systems with minimal Linux and no FPGA expertise required. 

Multimedia streaming is one of the most complex system designs you’ll face. Integrating from a vast array of audio/video (AV) connectivity standards with compression codecs, audio and video processing, synchronization, and IP network streaming, while making the embedded software all work seamlessly and reliably often means you’ll need a team of people working on different aspects of the design and plenty of collaboration to make things work as you expected.

The gaming console market is currently worth $13B according to ABI Research, and is dominated by suppliers such as Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony. An activity that was once limited to an individual home has now morphed into cloud-based interactive gaming with a constant increase in computational capability of the processors that form the brain of the console. Online smartphone and tablet games continue to nibble away at the serviceable market (SAM) of portable consoles. Not to be outdone, the larger game console OEMs (Microsoft and Sony) continue to invest in purpose-built processors using the most complex modern technology capable of higher resolution (4K) with advanced wireless connectivity (Bluetooth, WiFi), 3D gaming with features such as 3D localization, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) capabilities, and investments or partnerships with premium e-sports outlets.

The DVB-S2X standard is very popular for satellite communication. Its outstanding error correction performance allows it to achieve excellent spectral efficiency for a broad range of signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) - from less than -8dB up to 20dB.

We all know that designing and prototyping with a new architecture isn’t easy, and some may wonder where to start. The good news is that there is a lot of information that users can explore on the Versal® architecture, including documents, training courses, example designs, tools, and libraries. Even better news is evaluation kits with production devices are available for anyone who wants to develop next-gen applications in 5G, data center, wired/wireless, automotive, and test & measurement.

Developing and testing Terabit Ethernet will require innovative solutions to complex technical challenges. This is to be expected. It was the same when the industry upgraded to 100Gb/s 10 years ago and when we leveled up to 400Gb/s in 2017.

If you’re developing an intelligent edge application that needs processing power in an ultra-compact form factor—we have news for you: the Zynq® UltraScale+™ ZU1 MPSoC is now shipping in all packages including the Ultra-Compact InFO Packaging.