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National Instruments Corporation
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Introduction
This chapter describes the IMAQ PCI/PXI-1422 image acquisition device
and your software programming choices.
About the PCI/PXI-1422
The IMAQ PCI/PXI-1422 is a highly flexible image acquisition device for
PCI, PXI, and CompactPCI chassis that supports a diverse range of digital
cameras from several different camera companies. The PCI/PXI-1422
acquires digital images in real time and can store the images in onboard
frame memory or transfer them directly to system memory. The device can
capture up to 16 bits of data at a time at clock speeds up to 40 MHz.
The PCI/PXI-1422 is simple to configure and is factory calibrated so
that you can easily install the device and begin acquiring images. The
PCI/PXI-1422 ships with NI-IMAQ, the National Instruments complete
IMAQ driver software you can use to directly control the PCI/PXI-1422
and other National Instruments IMAQ hardware products. Using
NI-IMAQ, you can quickly and easily start your applications without
having to program the device at the register level.
Featuring a high-speed data flow path, the PCI/PXI-1422 is ideal for
both industrial and scientific environments. As a stand-alone device, the
PCI/PXI-1422 supports up to 16 bits of differential video data, four
general-purpose control lines that can be configured to generate precise
timing signals to control digital camera acquisition, and four external
input/output (I/O) lines that you can use as triggers or as high-speed digital
I/O lines. If you require more advanced triggering or digital I/O lines (either
digital or analog), you can use the PCI/PXI-1422 and NI-IMAQ with the
National Instruments data acquisition (DAQ) product line.
A common problem with other image acquisition devices is that you cannot
easily synchronize several functions to a common trigger or timing event.
The PCI/PXI-1422 uses its Real-Time System Integration (RTSI) bus to
solve this problem. The RTSI bus consists of the National Instruments RTSI
bus interface and ribbon cable to route additional timing and trigger signals
