User manual

Small Vision System User Manual 8
1.3 Hardware and Software Requirements
The SVS libraries exist for most Unix systems, as well as MS Windows 95/98/ME/2000/NT; that is,
on the most common computer platforms available. We have spent considerable effort in optimizing SVS
for PCs using the MMX instruction set (Pentium MMX and Pentium II, III, IV), and it will perform best on
these platforms, using either Linux or MS Windows. Performance information is in Section 3.7.
1.3.1 Analog Framegrabbers
Because of the ubiquity of PCs, we have added support for several PCI bus video capture devices on
PCs. The following are recommended PC hardware configurations for the SVS with analog cameras.
Operating System Video Capture Card
Linux
Imagenation PCX200
Matrox Meteor and Meteor RGB
Any Bt848-based card (e.g., Intel Smart Video Recorder III)
Windows 95/98/ME
Imagenation PXC200
Matrox Meteor, Meteor RGB, Meteor II
Windows NT, 2000
Imagenation PXC200
Matrox Meteor, Meteor RGB, Meteor II
Table 1-1. Analog Framegrabbers and OS requirements for the Small Vision System.
Unfortunately, as of this time there are no good analog framegrabbers for laptops. The MRT Video
Port Pro is one of the best cards, but it is still slow for input to memory, and does not take advantage of the
32-bit CardBus specification. However, the MEGA-D digital device (see below) does have laptop input
capability.
1.3.2 Digital Framegrabbers
The MEGA-D (STH-MD1) and Dual DCAM (STH-DCAM) are all-digital devices that use the IEEE
1394 (FireWire) bus. Some desktops and laptops have 1394 ports integrated directly into their
motherboards. Otherwise, a standard 1394 PCI board or PCMCIA card can be used. The card must be
OHCI (Open Host Controller Interface) compliant, which almost all boards are.