XIMEA is setting new standard of Image acquisition performance and convenience with the CamExpress. Amazing 10Gbps, directly to the PC memory.
Do not worry, we are not going to bother you with yet one more interface/protocol/standard for delivering data from sensor to the PC. It is just other way around - there are several things less:
- it is protocol less
- it is framegrabber less
Imaging, that data from your sensor appear magically inside your computer memory with zero effort from the CPU. One would say what's delirium.
What if the functionality of the framegrabber is migrated to the camera? Well, that means that processor local bus need to be extended to reach the camera. Bingo! And it is exactly what CamExpress is all about. It is simply PCI Express cable environment.
How that suppose to work?
In order to achieve reasonable distance it is necessary to put ReDriver (e.g. Pericom Semiconductor). It was successfully tested with high-speed differential cable up to 10 meters, and with regular CAT5e/CAT6 up to 5 meters.
Advantages:
- no frame buffer storage
- lowest possible latency
- transparent synchronization and bidirectional communication with camera infrastructure
- PCI express ensures reliable data delivery and retransmit
True "zero copy paradigm" becomes reality - image data never stored or repacked before the final destination. Moreover, image data becomes available for image processing application few nanoseconds later they leaving the ADC.
Near term progress is guaranteed with PCIe 2.0 (5Gbps) and PCIe 3.0 (8Gbps) per lane.
First prototype with 25 Mpix sensor streaming data at 10Gbit/s link - is under development.
If you managed to read till this line, most probably you have something to say about it here (link to forum).
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