New FireWire standard boosts camera bandwidth

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Nov 7, 2003

At the recent Vision 2003 Show in Stuttgart, Germany, Point Grey Research (PGR) demonstrated its first prototype camera using the new 1394b technology.

At the recent Vision 2003 Show in Stuttgart, Germany, Point Grey Research (PGR) demonstrated its first prototype camera using the new 1394b technology.

As a follow up to the very popular 1394a (Firewire) standard, this next generation promises up to double the data transfer rate at 800Mbit/s and longer cables lengths up to 100m.

PGR was able to fast-track the development of its 1394b camera by designing its own 1394b link layer in an FPGA from Xilinx instead of waiting for a semiconductor vendor to supply these 1394b components.

Specific to the camera shown at Stuttgart, a CMOS HDTV image sensor from Rockwell Scientific was used to deliver 1920 x 1080 high quality, uncompressed images at 30 frames per second, generating 62Mbyte of sustained bandwidth.

"The HDTV camera was just a demonstration but we are actively integrating the 1394b technology into our products.

We believe we will be one of the first to market", says PGR's Vladimir Tucakov.