Frame grabber (vision interface card)

01

Pick the camera interface and number of cameras

Euresys' Coaxlink Quad CXP-12 is a four-connection CoaXPress frame grabber with four Micro-BNC 75 Ω receptacles on the bracket. It takes up to four cameras of one connection each, or fewer cameras using two or four connections, supports area-scan and line-scan cameras, and runs CoaXPress links at 1.25 Gbps (CXP-1) up to 12.5 Gbps (CXP-12). [1]

NI's PCIe-1433 is a PCI Express frame grabber for one Camera Link camera in base, medium or full configuration, with an onboard FIFO for higher bandwidth use and Power over Camera Link (PoCL) to power cameras through PoCL-enabled cables. [2]

Give the supplier the camera model and interface (CoaXPress speed and connection count, or Camera Link configuration), number of cameras, resolution, bit depth and frame or line rate, host bus and slot, operating system and SDK, trigger and encoder I/O, camera power (PoCXP or PoCL), on-board processing needed, operating temperature and quantity.

02

Check bandwidth, memory, I/O, power and environment

The Coaxlink Quad CXP-12 lists 5,000 MB/s (50 Gbps) aggregate camera bandwidth, a PCIe 3.0 x8 host bus with 7,800 MB/s peak and 6,700 MB/s sustained delivery, 4 GB on-board memory, 20 digital I/O lines, PoCXP supplying 17 W of 24 V DC per connector, and 17.1 W card power consumption excluding camera and I/O power. It works from 0 to +55 °C at 10–90% RH non-condensing, is stored from −20 to +70 °C, and measures 167.65 × 111.15 mm with a 196 g net weight. [1]

Editorial calculation: a 25-megapixel camera at 8 bits and 150 frames/s produces 25 × 10⁶ × 150 ≈ 3,750 MB/s, inside the card's 5,000 MB/s camera bandwidth and its 6,700 MB/s sustained bus rate; at 12 bits the camera stream rises to about 5,625 MB/s, beyond the camera bandwidth, and unpacked to 16 bits on the card it would reach about 7,500 MB/s, beyond the sustained bus rate. [1]

Euresys notes that the card runs with 1, 2 or 4 PCIe lanes at reduced performance, so confirm the slot's lane count before relying on the full rate. [1]

03

Compare two quad CXP-12 cards line by line

KAYA Instruments lists its "Komodo III Quad CoaXPress" frame grabber (ordering code KY-FGK-III-CXP) as CoaXPress v2.1 compliant with four links at data rates up to 12.5 Gbps per link, a PCIe 3.0 x8 bus, transfer rates of up to 6,695 MB/s, a 4 GB DDR4 frame buffer, Power over CoaXPress with 13 W per link and a 0°C to +50°C operating temperature. It is a standard-profile, half-length card with passive cooling that "requires airflow". [4]

The two cards match on link count, bus and buffer but differ on camera power and temperature: KAYA lists 13 W per link and Euresys 17 W per connector, with maximum operating temperatures of +50°C and +55 °C [4] [1]. Ask each supplier for camera power per link at your cable length, the airflow the card needs in your industrial PC, and the sustained transfer rate measured on your motherboard.

KAYA lists software support for Windows, Linux and Nvidia Jetpack, GenICam and GenTL, and plug-ins for Matlab, HALCON, Cognex and LabVIEW [4]. The JIIA summary of CoaXPress gives 50 Gbps for four cables [3]; compare that with each card's stated host delivery rate when four CXP-12 cameras run at once.

Editorial calculation: four links at 12.5 Gbps are 50 Gbps, or 6,250 MB/s at 8 bits per byte before protocol overhead, against 6,695 MB/s (KAYA) and 6,700 MB/s (Euresys) host delivery; 13 W versus 17 W per link is a 4 W (about 24%) lower camera power budget. [4] [1] [3]

Values are from KAYA's Komodo III Quad CoaXPress product page; its datasheet PDF was not reviewed.

04

Compare what suppliers offer

The companies in the manufacturer list below show this product on their own websites. Confirm the legal seller, factory and scope for your order.

Ask each supplier for the full specification: interface speeds, cameras per card, sustained bus bandwidth with your motherboard, memory, I/O, camera power, supported SDKs and operating systems, and environmental limits. [1] [2]

05

Check CoaXPress cable length, uplink and cable type

The CoaXPress standard site, hosted by JIIA, summarises the link a CoaXPress frame grabber terminates: a high-speed downlink of up to 12.5 Gbps per cable for video, images and data, plus a lower-speed uplink of up to 42 Mbps for communications and control, with power available over the same cable. Bandwidth scales with cable count: 4 cables give 50 Gbps and 8 cables give 100 Gbps. Cable reach falls as speed rises, from in excess of 100 m at 3.125 Gbps to 35 m at 12.5 Gbps, over standard coax such as RG59 and RG6. [3]

The summary also lists fixed, low-latency transmission, precise triggering, hot plugging, GenICam support and CoaXPress over Fiber as an add-on. Editorial note: if the camera sits more than 35 m from the PC at 12.5 Gbps, ask the supplier whether the card and camera support a lower link speed, a fiber extension, or a tested cable type and length for your layout. [3]

06

Trace what each block controls

This is a functional reference built from the sources cited; it is not a full specification.

07

Fill the specification fields with values for your design

A frame grabber quotation needs values for your design. The table explains each field, gives published values where a reviewed source states them, and says what to obtain from the supplier.

08

Send the camera, bandwidth and host data together

Paste it into your enquiry below or into an email to a maker, then replace every bracket.

Cameras: [model; interface; count]
Image: [resolution; bit depth; fps or line rate]
Host: [PCIe gen; lanes; OS; SDK]
I/O: [triggers; encoders; strobes]
Camera power: [PoCXP; PoCL; W]
Processing: [on-board functions]
Environment: [°C]
Quantity: [units]

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