CoaXPress (CXP) is a simple yet powerful standard for moving high speed serial data from a camera to a frame grabber. Video is captured at speeds of up to 6.25 Gigabits/Second (Gb/S). Control commands and triggers can be sent simultaneously to the camera at rates up to 20 Mb/S (with a trigger accuracy of +/- 2 nanoseconds). Up to 13 W of power can also supplied to the camera. All of this happens over a single piece of industry standard 75 Ohm coaxial cable.

Multiple CXP links can be aggregated to support higher data rates (e.g. four links provide 25 Gb/S of data).

The CXP standard opens the door to applications where cable cost, routing requirements, and long distances have prevented the move to high resolution, high speed digital cameras. In many cases, existing coaxial infrastructure can be repurposed for CXP with very low installation costs.

The Virtual Frame Grabber

The Cyton-CXP4 can be configured in many different ways. It can acquire from one quad CXP-6 camera (total data rate: 25 Gb/S), four single link CXP-6 cameras, or anything in between. When acquiring from multiple cameras, each camera is attached to its own virtual frame grabber. This allows independent acquisition and control of each camera. However, when a four link camera is attached, only one virtual frame grabber is needed.

StreamSync

The StreamSync system consists of an Acquisition Engine and a Buffer Manager. The StreamSync system is a start-from-scratch complete redesign of the acquisition and DMA parts of a frame grabber.

Features

>> Efficient support for variable sized images with fast context switches between frames

>> Per frame control of acquisition properties (AOI specifically)

>> Hardware control of image sequencing

>> Enhanced debug capabilities

>> Efficient support for on-demand buffer allocation (Genicam model)

>>Gracefully recover from dropped packets (either on the input side or the DMA side)

CoaXPress High Speed Uplink

The Cyton-CXP has an optional fifth CXP connector that can run the full 6.25 Gb/S from the frame grabber to the camera. The CoaXPress standard is still evolving, but the need for this high speed uplink has already become apparent. The demands for bulk uploads to the camera and precise trigger accuracy have already outstripped the current 20 Mb/S uplink specification.

PCI Express Gen 2.0 Interface

The Cyton-CXP has a Gen 2.0 x8 PCI Express bus interface. The Gen 2.0 PCIe bus doubles the data rate of the Gen 1.0 bus while using the same footprint and connectors. The board will work in Gen 2.0 x16 and x8 slots, with a minimum electrical configuration of x8. This ensures the board will run at full capacity.

Camera Control and I/O

The Cyton-CXP can acquire fixed or variable size images and features a programmable ROI (Region Of Interest) sub-windowing capability. The Cyton-CXP fully supports the CoaXPress 1.1 specification, which provides a high priority trigger packet from the frame grabber to the camera (note: both 1.1 and 1.0 cameras are supported, but the GPOI packet part of the 1.0 specification is not). All I/O signals can be routed to/from many internal and external destinations, providing a flexibility that is unprecedented in the industry. In addition, there are separate hardware I/O signals which can be connected to/from external sources. Finally, each CXP camera has a full set of these signals which can be run independently. The Cyton-CXP board, supports not only simple triggering modes, but also complicated, application-specific triggering.

Specifications

>> Half-Size x8 PCI Gen 2.0 Express Board

>> CoaXPress 1.1 compliant (supports 1.0 and 1.1. cameras)

>> Supports one to four CXP-6 cameras

>> Supports multi-link CXP-6 cameras (up to four CXP links)

>> Supports CXP speeds from 1.250 to 6.250 Gb/S

>>Supports simultaneous capture from four 6.250 Gb/S CXP links

>> Provides one CXP-6 uplink to the camera (bulk data uploads, zero latency triggers)

>> Low speed uplink also supported on all links

>> Uses DIN 1.0/2.3 connectors

>> Uses CXP standard 4+1 connector spacing

>> Provides power for all cameras (up to 13 Watts per link)

>> Provides Safe Power, full protection from all power line faults

>> Cameras are Plug and Play with automatic link speed detection

>> Cable lengths of up to 135 meters are supported

>> Cameras can be accurately synchronized, or can be completely independent

>> PCI Express x8 Gen 2.0 interface (also works in x16 slots)

>> Compatible with PCI Express Gen 1.0 slots

>> Separate I/O for each camera

>> Highly deterministic, low latency frame grabber to camera trigger

>> Supports simultaneous communications to all cameras

>> Windows "sees" a separate frame grabber for each camera

>>No on-board memory is needed

>> StreamSync acquisition engine optimizes synchronization between acquisition and DMA

>> StreamSync buffer manager maximize DMA channel efficiency

>>Acquire variable length frames from line scan cameras

>> Acquire image sequences well beyond the 4GB barrier

>> No frame rate limit

>> Triggers and encoders for external control of acquisition

>>Programmable signal generator for camera control (independent for each camera)

>> Quadrature encoder support including sophisticated triggering schemes

>> Encoder divider/multiplier

>> Drivers, utilities, and examples for Windows and Linux

>> Supported on both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms

>> Drivers for most 3rd party processing environments (e.g. HALCON, LabView, VisionPro, MATLAB, etc.)

>> Full GenICam support for control and capture

>>All models are "half size" PCIe cards

>> RoHS compliant