CamExpress - one more standard in the future?

UPDATE: You can check XIMEA PCI Express cameras HERE

Amazing 20Gbps, directly to the PC memory.

Do not worry, we are not going to bother you with yet one more interface/protocol/standard for delivering data from sensor to the PC.

It is just the other way around - there are several things less:

1. it is protocol less
2. it is framegrabber less

Imagine that data from your sensor appears inside your computer memory with zero effort from the CPU. 

What if the functionality of the framegrabber is migrated to the camera?

Well, that means that processor's local bus needs to be extended to reach the camera. Bingo! It is simply PCI Express cable environment.

How is that suppose to work?

In order to achieve reasonable distance it is necessary to put ReDriver (e.g. Pericom Semiconductor).

This was successfully tested with high-speed differential cable up to 10 meters, and with regular CAT5e/CAT6 up to 5 meters.

Advantages:

• no frame buffer storage
• lowest possible latency
• transparent synchronization and bidirectional communication with camera infrastructure
• PCI express ensures reliable data delivery and retransmit

True "zero copy paradigm" becomes reality - image data never stored or repacked before the final destination.

Moreover, image data becomes available for image processing application few nanoseconds later after leaving the ADC.

Near term progress is guaranteed with PCIe 2.0 (5Gbps) and PCIe 3.0 (8Gbps) per lane.

If you managed to read till this line, most probably you have something to say about it and here is the link to forum.