BitFlow Announces Integration of NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin Module with its Cyton and Claxon CoaXPress Frame Grabbers

Orin with Claxon FXP4

WOBURN, MA, APRIL 9, 2024 — BitFlow announced today that it has successfully integrated the unprecedented computing power of the NVIDIA® Jetson AGX Orin module, which can perform 275 trillion operations per second (TOPS), with the lightning-fast data rates of its CoaXPress (CXP) frame grabbers.

When combined with the NVIDIA AGX Orin Developer Kit, this cost-effective platform empowers engineers to prototype complex machine vision and autonomous inspection applications, leveraging AI accelerated image processing while simultaneously supporting up to four CoaXPress (CXP) cameras and multiple concurrent AI application pipelines. Groundbreaking new applications are more easily developed that augment rule-based machine vision with image-based analysis, making it possible to move beyond “pass/fail” to tasks like image classification, image segmentation, and object detection.

Once proof-of-concept is established, a production model can move forward utilizing an Advantech AIR-030 AI Inference System Box featuring PCI Express x16 and based on the NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin. As a result of this innovation, Time to Market and associated development costs are significantly reduced.

50GB DATA TRANSFER
BitFlow CXP frame grabbers connect directly to the Jetson AGX Orin via a built-in x16 PCIe slot. Image data may then be transferred at speeds up to 50GB per second from CXP cameras to the NVIDIA Ampere GPU architecture — much faster than what NVIDIA Jetson users are typically limited to using USB3 or GigE Vision cameras. BitFlow CXP frame grabbers DMA directly into the embedded GPU memory for image capture, pre-processing, and machine learning inference, shifting the load from the host computer to avoid CPU overhead.

Besides faster transfer speeds, the CoaXPress interface allows a single cable to carry all data, control, triggering, and up to 13W of power to connected cameras at lengths as far as 100 meters. CoaXPress eliminates the need for multiple cables and a local power supply, therefore giving the system integrator far more flexibility for their prototype designs.

Seamless integration between the NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin and BitFlow frame grabbers is achieved through BitFlow’s Linux AArch64 SDK. With the SDK being universal, not only is BitFlow’s full line of CXP frame grabbers (Cyton and Claxon families) supported, but additionally the BitFlow Axion Camera Link family is an option for customers.

BitFlow Introduces SDK for NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier Development Kit

Jetson with a Claxon

BitFlow has released a Linux AArch64 (64-bit ARM) SDK that enables seamless integration of BitFlow frame grabbers with the NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier Development Kit. 

Donal Waide, Director of Sales for BitFlow, states, “Many of our customers are already using GPU solutions such as NVIDIA for image processing so adding this option to the already large BitFlow suite of adapters was a natural progression for the company. BitFlow has been supporting Linux for several years across a variety of flavors.”

Added Waide, “BitFlow was one of the first frame grabber companies to support NVIDIA’s GPUDirect for Video technology. BitFlow and NVIDIA have worked together for a number of years already.” 

With the advent of the new machine vision standard CXP 2.0 where data rates are now up to 50 Gb/S, customers are looking to process more and more data and in shorter timeframes. For this, a GPU can typically perform these tasks much more effectively than a CPU. Even with slower data rates such as Camera Link’s (up to 850 MB/S) the ability to quickly process more complex algorithms is equally important. 

The NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier is the first computer designed specifically for autonomous machines. It has six Engines onboard for accelerated sensors data processing and running autonomous machines software, and offers the performance and power efficiency for fully autonomous machines.