Address-Event-Representation (AER) is a
communication protocol for transferring asynchronous events
between VLSI chips, originally developed for bio-inspired
processing systems (for example, image processing). Such
systems may consist of a complicated hierarchical structure
with many chips that transmit data among them in real time,
while performing some processing (for example, convolutions).
The event information is transferred using a high speed digital
parallel bus (typically 16 bits and 20ns-40ns per event). This
paper presents a testing platform for AER systems that allows
analysing a LVDS Serial AER link produced by a Spartan 3
FPGA, or by a commercial LVDS transceiver. The interface
allows up to 0.728 Gbps (~40Mev/s, 16 bits/ev). The eye
diagram ensures that the platform could support 1.2 Gbps.Commission of the European Communities IST-2001-34124 (CAVIAR)Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología TIC-2003-08164-C03-0