Inova Semiconductors announces the release of their INAP567TAQ and INAP597TAQ transmitter ICs; two new members of the APIX3 SerDes product family. APIX (Automotive Pixel Link) is a multi-channel SerDes (Serialiser/Deserialiser) technology developed by Inova for automotive high-resolution video applications. The ICs are primarily used in vehicle cockpits and infotainment systems. The latest APIX3 generation can establish multiple display connections even with daisy-chained displays with a bandwidth of up to 12 Gbit/s and supports HD and Ultra HD displays.
The new INAP567TAQ and INAP597TAQ transmitters offer a DisplayPort 1.4a video interface with support of Single-stream (SST) or Multi-stream Transport (MST) for up to 4 Videos, each with up to 360 MHz pixel clock. Up to four DP lanes with a maximum of 5.4 Gbit/s each (HBR2), as well as an AUX data channel with 1 Mbit/s are available.
The INAP597TAQ device additionally supports the encryption of audiovisual content according to the HDCP 2.3 standard as an HDCP repeater between the DisplayPort and the APIX3 link. The encrypted video from the SOC is transmitted to a corresponding APIX3 receiver component. All necessary HDCP keys are stored individually in each component.
SPI interfaces are available for convenient local or remote component configuration and bidirectional data transfer of up to 30 Mbit/s. Four GPIOs allow user signals to be transmitted directly to or from the receiver via the APIX3 link. Simultaneously, the devices enable the transmission of 100 Mbit Ethernet according to the IEEE standard via its media-independent interface (MII, RMII, RGMII) as well as up to eight audio channels via I²S.
Typical applications for the new APIX3 chips are infotainment systems, instrument clusters and head-up displays in vehicles with multiple displays being connected in a daisy-chain to a single transmitter device, saving components and space on the head unit. The APIX3 devices are backward compatible with the APIX2 product family.