Vacature: Embedded video controller

Do you like to be challenged and work independent in an innovative environment. Do you want to be able to reach out to the expertise of more than 130 smart colleagues, experienced in high-tech and state of the art development from edge-to-cloud? Do you like to join various Tech and Fun events like weekly Friday afternoon drinks, TechTalks, sports activities and celebrations? And most important; do you want to be able to develop and grow as a professional?   

Then join us at TOPIC! 

“Graduating at TOPIC has been a very fun and educational experience for me. The complex challenges I have encountered during my graduation internship have provided me with lots of great technical and non-technical experience that I will forever take with me during my career.” 

Mike Huisman | Hardware Engineer at TOPIC

Your role as graduate student 

TOPIC develops embedded systems that are essential for products manufactured by renowned high-tech companies around the world.  Our projects involve edge to cloud solutions; from PCB design and FPGA to low level embedded software and application software for UI, Web, Mobile and cloud. We like to apply innovative technologies such as object tracking, Ultra-Wideband, Lidar, generating/rendering 2D to 3D medical images and Photonics.    

As a graduate student at TOPIC you will have the opportunity to work on innovative R&D subjects that will bring value to our organization. There are always subjects we have in mind, but we are also open for your suggestions and can customize them to a suitable assignment. 

About the assignment 

TOPIC is specialized in high-end embedded applications using the latest technologies, such as the AMD Zynq 7000 and Zynq Ultrascale+ system-on-chips. One of the areas of our expertise is video processing. Many applications rely on low-latency, high resolution (1080p60 or 4Kp60) video processing which need FPGA implementations. However, there is always a strong need for software in the processing path: 

• Compression/decompression of Ethernet/WiFi communicated video streams; 
• AI/ML data transport support between FPGA and application;  
• Video overlay creation; 
• Animation/rendering of 2D/3D video objects; 
• 16 panel video wall configuration (data routing, signal processing path configuration, etc.). 

The basic functionality is available, but the software video processing architecture needs to be validated and applicable packages and libraries need to be selected. Evaluation of the right software stacks are part of the assignment.   

Typically, our embedded platforms runs on Linux on top of ARM Cortex A9, A53 or A72 processors. Also, NEON SIMD and MALI GPU accelerators are available. At this moment, TOPIC has a collection of video processing available for the FPGA. We have to design and implement a number of functions and features on the processors to give the video wall it’s proper dynamic behavior. Some functions are: 

• Webserver, providing a remote accessible control GUI using e.g. a PC or preferably a phone; 
• Video decoder playing pre-recorded videos from SD-card or SSD or Ethernet connection into a video frame buffer; 
• Overlay creation of the GUI as a video stream; 
• Creation of a GUI, turning the video wall into a scalable oscilloscoop/spectrum analyzer/network analyzer; 
• Implementation of an AI data processing management pipeline. 

The aim of the project is to utilize the features of the Zynq 7000 or Zynq Ultrascale+ platform for video processing purposes. 

The graduation project will cover a part of the functionality as described above. The subset of functionality needs to be specified in the form of requirements and in the end the implementation must demonstrate the requirements according to a test plan. The software must be developed according to the software development methodology of TOPIC, including proper version control and CICT.  

As a graduate student at TOPIC 

• You are graduating from University or HBO in Electronics, (applied) Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Embedded Systems, Physics, Mathematics or similar field; 
• You are pro-active, able to think outside the box, a problem solver and are capable of communicating with and retrieving information from different stakeholders;
• You have the ability to self-steer, a drive to deliver but also like to have fun while reaching your goals!