Chapter 3
Hardware Overview
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National Instruments Corporation
3-3
Multiple-Tap Data Formatter
Many of the digital cameras on the market send multiple channels, or
, of data over the cable simultaneously to increase the frame rate of the
camera. However, the data in each tap may not be transferred in the
traditional top-left to bottom-right direction. Also, the taps may not transfer
data in similar directions.
The multiple tap data formatting circuitry on the PCI-1424 can reorder the
data from up to four 8-bit taps. The data from each tap can be independently
scanned either from left-to-right or right-to-left and top-to-bottom or
bottom-to-top.
SDRAM
The PCI-1424 comes with 16 MB of onboard high-speed synchronous
dynamic RAM (SDRAM). You can purchase additional SO-DIMM
memory upgrades from National Instruments. SO-DIMM upgrades are
available in 64 MB and 128 MB densities.
The PCI-1424 can also use the onboard RAM as a first-in first-out (FIFO)
buffer so that in some instances, the PCI-1424 can capture images larger
than the amount of RAM on the device.
RS-232 Serial Interface
You can use the RS-232 serial interface on the 100-pin SCSI-type
connector to control digital cameras that also have a serial interface
for camera control and configuration. The serial interface is configurable,
allowing you to customize it to your camera requirements.
Trigger Control and Mapping Circuitry
trigger control and mapping circuitry
routes, monitors, and drives the
external and RTSI bus trigger lines. You can configure each of these lines
to start an acquisition on a rising or falling edge. In addition, you can drive
each line asserted or unasserted, similar to a digital I/O line. You can also
map pulses from the high-speed timing circuitry or many of the PCI-1424
status signals to these trigger lines. There are four external and seven RTSI
bus triggers. You can program each of these triggers in polarity and
direction.
