Product category:
VMEbus Boards and Assemblies
News Release from: Pentek | Subject: Model 4294
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 14 April 2004
DSP board aims for leading edge imaging
Researchers at the University of Washington and IBM are using a DSP-based VME platform to help develop a practical technology for imaging the three-dimensional structure of individual molecules.
Since the early 1990s researchers at the University of Washington and IBM have been involved in developing a practical technology for imaging the three-dimensional structure of individual molecules This technology, called magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM), can address the needs of nanoscale engineering, materials science, molecular biology and medicine
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 19 Dec 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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Pentek, the industry pioneer of VME board-level technology, was selected by the University of Washington to provide a DSP (digital signal processing) platform for the University's adaptive cantilever control system that can study molecular structures at resolutions better than 1 Angstrom (0.1nm) in situ.
Three identical controller and diagnostic systems will be used for three-dimensional MRFM in the future.
DSPCon, a Pentek integration partner, was responsible for the custom software development, integration and testing of the system.
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Professor John A Sidles at the University of Washington explained the importance of MRFM: "One of the oldest dreams of science is the direct imaging of biomolecular structures, in situ, with atomic resolution.
By combining scanning probe microscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance imaging and quantum observation technologies, we are making steady progress toward the goal of comprehensive biomicroscopy via single-spin imaging, to the point that this quantum microscope technology will likely be commercialised within the next two years.
The Pentek DSP platform is a crucial element in achieving this goal".
A Pentek Model 4294 Quad G4 PowerPC VME board, with two VIM mezzanine sites, was chosen for its 16GFLOPS of floating-point signal processing power and optimised high throughput I/O.
The MPC7410 incorporates enhanced cache features, allowing users to directly map cache to the main memory; this permits increased determinism on critical sections of processing code.
In this time-critical cantilever control system, the bidirectional FIFO (first in, first out) memories of the Model 4294 mezzanine interfaces satisfy the extremely low latency requirement between analogue input and analogue output signals.
One mezzanine site hosts the Model 6216 dual-channel 65MHz 12bit A/D convertor with programmable-gain amplifiers, anti-aliasing filters and digital down-convertors.
The analogue cantilever sense signal is digitised by one of the A/D convertors and then delivered to the processor board.
The second mezzanine site is occupied by the Model 6229 digital up-convertor that includes two 12bit 200MHz D/A convertors with a DC to 80MHz range.
It accepts the synchronisation signal input from the 6216 and one of the D/A convertors generates the analogue output control voltage to complete the loop.
The 4294 communicates with a Sun blade workstation via its 10/100Base-T Ethernet interface.
This arrangement proved extremely useful for downloading development code, debugging and streaming data out of the system for tasks such as simulation comparisons.
VxWorks is used as the real-time operating system.
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