Altera Holoscan

Edge AI Sensor Aggregation Built for the Camera to GPU Pipeline

Modern edge AI vision systems demand more than compute power. Before an AI model can process a single frame, that frame has to get from sensor to GPU with minimal latency and zero data loss. Altera FPGAs solve this sensor aggregation challenge, pairing scalable I/O flexibility with deterministic, low latency streaming to feed NVIDIA's Holoscan platform.

Altera's FPGA based Edge AI sensor solutions combine scalable compute performance, PQC enabled security, and low latency deterministic AI inferencing for real time edge applications. Flexible I/O aggregates audio, video, SoC, and other interfaces for pre processing within the FPGA, then streams to external compute such as GPU or CPU.

Macnica Americas offers the Altera Agilex 5 development kits used in Altera's own Holoscan Sensor Bridge reference designs, giving your team a direct path from evaluation to production.

Scalable Performance Spectrum

Altera FPGAs span a broad range of features and performance, enabling Edge AI sensor bridge solutions from 1 to 400 Gbps. Whether the application calls for a single camera or a dense multi sensor array, there is an Agilex or Stratix device sized to fit.

Universal Sensor Interface Support

Altera FPGAs support the sensor interfaces Edge AI applications actually use in the field, including MIPI, JESD204, LVDS, SPI, CAN, HDMI, SDI, I2C, GPIO, and SLVS-EC. One FPGA platform, many sensor and video interface types.

Field Upgradeable Flexibility

Unlike fixed function ASIC, ASSP, or microcontroller based sensor bridges, an FPGA is field upgradeable. Hardware and software changes remain possible after deployment, protecting your investment as sensor requirements evolve.

Holoscan Sensor Bridge is built to serve any application where high bandwidth sensor data needs to reach GPU compute with minimal latency. Common deployments include:

Robotics & Sensor Fusion

Processes data from multiple sensor types, including lidar and radar, in real time, integrating seamlessly with FPGA-based I/O.

Live Media Production

Connects live, high-speed camera feeds with AI, enabling software-defined production switching and analysis. A natural fit alongside SMPTE ST 2110 IP-based production workflows.

Industrial Inspection

Enables real-time defect detection on production lines and continuous quality monitoring.

Medical Imaging

Supports AI-enabled medical devices, assisting with surgical visualization, body pose estimation, and real-time image processing such as enhanced endoscopy feeds.

Radar Signal Processing

Accelerates real-time radar data pipelines, including FFT-based processing.

6G & Software-Defined Radio

Connects analog sensors to GPU compute for efficient, low-latency signal processing.

Agilex 5 Holoscan Sensor Bridge, MIPI to 25GbE. This design streams MIPI data via Holoscan Sensor Bridge IP over 25G Ethernet, combining a 4Kp60 multi sensor camera with a new Quartus Platform Designer component for Holoscan Sensor Bridge IP, built on the Agilex 5 FPGA and SoC E-Series Modular Development Kit. 

Available now from Macnica Americas: Altera Agilex 5 E-Series 065B Development Kit

Stratix 10 Sensor Processing Kit. A 100G Ethernet sensor interface platform powered by the Stratix 10 TX FPGA, designed to support real time streaming of sensor data directly to GPU memory using NVIDIA Hololink IP and GPUDirect RDMA. Ideal for the most demanding multi camera, high bandwidth deployments.

Available now from Macnica Americas: Altera Stratix 10 Product Family

Pairing GPU and FPGA delivers what neither can achieve alone: low latency, rich AI features, high performance, and broad camera compatibility across industrial, retail, medical, and other demanding use cases. In heterogeneous designs like Gidel's FantoVision family, the FPGA is not a passive peripheral. It acts as a Smart I/O Engine, splitting responsibilities between GPU, CPU, and FPGA so each does what it does best.