April 16, 2012 -- Altera Corp. today announced a new four-channel, standard-definition (SD) video-analytics solution targeting digital video recorders (DVRs) and network video recorders (NVRs) for surveillance systems.Jointly developed with Eutecus, Inc. Altera's latest video-analytics solution allows developers to analyze four D1 480p/30fps (frames-per second) video channels simultaneously using a single FPGA. Users can quickly and cost-effectively add this capability to their existing SD surveillance investment without having to purchase new cameras with integrated analytics.

Altera's video-analytics solution includes a low-cost, low-power Cyclone IV FPGA and Eutecus' Multi-Core Video Analytics Engine (MVE) intellectual property (IP) core, which performs the analytics functions in the FPGA. Compared to a DSP or traditional server-based approach, this solution lets designers reduce cost by replacing multiple DSP processors with a single FPGA while lowering power consumption to under 3W. Altera's FPGA-based video-surveillance solution is ideal for those designing a wide variety of applications, including banking, education, city, industrial, government and traffic-surveillance systems.

This FPGA-based video-analytics solution is flexible and lets designers customize their own video surveillance systems. The Eutecus' MVE IP combines massively parallel algorithms and specialized multi-core coprocessors with multiple Altera Nios II cores integrated into a Cyclone IV FPGA. The solution comes with a software GUI that lets designers customize the event-detection parameters and rules for their specific applications. The Eutecus' IP includes an application programming interface (API) that interfaces with a customer's video-management systems or can be used to develop custom GUI solutions.

"Altera's Cyclone IV FPGA and its Quartus II software environment offer the ideal modular design environment for Eutecus' new generation of MVE solutions," said Csaba Rekeczky, CEO and President of Eutecus. "Video-analytics customers can take advantage of the close cooperation between our companies for both single-channel IP camera and multi-channel DVR/ NVR products by leveraging Eutecus' modular, flexible and scalable IP cores and Altera's low-cost, low-power, customizable FPGAs."

Altera's portfolio of low-cost, low-power video surveillance solutions target both high-definition (HD) and standard-definition (SD) resolution systems. In 2011, Altera and Eutecus introduced the first FPGA-based video-analytics solution capable of delivering the processing power required for full HD 1080p/30fps real-time video processing. Using the same processing engine, the two companies were able to quickly customize the HD engine for four-channel D1 resolution systems servicing additional customer requirements for a lower-resolution, multiple-channel solution.

Availability

Both the four-channel D1 video-analytics solutions and the 1080p HD video-analytics solutions are available today through Altera. Altera offers a single-vendor source model for the overall video analytics solution. The IP and FPGA can be purchased directly from Altera, which simplifies the development of a video surveillance system significantly. The purchasing model eliminates the need to work with multiple vendors for licensing fees, NRE charges, or royalties.