The NVIDA Tegra™ Processors TX1/TX2 with their powerful GPUs are ideal for use in professional audio mixing consoles or audio video equipment. However, if multiple audio channels are required,  the TX1/TX2 is limited to I2S audio inputs. Utilizing the MIPI® Camera Serial Interface (CSI-2) and the InES I2S to CSI-2 converter IP, enables  streaming of up to 256 digital audio channels into the TX1/TX2.

Institute of embeddeded Systems (InES) developed an FPGA-IP which converts the  I2S audio to  up to four CSI-lanes for feeding audio into mobile processors like the NVIDA Tegra™ TX1/TX2.

A Linux driver, which links the received CSI signals to the Tegra™ TX1/TX2 processor buses, is also available. Hence, audio can be processed on the TX1/TX2 GPU or the internal audio blocks.

I2S sources could be audio codecs, SDI or HDMI chips. The CSI-2 protocoll engine can be configured  to generate CSI-2 data packets for one or four CSI lanes, depending on the required bandwidth. The CSI clock and data physical interfaces support differential (high speed) and low power CSI-2 signals.

The IP is written in VHDL and tested with Intel Cyclone-IV FPGAs. It is also possible to be synthesized into Xilinx or Lattice FPGAs.

For more information contact Hans-Joachim Gelke (hans.gelke@zhaw.ch)

Block Diagramm of I2S to CSI IP