May 9, 1995, Robots and Vision, Detroit, Michigan – Today Matrox announced Matrox Pulsar, the first PCI frame grabber that captures from standard and non-standard cameras at up to 45 MHz, provides real-time transfers, has 4 Megabytes of on-board memory and an integrated display of 1600 x 1200 - all at an unprecedented price. The Matrox Pulsar is targeted at OEMs and integrators in machine vision, image analysis and medical imaging.

As an imaging board vendor, Matrox is able to provide this unprecedented price/performance level because of its unique position in the industry: Matrox Graphics Inc. (MGI) is the leader in PC graphics hardware. Situated at the cutting edge of PC technology, Matrox has a head start in implementing technological advances into new imaging designs. This enables Matrox to lead the way in offering lower-priced imaging products.

The Matrox Pulsar uses the latest in inexpensive highly-integrated off-the-shelf components. For example, the board features high-performance graphics, based on the MGA2064W chip and WRAM. The MGA2064W was just recently introduced by MGI on April 24, 1995, as the world's fastest graphics processor; and WRAM is the latest in display memory technology. Dual-ported WRAM is 50% faster and 20% cheaper than the fastest types of VRAM (popular type of memory for imaging boards). The Matrox Pulsar's Video-to-PCI interface is another off-the-shelf component, the Philips SAA7116, which provides direct connection to PCI for video sources. By using the most advanced, yet low-cost, off-the-shelf components, Matrox can pass on cost savings to customers.

The Matrox Pulsar grabs from non-standard video sources such as high resolution frame scan cameras at resolutions up to 1K x 1K x 8 bits at 30 frames per second or the equivalent. The board digitizes 8-bit data at up to 45 MHz or 10-bit data at up to 30 MHz. Up to 4 input channels are available for interfacing to multiple cameras. For digital acquisition, the Matrox Pulsar comes standard with 16-bit TTL data interface; an optional module is available for RS-422 data. It also features software programmable input gain, offset, and references; as well as synchronization and control; an external trigger, and exposure control.

The Matrox Pulsar is capable of sustaining transfer rates of up to 60 MB/sec between the acquisition section and the display section or the host PCI system. The MGA-based integrated display supports resolutions at up to 1600 x 1200 and comes with separate image and overlay frame buffers of 2 MB each. The overlay frame buffer enables non-destructive overlay of text and graphics onto the contents of the image buffer.

Some of the board's specific features will be especially attractive to developers of vision systems, namely vertically resetable triggered acquisition (to handle camera exposure timing issues), high-rate capture (for high-speed inspection systems) and real-time transfer to system memory (for immediate access by the host). Developers of image analysis and medical imaging applications will especially appreciate the 10-bit digitization (for low-contrast images), high resolution capture (to handle a large field of view with fine detail), and non-destructive overlay (to annotate images).

The Matrox Pulsar comes with a 'C' development library for acquisition, transfer, and display control. An extensive 32-bit library, MIL-32 sold separately. MIL-32 has commands for image processing, blob analysis, pattern matching, gauging, and OCR (optional). The Matrox Pulsar and MIL-32 is a powerful combination for developing cost-effective applications. MIL-32 executes operations at speeds which rival the performance of competing dedicated hardware. MIL-32 was also announced today by Matrox (see separate news release).

Since 1976, Matrox has been a leading designer and manufacturer of board-level solutions for the graphics, video, and imaging industries.

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