The basic concepts and vocabulary conventions for the MIL digitizers are:
Acquisition path. A path that has the components to digitize or capture a video input signal.
Camera. A generic term to refer to any physical device used for creating image/video data and that can be connected to a frame grabber.
Configurable camera. A generic term to refer to cameras that are configurable using software (for example, a GigE Vision camera or a Camera-Link camera).
Frame grabber. A type of imaging board which can acquire video data from a camera.
Digitizer. The acquisition path(s) with which to grab from one camera of the specified type. When several MIL digitizers are allocated, their device number, along with their digitizer configuration format (DCF), identify if they represent the same path(s) (but perhaps for a different input format) or independent path(s) for simultaneous acquisition.
Data input channel (channel). Identifies which camera to use when several of its type can be connected to the same acquisition path(s) (for example, grab from channel 0 or channel 1 of digitizer 0).
Independent acquisition path. An acquisition path that can, if required, acquire data from an input source independently from another such path on the same frame grabber. Each independent acquisition path has its own digitizing components to manage all video timing and synchronization for the path. When dealing with a network camera, the connection between the camera and the interface board is considered an independent acquisition path.
Interface board. A generic term to refer to the third-party board or chip on the motherboard used to communicate with one or more cameras, for example a Network interface card (NIC) is used to communicate with a GigE Vision-compliant camera.
Imaging board. A generic term to refer to all boards that manipulate video data, including: frame grabbers, vision processors, compression boards, and other specialized boards.
Network camera. A generic term to refer to cameras that connect to an interface board using the network instead of camera-specific cabling.
Timing control unit. A hardware unit (for example, a Programmable Synchronization Generator or PSG) that is responsible for managing all video timing and synchronization signals.
Vision processor. A type of imaging board which can process and analyze image/video data. A vision processor includes a CPU and additional memory.