Compact board puts GigE in the camera: News from Pleora Technologies

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Pleora Technologies has developed the industry's first off-the-shelf OEM board for adding GigE connectivity to industrial cameras. Pleora's unique iPort PT1000-VB in-camera engine allows camera manufacturers to integrate high-performance GigE connectivity into almost any camera simply by changing out the back-end interface electronics. Demand is growing for GigE connections between cameras and PCs in systems for industrial inspection, health care, post and parcel sorting, and high-end security/surveillance.

In these and other applications, GigE offers key advantages over connections based on CameraLink, LVDS (low-voltage differential signal), or IEEE1394, including lower-cost equipment, longer-distance reach, greater networking flexibility, and more scalable PC-based processing.

Pleora's iPort PT1000-VB board allows camera companies to meet customer demand for GigE quickly and cost-effectively, without compromising real-time throughput or image quality.

The board is also ready to comply with the AIA's emerging GigE Vision Standard, paving the way for camera companies to support standards-based applications as they come on stream.

'Our PT1000-VB in-camera board offers a fast, economical, and straightforward way to migrate almost any camera to GigE, including cameras with fast frame rates and high-performance sensors', said George Chamberlain, President of Pleora Technologies.

'The board uses best-in-class hardware to achieve clock-cycle accuracy and low power at all throughput levels, even at the full, 1Gbit/s wire speed rate'.

'By contrast, GigE interfaces based on embedded processors seldom achieve the same precise performance, and can need 10 times more power to support very fast frame rates'.

Pleora's iPort PT1000-VB in-camera engine uses purpose-built hardware to acquire image data from a camera head, packetise it, queue it for transfer, and send it to PCs over standard GigE links or LANs.

In the other direction, the board transfers control signals from the GigE link to the camera head.

In all operations, the PT1000-VB delivers the high throughput - it easily achieves GigE's full, 1Gbit/s line rate - and low, consistent latency required for high-performance, real-time image transfer.

Latency between cameras and PCs can be configured as low as 200 microseconds, about equivalent to a frame grabber.

A novel, submillisecond data resend scheme ensures data is never lost.

At all throughput rates, the PT1000-VB consumes less than 2.25W.

This low power requirement makes the board ideal for integration into small-body cameras with tight power budgets.

It also allows camera companies to standardise on one GigE interface for all offerings, including cameras with high-performance sensors and fast frame rates.

Due to high power consumption - potentially 25W at 1Gbit/s throughput rates - GigE interfaces based on embedded processors can typically service only cameras with lower frame rates.

Pleora's PT1000-VB board is a compact, camera-ready, square board measuring only 55mm square.

To simplify in-camera integration, the board features vertical mounts for power, GPIO (general-purpose input/output), and GigE connectors, and straightforward interfaces to parallel data, clocks, line, and frame signals.

As part of Pleora's iPort Connectivity Solution, the PT1000-VB is delivered with two powerful pieces of PC software: the iPort IP Device Driver and the iPort Software Development Kit.

Running under Windows or Linux, this software streamlines image data delivery into PC memory and eases applications development.

The production version of the iPort PT1000-VB is available now, and includes assistance with design-in and post-production from Pleora's engineering team.

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Compact board puts GigE in the camera

A novel in-camera engine allows camera manufacturers to integrate high-performance GigE connectivity into almost any camera simply by changing out the back-end interface electronics.