DALSA pioneers new machine-vision connectivity interface

Pioneered and encouraged by DALSA: the HSLink interface

DALSA continues their pioneering endeavours by being instrumental in the development of HSLink, a new machine-vision connectivity interface.

Working together with the Camera Link2 subcommittee, the intention being to present reference designs and a more complete specification for industry's use as the next-generation machine-vision interface.

What is HSLink?
HSLink is designed specifically to meet the needs of all machine vision applications and therefore carries image data, configuration data and low-jitter, real-time triggering signals over a simple network topology-supporting cameras, intermediate devices and frame grabbers required by end customers


Why is HSLink an improvement on the previous standard??
The interface has taken the key strengths of Camera Link™ (an industry-specific connectivity solution), while using broadly-used, off-the-shelf components with development road maps for increased performance. This protocol will have a long service life and is designed to ensure longevity in the marketplace with an expected life cycle 10 - 20 years.

As well, new features and functions have been added to meet customers' present and future needs.

How does HSLink work? To gain a better understanding of HSLink, Figure 1 provides an overview of HSLink topology from a camera perspective, and Figure 2 provides an overview of HSLink from a framegrabber perspective. Note: the camera perspective and the framegrabber perspective are very similar and use the same technology, the framgrabber using it in reverse order.

The HSLink IP Core takes in Camera Link signals and priority manages trigger, GPIO image data and configuration data and sends this information to the PHY via GMII (Gigabit Media Independent Interface) and/or NBI (Nine Bit Interface). The HSLink IP core ensures guaranteed data delivery and simplifies design implementation in both framegrabbers and cameras. Multi-vendor PHYs, that operate on NBI and GMII, are available that serialize and de-serialize the data transmitted over the cable medium. For low bandwidth applications (<300Mbytes/s), Infiniband (IBx1) or Coax cabling offers a low cost solution. For applications up to 2100Mbytes/s, a single CX4 cable is used, which significantly reduces the size and number of cables required compared to today’s machine vision standards, and still delivers 15m transmission distances.

Figure 1: (above) Topology of HSLink from a Camera perspective   Figure 2: Topology of HSLink from a Framegrabber perspective

As seen in both diagrams, the HSLink IP Core takes in input signals that the machine vision industry understands from the CameraLink standard. On the camera side, the HSLink IP Core takes these inputs and sends them via GMII (Gigabit Media Independent Interface) and/ or NBI (Nine Bit Interface), and ensures guaranteed data delivery. The PHY (SERDES chip) takes the information it receives, serializes it, and transmits it to the framegrabber via cabling. Depending upon the camera bandwidth the PHY sends the information in three potential formats named by the subcommittee as NBILink, GMIILink and MixedLink. Each format has its own associated cabling and protocol

Adept Electronic Solutions are "The Machine Vision and Imaging Specialists" and distributor of DALSA products in Australia and New Zealand. To find out more about any DALSA machine vision product please email us at: adept@adept.net.au or call us at Perth (08) 92425411 / Sydney (02) 99792599 / Melbourne (03) 95555621 or use our online contact us page.