Fast Sampling and High Resolution – DAP 5216a/627
500k samples per second with 16-bit resolution
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Bellevue, WA, July 13, 2006 -- When your data acquisition application needs fast 16-bit sampling and significant processing under Windows, check out the latest product from Microstar Laboratories. The company makes Data Acquisition Processor (DAP) boards and systems for data acquisition and control, and today announced a new high-end DAP board, model number DAP 5216a/627, powered by a 400MHz CPU.
DAP 5216a/627 – a high-end DAP board
The DAP 5216a/627 includes 16 analog inputs, 2 analog outputs, 16 digital inputs, and 16 digital outputs. External rack-mounted hardware can extend these channel counts to 512, 66, 128, and 1024 respectively. The board can acquire 16-bit data at up to 500k samples per second, and can convert one million values per second with 16-bit resolution on each of the two onboard analog outputs. The maximum digital input and output rates are both 2M samples per second on all sixteen channels each way, even when running concurrently. The onboard AMD K6-III+ processor allows fast real-time processing. Low latency – 0.1 ms task time quantum – delivers fast response.
Onboard Processing
A DAP board gives your system an additional processor running a real-time operating system – DAPL – that you control from a Windows application. This extra resource gives you room to make your application even better. It frees your application from system delays. It lets you apply computing power when and where needed. It means you can sample data and control a process anywhere, anytime. You can analyze spectra in real time. Your application responds reliably: in time, every time.
Configuring the DAP board
DAP boards acquire data, converting analog signals into digital values. These digital values stream through conceptual pipes on the board that you set up ahead of time using DAPstudio, a Windows application. The onboard processor performs any required operations as it transfers data from pipe to pipe. Again using DAPstudio, you choose these onboard operations from the more than 100 commands available in DAPL. A typical application may require six or seven of them. The commands issued to DAPL determine exactly what low-level tasks the DAP will perform, and how it will respond with any control signals required. The commands configure the DAP for the application.
Saving the configuration and running your application
DAPstudio lets you specify DAPL commands by clicking on the appropriate tools as you design the system, and it then lets you save the working configuration as a complete DAP application. At each step in the development process, the next step presents itself as both obvious and compelling. At the end of the DAPstudio session you have automatically produced documentation that completely defines your application. You then can use DAPstudio to run your application – from any PC on a network – with no custom programming and no other vendor software. Although DAPstudio lets you configure and control any DAP without any other Windows software, you also can do this from LabVIEW, MATLAB, and other third-party software. And from C++, VB, and other applications that allow DLL calls.
Conclusion and Next Step
When you need fast 16-bit sampling and significant processing under Windows, check out the DAP 5216a/627 with its onboard 400MHz CPU. You can configure the board using DAPstudio, a Windows application. You also can run your entire application with DAPstudio. You can order the board now for immediate delivery. The company provides versions of both hardware and software for evaluation at no charge, and you can download a full version of DAPstudio right now.
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Editorial Overview:
When your data acquisition application needs fast 16-bit sampling and significant processing under Windows, use a product with a powerful additional processor – one that runs a real-time OS you control from software on your PC. Microstar Laboratories, Inc., maker of Data Acquisition Processor (DAP) boards and systems for data acquisition and control, today announced a new high-end board, the DAP 5216a/627, that includes a 400MHz CPU and acquires 16-bit data at 500k samples/sec. You can use DAPstudio, a Windows application, to configure the DAP board to perform whatever low-level and real-time tasks your application requires. You then can use DAPstudio – or other software – to run your complete application. You can download a full version of DAPstudio right now to check it out.
Note to the Editor:
Microstar Laboratories suggests this text as a caption for the available image:
You can configure this high-resolution DAP 5216a/627 board using DAPstudio, a Windows application. You then can use DAPstudio to run your data acquisition application from any PC on a network. DAP boards also work with LabVIEW, or with any application that allows DLL calls.
Microstar Laboratories, Inc. claims Microstar Laboratories, Data Acquisition Processor, DAP, DAP 5216a, DAPL, and DAPstudio as trademarks. National Instruments Corporation has registered LabVIEW as a trademark. Mathworks, Inc. claims MATLAB as a trademark. Other organizations may claim – or may have registered – as trademarks any trade names, logos, and service marks that appear in this document but not in the list above.
Microstar Laboratories makes it a practice to use an appropriate symbol at the first occurrence of a trademark or registered trademark name in a document, or to include trademark statements like this with the document.