Matrox GevIQ

Smart network interface cards for efficient high-bandwidth GigE Vision acquisition

Matrox® GevIQ is the industry’s first network interface card (NIC) offering generic GigE Vision® acquisition offload at speeds up to 25 Gigabits/s per port. With GigE Vision packet processing performed directly onboard, Matrox GevIQ boards enable capture from one or more cameras without any image data loss.

GigE Vision is a camera interface standard that delivers rapid image transfer over distances up to 100 m using standard copper, and up to 5,000 m using standard fiber-optic Ethernet cabling. The standard supports physical links from 1 to 25 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE). Use of 10 and 25 GbE by cameras are gaining industry popularity as they are ideal for vision applications requiring the utmost imaging speed and resolution. Machine vision applications requiring cameras with a 10+ GbE interface can, however, be challenging—they benefit from a high data transmission rate but suffer from increased demands on the host system, resulting in corrupted or dropped image frames, and increased processing latency.

Matrox GevIQ NICs provide a more versatile and widely compatible alternative to custom-built or proprietary solutions based on 10+ GbE. The board is equipped with two 25 GbE ports and acquires from these with very little host CPU usage. Multiple 1, 2.5, 5, or 10 GbE cameras can be aggregated at each port for a total of up to 32 input sources. Support of the standard SFP28 connector allows users to select from standard direct attach copper (DAC) or fiber-optic Ethernet cables for their specific installation requirements.