Possible to build PC based frame buffer using PCI 6111?

[RickWalton]

I'm considering building a variable scan rate, passive capture frame buffer for Scanning Electron Microscopes. There are no off the shelf frame grabbers that support the clock rates I need and so I'm considering building a line grabber with a DAQ style device and building a frame in PC memory. Has anyone done this. Does the 'setup and run' support of a a PCI-6111 support grabbing video lines in rapid succession and then DMA'ing them out before the next video line comes in? Pixel clock is about 38KHz and 640 samples per line.

[craigherdman]

Rick Walton,

PCI-6111 does indeed support DMA and handles analog input signals. For image acquisition you would probably be better served by NI�s image acquisition hardware (Analog Image Acquisition)

Here are the specs for the PCI-6111 in case you want to investigate its capabilities further. If you have any other questions please post back! Good luck!

Craig H.
National Instruments

[RickWalton]

I've already looked at the standard analog video acquisition products and they do not provide enough flexibility for the kind of acquisition I need to do. I need to provide a variable pixel clock to use in sampling video data. It seems only a DAQ board will have the flexibility I want. I need to know if these boards have programmable sampling rates that can range in reasonable increments between 30KHz and 1.25MHz.

[craigherdman]

Rick Walton,

I noticed that I failed to post the link to the product spec page for the PCI-6111 (it can be found here).

The PCI-6111 can handle sampling rates up to a maximum of 5MS/s (see NI PCI-6111 User Manual).
The sampling rates are indeed programmable at your desired range.

If you have any further questions please post back. You can also look at the NI PCI-6111 page for specific pricing and purchasing inquiries.

Craig H.
National Instruments