Developing 4K Video Projects With FPGAs


Achieving higher resolution is a never-ending race for camera, TV and display manufacturers. After the emergence of 4K ultra high definition (Ultra HD) imaging in the market, it became the main standard for today’s multimedia products. 4K Ultra HD brings us bigger screens which give an immersive feeling. With this standard, the pixilation problem was solved in the big screens. 4K consumers ar... » read more

Embedded Display IP Solution For 4K Resolutions


By Licinio Sousa, Synopsys, and Vassilis Androutsopoulos, Arm To meet consumers’ demands for high-resolution content and visual quality, high-end smartphones are moving from wide quad HD (WQHD) displays to ultra-high-resolution 4K displays. For AR/VR applications, since the display is closer to the eyes and must maintain visual quality, more pixels and high refresh rates are needed. Higher... » read more

Enabling UHD Or 4K Resolution Displays Using Data Stream Compression


Displays delivering quad HD or 4K resolutions at faster frame rates and support for RGB formats are becoming prevalent in high-end smartphones, automotive infotainment systems, and mixed reality (AR/VR) devices. For this reason, designers need a protocol that enables visually lossless compression over display interfaces like MIPI Display Serial interface (DSI). The Video Electronics Standard... » read more

Smarter Than A Card


Set-top boxes (STBs) were initially secured by Conditional Access System (CAS) smart cards. However, this approach is no longer effective. Smart cards cannot prevent unauthorized access to premium 4K and UHD content, as they are not designed to protect the interface between the card and box, or the STB SoC itself. This is one of the reasons why cardless CAS set-top boxes, equipped with a hardwa... » read more

Bringing a Sharper World In Focus With Virtual UHD Verification


UHD-4K designs require a verification solution that can handle longer, larger frames, faster frame rates, richer colors, wider contrasts, and highly complex chips. Emulation has the speed, capacity, and performance to churn very quickly through the massive amounts of data and long sequences required for verification. Visualization tools are needed to understand and debug what’s going on in UH... » read more

What’s Next In Mobile Displays


The next wave of smartphones and wearables is invading the market. These systems will feature a new class of high-resolution displays, and in the near future displays will become foldable and rollable, although there are still some challenges with this technology. To be sure, mobile display technology is advancing on several fronts. On one front, for example, Apple and other systems vendor... » read more

Demystifying the HDCP2.2 Authentication Process


This paper explains HDCP2.2 which is the latest generation content protection protocol. Our primary focus here is to explain how the authentication process on HDCP2.2, the various steps that are necessary in able to validate the receiver. The encryption on the keys in version 2.2 is more advanced than previous versions (HDCP1.X), which basically makes it harder to break. HDCP 2.2 is required fo... » read more

Digital TV: The Need For Speed


With CES just finishing up, I wanted to take a closer look at the changes in the digital TV market, and what affect those changes have on high performance memory and serial links. Just five years ago, the United States made the transition from analog to digital television. At the time, standard definition digital TV was common, with screens that contained 345 thousand pixels per frame. Recen... » read more

Blog Review: Jan. 22


Mentor’s Anil Khanna believes Nest’s approach should be incorporated into the entire power grid. The ramifications of that are interesting to ponder. Speaking of Nest, Cadence’s Brian Fuller looks at the implications of the $3.2 billion acquisition of the company by Google. Will Google get it right? Maybe. Synopsys’ Richard Solomon has come up with a new definition for New Year’... » read more

HDMI 2.0 Design And Verification Challenges


High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is an audio/video (A/V) transmission protocol, which is omnipresent in consumer electronics, personal computing, and mobile products. Modern-day requirements of big screen resolutions, 3D, and multi-channel/multi-stream audio have pushed display devices to use a completely digital, high-speed transmission media, requiring a multi-layered protocol like... » read more