NI Releases PCI Express Frame Grabbers For Every Major Camera Standard


New Boards Support IEEE 1394b, GigE Vision and Camera Link Cameras

AUSTIN, Texas - Oct. 31, 2006 - National Instruments (Nasdaq: NATI) today announced that it has expanded its digital camera support with the release of three new PCI Express-based frame grabbers. With the new NI PCIe-8255R, NI PCIe-8231 and NI PCIe-1427 frame grabbers, National Instruments now offers support for every major digital camera bus, including IEEE 1394b, Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) Vision and Camera Link. National Instruments is the only vision component provider to offer PCI Express hardware for all three major buses.

The NI PCIe-8255R frame grabber is an IEEE 1394 interface device that can acquire from both IEEE 1394a and IEEE 1394b cameras. The NI PCIe-8255R frame grabber features NI reconfigurable I/O technology, which combines an IEEE 1394 host adapter with the digital I/O required for industrial control and communication. In general, the IEEE 1394 standard gives engineers a simple, single-cable interface between a camera and a PC. It is ideal for applications requiring higher bandwidth as well as ease of use and stability, such as industrial inspection and machine vision.

"NI offers some of the industry's best image acquisition products," said Malcolm Steenburgh, director of Point Grey Research. "The new NI PCIe-8255R frame grabber integrates seamlessly with Point Grey's Flea2 29 by 29 by 30 mm DEEE 1394b camera."

The GigE Vision standard provides high data rates, long cable lengths and low-cost cabling. With the NI PCIe-8231 frame grabber and included NI software, engineers can acquire images from more than 100 m away while using only a fraction of the computer's CPU, leaving essential processing power available for complex machine vision algorithms. GigE Vision technology, compatible with standard Gigabit Ethernet cables, is an attractive interface option for security and monitoring applications.

The NI PCIe-1427 frame grabber provides low-cost image acquisition for base configuration Camera Link cameras. It offers bandwidth up to 225 MB/s and built-in industrial digital I/O, including isolation for industrial communication and encoder inputs for synchronizing motion with vision. Camera Link cameras are ideal for applications that require a large amount of data throughput, such as line-scan applications and color imaging.

Each frame grabber includes NI Vision Acquisition software, a single interface for acquiring, saving and displaying images from industrial cameras. This software is also included in both NI image processing packages, the NI Vision Development Module and NI Vision Builder for Automated Inspection.

About National Instruments
For 30 years, National Instruments (www.ni.com) has been a technology pioneer and leader in virtual instrumentation - a revolutionary concept that has changed the way engineers and scientists in industry, government and academia approach measurement and automation. Leveraging PCs and commercial technologies, virtual instrumentation increases productivity and lowers costs for test, control and design applications through easy-to-integrate software, such as NI LabVIEW, and modular measurement and control hardware for PXI, PXI Express, PCI, PCI Express, USB and Ethernet. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 4,000 employees and direct operations in nearly 40 countries. For the past seven years, FORTUNE magazine has named NI one of the 100 best companies to work for in America. Readers can obtain investment information from the company's investor relations department by calling (512) 683-5090, e-mailing nati@ni.com or visiting http://www.ni.com/nati.

Pricing and Contact Information
NI PCIe-8255R, NI PCIe-8231 and NI PCIe-1427 frame grabbers
11500 N Mopac Expwy, Austin, Texas 78759-3504
Tel: (800) 258-7022, Fax: (512) 683-9300
Web: www.ni.com/vision E-mail: info@ni.com

NI PCIe-8255R priced from $999; 950; ¥13,4000
NI PCIe-8231 priced from $499; 475; ¥6,7000
NI PCIe-1427 priced from $899; 855; ¥12,0000

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