Product category:
Board-Level Instruments
News Release from: Spectrum Systementwicklung Microelectronic | Subject: System Star-Hub
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 16 May 2007
Hub systems expand scope of PC
instrumentation
Versatile synchronisation options enable systems designers to combine PC instruments into systems capable of simultaneous measurements on thousands of channels.
Whether conducting large-scale research experiments or performing production testing there is often the need to acquire a large number of channels simultaneously Proprietary systems are often expensive, can only be extended using components from one manufacturer and in many cases are complicated to program
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 25 Sep 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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CAMAC (computer automated measurement and control) based systems are a possible solution though rather intended for more slow acquisition areas.
PC instrument specialist Spectrum offers an alternative, with a wide range of PC instruments that are easy to program under Windows and Linux, and with versatile synchronisation options.
There is a huge variety of A/D cards in the M2i series starting with 16-channel cards running 100Ksample/s at 16bit resolution, eight-channel cards running 10Msample/s at 12bit resolution up to two channels running 100Msample/s at 12bit resolution or even two channels with 8bit resolution at 200Msample/s.
Further reading
Digital I/O makes the most of bandwidth
A novel digital I/O card from Spectrum can be switched between 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16bit acquisition or generation mode, and uses an internal shift register to use the full memory width.
Acquisition cards gain hardware OR option
MI and MC series acquisition cards from Spectrum now offer hardware-based OR connection to accelerate complex triggering applications.
Waveform generators gain virtual front panel
The 60xx and 61xx series arbitrary waveform generators from fast PC instrumentation specialist Spectrum cover a wide variety of applications.
And now, using the Star-Hub 5 option up to five cards can be synchronised using one standard PC - and the Star-Hub does not occupy an extra slot.
For industrial PCs with passive backplanes the Star-Hub 16 is an ideal option, allowing up to 16 cards to run synchronously in one system.
Both Star-Hub options allow the user to select any card as a clock master for the system as well as to use all trigger sources of all connected cards combined using OR or AND.
The new System Star-Hub goes even a step further and allows users to synchronise up to 17 complete systems.
In total this allows 271 cards to run synchronously, and one master system distributes clock and trigger signals to all connected systems.
All Spectrum A/D cards are designed for fully synchronous operation.
There is virtually no phase delay between the different channels - regardless of whether the channels are located on one card, on different cards in one system or even in different systems.
For this purpose each card is designed fully synchronously using one amplifier and one A/D convertor for each channel.
The synchronisation options (Star-Hubs) connect the control signals of all cards with a defined and identical delay having all cards running with the same phase relation.
Using the maximum number of cards in one system provides for example 256 synchronous 16bit channels running at 500Ksample/s per channel (using the M2i.4731 - 16 channels 16bit 500Ksample/s card).
Combining the maximum number of systems with the System Star-Hub then provides 4336 synchronous 16bit channels.
Similarly, it is possible to set up a system cluster with 2168 A/D channels with 12bit resolution and 25Msample/s per channel or 1084 A/D channels with 8bit resolution and 100Msample/s per channel.
The new System Star-Hub also offers improved solutions for hard disk streaming.
Before this option was available the hard disk streaming speed was limited by the system performance of one RAID controller.
By connecting several systems with the System Star-Hub users can now arrange the channels to different systems each having the full hard disk streaming performance. Request a free brochure from Spectrum Systementwicklung Microelectronic ...
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