Chapter 2
Hardware Overview
2-6
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region-of-interest circuitry, the device acquires only a selected subset
of the acquisition window.
DMA Controllers
The NI 1430 uses onboard direct memory access (DMA) controllers to
transfer data between the device and host memory. Each of these
controllers supports scatter-gather DMA, which allows the DMA controller
to reconfigure at runtime. The NI 1430 can perform continuous image
transfers directly to either contiguous or fragmented memory buffers. The
NI-IMAQ driver software efficiently programs the DMA engines while
providing an easy-to-use high-level interface.
PCIe Interface
The NI 1430 is compliant with PCI Express 1.0a specifications. The
NI 1430 is intended for a x4 PCIe slot. It does not fit properly into a x1
PCIe slot. However, the NI 1430 does fit into, and can be used in, a x8 or
x16 PCIe slot. Using a smaller width device in a larger width slot is called
up-plugging. When up-plugging, some motherboards only support plug-in
devices at the x1 data rate. If you plan to use the NI 1430 in an up-plugging
configuration, with a camera that produces data faster than 200 MB/s,
verify with your computer manufacturer that your motherboard supports a
x4 plug-in device at a x4 data rate in the PC expansion slot you plan to use.
Start Conditions
The NI 1430 can start acquisitions in the following ways:
•
Software control
—The NI 1430 supports software control of
acquisition start. You can configure the NI 1430 to capture a fixed
number of frames. Use this configuration for capturing a single frame
or a sequence of frames.
•
Trigger control
—You can start an acquisition by enabling external or
RTSI bus trigger lines. Each of these inputs can start a video
acquisition on a rising edge or a falling edge.
Serial Interface
The NI 1430 provides serial communication to and from the camera
through two LVDS pairs in the Camera Link cable. All Camera Link serial
communication uses one start bit, one stop bit, no parity, and no hardware
handshaking.
