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MultiCam Boards Documentation > MultiCam Documentation > MultiCam User Guide > MultiCam Basics > Acquisition > Cluster Mechanism > Surface States

Surface States

To implement the cluster mechanism, MultiCam uses the state of the surface, which is available through the MultiCam parameter SurfaceState.

Any instantiated surface is necessarily in one of the five following states:

Surface state

Meaning

Number of surfaces having the indicated state

Remarks

FREE

A FREE surface is unconditionally able to receive image data from the grabber.

0 to N

 

FILLING

A FILLING surface is presently receiving image data from the grabber, or is ready to receive data. The situation of a cluster without any FILLING surface is exceptional.

0 or 1

 

FILLED

A FILLED surface has finished to receive image data from the grabber, and thus is ready for processing.

0 to N

 

PROCESSING

A PROCESSING surface is being processed by the host processor.

0 or 1

If a new channel is activated and processing surface is still being processed, MultiCam will not activate any channel and return MC_Cluster_Busy error.

RESERVED

A RESERVED surface is removed from the standard state transition mechanism.

0 to N

 

The third column of this table indicates the possible number of surfaces having the indicated state within the cluster during the channel activity. N is the total number of surfaces registered to the cluster.

The state of the surface is unique in the sense that, at a given instant, a surface belonging to several clusters is perceived in a consistent state by all the associated channels.