HawkEye-CL:

Camera Link Frame Grabber

Camera Link Frame Grabber & Image Processing System

Supporting modes: Base, Medium, Full, 80-bit (Deca) | Dual-Base
Ideal for Recording & Streaming solutions
Inline FPGA image processing options include:
- Real-time detection for object, event, or feature identification
- On-FPGA real-time compression: JPEG, Lossless, Quality+
- Real-time High Dynamic Range (HDR) correction
Supports 100+ synchronized CL cameras using InfiniVision
Memory: up to 17 GB
Form factor: full-height, single-slot, half-length PCI Express card
Optional: Low Profile

High-Performance Frame Grabber for Camera Link Cameras

The HawkEye-CL is a high-performance Camera Link frame grabber designed for real-time acquisition and FPGA-based image processing in demanding vision systems. Powered by the Altera Arria 10 FPGA, it is fully compliant with Camera Link Rev. 2.0 and supports Camera Link 80-bit (Deca) acquisition with up to 17 GB of on-board memory and PCIe Gen3 x8 host connectivity. As a result, it delivers industry-leading bandwidth and reliability for applications where speed and precision are critical.

Camera Link Acquisition with Real-Time FPGA Image Processing

The HawkEye-CL is available as a plug-and-play CL frame grabber or as part of a complete imaging & vision system with real-time FPGA preprocessing, image enhancement, and compression options.

The built-in FPGA can process image data during acquisition, before it reaches the host PC. This helps reduce bandwidth, storage, and host processing load while preserving low-latency performance for high-speed camera streams.

Optional FPGA processing includes Compression, HDR correction, Detection, and additional image enhancement modules.

Real-Time FPGA Processing Helps Enable:

Reduced bandwidth for high-throughput image acquisition
Low-latency processing directly in the acquisition flow
Extended recording time through real-time compression
Lower host processing load by offloading selected tasks to the FPGA
Custom image pipelines using Gidel IPs or user FPGA logic

For the full list of available image processing and enhancement options, please refer to the Options tab.

Flexible Operating Modes

The HawkEye-CL supports two operating modes selectable via firmware:

InfiniVision: Ideal for synchronized multi-camera setups, combining all camera data, including data acquired across multiple cards, into a single buffer with support for dynamic resolutions and formats.
ProcFG: Tailored for precision applications, offering fixed frame sizes, pixel formats, and uncompressed ROI grabbing.

As a result, the HawkEye-CL adapts to diverse workflows, supporting both complex multi-camera systems and streamlined single-camera operations.

InfiniVision: Multi-Camera Acquisition and Synchronization

Built on Gidel’s InfiniVision architecture, the HawkEye-CL addresses key multi-camera challenges, including synchronization, bandwidth, connectivity, and scalability. Its FPGA-based design enables deterministic data handling and real-time preprocessing across demanding Camera Link acquisition workflows.

A PCIe Gen3 x8 host interface provides CPU-free, ultra-fast data transfer, while on-board buffers of up to 17 GB support stable acquisition. As a result, the HawkEye-CL delivers reliable performance in high-speed, high-resolution vision systems.

SDK and Development Tools

The HawkEye-CL is supported by Gidel’s SDK, featuring intuitive GUIs and APIs for streamlined integration. Additionally, the ProcVision Suite adds advanced FPGA programming, debugging, and validation tools, enabling developers to customize data flows, real-time processing, and compression pipelines with ease. Consequently, they can create optimized, application-specific solutions faster and with reduced risk.

Why Choose the HawkEye-CL Frame Grabber?

Camera Link Rev. 2.0 FPGA frame grabber with 80-bit Deca acquisition
Up to 6.8 Gb/s input bandwidth
FPGA architecture for low-latency acquisition, processing, recording, and streaming
Flexible operating modes for multi-camera and precision setups
Advanced SDK and ProcVision Suite for rapid development and integration
Optional real-time FPGA processing, image enhancement, and compression IPs

The HawkEye-CL is the ideal choice when your workload requires high-speed Camera Link acquisition, low-latency FPGA processing, and reliable image transfer to a host PC.

General

Protocol

Camera Link 2.0

Camera Input Options

Deca, Full, Medium, or Base
Dual Base
Optional PoCL support

Camera Input Connectors

2 × SDR26
(mini-Camera Link)

Additional Connectors

JTAG
VGA15-pin for connecting GPIO's to the bracket

Advanced ROI feature

On-the -fly selective ROI acquisition

Image Formats

Mono, Bayer, RGBA (8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 bits/color)
RGB (8, 10 and 12 bits/color)

Max. Resolution

Horizontal: 16 K pixels (64-bit)
Vertical: 65 K lines

Tap Configuration

All configurations as defined by the Camera Link standard, including 80-bit (Deca): 10 taps/8bits, 8bits/10taps.

Maximum Acquisition Throughput

6.8 Gb/s

Real-Time FPGA Image Compression

Supports optional FPGA-based compression options.
For the full list, please refer to the Options tab.

Real-Time FPGA Image Processing & Enhancements

Supports optional FPGA image processing and enhancement modules.
For the full list, please refer to the Options tab.

Compression & Image Enhancements

Compression Options:

Image Enhancements Options:

High Dynamic Range (HDR) correction

For more modular image-processing options - Contact Us

Pixel Clock

Up to 85 MHz

Host Bus

PCIe x8 Gen. 3

On Board Memory

Up to 17 GB

Camera Types

Area
Line Scan

Form Factor

Full-height, single-slot, half-length PCIe card

GPIO

GPIO #1:

4 × RS422 INPUTS
Optional input clk
1 × Optocoupler input

GPIO #2:

1 × RS422 INPUTS
2 × Opto-coupler inputs
2 × 3-30V @ 0.8A outputs
LVTTL IO
12V/1A power supply

GPIO #3: (for board-to-board connection):

12 × LVTTL IO (5V TTL tolerant)

Power

5-32W: Depends on user application and FPGA Type

Cooling

Passive cooling
Active cooling (Fan)

MTBF

Passive colling: 1.7M hours
Active colling: 350K

Environmental conditions

Temperature

Operating ambient air temperature: 0 – 55° C

Humidity

Continuous Operation: 10 - 80% (non-condensing)
Peak Operation: 10 - 90% (non-condensing)

Environmental Compliance

Real-Time FPGA Image Compression

Real-Time FPGA Image Processing & Enhancements

HDR Correction – High Dynamic Range correction from a single exposure
Detection – Enables real-time object, event, or feature detection at the acquisition stage
Chromatic Aberration Correction – Reduces color fringing caused by optical misalignment
Dynamic Luminance Balance – Preserves consistent brightness under changing illumination
White Balance – Maintains color accuracy across variable lighting conditions
NUC – Non-uniformity correction for improving sensor response consistency
BPR – Bad pixel replacement for correcting defective or unstable pixels
Morphological operations – Open/Close operations using a round structuring element

User FPGA code

Users can integrate their own FPGA code alongside Gidel IPs.

For more information, refer to the FPGA Processing tab

Form Factor

Low profile (Comes without the IO connector)

The HawkEye-CL Frame Grabber is a highly modular solution, designed to be tailored to meet unique application requirements.

Looking to adapt the HawkEye-CL to match your vision?

Gidel FPGA flow can integrate advanced image processing algorithms, including:

Contact Our Experts

The HawkEye-CL frame grabber offers two powerful customization paths to meet specific application requirements:

Pre-Configured FPGA Features
Gidel develops a range of pre-embedded modules tailored to your specifications, including real-time compression, image processing, and enhancement options.
For the full list of image processing and enhancements, please refer to the Options tab.
User-Level FPGA Customization
Leverage Gidel’s development tools and IP libraries to integrate your proprietary FPGA logic and extend the system’s capabilities for acquisition, image processing, and control.

The Gidel ProcVision Suite delivers a complete toolchain for advanced user-level FPGA customization of the data flow, image pipeline, image processing, and more, ensuring optimal performance for your vision or imaging application.

Gidel can also integrate customer algorithms into the FPGA or develop custom FPGA logic according to specific application requirements.

HawkEye-CL: FPGA resources comparison

Model	HawkEye-CL-48	HawkEye-CL-16
FPGA	Arria 10-480-3	Arria 10-160-2
FPGA-ALM	182K	61K
FPGA-M20K	1,438	440
FPGA 18 x 19	2,736	312
Peripheral Memory:
On Board DRAM capacity	1 GB	1 GB
On Board DRAM sustain bandwidth	5.6 GB/s	6.4 GB/s
SoDIMM capacity	0, 4, 8, 16 GB	-
SoDIMM sustain bandwidth	9.6 GB/s	-

Grabbers SDK

InfiniVision

Designed for acquisition from a large number of cameras (100+), with an option for embedded real-time compression.

ProcFG

Optimized for line-scan camera acquisition, combining ROI-based grabbing with integrated debugging and analysis tools.

Application Interfaces

GUI Applications

InfiniVision
ProcFG
CameraConfig – Camera discovery and configuration
ggvcon – GigE Vision network configuration

APIs

InfiniVision with supporting examples
ProcFG with supporting examples
Gen<i>Cam GenTL producer libraries compatible with C/C++ compilers
InitCam for developing user Gen<i>Cam camera configuration application
GigE for developing camera network communication applications

Software Compatibility

Third-party software

MVTec Halcon machine vision software
Camera control Gen<i>Cam based application

Operation Systems supported

Windows 11
Windows 10
Windows Server 2022
Windows Server 2019
Windows Server 2016
Linux (kernel 2.6.x- 6.12)

Please note: Linux version doesn’t include the ProcFG/InfiniVision GUI, just the API.

Name	Description	Type	Size
HawkEye-CL	Datasheet	PDF	377.1 KB
HawkEye-CL	Block diagram	PNG	34.2 KB

Reuven Weintraub, founder and CTO of Gidel, reveals how to unlock exceptional image processing performance by adding FPGA’s processing at Vision Show, Stuttgart 2024.

Gidel frame grabbers and edge computers at the Embedded World show 2024.

Boost your vision! Gidel's high-performance GigE Vision, Camera Link and CoaXPress frame grabbers help overcome bandwidth bottlenecks in high-resolution and/or high-speed computer vision applications.

Gidel presented its FPGA-based architecture capable of processing Giga+ Pixels per second while maintaining exceptionally low power consumption. The session demonstrated how Gidel’s scalable FPGA solutions deliver real-time imaging performance, energy efficiency, and deterministic throughput for advanced vision and imaging systems.

Presented by Reuven Weintraub, this talk highlighted Gidel’s expertise in real-time processing over Gigapixel/s image streams, demonstrating how FPGA-based architectures enable deterministic latency, scalable throughput, and efficient handling of ultra–high-resolution vision data.

Gidel founder and CTO Reuven Weintraub present the performance and versatility of Gidel's GigE Vision, Camera Link and CoaXPress frame grabbers for high-speed image acquisition and pre-processing at the Embedded World 2022 in Nuremberg, Germany.

Gidel demonstrated a complete real-time object tracking pipeline implemented directly on the FPGA-based frame grabber, eliminating host dependency and overcoming PCIe bandwidth limitations. The demo showcased deterministic low-latency processing, highlighting Gidel’s ability to execute full vision workflows on FPGA hardware.

Gidel presented a step-by-step demonstration of its FPGA-based object tracking algorithm, highlighting the internal processing stages and real-time debugging capabilities. The demo illustrated how developers can visualize, analyze, and optimize the complete tracking flow directly on FPGA hardware, enabling faster development and deterministic performance.