GE Announces Upgraded Video Compression Module

Allowing high quality moving images to be captured, transmitted and stored at high speed, GE Intelligent Platforms (News - Alert) has unveiled the improved version the ICS-8580 rugged high definition video compression XMC module.

Managing multiple streams and performing capture, manipulation, conversion, compression, storage, decompression and video display, the ICS-8580 can capture video inputs and archive or stream them over Ethernet. Enabling it to be easily deployed in systems destined for deployment in harsh environments that are constrained by size, weight and power (SWaP), its rugged XMC form factor means that it is compact, lightweight and consumes little power, the company stated in a press release.

“The increasing deployment of unmanned vehicles by military organizations around the world is increasing demand for the use of video for intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance applications,” said Rod Rice, General Manager, Military & Aerospace Products, GE Intelligent Platforms. “The ICS-8580 provides a substantial step forward in its ability to stream video, and provides a solution for a new realm of sophisticated, demanding applications.”

Providing system flexibility, enhancements from the previous version of the ICS-8580 include the provision of two DSPs, each of which can be configured as an encoder or decoder. Allowing uncompressed data to be uploaded and downloaded and improving configurability within custom systems, it also provides full support for PCI (News - Alert) Express. Also, it offers an SDK (software development kit) for faster integration with remote configuration options. Allowing the use of any front end connector and facilitating integration with legacy systems, it includes six inputs and four outputs for flexible pass-through modes.

Recently, the company announced the availability of Mentor Graphics (News - Alert) Sourcery VSIPL++ which has been specifically optimized for the company's range of high performance rugged embedded computing solutions. The Sourcery VSIPL++ library for GE computing platforms is available from Mentor Graphics, which developed the capability in conjunction with GE. It takes advantage of and integrates with GE's AXISLIB-AVX (News - Alert) performance-optimized VSIPL library with more than 600 DSP and math functions specifically targeted at Intel's latest second generation core platform.