World’s First USB 3.0 (SuperSpeed USB) Product Gets Certified while Rumors Swirl About Delay of Release of World’s First USB-3.0 Capable Motherboard

In September, the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) announced the first certified SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0) commercially available product. The host controller from NEC Electronics Corporation will enable the SuperSpeed USB ecosystem and represents the first step to broad adoption among host and peripheral device manufacturers. NEC Electronics` µPD720200 host controller uses a PCI Express Gen 2 system interface bus, allowing designers to easily add up to two USB 3.0 interfaces to systems containing the PCI Express bus interface.

“The certification of NEC Electronics` host controller signals to the industry that the promise of SuperSpeed USB is now a reality,” said Jeff Ravencraft, president and chair of the USB-IF. “Not only does it mean host device manufacturers can build and certify products that can display the SuperSpeed USB logo, it also provides peripheral device manufacturers incentive to bring to market SuperSpeed USB-enabled devices like external storage drives, digital cameras and MP3 players, which will empower consumers with unmatched USB data transfer speeds.”

SuperSpeed USB brings significant power and performance enhancements to the popular USB standard, delivering data transfer rates up to ten times faster than Hi-Speed USB (USB 2.0), with optimized power efficiency. The  specification was completed and made available to the industry in November 2008, and can be found at www.usb.org.

Analyst firm In-Stat projects that SuperSpeed USB will expand upon the broad market adoption of USB, which is the most successful interface in history with more than three billion devices shipped in 2008 alone. In-Stat predicts that SuperSpeed USB will make up approximately 30% of the USB market by 2013.

Originally slated to make its grand debut into the market place in Q1 of 2010, as of October 2009 there are rumblings throughout the industry that Intel has postponed the launch of their core-logic sets with SuperSpeed USB support until 2011.

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(2009, October). SuperSpeed USB from the USB-IF. http://www.usb.org/developers/ssusb

Bhushan, Amarendra, (2009, September 21). First SuperSpeed USB 3.0 product gets certified. CEOWorld Magazine. Retrieved on October 25, 2009 from http://ceoworld.biz/ceo/2009/09/21/first-superspeed-usb-3-0-product-gets-certified/

Shilov, Anton (2009, October 26). Intel Rumoured to Delay Implementation of USB 3.0. Retrieved on October 28, 2009 from http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/other/display/20091026193759_Intel_Rumoured_to_Delay_Implementation_of_USB_3_0.html

2009 Nobel Prize in Physics co-awarded to inventors of CCD Sensor

Last month, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences made the annoucement that the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three people who have contributed groundbreaking achievements which helped to shape the foundations of today’s networked societies.

Charles K. Kao of Standard Telecommunication Laboratories, Harlow, UK, and Chinese University of Hong Kong was awarded “for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication” and the other half was jointly awarded to Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith of Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, USA “for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor”.

This 1970 photo provided Tuesday by Alcatel-Lucent shows Bell Labs researchers Willard Boyle, left, and George Smith at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, N.J., with the charge-coupled device, which transforms patterns of light into useful digital information. (Alcatel-Lucent/Bell Labs/Associated Press)

In 1969 Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith invented the first successful imaging technology using a digital sensor, a CCD (Charge-Coupled Device). The CCD technology makes use of the photoelectric effect, as theorized by Albert Einstein and for which he was awarded the 1921 year’s Nobel Prize. By this effect, light is transformed into electric signals. The challenge when designing an image sensor was to gather and read out the signals in a large number of image points, pixels, in a short time.

The CCD is the digital camera’s electronic eye. It revolutionized photography, as light could now be captured electronically instead of on film. The digital form facilitates the processing and distribution of these images. CCD technology is also used in many medical applications, e.g. imaging the inside of the human body, both for diagnostics and for microsurgery.

Digital photography has become an irreplaceable tool in many fields of research. The CCD has provided new possibilities to visualize the previously unseen. It has given us crystal clear images of distant places in our universe as well as the depths of the oceans.

Though the CCD sensor is most commonly used by the general public in their digital cameras, Boyle has said he is most proud of the telescopic applications it has in astronomy. The device is used to capture images from the Hubble space telescope and Mars Rover.

“We saw for the first time the surface of Mars,” Boyle told The Associated Press. “It wouldn’t have been possible without our invention.”

Boyle’s other inventions include the first continuously operating ruby laser and he also worked with NASA to provide technological support during the Apollo space program.

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(October 6, 2009). Canadian Scientist shares Nobel Physics prize, CBC News. Retrieved on October 22, 2009 from http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/10/06/nobel-prize-physics-kao-boyle-smith281.html?ref=rss

New SONY FCB / EVI Handheld, Programmable Camera Controller Increases Flexibility and Ease of Use of Camera Assemblies

October 3, 2009 – Arizona based Aegis Electronic Group, Inc., a stocking distributor specializing in the distribution, integration and support of visible and Near IR cameras, components and modified integrated system solutions for industrial and machine vision imaging applications has announced the upcoming release of a new configurable, push button controller created specifically for SONY’s lines of FCB block cameras and EVI P/T/Z cameras.

Designed to work with one or multiple cameras via RS232, this small form factor controller is extremely flexible, ruggedized for use in harsh environments and can be programmed to control a majority of FCB/EVI SONY camera functions based on the needs of individual applications.  

The FCB/EVI controller, because of its portability, size and ease of use is suitable for a variety of applications, especially where space and control capabilities are issues.  Remote monitoring and harsh environment applications are just a few examples, and the controller is also ideal for adjusting and bench testing cameras before field installation/integration with minimal hardware requirements.

In addition to standard command capabilities, users are given the ability to control the cameras independently, allowing them to zoom in and out without disturbing any other controls and eliminates the need to switch back and forth between screens and programs.

“We are excited to be able to offer this new controller to our customers because there aren’t too many options available for users looking to control a SONY FCB block camera.  The controller’s small form factor will also benefit those currently using one of the bulkier EVI pan/tilt/zoom controllers already available,” said Nicole Zamora, business development manager at Aegis Electronic Group, Inc.  “Our customers rely on us to help guide them towards the best possible solutions available for each individual application.  Different applications come with different equipment demands and we feel it is our responsibility to be able to offer our customers a wide range of components that, at the end of the day, can be custom tailored to be exactly what they need at a reasonable price.”

Zamora added that having a “universal” controller of this size and flexibility is great because of the versatility and future potential it holds when looking at its capabilities.  Right now this controller model is created specifically for the control of the SONY FCB and EVI series cameras, but because it can be configured and programmed based on individual application needs, the number of camera models this controller might one day control is endless.

The FCB/EVI push button controller is currently available only through Aegis Electronic Group, Inc.

About Aegis Electronic Group
Aegis Electronic Group, Inc., specializes in the distribution, integration and support of visible and Near IR cameras, components and modified integrated system solutions for industrial and machine vision imaging applications.

Committed to delivering value added solutions with the highest levels of technical support, customer service and quality hardware, Aegis, over the last 20 years, has transformed from a hardware provider into a full systems integrator of industrial analog and industrial digital camera systems.

Aegis works extensively with the latest digital technologies including FireWire®, Camera Link®, USB 2.0 and Gigabit Ethernet (GigE)® to meet the ever changing needs of our customers.

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For more information:

Nicole J. Zamora, Business Development Manager
Aegis Electronic Group, Inc.
(760) 729.2026
http://www.aegis-elec.com

Analog Cameras Still Play a Role – They are Widely Available and Cost Less than Digital Cameras

Several months back I wrote a bit on the survival of analog cameras and their place in the industrial imaging industry, “Analog isn’t dead yet, Sentech’s STC-400 and its counterparts still have a place in industrial imaging.”

Today I ran across a similar article from Test & Measurement World that I found interesting…

Analog cameras still play a role

Analog cameras are widely available and cost less than digital cameras.

By Ann R. Thryft, Contributing Technical Editor — Test & Measurement World, 10/1/2009

“Many engineers designing machine-vision systems for semiconductor inspection applications continue to specify analog cameras because they are widely available and cost less than digital cameras. Although digital cameras continue to make inroads in machine vision, the use of analog cameras is not declining as quickly as some predicted when digital technology first became available.

“Designers of machine-vision systems have continued to use analog TV cameras wherever they could because of their low cost and high availability,” said Steve Kinney, director of technical pre-sales and support for JAI. “These have been the highest performing cameras for the lowest dollar cost for a long time, because of their standard formats. Eight to 10 years ago, three quarters of the cameras used in machine vision, by unit volumes, were analog cameras.”

The analog cameras used in electronics inspection output signals in either NTSC or PAL TV formats for color, and either the RS-170 or the CCIR 601 standard for monochrome, said Kinney. Most cameras used in machine vision are progressive scan, rather than interlaced, since the progressive-scan image-transfer method doesn’t suffer from the problems interlaced cameras have with creating sharp images of moving objects, he said.

Analog cameras can be more cost-effective than digital cameras if all that’s needed is a live view, said Joe Cook, VP of sales for Toshiba Teli’s eastern territory. “Due to the economy, people may choose to install analog cameras for cost-savings reasons, even in a new system,” he said. “But if you need to connect analog cameras to a PC, by the time you add a frame grabber and software, the cost can be more than that of a digital camera. Competitive digital technology is bringing down the price of digital cameras, as more vendors have moved into this market.”

The move to digital cameras occurred for several reasons, including higher-bandwidth standards, greater connectivity, and easier interfacing to a PC, said Kinney. “In the early days of digital cameras, as the decline of TV-standard cameras started, most machine-vision cameras were still analog even if they weren’t TV-format analog,” he said. “The proportion of machine-vision camera unit shipments represented by analog cameras is declining rapidly; today it is 35 to 40%.”

Applications for analog

In electronics inspection, Toshiba Teli sees analog cameras still being deployed in areas such as pattern recognition and pass/fail inspection for quality control, said Hisa Ishigami, the company’s VP of engineering. Typically, engineers use them at both the beginning and the final stages of semiconductor manufacturing. “At the beginning of the line, [analog cameras] may detect surface defects,” he said. “At the end, they may be used to check whether the chip package is labeled correctly and in the right location and whether wires are bonded properly from the chip to the package.”

“We see analog cameras being used in legacy applications in electronics inspection, such as older wire-bonding, pick-and-place, and AOI [automated optical inspection] equipment as well as legacy slice-and-dice and wafer-inspection equipment,” said Andrew Buttress, Sony’s product manager for visual imaging products. “Most new capital equipment designs are using strictly digital interfaces. But in the current economic downturn, a lot of the electronic and semiconductor tool OEMs have put other refinements into their tools to increase productivity without necessarily changing the camera, so analog cameras are still being used in upgrades to existing designs.”

Another reason for analog’s popularity in the semiconductor and electronics inspection space has been the distance its signals can travel on coax cables, said Kinney. “Before the GigE Vision standard, if you wanted to run cameras 300 to 400 feet without connecting them to a PC, only analog could go that distance, although with some tradeoffs such as signal degradation and loss of amplitude,” he said.

Analog limitations

Lower performance, in terms of both resolution and frame rate, have been two of the drivers in the conversion from analog to digital technology. “The main disadvantage of analog today is the lower resolution compared to what is being offered in digital,” said Cook. “Compared to analog cameras, digital cameras are available in higher resolutions, so you can process more data in less time with more detail.”

In general, progressive-scan analog cameras have higher resolutions than typical analog cameras, such as interlaced cameras, said Buttress. “But you don’t see the much higher megapixel-level resolutions in analog technology.” The highest end of analog resolution for machine vision is 1280×960 pixels, and the maximum speed likely in older analog cameras was 30 fps. “With the newer progressive-scan analog cameras, you can get up to 200 fps using partial scan—that is, without using the full resolution. In other words, you have to reduce the field of view,” he said.

Buttress also commented on the costs associated with analog cameras. He acknowledged that compared to digital cameras, most older analog technology is relatively inexpensive, but he added, “With analog, however, the image data is represented as a voltage level, and that data has to be digitized to make an image. So, you have to add a frame grabber for digitizing the image data, and that adds cost.”

Another major problem with analog is noise. Coax cable carries a small signal, so a 10-mV or 20-mV noise spike shows up in the signal, Kinney explained. “In general, a digital signal is immune to noise until it reaches a very high threshold,” he said. “A little noise doesn’t matter to digital cameras, but it has very visible effects in analog camera images.”

The need to improve productivity is pushing customers to migrate away from analog cameras, said Buttress. Customers must now inspect more parts per minute, which means they must take more images per second, so not only is resolution increasing, but also frame rate. Depending on the application, however, these two don’t always increase at the same rates. “For example, when inspecting a populated circuit board with an AOI system that moves cameras around the viewing area, you may want a 1- to 2-megapixel camera and need to run it at 60 or 90 fps, perhaps using Camera Link to get that speed,” he said. “But in wafer inspection, you may need to view feature sizes as small as 2 microns and will require 16 megapixels to do so, but the speed may be only 3 fps.”

The move from analog to digital technology in machine vision, however, is neither easy nor simple: There’s a lot to learn, said Ishigami. “With digital cameras, you have the camera; the camera interface, such as Camera Link, FireWire or GigE, and an input device such as a frame grabber, FireWire card, or GigE port supporting jumbo frames; the software; and the computer,” he said. “The first time you work with FireWire or hook up GigE or Camera Link, you’re using different cables, and you are also using digital files, so there’s a huge learning curve involved over analog.” To install digital cameras on a production line, engineers need specialized computer-related knowledge, such as how to connect IEEE 1394 FireWire and a familiarity with Windows. “There’s a lot of industry knowledge about how to use analog cameras, and it’s easy to hook up analog cameras to existing equipment in a wide variety of applications,” Ishigami said.

Today, analog cameras are used mostly in situations with legacy equipment, staff that are used to analog, or both, said Kinney. “Since analog cameras use mature technology, with limited performance that requires fewer parts than newer digital models, manufacturers have been able to create some very small, lightweight models tailored to the needs of specific applications,” he said. “These may be certain types of pick-and-place equipment and other equipment with repetitive, high-G motion, where the small size and weight of analog cameras is an advantage, as is the ability to connect them via flexible coax cables.” Although the reasons for using analog cameras are diminishing, they may remain in some of these applications for quite a while.

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Retrieved on October 1, 2009 from http://www.tmworld.com/article/355824-Analog_cameras_still_play_a_role.php?rssid=20423

SONY Introduces XCG Series Cameras With GigE Vision Interface For Package and Print Inspection Applications

Sony Electronics will exhibit its new XCG series of vision cameras using the GigE Vision® interface at the 2009 PACK EXPO show.

These four new cameras address a range of vision applications, including a new model that offers ultra-high 5-megapixel resolution and another that provides outstanding image quality in extreme low-light conditions.

The GigE interface incorporated in the XCG series supports large-scale systems that require high-bandwidth data capabilities over long distances of up to 100 meters, such as long cable runs from host computers to cameras.  Typical applications include manufacturing environments where cameras are suspended over a shop floor and “clean room” settings where cameras must be situated at great lengths from a PC.

“The new XCG lineup highlights Sony’s responsiveness to the marketplace, embracing the GigE interface while building on the proven foundation of Sony’s XCD series cameras,” said Ken LaMarca, vice president of the visual imaging and security systems business at Sony Electronics. “The XCG series gives VARs, system integrators and OEMs confidence in the longevity of this new standard backed by Sony’s industry expertise.”

SONY XCG Series of GigE Cameras

LaMarca added that the GigE interface is based on industry-standard Gigabit Ethernet (GigE Vision®) technology specifically designed for vision applications. This widely accepted standard allows for integrating camera components and peripheral devices, and lowering overall vision system costs. XCG series cameras also leverage GigE technology’s packet resend mechanism for secure data transmission.

The XCG series consists of four models designed to offer a full range of resolutions and frame rates to match a variety of machine vision and security applications. The new cameras include:

• XCG-V60E – 1/3-inch imager in VGA resolution at 90 fps
  
• XCG-SX97E – 2/3-inch imager in SXGA resolution at 16 fps
  
• XCG-U100E – 1/1.8-inch imager in UXGA resolution at 15 fps
  
• XCG-5005E – 2/3-inch imager in 5-megapixel resolution at 15 fps.

Each incorporates features that are familiar to users of Sony’s popular XCD series cameras including bulk and sequential trigger modes, and a partial scanning function. All use Sony’s latest PS-type CCDs with high-performance, low-noise characteristics.

The new XCG-V60E camera is suitable for bottle, pharmaceutical, and electronics inspection. The XCG-SX97E model’s ability to deliver extreme low-light sensitivity is ideal for security, ITS, and UAV applications. Typical applications for the XCG-U100E camera include print inspection, packaging, and metallurgy, while the XCG-5005E produces high-resolution 5-megapixel images that are a fit for capturing very fine details for print inspection, microscopy, and semiconductor wafer inspection.

The Sony XCG series cameras are available now through Sony authorized distributors and system integrators.

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(2009) SONY INTRODUCES XCG SERIES CAMERAS WITH GIGE VISION INTERFACE FOR PACKAGE AND PRINT INSPECTION APPLICATION. Retrieved on September 22, 2009 from http://my.packexpo.com/pelv2009nn/public/Booth.aspx?IndexInList=304&FromPage=nz_ALPressReleases.aspx&BoothID=100861&Task=PressReleaseDetails&PRID=308

Camera Link’s ‘Lite’ Interface – PoCL Lite

“Same great interface but a less bulky connector” would be the slogan for the latest proposed Camera Link standard developed by the Japan Industrial Imaging Association (JIIA; Tokyo, Japan; www.jiia.org). The standard has been conceived by Shigeo Oka, chairman of the JIIA and Senior Fellow in the Machine Vision and Medical Imaging Division of Toshiba Teli (Tokyo, Japan; www.toshiba-teli.co.jp), and Fumio Nagumo of CIS (Seattle, WA, USA; www.cis-americas.com).

Known as Power over Camera Link Lite (PoCL-Lite), it was previewed at The Vision Show 2009 (Phoenix, AZ, USA) in April 2009 and was expected to be ratified by the Automated Imaging Association (Ann Arbor, MI, USA; www.machinevisiononline.org) at the June 2009 Robots, Vision & Motion Control Show (Rosemont, IL, USA).  (Note: To date, this standard has not yet been ratified by the AIA)

To allow the manufacture of smaller and lower-cost digital cameras with smaller connectors while retaining the same PoCL features, the new standard only represents a small departure from the original Camera Link standard.

In the original 26-pin Camera Link design, pins 1, 13, 14, and 26 were assigned as ground. To maintain backward compatibility with this connector, the PoCL reassigned pins 1 and 26 as power lines that deliver up to 333 mA at 12 V or 400 mA at the lowest allowable 10 V. In essence, PoCL-Lite redefines the PoCL standard using just 14 pins, two of which are used for power, two for shielding, and five pairs of wires to transmit Camera Link data and camera signals (see figure).

PoCL-Lite redefines the PoCL standard using just 14 pins, two of which are used for power, two for shielding, and five pairs of wires to transmit Camera Link data and camera signals. In PoCL-Base, the data from four differential pairs are multiplexed into two data lines (x0 and x2), and another differential pair is used for serial communications to the frame grabber (SerTFG).

Because of this, 12 pins of the original PoCL connector are left unused, allowing a smaller PoCL-Lite connector to be used to interface the camera to a frame grabber. Within the five pairs of data signals that are used in the PoCL-Lite standard, one pair is dedicated to camera control, one pair to send serial data commands to the camera, one pair as a system clock, and the remaining two pairs devoted to transferring data between the camera and the frame grabber.

In PoCL-Base, the data from four differential pairs are multiplexed into two data lines (x0 and x2), and another differential pair is used for serial communications to the frame grabber (SerTFG). PoCL-Lite, however, uses only two differential pairs to transmit data valid, frame valid, and line valid information as well as SerTFG and image data on one pair (x2) and image data on the second line (x0).

As can be seen, this results in a 10-bit image data transfer over two differential line pairs. Using transceivers clocked at 85 MHz, this results in a maximum data transfer rate of approximately 106 Mbytes/s.

Because PoCL-Lite is not electrically compatible with PoCL-Base, vendors will have to reprogram the FPGA interface provided on most Camera Link frame grabbers. Cable vendors are responding to this need as PoCL, already established in Japan, is just catching on in North America.

Whether the new PoCL-Lite standard will gain momentum after ratification by the AIA remains to be seen. According to Chris Hogarth, interconnect business development manager with 3M, the original PoCL standard, although popular in Japan, is only now starting to gain a following in North America, driven by a need to reduce camera size in higher-performance applications.

Going forward, to further expand this capability into other (traditionally analog) performance tiers where space is at a premium and a relatively fast digital upgrade is required, the emerging PoCL-Lite standard will meet the requirements.

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Wilson, Andrew (June 2009).  Image Transfer – Camera Link gets a ‘Lite’ interface.  Vision Systems Design v14 n6 p16(2).  Retrieved on September 21, 2009 from http://www.vision-systems-design.com