A real-time image acquisition and display system based on a HgCdTe short-wave infrared staring camera is presented. The short-wave infrared staring camera uses a HgCdTe short-wave infrared detector and a FPGA DSP hardware. It has several functions including manual focusing, adjustable integral time and increasable attenuators. Taking a Camera Link connection line as the transfer channel, the real-time and fast acquisition and display of infrared images are realized by using a acquisition card compatible with the PCI Express x4 technology. In the experiment, an image acquisition and display interface is designed for the real-time control of the camera and the adjustment of the acquired images. Also, an image storage software is designed for the checkout and post processing of stored images. The experimental results show that the system is stable in performance. It has several functions such as real-time image acquisition, display and storage. It is of great value to engineering projects.