Chapter 1 introduction, About the pci-1428, About the pci-1428 -1 – National Instruments PCI-1428 User Manual
Page 9: Introduction
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Introduction
This chapter describes the PCI-1428 and the Camera Link standard,
and also describes your software programming choices.
About the PCI-1428
The PCI-1428 is a highly flexible IMAQ board for PCI chassis that
supports a diverse range of Camera Link-compatible cameras from many
camera companies. The PCI-1428 acquires digital images in real time
and can store these images in onboard frame memory or transfer these
images directly to system memory. The board can support the Medium
configuration of the Camera Link standard at clock speeds up to 50 MHz.
The PCI-1428 is simple to configure; you can easily install the board and
begin acquiring images. The PCI-1428 ships with NI-IMAQ, the National
Instruments complete IMAQ driver software which you can use to directly
control the PCI-1428 and other National Instruments IMAQ hardware
products. Using NI-IMAQ, you can quickly and easily start your
applications without having to program the board at the register level.
Featuring a high-speed data flow path, the PCI-1428 is ideal for
both industrial and scientific environments. As a stand-alone board, the
PCI-1428 supports the Camera Link Base configuration, which includes
four general-purpose control lines that can be configured to generate
precise timing signals to control digital camera acquisition. An additional
cable allows the PCI-1428 to support the Medium configuration. Four
external input/output (I/O) lines that you can use as triggers or as
high-speed digital I/O lines are available on the VHDCI 68-pin connector.
If you require more advanced triggering or digital I/O lines (either digital
or analog), use the PCI-1428 and NI-IMAQ with the National Instruments
data acquisition (DAQ) product line.
A common problem with other image acquisition boards is that you cannot
easily synchronize several functions to a common trigger or timing event.
The PCI-1428 uses its Real-Time System Integration (RTSI) bus to solve
this problem. The RTSI bus uses the National Instruments RTSI bus
interface and ribbon cable to route additional timing and trigger signals