Wilson's Websites

For several years, digital-signal-processing (DSP) based imaging boards have been used to speed up the computational tasks of image-processing and machine-vision applications. This month, we look at some of the latest DSP announcements from major vendors, such as Texas Instruments, the effect of intellectual property on future DSP-based designs, and examples of PCI-based board vendors currently offering DSP-based solutions.

Traquair Data Systems (Ithaca, NY) supplies DSP products for sonar, radar, industrial-automation, control, and inspection applications. The company's site provides descriptions of the Heron PCI and CompactPCI carrier boards. These boards support combinations of Texas Instruments TMS320C6000 DSPs, Virtex-II FPGAs, and data-acquisition and I/O interface modules.

Based on PCI, cPCI, PMC, and VME standards with expandable options, the Mango DSP (Norwalk, CT) range of products provide DSP solutions for the communications, medical-imaging, and array-processing markets. On this Web site, you'll find product descriptions, details of MatLab software support, success stories, and contact information.

High-performance computers and DSPs are increasingly being used to address real-time control, robotics, image-processing, and pattern-recognition applications. Sundance (Waterside, Chesham, England) has developed a number of DSP products, including the Grove, a PCI-based system that features four TI C6701 167-MHz DSPs. In addition to providing data sheets for the complete line of Sundance products, this Web site also allows you to order a CD catalog, review software support, and examine distributor contact information.

On the site of Coreco Imaging (Billerica, MA), you'll find descriptions of all three of the company's DSP-based imaging boards. These include the Python/C6, a multi-DSP card featuring the Texas Instruments TMS320C6201 fixed-point DSP, the Cobra/C6, a 'C6201-based vision engine for the PCI bus, and the MDSP, a TMS320C44-based multi-DSP board for the PCI bus. Information is also included on the company's range of monochrome and color frame grabbers, image processors, and display controllers.

Strampe Systemelektronik (Friedberg, Germany) develops image-processing and machine-vision systems based on its own line of DSPC6000 Vision Box systems. The latest generation of the Vision Box works with the 'C6203 DSP and features Camera Link or IEEE 1394 camera interfaces and DVI digital display output. This site also offers descriptions of the company's range of products, compatible cameras, and software-development tools and a list of distributors.

Providing DSP boards and systems to commercial and military markets, the range of products from Valley Technologies (Tamaqua, PA) couples vector processors such as the 10,000-MIPS DSP-24 from DSP Architectures (Vancouver, WA) with I/O options such as RACEway, FPDP, PCI, and VME. The company's latest product, described here, is the VT-5100-RD PCI-based development platform for the VT-5100, a DSP capable of performing a 1024-point complex FFT in 33 µs.