When working with high-bandwidth camera data on Jetson, the challenge is always the same: how do we minimize latency without sacrificing flexibility?
That’s where the Holoscan Sensor Bridge (HSB) comes in. Instead of pushing raw MIPI streams straight into Jetson, the HSB uses an FPGA-based design to preprocess and packetize the data before handing it off via Ethernet.
Here’s a breakdown of the Lattice HSB design:
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CrossLink-NX FPGA → receives MIPI camera input.
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CertusPro-NX FPGA → reformats data and streams it at multi-gigabit speeds through dual 10G SFP+ Ethernet.
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Single FPGA option → possible in production to simplify deployment.
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Integration with NVIDIA Holoscan → ensures a sensor-agnostic pipeline with GPU RDMA for ultra-low latency.
This architecture allows camera → FPGA → Ethernet → Jetson workflows that are faster and more flexible than traditional interfaces.
Latency Comparison (from real-world tests):
| Camera Interface | End-to-End Latency |
|---|---|
| Holoscan Sensor Bridge (HSB) | ~28 ms |
| MIPI CSI (with Argus pipeline) | ~34 ms |
| GMSL with external ISP | 50+ ms |
| 👉 As you can see, HSB achieves lower latency than MIPI while being more flexible and scalable — a big deal for applications like surgical imaging, robotics, and industrial inspection. |
For the full breakdown (pipeline diagrams, test setup, and TintE ISP results), you can check out our deep dive here:
Understanding Holoscan Sensor Bridge and TintE ISP Performance in Embedded Cameras