CoaXPress (CXP) is a digital interface standard capable of sending video, control, communication, triggering and power at high speeds over a single standard coax cable. With CoaXPress, a camera can be connected to the host system using just one standard coax cable or multiples for greater bandwidth. Version 1.0 (2013) stated that the maximum high speed downlink was 6.25Gbps (CXP-6) per cable for video, images and data, plus a lower speed, 20Mbps uplink for communications and control. Power is also available over the cable (“Power-over-Coax”). CoaXPress enables lengths up to and over 100 meters with standard and high flex coax cable.
In June 2019 Version 2.0 of the standard was released which stated a key aim of CoaXPress is to support the fastest cameras on the market. CoaXPress v2.0 adds two additional speeds – 10 Gbps (CXP-10) and 12.5 Gbps (CXP-12). This doubles the cable bandwidth, so for example a 4-core cable can provide 4 GBytes/sec of data continuously and reliably from camera to frame grabber.
CoaXPress combines the elegant simplicity of coaxial cable with state of the art high speed serial data technology. The combination of these two highly desirable features – standard coaxial cable and “express” speed – provides a revolutionary leap forward in high speed image and data transmission.
- Long Cable Lengths: In excess of 100m (without any hubs, repeaters etc.).
- Real time behavior through fixed, low latency.
- Precise triggering capability.
- Flexible and reliable through use of standard coax – e.g. RG59 and RG6.
- Ease of integration: video, communication, control and power over a single coax cable.
- Cost effective cable solution.
- Hot pluggable.
The current v2.0 version of the CoaXPress standard was released in June 2019, and includes the following key enhancements in relation to the previous version v1.1.1 (Dec 2015):
- Speed: A key aim of CoaXPress is to support the fastest cameras on the market. CoaXPress v2.0 adds two additional speeds – 10 Gbps (CXP-10) and 12.5 Gbps (CXP-12). This doubles the cable bandwidth, so for example a 4-core cable can provide 4 GBytes/sec of data continuously and reliably from camera to frame grabber.
- Multi-destination: To allow for even faster cameras, v2.0 allows a single camera to send data to more than one frame grabber, which could be in different PCs.
- Uplink Speed: The uplink speed is also doubled for CXP-10 and CXP-12, so allowing trigger rates over 500kHz without requiring a dedicated high speed uplink cable.
- GenICam: Support for the industry standard GenICam is further enhanced by the addition of GenICam-compliant event packets. This allows the camera to signal events to the PC. Support will be added for 3D-data formats that have been recently added to GenICam.
- Micro-BNC: A new connector type, the Micro-BNC, is added. It is compact and robust, while also supporting CXP-10 and CXP-12 speeds.
CoaXPress Products: