Do you operate your camera with your individual know-how?

To combine experience, quality and the unlimited freedom to implement your personal expertise directly in the camera in the form of algorithms - that's the aim of the new 'Open Hardware Concept' from Framos.

In contrast to existing camera families, which are primarily aimed at standardisation, the new 'Open Hardware Concept' from Pullach is engineered for maximum individualisation. "We have expanded our proven VF family with the 'Open Hardware Concept'," says Jens Kellermann, Senior Project Manager at Framos GmbH, "because we are convinced that maximum application quality and efficiency result from the immediate availability of the customer's know-how in the camera."

While FPGAs have so far performed functions such as sensor parameterisation and interfacing, the expansion of the VF platform with the optional processing board now makes it possible for the user to carry out extensive image processing in near real time, directly on the camera.

The basis of the platform is a Xilinx Spartan 6 (LX45T) FPGA with 128MB DDR2 memory. Both are delivered in an unprogrammed condition, and can be used by the customer as required and programmed via JTAG or SDK (camera interface).

Unlimited development of the FPGA design can take place in the proven development environments made available by the FPGA manufacturer Xilinx.

An optional adapter is available for designs that require the use of a development board from Xilinx. The standardised interface makes it possible to connect all board variants of the VFx platform with the development board from Xilinx.

This is where the decisive improvement lies: "While the processing board is fully available to the user, the basic functions expected of a camera, such as sensor parameterisation and interfacing, remain unaffected. Adjustments or compromises with the settings on the part of the camera manufacturer are no longer required," says Kellermann.

The design principle is incredibly simple: A third board holding the freely programmable FGPA can be placed between the sensor as a frontend and the interface as a backend.

This concept enables customers to take a modular approach to developing their investment. Starting from one of the proven VF cameras, they can expand the capacities and features in stages by inserting processing boards. This also ensures that the same software can be used for all applications within a company for the ongoing avoidance of system errors and faults.

As part of its heavily expanded engineering services, Framos also offers you comprehensive support for the System-on-a-Chip (SoC) and FPGA development. Customers have access to expert support at all times - in all matters pertaining to FGPA-based image processing solutions (for FPGA manufactured by Xilinx and Altera) and for the use of embedded processors (based on Linux and Windows), as well as for the design, integration, implementation, evaluation and optimisation of the overall system. In addition to the support provided within the scope of a specific project. FRAMOS also offers staffing capacities to temporarily strengthen your team, right on your own premises (currently only available within Germany). FRAMOS also offers you these services within the scope of its new partnership with Silicon Software, and supports you with the implementation of projects based on VisualApplets technology that run on Pleora hardware.

The 'Open Hardware Concept' will be available to you from the beginning of 2012 under the name VFx-P.