23 May
2015
23 May
'15
10:02 a.m.
...
His mention of a line buffer is already my "Oh, duh!" moment
about how to use cheaper external SDRAM instead of on-FPGA
dual-port memories for the frame buffer. The dual-port memories
are very convenient, but having enough to form a frame buffer
pushes the design up into over-$100 FPGAs.
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
http://www.nf6x.net/
Don't forget that most FPGA block RAMs can be accessed in a dual ported manner even if
they aren't physically laid out that way. Depending on the color space and
resolution, most FPGAs should be able to satisfy the RAM requirements for a framebuffer.
I know the Xilinx ones provide the required IP for free, and I'm sure other
manufacturers do as well. Depending on how much RAM you need, external memory could be
the most cost effective approach anyway.
Christopher