Interfacing the TCM8230MD CMOS Camera with an ARM7 Microcontroller

The TCM8230MD is a color complementary metal-oxide semiconductor video camera manufactured by Toshiba. Image resolutions range from 128x96 to 640x480 pixels, with frame rates as high as 30 Hz. Due to high data rates, a powerful microcontroller with an efficient buffering algorithm is required. Because of its small size, mass, power consumption, and cost, this camera has tremendous application to micro-robotic systems. Microcontrollers such as the ARM9 have dedicated hardware to simplify interfacing this or any other camera with an inter-integrated circuit, 85-MHz, 8-bit data bus interface. However, the ARM9 is a more complicated microcontroller to work with, both in terms of software and hardware. Comparatively speaking, the ARM7 is smaller than the ARM9, costs less, is easier to solder, and requires fewer external components. Two solutions are presented for interfacing the TCM8230MD to a 32-bit ARM7 microcontroller.