Case Study: Designing Large Area Display with ARINC 818-2 IP Core

Since the last decade, the trend in aviation cockpit design has been to increase display area while decreasing the number of individual displays.

It led to the development of Large Area Display (LAD), which integrates flight and mission-specific data on a single, smart, redundant screen. A Large Area Display (LAD) provides the pilot with next-generation visual cues and situational awareness.

iWave assists cockpit display manufacturers in the development of Large Area Displays by incorporating a customized ARINC 818 IP Core into their design.

Challenge

The client wanted to build a Large Area Display that features a 20-inch x 8-inch active area with multi-touch screen technology. An ARINC 818 protocol conversion COTS module was thus required, which was capable of splitting a single ARINC 818-2 data stream into two and displaying them simultaneously on the screen. In order to shorten the time to market and accelerate product design, the customer was looking for an enterprise with experience in avionics and ARINC 818 protocol-based products.

System Design and Implementation

To meet the requirement, the display was incorporated with two iWave-designed ARINC 818-2 receiver modules. These modules are designed in such a way that they can split or divide a single ARINC 818-2 stream into two and dynamically display them on the screen. (For example, a video with a resolution of 2560 x 1024 will be split and displayed as two separate 1280 x 1024 display screens.)

A switch is incorporated to restrict the number of channels and content to be displayed on the screen. When the switch position is set to zero, the ARINC818-2 receiver acts like a normal receiver, receiving two different ICDs and displaying the same. When the switch is set to one, only one channel is active, and the receiver displays the content received via that channel. To fit with a low-profile Head-Up Display, the LAD is customized with a variety of configurations of push buttons and switches.

Key features of ARINC 818 IP Core

• P2P Transmission – Point-to-Point, High-Bandwidth, Low-Latency, Video/Data transmission with precise timing for line synchronous display
• Resolution & Pixel support – Configurable ADVB Video Format (Progressive, Interlaced, Resolution, Refresh Rate, Pixel Format, etc.)
• Link rate, speed, & transmission medium – Supports both Optical & 75-ohm, 100-ohm, or 150-ohm Copper
  • 8-bit/10-bit encoding – up to 10Gbps
  • 64-bit/66-bit encoding – up to 12Gbps
  • 256-bit/257-bit – up to 28.05Gbps
• DO-254 Equivalent Artifacts
  • Planning
  • Requirement Capture
  • Conceptual Design
  • Detailed Design
  • Verification & Validation

Click here for more information on iWave’s ARINC 818 IP cores.

The primary challenge in avionics is the cost and time required to develop, qualify, and train new capabilities that can integrate seamlessly into existing systems. And, with its unparalleled design-to-deploy expertise, iWave can be a dependable partner in bringing your ideas into time-to-market products.

iWave is a leading FPGA design house and a leader in ARINC 818 solutions, providing comprehensive ARINC 818 Products to accelerate customers’ time to market while maintaining a low overall cost and technical support during integration. iWave can also quickly customize ARINC 818 products to customers’ specifications and deliver them within weeks.

For more information or inquiries, please contact mktg@iwavesystems.com.

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