Ladera Heights
The Fly
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2005
- Messages
- 272
I'm an embedded software programmer at a large aerospace company, and I subscribe to an industry magazine for real-time computing called RTC. There was a little blurb about the Barco LED wall and a U2 mention.
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RTC Magazine, July 2005
Barco has pushed the standards in the video display and programmable logic world by implementing over 100 Cyclone FPGAs and Nios II embedded processors per square meter in its OLite 510 indoor/outdoor surface mount (SMD) LED display system. Each OLite 510 display module features an Altera Cyclone device hosting a Nios II soft processor. Over 100 display modules are linked together for each square meter of LED wall, making Barco's OLite 510 the biggest 32-bit multiprocessor display system in the world.
Barco's OLite 510 LED display technology is fast becoming the technology of choice in performance critical applications such as live events, concerts and touring. The OLite 510 has drawn rave reviews across the globe and was recently used at the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev, as well as on the European leg of U2's Vertigo Tour, where over 500 square meters of OLite 510 were used as a backdrop to the band's performance.
"Altera and Barco are driven by the same design and R&D principles," said Steve Mensor, Altera's senior director of product marketing of low cost FPGAs. "We are both pioneers who continuously push the boundaries of our chosen technologies, whereby we deliver innovative products that answer real market needs".
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Wow, that means there are 50,000 Cyclone FPGAs driving the LED wall. An FPGA is a Fully Programmable Gate Array, a processor that can be reconfigured to do specific things (thereby making it faster for each application).
I would agree that a U2 show is "performance critical"
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RTC Magazine, July 2005
Barco has pushed the standards in the video display and programmable logic world by implementing over 100 Cyclone FPGAs and Nios II embedded processors per square meter in its OLite 510 indoor/outdoor surface mount (SMD) LED display system. Each OLite 510 display module features an Altera Cyclone device hosting a Nios II soft processor. Over 100 display modules are linked together for each square meter of LED wall, making Barco's OLite 510 the biggest 32-bit multiprocessor display system in the world.
Barco's OLite 510 LED display technology is fast becoming the technology of choice in performance critical applications such as live events, concerts and touring. The OLite 510 has drawn rave reviews across the globe and was recently used at the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev, as well as on the European leg of U2's Vertigo Tour, where over 500 square meters of OLite 510 were used as a backdrop to the band's performance.
"Altera and Barco are driven by the same design and R&D principles," said Steve Mensor, Altera's senior director of product marketing of low cost FPGAs. "We are both pioneers who continuously push the boundaries of our chosen technologies, whereby we deliver innovative products that answer real market needs".
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Wow, that means there are 50,000 Cyclone FPGAs driving the LED wall. An FPGA is a Fully Programmable Gate Array, a processor that can be reconfigured to do specific things (thereby making it faster for each application).
I would agree that a U2 show is "performance critical"
