Frame Grabbers

FireBird CoaXPress Frame Grabber (8xCXP12-3PE8)

Part Number: AS-FBD-8XCXP12-3PE8

Product image FireBird 8xCXP-12 CoaXPress Frame Grabber

Features

Designed for multi-CXP-6 camera systems.
High-performance CXP 2.1 with up to 50 Gigabits/s input rate.
Fast PCI Express 3.0 (Gen3) 8-lane interface.
ActiveDMA engine – acquisition with zero CPU usage.
CoaXPress gives high-speed data, power, and camera control all over a single cable.
Comprehensive I/O for triggers and lighting control.
Supports PoCXP (Power over CoaXPress).
Eight HD-BNC (Micro-BNC) connectors.
Standard half-length PCIe form factor.
Full GenICam support in Windows or Linux (including GenTL Producer).
Supported by the proven ActiveSDK.

Enquire About This Product

The FireBird 8xCXP-12 3PE8 frame grabber is a new addition to Active Silicon’s state-of-the-art FireBird frame grabber family.

FireBird is designed for ultimate performance using Active Silicon’s proprietary DMA Engine technology, “ActiveDMA”. This technical innovation utilizes RISC-based processor techniques, ensuring high-speed, low-latency image data transfers and zero CPU intervention.

The FireBird 8xCXP-12 3PE8 supports either two 4-connection CXP-6 cameras or four 2-connection CXP-6 cameras.

CoaXPress is a leading transmission standard for high-speed imaging in professional and industrial applications, which includes the fast CXP-10 and CXP-12 speeds (CoaXPress v2.0 and v2.1). Each CoaXPress connection supports up to 12.5 Gbps data rates, device power up to 13W, and device control at up to 42 Mbps – all on a single coaxial cable. The connections can be concatenated for faster devices to provide multiples of the single coax bandwidth. Very long cable lengths are supported – up to 35m at 12.5 Gbps and 100m at 3.125 Gbps using Belden 1694A coaxial cable, or even longer lengths with thicker cables. Active Silicon was one of the primary authors of the CoaXPress international standard. The standard is hosted by the JIIA (Japan Industrial Imaging Association).

FireBird is supported by Active Silicon’s software development kit, ActiveSDK. This is available separately and allows rapid system development and integration. It provides comprehensive example applications and optimized libraries and supports a variety of operating systems via a common API, including Windows and Linux (64-bit environments). Drivers for third-party applications, such as Cognex VisionPro, HALCON, Common Vision Blox, StreamPix, LabVIEW, MATLAB etc. are available.

Full GenICam support is provided with the drivers, including a GenTL Producer for data streaming and register accesses. In addition to functions that control the hardware, the libraries include general-purpose functions for the manipulation and display of images. A separate datasheet describes ActiveSDK in detail.

Future developments of this product will include support for one 8-connection CXP-6 camera and two 4-connection CXP-12 cameras in ping-pong mode (reading from one camera at a time).

Specification summary

CoaXPress Interface:	Eight 75 Ohm HD-BNC connectors (also known as Micro-BNC) each operate at all CXP speeds up to 12.5 Gbps. Up to 68W of power is available to cameras across all the HD-BNC connections via Power over CoaXPress (PoCXP). FireBird 8xCXP-12 board supports: Two cameras 4xCXP-6 connections Four cameras 2xCXP-6 connections (Future developments include support for one 8-connection camera and two 4xCXP-12 cameras in ping-pong mode – reading from one camera at a time) LEDs on the end bracket show the link status according to the CoaXPress specification.
Buffer Memory:	Up to 4 GBytes of DDR4 memory is fitted for buffering between the CoaXPress interface and the PCI Express bus.
PCI Express:	PCIe 3.0 (Gen3) x8 interface typically providing 6.8 Gbytes/sec transfer from FireBird to the PC, subject to PC performance.
I/O:	The following I/O lines are provided for triggers, optical shaft encoders, exposure control and general I/O: 4 opto-isolated inputs. 4 opto-isolated outputs. 4 TTL inputs, 5V tolerant. 4 TTL I/O, 5V logic. 4 RS-422 inputs. 4 RS-422 outputs. All these I/O signals are provided on a 50-way header on the FireBird board. A range of 50-way headers to PCIe End-Panel brackets are available.
Power Input:	An 8-way PCI Express Graphics (PEG) connector is provided to connect to a 6- or 8-way PEG connector from the PC power supply. This is only needed for PoCXP.
Fan Controller:	The fan speed is linked to the temperature of the FPGA die for optimum cooling and noise level.

Conformance

PCI Express Interface:

PCI Express Bus 3.0 (Gen3) 8-lane interface with a max payload size of 512 bytes.

FireBird 8XCXP-12 3PE8 supports both Short (32-bit) and Long (64-bit) Address packets. It also generates Posted Writes for image data, thus achieving transfer rates up to 6.8 Gbytes/sec, subject to host performance.

CoaXPress:

The FireBird 8xCXP-12 3PE8 conforms to v2.1 of the CoaXPress specification.

Approvals:

CE-mark for compliance with EMC EN 55022:2010 (class A) and EN 55024:2010 in accordance with EU directive 2014/30/EU.
RoHS compliance to RoHS3 directive 2015/863/EU.

EMC FCC Class A.

The printed circuit board is manufactured by UL recognised manufacturers and has a flammability rating of 94V-0.

Physical and environmental details

Dimensions:	PCB: 168mm by 111mm. Overall: 181mm by 111mm.
Approximate Weight:	190g.
Power consumption (typical):	(measured while acquiring from 4xCXP-6 connections) +3.3V: 80mA +12V: 1220mA +12V PEG connector: up to 68W for PoCXP
Storage Temperature:	-15ºC to +85ºC.
Operating Temperature:	0ºC to +60ºC.
Relative Humidity:	10% to 90% non-condensing (operating and storage).

	Download	File Type	File Size
Datasheets	Datasheet FireBird CoaXPress Frame Grabber 8XCXP-12 3PE8	pdf	223.58 KB
	Datasheet ActiveSDK	pdf	199.78 KB
	Datasheet ActiveCapture front-end software	pdf	829.51 KB
	GenICam solutions for FireBird frame grabbers	pdf	236.43 KB
Manuals & Quick Start Guides	FireBird Quickstart Guide v2.6	pdf	3.71 MB
Other Downloads	Tech Note TN011: Using a CXP Uplink Trigger & FireBird Timers	pdf	1.04 MB
	Tech Note TN013: Using an External Trigger Input with a FireBird CoaXPress Board	pdf	576.37 KB
	Machine vision cables available from Active Silicon	pdf	148.10 KB

Part number	Description
AS-FBD-8XCXP12-3PE8	FireBird 8xCXP-12 frame grabber with PCIe 3.0 (Gen 3) 8-lane interface, supporting Two 4-connection cameras up to CXP-6 Four 2-connection cameras up to CXP-6
AS-ACTIVESDK-WIN	ActiveSDK, Software Development Kit for Windows operating system. More information on the ActiveSDK page.
AS-ACTIVESDK-LIN	ActiveSDK, Software Development Kit for Linux operating system.
AS-CBL-1MM-0010-xM	HD-BNC (Micro-BNC) to HD-BNC cable x metres in length for use with CoaXPress video sources. Made from Belden 4855R cable rated to CXP-12. The standard stock lengths available are 3m, 5m or 10m. High-flex rating and much longer length cables also available – contact your distributor for details.
AS-CBL-1BM-0010-xM	HD-BNC (Micro-BNC) to BNC cable x metres in length for use with CoaXPress video sources. Made from Belden 4855R cable rated to CXP-12. The standard stock lengths available are 3m or 10m. High-flex rating and much longer length cables also available – contact your distributor for details.
AS-CBL-1DM-0001-xM	HD-BNC (Micro-BNC) to DIN1.0/2.3 cable with x metres in length for use with CoaXPress video sources. Made from Belden 1855A cable (DIN connectors are only supported in CXP up to CXP-6 speeds). The standard stock lengths available are 3m or 10m. High-flex rating and much longer length cables also available – contact your distributor for details.

Video tutorial - Introduction to ActiveCapture

ActiveCapture is a consumer application for camera and frame grabber control and is provided with all FireBird frame grabbers.

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Frame grabbers from Active Silicon bring real-time, high-resolution image acquisition to your vision system. Learn more about Active Silicon's range of frame grabbers, about possible customization and additional benefits by watching this video: