July 23, 2012 -- QuickLogic Corp. today announced a complete, ready-to-use solution for the Sitara AM335x ARM Cortex-A8 processor from Texas Instruments, Inc. (TI). The QuickLogic solution enables TI's AM335x processor to support high-resolution cameras through a low-power parallel Camera Interface (CAM I/F) port.

By eliminating the need for cameras to consume sometimes-scarce USB ports, and by reducing total system power consumption, the QuickLogic CSSP CAM I/F solution expands the application space for the TI processor in the mobile enterprise (including AIDC, or Automatic Identification and Data Capture, and ruggedized handhelds), portable consumer, industrial tablet and industrial smartphone markets.

The AM335x processor is ideal for a variety of portable devices that support high-resolution cameras. While many cameras require the standard USB interface, the processor's USB controllers are often already used by other peripherals. Moreover, the processor's USB controller can consume up to 150mW more power than QuickLogic's CAM I/F-enabled CSSP solution, making it impractical for many handheld and mobile applications. QuickLogic's CSSP provides the CAM I/F, connecting the TI general-purpose memory controller (GPMC) and the camera sensor. The GPMC includes direct memory access (DMA) capability, allowing QuickLogic to support high-resolution cameras. With this new low-power solution, TI can now support up to five megapixel cameras without using sometimes-scarce USB ports, and address a much wider range of applications.

BeagleBone reference design platform

To ease integration of TI's AM335x processor, BeagleBoard.org created BeagleBone, a ready-to-use, open-source hardware platform for rapid prototyping and firmware and software development. This low-cost BeagleBone follows on the heels of the BeagleBoard platform for mid-range and upper-end applications. BeagleBone is highly extensible, allowing developers to add many features and interfaces via add-on boards or Capes. The camera cape, including the QuickLogic CSSP, will connect to a BeagleBone and an Aptina image sensor.

Availability

The QuickLogic BeagleCam Camera Cape solution is available today as a ready-to-use CSSP, or as a Proven System Block (PSB) for inclusion in other CSSPs.