areaDetector driver for BitFlow frame grabbers

[Mark Rivers via Tech-talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>]

Folks,

 

I am about to embark on writing a new areaDetector driver that will support CoaXPress and CameraLink frame grabbers from BitFlow (https://www.bitflow.com/).

 

I am writing to see if anyone else has already developed an areaDetector driver for BitFlow frame grabbers?

 

My initial target is a Mikrotron EoSens 2.0 CXP2 CoaXPress camera.  It is 1920x1080 pixels with a maximum frame rate of 2247 frames/s.  It uses 4 lanes each running at 12.5 Gbps.

 

These are my current plans for the implementation:

• Use the BitFlow SDK API for streaming, rather than the generic GenTL API which they also support.  The reason is that they claim the BitFlow API has much better performance. 
• Use the BitFlow BFGTLUtil API for GenICam feature access, rather than the native GenICam API.  The reason is that it is much simpler and easier to use.
• Implement the driver on both Linux and Windows.  Their SDK APIs are similar but not identical on Linux and Windows.

 

Mark