• Streaming with four simultaneous video digitizers
  Picolo Tetra is able to simultaneously digitize four video signals and to send the resulting digital data in real time into the PC memory through the PCI bus. The video streams issued from four cameras are displayed and/or recorded in parallel.
• Video image formats
  Picolo Tetra supports the acquisition of full resolution images or any smaller-size format , such as SIF. Acquisition of full frame (two fields) or single field images is selectable. Individual fields or frames as well as video sequences are captured directly to the PC memory. Picolo Tetra ensures an excellent fidelity of the grabbed bitmap in respect of the original video signal.
• Quick switching
  Adding three Video Expansion Brackets , Picolo Tetra provides the four digitizers with sixteen inputs. This maximum configuration leads to a 16-camera system . The four digitizers of the Tetra board are switched between theses inputs at a very high frame rate .

  NTSC configuration	4 cameras	8 cameras	12 cameras	16 cameras
  Fields / Frames per second (per camera)	60 / 30	8.6 / 7.5	6 / 4.3	4.6 / 3.3
  Fields / Frames per second (per Tetra)	240 / 240	69 / 54	72 / 55	74 / 56

  PAL configuration	4 cameras	8 cameras	12 cameras	16 cameras
  Fields / Frames per second (per camera)	50 / 25	7.1 / 5.6	5 / 3.8	3.8 / 2.9
  Fields / Frames per second (per Tetra)	200 / 200	57 / 45	60 / 46	61 / 47

  
  
• Composite video inputs
  
• industrial BNC connectors
  
• 64Bit / 66MHz PCi Bus 3V und 5V
  The Picolo Tetra bus capability is 64 bits at 66 MHz making this capture board compatible with the most recent PC architectures . This wide PCI bus supports a peak data transfer rate of 528 Mbytes/s . Picolo Tetra is compatible with conventional PCI architecture, including 32 bits and 33 MHz . Signaling voltage compliance is 3V or 5V for maximum for maximum versatility.
• Maximizing performance
  With a top performance 64-bit 66 MHz PCI bus, Picolo Tetra is able to simultaneously acquire full size video images in real time. System consideration may lead to functional trade-off. In order to reach the targeted performance, the user will consider downsizing images (SIF or CIF), operating in parallel of less than four digitizers or tailoring the bitmap image format. In particular, YCrCb 4:2:2 and RGB16 formats are highly recommended.
• Expandable architecture
  
  Video Expansion Bracket as input.
  Picolo Tetra is designed to receive up to three video input modules fitted each with four BNC connectors leading to a maximum configuration of sixteen connected cameras.
  
  NEW  Video Expansion Bracket 12 as input.
  As an alternative, Picolo Tetra can reveive one Video Expansion Bracket 12. It offers twelve video inputs through one DB25 connector. The maximum configuration of sixteen connected cameras is achieved with one Video Expansion Bracket 12.
  The spider cable is the recommended way to connect the 12 BNC video inputs to the DB25 connector. It is provided with each Video Expansion Bracket 12.
  
  Video Expansion Bracket as output.
  Four buffered video outputs are offered on an additional four- BNC module as an alternative to loop-through connecting the video sources.
  These video signals represent the image applied to each internal video color digitizer. Bild skalierbar (bis 1:16) bei Aufnahme (SIF und CIF Support)
• MIO compatible
  Each MIO module adds four optically isolated inputs and four relay outputs. A maximum of twenty isolated inputs and twenty isolated outputs is achieved with five MIO modules.

• On-board TTL I/O lines
  TTL I/O lines are provided for easing system integration. An internal 16-pin header connector provides 13 general purpose input / output TTL lines usable for triggering image capture and interfacing to alarm system. This connector is pin to pin compatible with the Picolo Pro 2 solution.
• DIP-Switch
  Picolo Tetra and the Video Extension Brackets are equipped with a dip-switch to conveniently enable the 75 ohms termination resistors from outside the PC.
• Watchdog
  A hardware watchdog is available on Picolo Tetra. Its purpose is to monitor the software application and to restart the PC after an anomalous inactivity time-out. This ensures a reliable operation of unattended systems. This watchdog implementation is identical to the Picolo Pro 3 solution.
• Bus mastering
Bus mastering:
All Euresys frame grabbers are PCI bus mastering agents that directly store the acquired images into the PC physical memory without CPU involvement. As a unique feature, the EureCard automatically recovers the scatter-gather virtual memory mapping to present the data as a regular bitmap image in a user allocated memory buffer.
• Supported by
• MultiCam Driver for Windows and Linux

  MultiCam Driver:
  The Multicam driver enables the consistent control of several Euresys frame grabbers, using an arbitrary number of cameras, from one or several software applications. Multicam allows defining channels linking cameras to buffers in the PC memory. The Multicam channel identifies all parameters ruling the acquisition process from a camera. Every camera feature, such as its type, resolution or image format, is described and controlled through simple parameters, considerably easing the camera control task. For each channel-controlled camera, a set of dedicated parameters is created from a CAM file. Euresys delivers pre-defined files for many popular cameras; still the user can customize its CAM file. MultiCam complies with most development enviroments like MS Visual C++, Borland C++ Builder, Delphi and Active X.
  Linux is also supported.

• EasyMultiCam C++

  EasyMultiCam:
  Offered as a part of the eVision tools suite, EasyMulticam is a set of powerful C++ classes embedding the whole MultiCam functionality. The object oriented eVision functions define image containers suitable for image processing and analysis. The image objects inherit acquisition methods from EasyMultiCam. Implementing the image capture code into a machine vision application is now straightforward.
  

• per PC more than one card can be used

Click below for an information request about the Picolo-series (includes all PICOLO boards). If you prefer, it can be sent to you by email directly.

I'm interested in information about the Picolo-series. Please send me: 

Picolo-series brochure	by email (1,4 MB)
Application notes:
The following Picolo-Tetra Application notes can be requested by email: Internal Video-bandwidths for various resolutions (170kB)