The BitFlow Windows SDK comes in two flavors, drivers only (which is free) and the full development version, which is paid for. There is also a Linux version of the SDK.
What is Camera Link?
Camera Link is Machine Vision camera to frame grabber digital interconnect standard. Camera link use a serializer/deserializer to use transmit high speed digital data over a very small number of wires. Camera Link comes in three versions: Base (up to 24 bits), Medium (up to 48 bits), Full (up to 64 bits) and 80-bit (up to 80 bits, duh). The maximum Camera Link data clock is 85 MHz. This means the maximum data rate of Camera Link (using 80 bit mode) is 850 MB/S.
BitFlow’s Neon and Axion families are Camera Link frame grabbers.
Camera Link is standard hosted by the Automate Imaging Association. For more information on the standard please visit https://www.visiononline.org/.
What type of Frame Grabbers does BitFlow make
BitFlow currently makes Frame Grabbers for acquiring data from cameras with the following interfaces
- Camera Link
- CoaXPress
- Differential (LVDS/RS-422)
What is a Frame Grabber?
A Frame Grabber is an computer accessory that usually takes the form of an electronic circuit board that plugs into the motherboard of a Personal Computer. The purpose of a frame grabber is to capture images from a camera and put those images in the host memory of the PC. There are may different standards for transmitting images between a camera and a Frame Grabber. These standards include everything from analog low resolution RS-170 (basically TV from the beginning of the 20th century through very high speed digital serial standards transmitted over copper or fiber. The purpose of the Frame Grabber is the same, acquire images from the camera and make them available to programs running on the PC. Frame Grabbers can also control the cameras (depending on the interconnect standard) and interact electrically with the environment though various I/O signals.