OEM Products: microUSB2 CAMextension - the external CameraLink and LVDS frame grabber (pre-series)

microUSB2 CAMextension is an external miniaturisied frame grabber for CameraLink and LVDS cameras. Although its size, it is a full featured performance frame grabbers with preprocessing capability for the industry. It works as one-channel - dual format frame grabber with transfer rate up to 45 MBytes/sec. over an USB2 interface.

Continous transfer rates of 45 MBytes/sec. also grant the cooperation with actual cameras. Therefore microUSB2 CAMextension is the ideal solution for industrial applications in mobile or embedded environments.

The same software interface of the complete frame grabber product line of SILICONSOFTWARE enables a scaling in the application and frame grabbers without any problems: from microUSB2 CAMextension to microEnable III-XXL.

The use of the image processors enables integriated image preprocessing, which frees the use of the main CPU and grants real-time processing in applications. With the ability as an intelligent frame grabber, microUSB2 CAMextension can be adapted to new applications, processings or camera.

Why using USB2?

For a long time the USB2 interface is part of each PC or motherboard as a default device. An easy connection and the collection of lots of periphery devices were the reason for a wide spread of this interface. USB2 is the actual standard for the connectivity of external consumer devices with high data rate.

Another interface, Firewire (IEEE1394) is older but comparable in concept and performance. But both systems can't reach their theoretical limit of 60 MBytes/sec. (USB2) resp. 48 MBytes/sec. (Firewire) in any kind, additionally burden other processes with their use of CPU.

SILICONSOFTWARE was looking for a practical solution for Machine Vision. Developping a new performance driver for USB2, we reached a continous data rate of 45 MBytes/sec. and in the same time a reduction in the use of the CPU down to 3-4% (compared to the standard driver of Microsoft WindowsXP with a CPU use of 45- 60% and a maximum data rate of 24 MBytes/sec.). Hereby microUSB2 CAMextension is an attractive solution for systems in higher performance level.

microUSB2 CAMextension frame grabber uses a coprocessor, RAM and interfaces of the microUSB2 series, more over has a interface plate which is equipeed with a CameraLink interface, a LVDS interface, a trigger interface and a power supply connector.

The pre-series model of microUSB2 CAMextension is removed afterwards by the final series model. This one may differ in features and performance.

Overview
Technical features			Product line			Product comparision
	General features			Product models			microUSB2 Ce CL
	Hardware features			Additional interfaces			microUSB2 Ce LVDS
	Pro-processing features
	CameraLink features		System requirements			Related products
	Software features			Supported operational systems (OS)			microEnable III
	Performance data			Camera compatibilities			microEnable III-XXL
Technical description			Sales			Product archive
	Data sheets			Distributors			microEnable I
							microEnable II

microUSB2 CAMextension: CameraLink interface, power supply (top), Trigger interface (mid), LVDS interface (below) and USB2 interface (side)

Technical features
General features			Hardware features
	Use of the USB2 bandwidth of up to 45 MBytes/sec. (see chipset-compatibility)			External intelligent frame grabber with image processor
	Continous data transfer up to 45 MBytes/sec.			Xilinx Spartan3 FPGA processor with 32MB RAM
	High speed driver with minimal CPU use			USB2 interface
	Easy change of operation with CameraLink or LVDS cameras			Low latency, high performance device driver
Pre-processing features			Camera interface features
	Integrated image pre-processing applets: (special features are applet depending)			1 x CameraLink interface
	Realtime display and calculation of Bayer-filter cameras (with white balance)			1 x BASE CameraLink configuration
	Format conversion			1 x LVDS intzrface
	Expansion of functionality by creation of individual applets			Support of up to 16 bit LVDS camera data
				1 x trigger interface
Software features			Performance data
	Software development kit (SDK)			Camera frequency up to 66 MHz clock rate
	microDisplay for previewing and acquiring of camera sequences			Area cameras up to > 2K*2K pixels
	microDisplay for con trolling of the camera parameters and trigger settings			Line cameras up to > 4K pixels
				45 MByte/s continous datatransfer rate to user-memory
	Features and performance data may differ in the final series model

Technical description
Data sheets		language
	microUSB2 CAMextension data sheet	en		Description of microEnable III (ger/en) exclusively
	Installation hints and requirements	ger/en		Description of product line microEnable I to microEnable III (ger/en)
	Chipset compatibility	ger/en		Product description of microEnable III (ger) by STEMMER Imaging
Documents
	Manuals	ger/en

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Product line
Product models			Additional interfaces
	microUSB2 CAMextension microUSB2+ with Xilinx Spartan XC3S-400 coprocessor and CameraLink-interface-board			microUSB2+ Developer board for integration of a FPGA-processor and a high-speed USB2 interfaces
	microUSB2 CAMextension (pre-series) microUSB2 with Xilinx Spartan XC2S-200 coprocessor and CameraLink-/LVDS-interface-board

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System requirements
Supported operational systems (OS)			Camera compatibilities (selection)
	Windows XP			CameraLink compatible cameras:
	Windows 2000 Professional			LVDS cameras
				area- and line cameras
				greyscale- and color cameras (Bayer filter)
	Please ask for your individual system configuration.

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Sales and distributor list
	go to the distributorlist

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