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ev1 and cosmo1

By Chris Pirazzi. Many thanks to the holders of the sacred knowledge: Greg Poist and Grant Dorman.

This document explains the different flavors and capabilities of the following boards:

• ev1:
  • Indigo Video
  • Indy Video
  • Indy Video 601
  • Indigo2 Video
  • Galileo Video
  • Indigo2 Video for Impact (not Impact Video for Indigo2)
• cosmo1:
  • Cosmo Compress for Indigo
  • Cosmo Compress for Indy
  • Cosmo Compress for Indigo2

Be warned---it is not for the faint of heart.

Taxonomy of the ev1's

Ev1 is our name for all boards that identify themselves in the VL as "ev1." These boards all use the underlying design known as "Galileo 1.0" or "Express Video." This document explains exactly which boards this is, and their differences.

Because an ev1 board offers video->graphics and graphics->video functionality, whether or not your box can support an ev1 may depend on what kind of graphics option you have.

This document describes the full set of available input jacks for each board. It does not go into which jacks can be used simultaneously.

The names of weird connectors you may find on the ev1's:

• "analog breakout connector" = 26-pin d-shell external connector
• "indycam connector" = 60-pin d-shell external connector
• "ribbon cable connector" = 34-conductor ribbon cable inside machine

The names of the weird dongles associated with ev1:

• "junior"

  Green vacume-cleaner-attachment-shaped dongle with 5 analog video jacks at one end, and an "analog breakout connector" that plugs into the board at the other end.

  • 2 RCA analog composite inputs
    (there is a special mode where you can use these as a Y/C input)
  • 1 svideo analog (Y/C) input
  • 1 RCA analog composite output
  • 1 svideo analog (Y/C) output

• "ABOB"

  Large (12"x4"x5" roughly) wedge-shaped breakout box with many analog jacks (superset of the 5 above), and one "analog breakout connector" that plugs into board.

  • 3 RCA analog composite inputs
  • 3 svideo analog (Y/C) inputs
  • 2 3-BNC analog component (Y, R-Y, B-Y) inputs
  • 1 RCA analog composite output
  • 1 BNC analog composite output
  • 1 svideo analog (Y/C) output
  • 1 2-BNC analog (Y/C) output
  • 1 3-BNC analog component (Y, R-Y, B-Y or RGB) output
  • 1 sync output

• "DBOB"

  Large (12"x4"x5" roughly) box-shaped breakout box with digital i/o connectors and one analog output. Box has "indycam connector" that plugs into board.

  • 2 BNC serial digital inputs
  • 2 DB25 parallel digital inputs
  • 1 BNC serial digital output
  • 1 DB25 parallel digital output
  • 1 GPI trigger input
  • 1 3-BNC analog component (Y, R-Y, B-Y or RGB) output (the DACs for this are in DBOB. filtering quality is slightly higher than converters in an ev1 board's analog section).

• IndyCam

  That camera from the indy. Yup, in some cases you can plug it into an ev1, and (surprise surprise) you use an "indycam connector." But (surprise surprise) not all cases. More later.

A given ev1 board supports one of the following sets of analog inputs:

1. "simple analog jacks:" 2 composite in, 1 svideo in, 1 composite out, 1 svideo out
2. "full-featured analog jacks:" all the connectors on an ABOB (a superset of the "simple analog jacks")

A given ev1 board's analog support falls into one of three categories:

1. "simple analog jacks right on the board:" the board has the 5 simple jacks right on the edge of the board.
2. "simple analog jacks via dongle:" the board itself has an "analog breakout connector." you can plug either junior or ABOB into the board, and in either case, you'll get access to the 5 simple analog jacks (the other jacks on ABOB just won't work). these boards are shipped with junior. one ugly bug: due to a wiring bug, if you ask the VL for composite input 2, you'll get the jack labeled composite input 2 on junior, but you'll get the jack labeled composite input 3 on ABOB. sigh. (you cannot ask these boards for composite input 3 since they only do the 5 simple jacks).
3. "full-featured analog jacks via dongle:" the board itself has an "analog breakout connector." you can plug either junior or ABOB into the board, and all of the jacks of the dongle you've plugged in will work. these boards are shipped with ABOB. one ugly bug: if you ask the VL for composite input 3, you'll get the jack labeled composite input 3 on ABOB, but the jack labeled composite input 2 on junior. if you ask the VL for composite input 2, you'll get the jack labeled composite input 2 on ABOB and you will get no jack on junior. sigh.

A given ev1 board's digital support falls into one of three categories:

1. no digital connectors
2. one "indycam connector"
3. one "ribbon cable connector"

A board that has a digital connector supports some combination of the following features:

1. 601 digital video i/o via DBOB (which has an "indycam connector")
2. IndyCam input via an "indycam connector"
3. digital video i/o with a cosmo1 board via an "indycam connector" or a "ribbon cable connector"

A cosmo1 board must be used with an ev1 board in order to input or output video data at full rate (50/60 fields per second. Depending on the board, this may either be accomplished using a "ribbon cable connector" or an "indycam connector." In addition, many flavors of cosmo have an additional external "indycam connector" which will let you hook up both cosmo1 and DBOB, or both cosmo1 and IndyCam, if the ev1 board can support the combination. We will say more about cosmo1 in the cosmo1 section below.

Also, as you will see under "Indy Box" below, it is possible to hook up a DBOB to an ev1 board that only has a "ribbon cable connector" via an adapater card, which exposes an "indycam connector" outside the box.

Indigo Box

1. Indigo Video

   The p1 (beta) version of this board, a beta version shipped to almost no customers, looks like this:

   • supported with all graphics options except starter graphics
   • square pixel only
   • analog: "simple analog jacks right on the board"
   • does not support DBOB
   • does not support IndyCam
   • supports cosmo1 (square only) via "indycam connector"

   The p2 rev of this board, shipped to most customers and supported, looks like this:

   • supported with all graphics options except starter graphics
   • analog video can be encoded/decoded square pixel or non-square pixel
   • digital video can be encoded/decoded non-square pixel
   • IndyCam video can be decoded non-square pixel
   • analog: "full-featured analog jacks via dongle"
   • supports DBOB using "indycam connector"
   • supports IndyCam using "indycam connector"
   • supports cosmo1 (square and non-square) via "indycam connector"

Indy Box

1. Indy Video
   • supported with all graphics options
   • square pixel only
   • analog: "simple analog jacks right on the board"
   • does not support DBOB
   • no IndyCam support
   • supports cosmo1 (square only) via "ribbon cable connector"

2. Indy Video 601
   • supported with all graphics options
   • non-square pixel only
   • analog: "simple analog jacks right on the board" (note: sampled non-square)
   • supports DBOB. note: support requires a second GIO board that converts internal "ribbon cable connector" into "indycam connector" on the outside of the machine. this second GIO board may either be a simple board SGI ships just for the purpose, or it may be a cosmo1 board.
   • no IndyCam support
   • supports cosmo1 (non-square only) via "ribbon cable connector" can support both DBOB and cosmo1 simultaneously, since cosmo1 board also has "indycam connector" on the outside of the machine

Indigo 2 Box

1. Indigo2 Video
   • supported with all graphics options except Impact
   • square pixel only
   • analog: "simple analog jacks via dongle"
   • does not support DBOB
   • supports IndyCam via "indycam connector"
   • supports cosmo1 (square only) via "indycam connector" the cosmo1 option for the Indigo2 has two "indycam connectors" on it, so if you have a cosmo1 plugged in, you can use the second "indycam connector" on cosmo1 to plug in an IndyCam.

2. Galileo Video
   • supported with all graphics options except Impact
   • analog video can be encoded/decoded square pixel or non-square pixel
   • digital video can be encoded/decoded non-square pixel
   • IndyCam video can be decoded non-square pixel
   • analog: "full-featured analog jacks via dongle"
   • supports DBOB via "indycam connector"
   • supports IndyCam via "indycam connector"
   • supports cosmo1 (square/non-square) via "indycam connector" the cosmo1 option for the Indigo2 has two "indycam connectors" on it, so if you have a cosmo1 plugged in, you can use the second "indycam connector" on cosmo1 to plug in a DBOB or an IndyCam.

3. Indigo2 Video for Impact
   • supported with Impact graphics only
   • square pixel only
   • analog: "simple analog jacks via dongle"
   • does not support DBOB
   • supports IndyCam via "indycam connector"
   • does not support cosmo1

Note: "Indigo2 Video for Impact" is a different product from "Impact Video for Indigo2". The latter is an ev3-based ("Impact Video," "Galileo 1.5," and "impact" are other names for ev3) product, a completely different design.

Taxonomy of the cosmo1's

Cosmo1 is our name for all boards sold by SGI as "Cosmo Compress." These boards all use the underlying design known as "Cosmo 1.0." The cosmo1's are somewhat more consistent than the ev1's.

All cosmo1 boards contain the same JPEG input and output functionality. Some boards are able to do memory->memory decompression and compression faster than others, but none can do this task at 50/60 fields per second. Similarly, none of the ev1 flavors can do video->memory or memory->video at full rate (though "Indigo2 Video for Impact" gets close for output). In order to get full speed, one needs to use a cosmo1 board in this way:

Compression: one uses a "video->cosmo->memory" configuration. Video is brought in through an ev1 board. the ev1 board sends the digitized video directly to cosmo1 over an "indycam connector" or a "ribbon cable connector," and cosmo1 compresses the data and places JPEG data in memory.

Decompression: one uses a "memory->cosmo->video" configuration. cosmo1 grabs JPEG data out of memory and decompresses it into a digital video signal. This signal is connected directly to an ev1 board via an "indycam connector" or a "ribbon cable connector." The ev1 board then makes the signal availble at all of its outputs.

We only support cosmo1 boards in systems which also have an ev1 board. The main differences between the cosmo1 boards lie in how they connect to ev1 and whether or not they can also connect to a DBOB or an IndyCam. These are explained below.

If you have ev1 and cosmo1 in your system, you can set up a video->memory path through ev1 (that is, you can bring in uncompressed video which is untouched by cosmo) from any input jack at all--cosmo does not prevent ev1 from accessing any input jacks. However, there is a separate question: if you have an ev1 and cosmo1 in your system and you wish to set up a video->cosmo->memory path, what input jacks can you now use? Due to some hardware constraints, there are some input jacks that are not available to cosmo. At the time of this writing, this includes only the second digital input of DBOB.

Again remember that this document only discusses the use of one jack and one board at a time. There may be more constraints than what we have specified here if you try and use a particular jack in an ev1 video->memory path while you are also using cosmo.

Indigo Box

1. Cosmo Compress for Indigo
   • board has one "indycam connector" on it to connect it to ev1

Indy Box

1. Cosmo Compress for Indy
   • board has one "ribbon cable" on it to connect it to ev1
   • board also has an "indycam connector" outside the machine
     • can plug in a DBOB if ev1 supports it
     • cannot plug in an IndyCam

Indigo 2 Box

1. Cosmo Compress for Indigo2
   • board has one "indycam connector" on it to connect it to ev1
   • board has a second "indycam connector"
   • can plug in a DBOB if ev1 supports it
   • can plug in an IndyCam if ev1 supports it