FPGA för displayhantering och grafikgenerering i fordonsmiljö

Sammanfattning: This report is part of the major thesis carried out at Stoneridge Electronics in Bromma, Stockholm during autumn and winter 2005-2006. The background to the thesis is the trend within the automotive industry where color displays have become more common for presentation of information to the driver, a trend that has come to the commercial vehicle market. The purpose of the thesis has been to evaluate whether programmable logic, with respect to FPGA technology, could be suitable for display control and graphics generation of these more complex color displays in automotive environment. Within the scope of the thesis the FPGA technology has been investigated, i.e. what opportunities and threats there are with aspect to environmental and security requirements. In addition, the market of FPGAs and pre-built IP-cores has been investigated. In the practical part of the thesis two demonstration prototypes have been developed. These two prototypes are used for display control and graphics generation. As a basis for the prototypes a development card and software development tools have been used. The results show that FPGAs are well suited for display control and graphics generation in commercial vehicle applications and environment. There are components on the market that correspond to the requirements set by Stoneridge Electronics. Furthermore, there are pre-built IPcores for display control and graphics generation. The suitability of FPGAs is emphasized by the two prototypes developed. In the report a proposition is presented how Stoneridge Electronics most technologically and financially could implement the FPGA technology and development flow.