Digital Camera Link frame grabber suits laptops

MAY 14--Multipix Imaging Ltd. (Petersfield, Hampshire, UK; www.multipix.com) is the distributor of the VCE-CLCB01 FrameLink frame grabber, developed and manufactured by Imperx,
claimed to be the first digital Camera Link frame grabber for laptops. This plug-and-play Cardbus device interfaces Camera Link digital cameras to laptop PCs.

With speeds of up to 66 MHz (85 MHz optional), an RS-232 serial interface for camera control, 256 Mbits of on-board memory, proprietary loss-less compression techniques, and a software development kit, this frame grabber targets mobile applications become a reality. Using PCMCIA Cardbus revision 8 standard technology and an intelligent DMA engine for efficient use of the 32-bit PCI bus, the VCE-CLCB01 supports hot insertion and removal. The 256 Mbits of on-board memory, working with two banks of local memory for concurrent operation, enables acquisition of high-speed images.

The board supports the Camera Link base configuration via a single 26-pin connector. Modes of operation include 1 x 8, 2 x 8, 3 x 8, 1 x 10, 2 x 10, 1 x 12, 2 x 12, 1 x 16 bits, and RGB (1 x 24 bits). An SDK is supplied with OS drivers, GUI applications, and a series of DLLs, support, and examples for C++ and Visual Basic.