ALLIED Vision Technologies Pike F-1600 - Manual (Page 35)

FireWire
PIKE Technical Manual V5.1.2
35
Why use FireWire?
Digital cameras with on-board FireWire (IEEE 1394a or 1394b) communications
conforming to the IIDC standard (V1.3 or V1.31) have created cost-effective and
powerful solutions options being used for thousands of different applications
around the world. FireWire is a robust digital interface for industrial applica-
tions for many reasons, including:
• Guaranteed bandwidth features to ensure fail-safe communications
• Interoperability with multiple different camera types and vendors
• Diverse camera powering options, including single-cable solutions up to
45 W
• Effective multiple-camera solutions
• Large variety of FireWire accessories for industrial applications
• Availability of repeaters and optical fibre cabling
• Forwards and backward compatibility blending 1394a and 1394b
• Both real-time (isochronous) and demand-driven asynchronous data
transmission capabilities
FireWire in detail
Serial bus
Briefly summarized, FireWire is a very effective way to utilize a low-cost serial
bus, through a standardized communications protocol, that establishes pack-
etized data transfer between two or more devices. FireWire offers real time iso-
chronous bandwidth for image transfer with guaranteed low latency. It also
offers asynchronous data transfer for controlling camera parameters, such as
gain and shutter, on the fly. As illustrated in the diagram below, these two
modes can co-exist by using priority time slots for video data transfer and the
remaining time slots for control data transfer.