Introducing Axion-CL from BitFlow

13 Apr 2016

BitFlow has offered a Camera Link frame grabber for almost 15 years. This latest offering, our 6^th generation combines the power of CoaXPress with the requirements of Camera Link 2.0.

The Axion-CL is fully compatible with every high-speed, high-performance Camera Link camera including base, medium, full and 80-bit (10-tap) CL configurations. It can acquire from up to two 80-bit/85 MHz camears simultaneously with the board appearing to application software as two independent frame grabbers which greatly simplifies set-ups for multiple cameras. The Axion was built on a half-size x8 PCI Express Gen 2.0 board. The Gen 2.0 PCIe bus doubles the data rate of the Gen 1.0 bus while using the same footprint and connectors and is fully backwards compatible with Gen 1.0 motherboards. Additionally, Power over Camera Link (PoCL) is available.

Like the Cyton-CXP frame grabber, the Axion-CL leverages features such as the new StreamSync system, a highly optimized DMA engine, and expanded I/O capabilities that provide unprecedented flexibility in routing. The StreamSync system consists of an Acquisition Engine and a buffer manger. Additional features include efficient support for variable sized images with fast context switches between frames, per frame control of acquisition properties, hardware control of image sequencing, enhanced debug capabilities, efficient support of on-demand buffer allocation and graceful recovery for dropped packets.

There are two options available; Axion 1xE & Axion 2xE. The Axion 1xE is compatible with one base, medium, full or 80-bit camera offering PoCL, Power over Camera Link, on both connectors. The Axion 2xE is compatible with two base, medium, full or 80-bit cameras offering PoCL on both connectors for both cameras. In dual camera mode, the board looks to Windows and application software like two completely independent frame grabbers.

The Axion-CL is a culmination of the continuous improvements and updates BitFlow has made to Camera Link frame grabbers. It is the most powerful CL frame grabber BitFlow has ever manufactured.