Point Grey Camera Becomes World's First USB 3.0 Product
USB 3.0 is here. Or, it might as well be, as Point Grey is already announcing that it'll have a finalized product on display at this week's Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco. Officially, the USB-IF has yet to announce that any USB 3.0 products are on the chopping block, but considering just how long the protocol has been in the works, we wouldn't be surprised to see Point Grey joined by a host of other outfits with USB 3.0 reveals later this week.
Though, it's somewhat unique that Point Grey, in a sense, has the planet's first USB 3.0 product that's not simply a demonstration. According to the company, it has worked with Fresco Logic to unveil a digital video camera that can take advantage of SuperSpeed USB's increased speed limit. Equipped with a Sony HD image sensor, the camera will utilize aa USB 3.0 host controller from Fresco Logic on an ASUS P7P55D platform, showing onlookers at the show how it can stream uncompressed High Definition (HD) 1080p60 video over USB 3.0.
Unfortunately, the outfit has yet to make clear when the device will actually ship (and for how much), but we guess we need USB 3.0 expansion cards and/or integrated ports into PCs before we start worrying over that. After all, a USB 3.0 camera isn't much good with six USB 2.0 ports on your machine.
Though, it's somewhat unique that Point Grey, in a sense, has the planet's first USB 3.0 product that's not simply a demonstration. According to the company, it has worked with Fresco Logic to unveil a digital video camera that can take advantage of SuperSpeed USB's increased speed limit. Equipped with a Sony HD image sensor, the camera will utilize aa USB 3.0 host controller from Fresco Logic on an ASUS P7P55D platform, showing onlookers at the show how it can stream uncompressed High Definition (HD) 1080p60 video over USB 3.0.
The prototype camera is designed and manufactured by Point Grey and uses the new 3 megapixel (MP) Sony IMX036 CMOS image sensor, which features high sensitivity, superior color fidelity, low power, and no smear. The sensor also supports an HD 1080p60 mode, which allows the camera to output raw, uncompressed 1920 x 1080 pixel images at 60 frames per second (FPS). Point Grey’s own software driver provides low-level control of the camera via the USB 3.0 bus. The camera is connected to a USB 3.0 interface card on the host side which is powered by the FL1000, a PCI Express to SuperSpeed USB Extensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) host controller chip from Fresco Logic. The host PC uses an Intel i5-based P7P55D motherboard from ASUS.
Unfortunately, the outfit has yet to make clear when the device will actually ship (and for how much), but we guess we need USB 3.0 expansion cards and/or integrated ports into PCs before we start worrying over that. After all, a USB 3.0 camera isn't much good with six USB 2.0 ports on your machine.
