eSDK Pro: Built for the Systems You Actually Build

Emergent’s new software development kit (SDK) framework makes high-speed, multi-host vision systems easier to build, deploy, and scale. A pipeline-driven SDK architecture and optimized transport layers help you scale real-time vision systems without hitting the wall.

Author: Thomas Detjen, Sales Director EMEA, Emergent Vision Technologies Inc.

From GigE pioneers to system enablers

For over a decade, GigE Vision has proven itself as the backbone of high-speed industrial imaging. It’s fast, scalable, and built on open standards. But while camera hardware has evolved rapidly, SDKs and integration tooling often haven’t kept pace, especially in multi-camera setups, GPU-based processing, or systems with 5GigE, 10GigE, 25GigE or even 100GigE pipelines.

At Emergent Vision Technologies, we’ve encountered these limits first-hand. Not only in customer deployments, but through our own high-performance demo and validation platforms. That’s exactly what led to the development of eSDK Pro: a pipeline-driven, plug-in-based SDK that removes the grunt work and lets developers scale vision systems cleanly.

From idea to integration: What is eSDK Pro?

Imagine this: You need to stream eight 25MP cameras at 100 FPS over 25GigE each. These streams need to go into 4 GPUs across two synchronized workstations. The data should be processed in real-time, compressed, and run through inference. Of course, all with zero frame drops.

Sounds complex? It is.

How long would it take to write that code with a traditional SDK? A month? Two? And how stable would it be, especially if not built on Emergent’s eSDK?

Now look again at the cover image of this magazine. That exact setup – 8 high-speed cameras, 2 machines, 4 GPUs – is running. And the code that powers it? It fits on a single page.

That’s what eSDK Pro delivers: declarative pipelines, modular plugins, zero-copy transport, and support for GPU Direct, RDMA, and multi-host coordination, all wrapped in a clean, deployable interface.

It’s not magic. It’s architecture. And available by Q4 2025.

What It Feels Like to Use eSDK Pro

So how does it work in practice? Let’s take the same 8-camera system from the title image, 8x HB-25000-SB streaming 25MP at 100 FPS over 25GigE. Each stream is routed through our FlexTrans and FlexProg processing blocks, distributed across 2 workstations running a total of 4

NVIDIA GPUs. No dropped frames. No hardware daisy-chaining. Just raw maximized performance.

In eSDK Pro, this setup becomes a declarative pipeline. You define what each task does – acquisition, transformation, GPU transfer, output – and the SDK handles scheduling, memory management, and synchronization.

That’s it.

No boilerplate. No callback jungle. No guessing how memory is passed. This is real code powering real production setups – and it works from day one.

The result? You focus on your application logic, not writing drivers, threading logic, or frame management. Want to add compression (e.g., H.264/H.265)? Drop in a plugin. Want to trigger an external device on a threshold? Use a plugin. Want to scale across hosts? Add a sync node – done.

All built on Emergent’s optimized stack with DMA transfers, low CPU load, and zero-copy memory movement. RDMA ready if needed. It’s not just a new API. It’s a whole new approach to scalable vision development.

Why traditional SDKs hit a wall

Most SDKs can get your first camera running. They open a connection, stream data, and let you grab frames. But as soon as your project scales – more bandwidth, more cameras, more compute – the cracks begin to show.

You’ll find yourself writing 1000s of lines of (glue) code for basic sync, buffer handling, or GPU support. Integration becomes a jungle of callbacks, mutexes, and boilerplate. And let’s not even talk about multi-host setups or GPU memory transfers.

This is where eSDK Pro makes a difference. It’s not just another wrapper, it’s a clean slate built for real-time imaging at scale.

Under the hood: FlexProc, FlexTrans, and 15 years of Emergent optimized drivers

To get data from the sensor into the GPU (or NVMe or inference engine) requires more than a fast camera. It requires architecture.

That’s where FlexProc and FlexTrans Technologies come in. These precompiled smart nodes slot into your pipeline to handle transport, compression, processing, and custom I/O logic – modular, efficient, and tightly integrated.

They’re powered by Emergent’s optimized GVSP drivers, which give customers access to DMA-based streaming and low CPU load, a design honed over more than 15 years.

GUI or code? We’ve got both.

Some users want full control. Others prefer a clean UI.

eCapture Pro gives you the same high-performance engine, but with graphical setup. Multi-camera sync, plugin assignment, multi-host coordination, metadata tagging, trigger logic—it’s all there, click by click.

Need to move to code later? Export the config and switch to eSDK Pro. No wasted effort.

Your stack, your way

• eCapture Pro: GUI-based prototyping, configuration, and operation
• eSDK: Lightweight SDK for traditional integration or embedded systems
• eSDK Pro: Full modular pipeline with full support for multi-host, GPU, RDMA, FlexProc and FlexTrans technologies

Use what fits. Scale when needed.

Conclusion: Performance Without the Pain

The future of vision systems is real-time, multi-camera, GPU-driven, and horizontally scalable. You shouldn’t have to build that infrastructure from scratch. With eSDK Pro, you don’t.

It’s everything we’ve learned about vision integration, baked into a modern SDK stack. Real code. Real support. Real-time. Whether you’re building a compact smart inspection cell or a multi-node GPU farm, eSDK Pro lets you scale with confidence – not complexity.

Build your own applications on top of Emergent’s SDK with concise API commands. The new eSDK Pro is coming soon.