The following options are available to purchase and enhance the functionality of the M2i.72xx digital pattern generator boards.
| Synchronisation by star-hub | Multiple replay | Gated replay | BaseXIO |
The Star Hub is an additional module for all M2i boards. It allows synchronisation up to 16 boards with no phase delay between them. With this option, multi-channel acquisition systems of up of to 128 analogue channels (512 if its digital I/O) are possible. Any combination of boards can be synchronised be it analogue or digital, in signal capture or generation mode. The 5 card version of the Star-Hub (code: M2i.xxxx-SH5 ) allows synchronisation without the need for an additional system slot, as the star-hub connectors are very compact.
Across the star hub, clock and trigger information is common and exchanged between all the boards. Division of the clock from the board defined as master allows connected slave cards to be run more slowly, if required, providing for great flexibility for sampling speeds across the system, but all still held in phase. Any board may be used to generate the trigger used by the system to initiate recording.
System Synchronisation
with Star Hub
With the new M2i series comes the ability to synchronise several systems (i.e. a number of PC's all populated with Spectrum boards). This option is ideal for where all slots within one PC have been used. It also provides a solution where data needs to be stored at extreme speeds to a hard disk (e.g. using RAID), but the PCI/PCI-X bus bandwidth on a single PC motherboard has been exceeded. Similar in operation to the aforementioned Star Hub with its master board for clock and trigger, System Star Hub has one whole system (PC) as the master, with ribbon cable connected slave systems of 5 or 16 boards. Up to 271 boards of any type (A/D, D/A and Dig I/O) can be combined in this way - all perfectly synchronised!
PCI/PCI-X System Synchronisation
with distribution card
As an alternative to the Star-Hub systems is is also possible to use the Spectrum distribution card (code: M2iClkDist), this allows external access to all clock and trigger lines via external cabling, so the user can decide whether to synchronise all cards, or a number to be excluded and work asynchronously. Up to 34 cards can be synchronised on from the same clock source, or two banks of 17 clocks, each bank of 17 operating from an independent clock. Lastly it is possible to have a bank 17 clocks and a bank of 17 triggers. The distribution card makes all the wiring and used the standard Spectrum SMB screened cables, logical and easier to manage.
[PDF data sheet for distribution card]
(160K byte)
Multiple Replay allows the playing segments of user-defined board or PC memory data in response several trigger events without having to restart the hardware. By this method data can be output cyclically, or from start to end without repeat. A delay to replay will occur immediately after each trigger event, however for the M2i series of boards this is less than 4 samples in length. Should you intentionally wish for an extended delay between trigger and recording this is software programmable.
The option Gated Replay allows recording
of a signal controlled by an external gate signal. Data is only
played if the external gate signal is equal to a programmed
level (TTL HIGH or TTL LOW). As with the Multiple Replay option
(see above) a delay of a few samples between trigger and recording occurs.
BaseXIO (Asynchronous I/O and triggers).
This option provides input and output lines asynchronous to the analogue inputs (A/D cards) or digital I/O lines of the universal digital I/O cards. One of their advantages is their 32mA source capability. With this simple-to-use versatile enhancement it is possible to control a wide range of external instruments or other equipment such as that producing a signal source. Eight asynchronous digital I/O are available and can be programmed 8 inputs, 8 outputs or split 4/4. When using the BaseXIO lines as digital I/O, they are completely independent from the board’s function, data direction or sampling rate and directly controlled by software. Special purpose lines are also added to provide two secondary TTL trigger lines to allow an AND type operation within the main external trigger starting the board. So for example you can start and stop the board by monitoring a condition at two sources.
N.B. The BASEXIO, Multiple Replay, and Gated Replay are all individual purchases for each board, however with the Star-Hub synchronisation only one purchase is required per system of boards.
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© Dataquest Solutions 14.01.06.
Images courtesy of Spectrum GmbH