KEY FEATURES

• Flexible frame grabbing from area & line scan cameras.
• Analog input up to 20 MHz and digital input up to 32 Mbytes/Sec.
• Powerful 50 MHz TMS320C44 Digital Signal Processor.
• Supports simultaneous image acquisition and processing.
• Up to 8 Mbytes zero wait state SRAM image memory.
• Optional real time display with on board SVGA for resolutions up to 1280 x 1024 non-interlaced.
• DSP image processing library for DOS, Windows 3.1/95/NT.
• Fully software compatible with XPG-1000 Power Grabber.
• Lightning fast PCI interface supporting bus master mode.
• Optional ISA interface.
• Attractive low price.

The FPG-44 Power Grabber product line is a family of imaging boards and software offering flexible frame grabbing and high speed image processing for PCI bus PCs. The FPG-44 offers the best of both worlds - powerful 50 MHz TMS320C44 DSP and lightning fast PCI interface at an amazingly attractive price. It is designed specifically for vision applications which require high speed and flexible performance at low recurring cost.

The FPG-44 will interface with any analog/digital camera or sensor at data rates up to 32 Mbytes/Sec. It supports up to 8 Mbytes of on board SRAM for fast zero wait state image processing. With on board TMS320C44 DSP and a unique memory architecture, the FPG-44 offers simultaneous image acquisition and processing. The FPG-44 includes the HSI bus interface to an optional real time display board with on board SVGA.

The FPG-44 has a PCI interface supporting bus master mode for fast data transfers to the host PC. The FPG-44 is fully software compatible with the popular XPG-1000 Power Grabber, and comes complete with a comprehensive software package including the XVL function library running on the C44 DSP.

The high processing performance and attractive price of the FPG-44 makes it ideal for a number of applications including:

• Industrial Inspection & Machine Vision
• Microscopic & Scientific Imaging
• Document Imaging
• Security and Night Vision Applications
• Non-standard Sensor Acquisition and Control

FPG ARCHITECTURE

See FPG-44 Architecture Block Diagram

The FPG-44 is a flexible frame grabber and image processing board for PCI and ISA bus PCs. Modeled around the 50 MHZ TMS320C44 DSP from Texas Instruments, it supports up to 8 Mbytes of on board SRAM for fast zero wait state processing. The FPG-44 can easily interface to a wide variety of analog and digital cameras at data rates up to 32 Mbytes/Sec. The on board C44 DSP provides over 275 MOPS of processing power for demanding vision and imaging applications.

The FPG-44 includes a High Speed Interface (HSI) bus running at over 50 Mbytes/Sec, which can support the Enhanced Display Board (EDB) for real time display. Spare C44 Comm Ports (maximum two) are also available to provide high speed bi-directional communication between multiple FPGs or XPGs or with third party C40/C44 processors.

CAMERA AND SENSOR INPUT

The FPG-44 provides flexible camera input to easily interface with virtually any type of analog/digital camera or sensor including RS170, CCIR, high resolution area or line scan cameras and multi-tap sensors. Input images can be as large as the available memory on the FPG with no limitations on image or line size. The camera acquisition circuitry is connected directly to C44 Comm Ports allowing fast and efficient data transfer to image memory on both the C44 global and local bus.

ANALOG INPUT FPG-44

• Software selectable four analog channels (optional eight inputs available).
• Each channel accepts single ended or differential video.
• Square pixels from RS170, CCIR or any non-standard analog camera or sensor.
• Composite sync on video or separate sync can be used.
• Precision gain circuit to enhance video signal.
• Software adjustable gain and offset control, with 12 bits precision.
• Software selectable internal (programmable) pixel clock or external camera clock.
• Genlock circuitry to synchronize camera input with internal pixel clock.
• Programmable sub window acquisition.
• Four general purpose inputs and outputs (selectable as RS422 or TTL), and additional four outputs (TTL only).
• 256 grey-level digitization with maximum pixel jitter of ± 4 nsec.
• 8 bit input LUT for real time thresholding or grey level adjustment.
• Supports data rates up to 20 Mhz.

DIGITAL INPUT FPG-44

• 8 or 16 bit digital input as TTL or RS422.
• Input data rates up to 32 Mbytes/Sec.
• Supports any digital area or line scan cameras including multi-tap sensors.
• Eight general purpose RS422 or TTL inputs and outputs for camera control.
• Programmable sub window acquisition and de-interlacing on input data.
• Optional 16 bit input LUT for real time thresholding or grey level adjustment.

IMAGE MEMORY

The FPG-44 offers up to 8 Mbytes of high speed zero wait state SRAM for image, program and data storage. The SRAMs are designed as SIMM modules which can be easily added to provide future upgrades. The memory can be populated on both the global and local bus of the TMS320C44 DSP. This provides concurrent image acquisition and processing, taking maximum advantage of the parallel processing architecture of the C44 DSP. Separate image display memory is available as VRAM on the optional Enhanced Display Board. Following are the main features of the FPG-44 memory:

• Configurable from 512 Kbytes up to 8 Mbytes.
• Use of SIMM modules for easy upgrades.
• Addressable as 8, 16 or 32 bits without performance degradation.
• Dynamically allocated for use as image, program and data storage.
• Supports arbitrary image size and shape with no limitations.
• SRAM with zero wait state on read and write cycle
• Memory can be populated on both C44's global and local bus for concurrent memory access and more efficient processing.

PROCESSING

The FPG-44 offers superior image processing performance with the combination of the on board powerful TMS320C44 DSP and zero wait state SRAM. The processing power of the FPG-44 makes it an ideal platform for a wide variety of vision and imaging applications requiring ultra high speed processing. The design of the FPG makes optimum utilization of the C44 parallel processing architecture with Comm Ports connected directly to the camera acquisition circuitry, and providing concurrent image acquisition and processing.

TMS320C44 DSP

• 50 MHz TMS320C44 DSP offers 275 MOPS performance.
• 50 Mflops 32-bit floating point operations.
• Four 20 Mbytes/Sec asynchronous Comm Ports.
• Resident DMA controller allows concurrent image grab and processing.
• Interruptible by external sync input or by PC.
• In Circuit Emulator port for debugging.
• Texas Instruments C compiler, assembler and debugger available.

IMAGE&nbspDISPLAY

Images acquired on the FPG-44 can be displayed either by transferring data from FPG memory to the PC SVGA over the lightning fast PCI bus or using the optional Enhanced Display Board (EDB). The PCI interface supports bus master mode, and provides sustained data transfer rates of around 34 Mbytes/Sec. The optional EDB board has a combination of onboard accelerated SVGA and Digital Video Processor. This offers combined VGA and image data on a single monitor with resolutions up to 1280 x 1024 non-interlaced. The EDB also offers dual screen operation at resolutions up to 1280 x 1024 non-interlaced.

HIGH&nbspSPEED&nbspBUSES

The FPG-44 offers an optimum architecture for efficient image data transfer with the C44 Comm Ports and the HSI bus. The C44 offers four 20 Mbytes/Sec asynchronous Comm Ports for independent DMA transfers. The Comm Ports form an integral part of image acquisition and PC interface. Depending on the camera data rate and number of bits per pixel, up to two Comm Ports can be allocated for camera acquisition. The other two Comm Ports can be allocated for high speed data transfer over the PCI bus. Any Comm Ports not being used for camera acquisition or PC interface are available for interface with multiple FPGs, XPGs or external third party C40/C44 processors.

The asynchronous HSI bus running at 50 Mbytes/Sec supports the Enhanced Display Board and other third party boards. This bus connects directly to the C44 Local Memory Bus. It provides direct memory access by the DSP to peripherals on this bus.

PCI&nbspINTERFACE

The FPG-44 offers very high speed data transfer to the host PC over the PCI bus. The PCI interface supports target and master mode, burst mode and DMA access. The PCI interface on the FPG is accomplished through C44 Comm Ports, where up to two Comm Ports can be dedicated to data transfers. This achieves a maximum sustained data rate of 34 Mbytes/Sec and burst rate of up to 132 Mbytes/Sec. The FPG-44 PCI interface conforms to the PCI Plug-n-play specifications and supports auto-configuration, allowing smooth integration of the board in the host

CONFIGURATION

The FPG-44 comes in two configurations - one for analog input and the other for digital input. These are two separate boards with different front end circuitry. The FPG-44 supports two SIMM sockets for SRAM memory. The memory on the FPG-44 is configurable from 512 Kbytes up to 8 Mbytes of SRAM. The memory can be populated on both the global and local bus of the TMS320C44 DSP, providing concurrent image acquisition and processing. All boards include the HSI bus interface supporting the optional Enhanced Display Board.

SOFTWARE

The FPG-44 comes complete with a comprehensive software package including an extensive XVL vision library software package under DOS, Windows 3.1/95/NT running on the C44 DSP. It is the same software package which runs on all Power Grabber boards. The XVL includes over 200 DSP based functions for image acquisition, processing, display and data transfer. A comprehensive memory management system has been implemented to dynamically allocate memory for image data, program code, histogram, LUTs and other data buffers. The software fully supports different image size, bit depth and data types.

For easy prototyping and testing of new applications, the FPG also includes an interactive Windows based software environment called WiTlite to access the XVL functions. This gives the user the freedom to explore different imaging operators and see the results immediately with a demand-driven mode of operation.

To develop custom C44 based software on the FPG, extensive tools from Texas Instruments such as C compiler, assembler, linker, simulator and debugger are available. These are the same tools used for C40 development on the XPG. Several third party Windows based software packages are also available on the FPG.

For further information, contact:
Dipix Technologies Inc.
Vision Products Division
1051 Baxter Road,
Ottawa, Ontario
K2C 3P1, Canada

Tel: 613-596-4942
Fax: 613-596-4914
Toll Free: 800-724-5929
E-mail: sales@dipix.com

Dipix and Power Grabber are registered trademarks of Dipix Technologies Inc.
Microsoft WindowsЄ is the registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
TMS320C40 is a registered trademark of Texas Instruments Corporation.
IBM is the registered trademark of IBM.

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