Machine Vision
Camera Link Technology
The Evolution of Camera Link®
In late 2000, it became apparent to industrial camera manufacturers and frame grabber manufacturers alike, that customers were experiencing great difficulty interfacing cameras and frame grabbers. An ad-hoc committee was formed to investigate the possibility of developing a standard camera/frame grabber interface specific to the vision industry. The result of that investigation is the Camera Link standard. This new specification defines:
The Channel Link Chip Set
In recent years, RS-644 LVDS technology has been used to transfer digital data. With RS-644 LVDS, a pair of wires is needed to transmit each data bit. This leads bulky cables that are expensive, prone to breakage and difficult to interface. Also, the maximum data rate in a typical camera application was limited to about 400 MBits/sec.
Camera Link is based the new Channel Link LVDS chip set manufactured by National Semiconductor. A Channel Link chipset consists of a transmitter and a receiver and is used to transfer digital data. This technology offers many advantages over the RS-644 LVDS technology. With Channel Link, 28 bits of data are transferred over just 4 pairs of wires and a fifth pair is used to transfer a required clock signal. This compares very favorably with the 56 wires that would be needed with RS-644 LVDS to do the same job. Channel Link is also capable of much higher data rates than standard LVDS. A single chipset can transfer up to 2.38 GBits/sec and the Camera Link standard allows the use of up to two chip sets. This high bandwidth capability is more than enough for current needs and allows for future expansion.
In late 2000, it became apparent to industrial camera manufacturers and frame grabber manufacturers alike, that customers were experiencing great difficulty interfacing cameras and frame grabbers. An ad-hoc committee was formed to investigate the possibility of developing a standard camera/frame grabber interface specific to the vision industry. The result of that investigation is the Camera Link standard. This new specification defines:
 | A standard connector that will be used on both the camera and the frame grabber |
| A standard cable to connect the camera and grabber |
| Formats for transmitting image data from the camera to the grabber |
| Four standard camera control inputs |
| A standard method for transmitting serial communication data between the camera and the grabber |
| A standard chip set that will be used in the camera and the grabber for image data transfer |
The Channel Link Chip Set
In recent years, RS-644 LVDS technology has been used to transfer digital data. With RS-644 LVDS, a pair of wires is needed to transmit each data bit. This leads bulky cables that are expensive, prone to breakage and difficult to interface. Also, the maximum data rate in a typical camera application was limited to about 400 MBits/sec.
Camera Link is based the new Channel Link LVDS chip set manufactured by National Semiconductor. A Channel Link chipset consists of a transmitter and a receiver and is used to transfer digital data. This technology offers many advantages over the RS-644 LVDS technology. With Channel Link, 28 bits of data are transferred over just 4 pairs of wires and a fifth pair is used to transfer a required clock signal. This compares very favorably with the 56 wires that would be needed with RS-644 LVDS to do the same job. Channel Link is also capable of much higher data rates than standard LVDS. A single chipset can transfer up to 2.38 GBits/sec and the Camera Link standard allows the use of up to two chip sets. This high bandwidth capability is more than enough for current needs and allows for future expansion.
Camera Link Downloads
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