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MultiCam Boards Documentation > MultiCam Documentation > MultiCam User Guide > The Channel Class > Understanding MultiCam Acquisition Sequences > Switched Acquisition Mode
Switched Acquisition Mode

There can be too few resources in a frame grabber board to simultaneously support more than one camera.

For instance, consider the case of a Gamma board used in the 3-3-0 topology. Two RGB triple-channel can be connected to the board, but there are not enough hardware resources to operate both cameras simultaneously.

Then the frame grabber board operates in the switched mode. The cameras are alternatively time-multiplexed in the best way to satisfy the application needs.

Another way to express the situation is to say that the channels compete for a common grabber. Two channels are created, one for each camera, but only one grabber is available.

The MultiCam system embeds an automatic switching mechanism to attribute the grabber to any channel requesting an acquisition in a programmable fair way. For more details, refer to understanding automatic switching.

It should be understood that the switching operation implies that occasionally a requesting channel will have to wait its turn before the acquisition phase be served by the grabber.