GigEVision support

[Greg KH]

On Wed, Jul 08, 2009 at 05:50:38PM +0200, Falco Hirschenberger wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I think Linux can really benefit from an open kernel-based GigEVision 
> driver.
> 
> GigEVision[1] is a proprietary closed standard for controlling 
> high-quality video cameras over gigabit-ethernet. These cameras are 
> often used in industrial vision software. This driver can be a great 
> benefit for the industrial vision industry, because using small embedded 
> Linux systems is in the trend there.
> 
> Some manufacturers provide closed-source drivers for Linux because of 
> the NDA which they signed at the AIA (Automated Imaging Association).
> [2], [3]
> Some provide no drivers but I think these cameras will work with a 
> generic driver because they have to implement the standard to get certified.
> 
> I have written a proof-of-concept userlevel driver by means of sniffing 
> and reverse-engineering, but some features are missing and I think I 
> will need some help to implement the rest. Btw. a kernel driver would 
> perform a lot better.

Why would it perform better?  You can send/receive ethernet packets just
as fast from userspace as from within the kernel, right?

Or are you referring to the fact that the device should show up as a
proper v4l2 device to userspace, and not need a custom userspace program
interface?

> I hope this list is the correct place for this suggestion, feel free to 
> forward it to another place.

It's a good place, hopefully people who wish to help out with this will
contact you.

But note, without specs, this will be a lot of work :)

good luck,

greg k-h