Fujitsu's Orchid Graphic Display Controller

Putting new video technology in your face while you're behind the wheel may sound a bit dangerous, but access to maps and other info at your fingertips (as long as you're not rolling) could speed you to your destination. Fujitsu is currently coming up with the silicon that will drive such apps and just told us about its new MB86292 Orchid graphic display controller. It has an interface for up to 32MB of external video memory, along with all the same facilities as the company's "Scarlet" graphic display controller, including video input functions, scaler, and geometry processor. Fujitsu informs us that Orchid is optimized for vehicle navigation systems that need video input features, consumer information processing systems, and arcade game applications, and also has the display layers, 2D/3D rendering functions and other features that were used in the Crimson and Scarlet display controllers. You can use Fujitsu's FCRAM or SDRAM external memory devices with Orchid and the external video input can be used to capture video signals according to the standard RBT-ITU656 YUV4:2:2 format. Picture-in-picture functions are supported for video image display via the dedicated W-layer, and the integrated flexible video scaler enables the adjustment of video input format dimensions. Orchid also has RGB digital outputs for display connections. The MB86292, along with a development system, the MB86292-EB01, consisting of a PCI adapter card for evaluation and software development, will be available in Q4 2001.