India-based outsourcing specialist eInfochips will ship a prototyping board for streaming media devices later this month. The DVPB (“DaVinci prototyping board”) is based on a Texas Instruments (TI) “DaVinci” dual-core RISC/DSP SoC (system-on-chip), and features “all commonly used video system peripheral interfaces,”… the company says.

(Click for slightly larger view of eInfochips's Prototyping Board)

According to eInfochips, the DVPB can be used to quickly prototype streaming media devices such as smart IP cameras, network video servers, and video conferencing systems. The board comes with a boot-loader and software utilities aimed at porting applications to the board, the company says.

The DVPB is based on TI's TMS320DM6446, which along with the TMS320DM6443, was the first DaVinci chip to ship. TI launched DaVinci in 2006, promising to deliver unprecedented software value-adds around the chips, including Linux kernels and drivers. Davinci SoCs integrate ARM cores with powerful DSP cores.

Although the DVPB is touted as a small footprint board, eInfochips does not disclose exact dimensions and other key details without a website registration. The company does list the following features:

• 128MB SDRAM and 64MB NAND flash
• Comes with U-boot bootloader and software utilities to help developers re-target their applications to the DVPB
• Includes peripheral interfaces for audio/video, Ethernet, USB, SD, ATA, VLYNQ, RS232, RS485, and GPIO
• Supports CCD/CMOS sensors for video input
• RoHS compliant design and components
• Includes demo application for surveillance system based on H.264/MPEG4
• Optional device drivers

Sham Banerji, head of software development at TI India, stated, “Customers will get access to eInfochips' rapid prototyping platform, [and] expert system integration skills.”

EInfochips marketing VP Tapan Joshi added, “The DVPB [will help us] give more value-added solutions and services to customers across application domains.”

Availability

The DVPB will be available for volume shipments in late December, priced at $1,300 in small lots. eInfoChips demonstrated the setup at a Freescale Developer's Conference in Bangalore last week.

Another India-based company, Ittiam, in May launched a Linux-powered videophone reference design based on Davinci.

 
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