PCI Express Waveform Digitizers - Strategic Test

Strategic Test has announced the availability of the PCI Express based Waveform Digitizer boards. There are twelve new Digitizer cards in the UF2e-4600 series. The digitizer use multiple 16-bit ADCs for simultaneous sampling, offering a choice of maximum sampling rates from 200 kSamples/s to 3 MSamples/s and 2-, 4- or 8-channel configurations. 32 MSamples of signal memory is provided standard, but can be expanded to 2 GSamples through a proprietary onboard DIMM module.

UF2e-4600 PCI Express Waveform Digitizer

Key features of UF2e-4600 Waveform Digitizer:

• PCI-Express x1 interface
• 2, 4 or 8 channels with 200 kS/s up to 3 MS/s
• Simultaneously sampling on all channels
• 8 input ranges: ±50 mV up to ±10 V
• Separate ADC and amplifier per channel
• Software selectable single-ended or differential inputs
• On-board calibration
• Data transfer rates to 250 MB/s
• Up to 2 GSample on-board memory (32 MS standard)
• Window, pulse width, re-arm, spike, OR/AND trigger
• Synchronization of up to 16 cards per system and up to 271 cards with system sync
• Programmable input offset of ±5 V
• Options: ABA mode, Multiple Recording, Gated Sampling, BaseXIO

In total, eight different hardware options will be available for each card:

• Onboard memory: 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048 or 4096 MegaBytes
• Multiple Recording (memory segmentation)
• Time Stamp (records time when trigger occurs)
• Gated Sampling (sampling clock controlled by external TTL signal)
• ABA dual time base
• BaseXIO (adds 8 asynchronous digital I/O lines)
• Star Hub (synchronization of up to 5 or 16 cards, or 5 to 16 PC's)
• Fast Digital Inputs (adds 2 or 4 synchronous digital inputs per analog input)

Strategic Test also provides the software support with the following Software Development Kit's available:

• Windows Vista and XP64, XP, 2000, NT and 98
• Linux drivers for RedHat, Suse, Fedora and Debian
• LabVIEW
• MATLAB
• Agilent-VEE
• DASYLab
• LabWindows/CVI

UF2e-4600 Waveform Digitizer hardware features and options

• Input Amplifier: The analog inputs can be adapted to real world signals using a wide variety of settings that are individual for each channel. By using software commands one can select a matching input range and the signal offset can be compensated.
• FIFO mode: The FIFO mode is designed for continuous data transfer between measurement board and PC memory (up to 225 MB/s on a PCI-X slot and up to 115 MB/s on a PCI slot) or hard disk. The control of the data stream is done automatically by the driver on interrupt request. The complete installed on-board memory is used for buffer data, making the continuous streaming extremely reliable.
• Ring buffer mode: The ring buffer mode is the standard mode of all oscilloscope boards. Data is written in a ring memory of the board until a trigger event is detected. After the event the posttrigger values are recorded. This allows the user to record samples prior to the trigger event: Pretrigger = Memsize - Posttrigger.
• Channel trigger: The UF2 boards offer a wide variety of trigger modes. In addition to the standard level and edge found on oscilloscopes it’s also possible to define a window trigger. All trigger modes can also be combined with the pulsewidth trigger. This makes it possible to trigger on signal errors like too long or too short pulses. A new re-arming mode is provided for accurate trigger recognition on noisy signals and different triggers can be combined using AND/OR. A unique feature is that it is possible to use deactivated channels as trigger sources.
• Pulse width: Defines the minimum or maximum width that a trigger pulse must have to generate a trigger event. Pulse width can be combined with channel trigger, pattern trigger and external trigger.
• External trigger I/O: All boards can be triggered using an external TTL signal. It’s possible to use positive or negative edge also in combination with a programmable pulse width. An internally recognised trigger event can - when activated by software - be routed to the trigger connector to start external instruments.
• Multiple Recording: The Multiple Recording option allows recording of highspeed trigger events with an extremely short re-arming time e.g. RADAR signals. The trigger re-arming is achieved within 4 samples leading to extremely fast Pulse Repetition Frequencies. The on-board memory is divided in several segments of the same size, each being filled with data as a trigger event occurs. Pre- and posttrigger of the segments can be programmed. The number of acquired segments is only limited by the used memory and is unlimited when using the FIFO mode.
• Timestamp: The timestamp option writes the time positions of the trigger events in an extra memory. The timestamps are relative to the start of recording, a defined zero time, externally synchronised to a radio clock, or a GPS receiver. With this option acquisitions of systems on different locations can be set in a precise time relation.
• Gated Sampling: The Gated Sampling option allows data recording controlled by an external gate signal. Data is only recorded if the gate signal has a programmed level. In addition a pre-area before start of the gate signal as well as a post area after end of the gate signal can be acquired. The number of gate segments is only limited by the used memory and is unlimited when using FIFO mode.
• External clock I/O: Using a dedicated connector a sampling clock can be fed in from an external system. It’s also possible to output the internally used sampling clock to synchronise external equipment to this clock.
• ABA mode: The optional ABA mode combines slow continuous data recording with fast acquisition on trigger events. The ABA mode works like a slow data logger combined with a fast digitizer. The exact position of the trigger events is stored as timestamps in an extra memory.
• Differential inputs: With a simple software command the inputs can individually be switched from single-ended (in relation to ground) to differential, without loosing any inputs. When the inputs are used in differential mode the A/D converter measures the difference between two lines with relation to system ground.
• Reference clock: The option to use a precise external reference clock (normally 10 MHz) is necessary to synchronise the board for high-quality measurements with external equipment (like a signal source). It’s also possible to enhance the quality of the sampling clock in this way. The driver automatically generates the requested sampling clock from the fed in reference clock.
• Star Hub: The Star Hub is an additional module allowing the phase stable synchronisation of up to 16 boards in one system. Independent of the number of boards there is no phase delay between all channels. The Star Hub distributes trigger and clock information between all boards and as a result all connected boards are running with the same clock and the same trigger. All trigger sources can be combined with OR/AND allowing all channels of all cards to be trigger source at the same time. The Star Hub is available as 5 card and 16 card version (which requires extra PCI slot width).
• BaseXIO (enhanced trigger):  The BaseXIO option offers 8 asynchronous digital I/O lines on the base card. The direction can be selected by software in groups of four. Two of these lines can also be used as additional external trigger sources. This allows the building of complex trigger conjunctions with external gated triggers as well as AND/OR conjunction of multiple external trigger sources like, for example, the picture and row synchronisation of video signals. In addition one of the I/O lines can be used as reference clock for the Timestamp counter.
• 271 synchronous cards with theSystem Star-Hub: With the help of multiple System Star Hubs it is possible to link up to 17 systems phase synchronous with each other. Each PC can then contain up to 16 cards (master only 15). In total 271 cards can be synchronized. One master system distributes clock and trigger signal to all slave systems.

The new digitizers are supplied with the free SBench Oscilloscope software for both Windows and Linux.

Prices start at $3190

More information, here you can download the datasheet of PCI Express Waveform Digitizers [200KB]