Direct connection of FPGA (spartan-6) to HDMI connector

[aminpix]

I am designing a Spartan-6 board with a HDMI output.
I have noticed in all Xilinx eval boards use a retimer or HDMI interface to connect FPGA to HDMI connector. When I go through spartan datasheet I see spartan itself has TMDS_33 output pin.
my questions are:
1- Can I connect spartan-6 (XC6SLX25) to the HDMI directly?
2- What is the job of some interfaces chips such as TMDS141 (in Atlys board)?
3- If I have to use interface chip, I may use TMDS181 ( which is still not obsolete). Is it convert differential signals to TMDS?

 

[KlausST]

Hi,

1- Can I connect spartan-6 (XC6SLX25) to the HDMI directly?

I personally doubt it.
For sure it depends on what features the XC6SLX25 provides and what video and audio standards you want to transmit.
Generated test picture / still picture / moving video...
But it will be a challenge to generate Gigabits/s of digital video data stream.
and for sure you need a fast enough memory to

2- What is the job of some interfaces chips such as TMDS141 (in Atlys board)?

I don´t know.
But if I wanted to know I´d first read the datasheet.

Klaus

 

[FvM]

my questions are

I would start with a different question. What's the intended HDMI format and serial data rate, is it supported by Spartan 6?

 

[D.A.(Tony)Stewart]

Do you expect Rx EQ with low jitter SERDES? and protection from ESD events > 500V

List all your I/O specs and assumptions first.