The Smart Pixel Camera is a new camera for imaging atmospheric Cherenkov
telescopes, suited for a next generation of large multi-telescope ground based
gamma-ray observatories. The design of the camera foresees all electronics
needed to process the images to be located inside the camera body at the focal
plane. The camera has a modular design and is scalable in the number of pixels.
The camera electronics provides the performance needed for the next generation
instruments, like short signal integration time, topological trigger and short
trigger gate, and at the same time the design is optimized to minimize the cost
per channel. In addition new features are implemented, like the measurement of
the arrival time of light pulses in the pixels on the few hundred psec
timescale. The buffered readout system of the camera allows to take images at
sustained rates of O(10 kHz) with a dead-time of only about 0.8 % per kHz.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures; to appear in the proceedings of "Towards a
Network of Atmospheric Cherenkov Detectors VII", 2005, Palaiseau, Franc