Pleora Launches Industry’s First Off-the-Shelf OEM Board for In-Camera Gigabit Ethernet Connectivity

iPORT™ PT1000-VB offers high-performance Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) connectivity in small,affordable, low-power OEM board
Ready to support the emerging AIA (Automated Imaging Association) GigE Vision Standard

OTTAWA, CANADA, May 13, 2005: Pleora Technologies today introduced the industry’s first off-the-shelf OEM board for adding GigE connectivity to industrial cameras. Pleora’s unique iPORT PT1000-VB In-Camera Engine allows camera manufacturers to integrate highperformance GigE connectivity into almost any camera simply by changing out the back-end interface electronics.

Demand is growing for GigE connections between cameras and PCs in systems for industrial inspection, health care, post and parcel sorting, and high-end security/surveillance. In these and other applications, GigE offers key advantages over connections based on Camera Link®, LVDS (low-voltage differential signal), or IEEE 1394, including lower-cost equipment, longer-distance reach, greater networking flexibility, and more scalable PC-based processing.

Pleora’s iPORT PT1000-VB board allows camera companies to meet customer demand for GigE quickly and cost-effectively, without compromising real-time throughput or image quality. The board is also ready to comply with the AIA’s emerging GigE Vision Standard, paving the way for camera companies to support standards-based applications as they come on stream.

“Our PT1000-VB In-Camera board offers a fast, economical, and straightforward way to migrate almost any camera to GigE, including cameras with fast frame rates and high-performance sensors,” said George Chamberlain, President of Pleora Technologies. “The board uses best-inclass hardware to achieve clock-cycle accuracy and low power at all throughput levels, even at the full, 1-Gb/s wire speed rate. By contrast, GigE interfaces based on embedded processors seldom achieve the same precise performance, and can need 10 times more power to support very fast frame rates.”

Real-time, high-quality data conversion and transfer

Pleora’s iPORT PT1000-VB In-Camera Engine uses purpose-built hardware to acquire image data from a camera head, packetize it, queue it for transfer, and send it to PCs over standard GigE links or LANs (local-area networks). In the other direction, the board transfers control signals from the GigE link to the camera head.

In all operations, the PT1000-VB delivers the high throughput – it easily achieves GigE’s full, 1-Gb/s line rate – and low, consistent latency required for high-performance, real-time image transfer. Latency between cameras and PCs can be configured as low as 200 μs (microseconds), about equivalent to a frame grabber. A novel, sub-millisecond data resend scheme ensures data is never lost.

Low-power, camera-ready design

At all throughput rates, the PT1000-VB consumes less than 2.25 W (Watts) of power. This low power requirement makes the board ideal for integration into small-body cameras with tight power budgets. It also allows camera companies to standardize on one GigE interface for all offerings, including cameras with high-performance sensors and fast frame rates. Due to high power consumption – potentially 25 W at 1-Gb/s throughput rates – GigE interfaces based on embedded processors can typically service only cameras with lower frame rates.

Pleora’s PT1000-VB board is a compact, camera-ready, square board measuring only 5.5 cm square. To simplify in-camera integration, the board features vertical mounts for power, GPIO (general-purpose input/output), and GigE connectors, and straightforward interfaces to parallel data, clocks, line, and frame signals.

End-to-end solution

As part of Pleora’s iPORT Connectivity Solution, the PT1000-VB is delivered with two powerful pieces of PC software: the iPORT IP Device Driver and the iPORT Software Development Kit. Running under Windows or Linux, this software streamlines image data delivery into PC memory and eases applications development.

The production version of the iPORT PT1000-VB is available now, and includes assistance with design-in and post-production from Pleora’s engineering team.

About Pleora

Pleora Technologies is a leading global supplier of GigE connectivity solutions for the machine vision, security/surveillance, and broadcast industries. Pleora’s iPORT products stream imaging and video data over low-cost GigE connections with high performance, while delivering longdistance reach, scaleable processing, flexible networking, and unmatched ease of use. Pleora is headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.