Developers can easily experience and harness the high-speed machine-to-machine interface capability of Stellaris(R) MCUs with TI's new FPGA Expansion Board

DALLAS, May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Speeding the development of low-cost security access control systems and other applications that require a high-speed interface to external processing units, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) today launched the new Stellaris FPGA Expansion Board for the DK-LM3S9B96 development kit. The new board enables developers to easily evaluate the high bandwidth machine-to-machine (M2M) parallel interface capability of Stellaris microcontroller's (MCU) flexible External Peripheral Interface (EPI). With data widths of up to 32 bits and data rates of up to 150 MB per second, the M2M mode of EPI was specifically developed to enable developers of low-cost security access control applications to interface cameras or low-resolution video with a Stellaris MCU that can provide cost-effective Ethernet communication of processed, encoded imagery. In such systems, dedicated video processing is handled by an FPGA or DSP, and the encoded images are communicated via the on-chip Ethernet MAC+PHY of a Stellaris MCU. Right out of the box, the quickstart application on the expansion board allows developers to show the FPGA's camera-captured and FPGA-processed video on the large, 3.5-inch touchscreen display of the DK-LM3S9B96.  For more information, please visit http://www.ti.com/fpgaboard-pr-sw.

Key features and benefits of the Stellaris FPGA Expansion Board (DK-LM3S9B96-FPGA)

• EPI operation at 50 MHz for large amount of data logging and analysis
• Complete hardware including Xilinx Spartan 3E FPGA with 100k system gates, 1/13" CMOS VGA (640x480) Color Camera Module, 1 x 6 header for FPGA programming and Xilinx JTAG connector
• 1 MB of asynchronous 10 nsec SRAM for graphics/video buffers and 1 kilobit of I2C memory for storing configuration data
• 8 FPGA test pads provide 5 inputs and 3 I/Os available for user prototyping of application-specific FPGA processing tasks
• Video and motion software features to jumpstart development, including color motion video displayed at QVGA (320 x 240) resolution, graphical on-screen-display overlaid on moving video, widget-based touchscreen user interface using the StellarisWare® Graphics Library, freeze/resume motion with screen capture, as well as brightness, saturation, tint/hue, and sharpness picture controls
• Plugs directly into the EPI on the DK-LM3S9B96 development board, which includes an 80 MHz Stellaris MCU with 256K flash, 96K SRAM, StellarisWare software in ROM, as well as integrated Ethernet MAC and PHY, USB On-the-Go (OTG)/Host/Device and CAN

Pricing and availability

The Stellaris FPGA Expansion Board (DK-LM3S9B96-FPGA) is priced at $199 and can be ordered at http://www.ti.com/fpgaboard-pr-es.  The DK-LM3S9B96, sold separately and priced at $425 US, is also immediately available to order at www.ti.com/fpgaboard-base-pr-es.

TI's broad portfolio of MCUs and software

From general purpose, ultra-low power MSP430™ MCUs, to Stellaris Cortex-M3-based 32-bit MCUs and high performance, real-time control TMS320C2000™ MCUs, TI offers the broadest range of microcontroller solutions. Designers can accelerate time to market by tapping into TI's complete software and hardware tools, extensive third-party offerings and technical support.

Find out more about TI's Stellaris MCUs by visiting the links below:

• Stellaris FPGA Expansion Board tool folder: www.ti.com/fpgaboard-pr-sw
• DK-LM3S9B96 Development Kit: www.ti.com/fpgaboard-lm3s9b6-pr-sw
• Stellaris MCUs: www.ti.com/fpgaboard-stellaris-pr-lp
• StellarisWare Software: http://www.ti.com/fpgaboard-pr-lpsw
• TI's microcontroller portfolio: www.ti.com/fpgaboard-mcu-pr-lp
• Purchase: www.ti.com/fpgaboard-pr-es

About Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) helps customers solve problems and develop new electronics that make the world smarter, healthier, safer, greener and more fun.  A global semiconductor company, TI innovates through design, sales and manufacturing operations in more than 30 countries.  For more information, go to www.ti.com.

Trademarks

Stellaris and StellarisWare are registered trademarks and MSP430 and TMS320C2000 are trademarks of Texas Instruments Incorporated.  ARM is a registered trademark and Cortex is a trademark of ARM Ltd.  

SOURCE Texas Instruments Incorporated