Xilinx ZCU106 and FMC Pcam Adapter

[wooky]

Hi,

 

In order to develop video processing algorithms, I am considering to use "FMC Pcam Adapter" on Xilinx ZCU106 board.

The FMC Pcam Adapter is perfect solution for me because of I can attach multiple cameras.

But I wonder if 'FMC Pcam Adapter' is compatbile with ZCU106 board or not.

Is it possible to port the demo design with Zedboard to ZCU106 board?

 

Best regards, 
Wooky

[JColvin]

Hi @wooky,

I apologize for the delay. Those of us at Digilent have not specificially looked into the compatibility of the FMC Pcam Adapter with the ZCU106. I would recommend reading the compatibility sections within the FMC Pcam Adapter Reference Manual, https://reference.digilentinc.com/reference/add-ons/fmc-pcam-adapter/reference-manual#carrier_card_compatibility, to see if the ZCU106 has been designed to meet it's specific needs or not.

It may be possible to port the demo design, though the material we have was designed fairly specifically to the compatible Digilent boards (Zybo Z7) at least for the single Pcam demo (I haven't gotten to look into what is available for the FMC Pcam demo) as well as one of the IP's used being tied to specific versions of Vivado and SDK, so it would not be trivial.

Thanks,
JColvin

[wooky]

Hi JColvin,

 

I appreciate your kind reply.

I have already read the manual.

They seems to be compatible with each other, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, If I attach the FMC Adapter to ZCU106 and port the demo design, I will share the result of the job in this forum.

 

Thanks,

Wooky

[elodg]

On 10/11/2019 at 1:46 PM, wooky said:

Hi,

 

In order to develop video processing algorithms, I am considering to use "FMC Pcam Adapter" on Xilinx ZCU106 board.

The FMC Pcam Adapter is perfect solution for me because of I can attach multiple cameras.

But I wonder if 'FMC Pcam Adapter' is compatbile with ZCU106 board or not.

Is it possible to port the demo design with Zedboard to ZCU106 board?

 

Best regards, 
Wooky

Hello @wooky,

TL;DR No, the FMC Pcam Adapter is not compatible with the ZCU106. We will be releasing FMC Pcam Adapter+ next year that will improve compatibility. Even with that, however, the ZCU106 pin-out limits the number of Pcams to 3.

As the reference manual states "the UltraScale architecture in particular has a very restrictive clock/strobe propagation mechanism". This means that once you try mapping more than one source-synchronous interfaces (like MIPI CSI-2) the propagation mechanism will quickly create conflicts between the interfaces. Again quoting from the manual, "the VITA 57.1 specs are not granular enough for the requirements of today's high-speed I/O architectures", so the best bet is creating a pin-out the supports the target number of interfaces on some specific carrier cards. The next upgrade to the FMC Pcam Adapter board will cover some Digilent, Xilinx and Avnet boards with varying number of interfaces supported.

The other issue is IP-related. UltraScale+ brings I/O support for D-PHY, whereas previous architectures require some level translating solution. The FMC Pcam Adapter features such level translators, but the Xilinx D-PHY IP defaults to direct I/O support on UltraScale+ architectures. This means that the IP need manual editing to force the right I/O logic.

[zygot]

On 10/17/2019 at 10:52 AM, elodg said:

But I wonder if 'FMC Pcam Adapter' is compatbile with ZCU106 board or not.

Before attaching any FMC mezzanine card to any carrier, particularly yours, the first step is to know what Vadj IO Bank voltages are supported by your carrier board. Then, you have to go through the schematics of board boards to make sure that pin assignments will support whatever IOSTANDARD you need. Never assume that the FMC standard or connectors indicate compatibility of carrier and mezzanine cards. Even if someone tells you that they've used a carrier and mezzanine board combination the onus is on you to verify everything. Again, the fact that the connectors on two boards can mate doesn't imply functional compatibility.