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Half-Sized PCIbus Plug-In Runs 16 Independent Analog I/O Channels

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ChipCenter's Alex Mendelsohn says . . .

The Toro analog I/O DSP card from Innovative Integration, Simi Valley, Calif., is designed for servo control and data acquisition applications. Its 150 MHz, 32-bit, floating-point DSP controls 16 simultaneous channels of independent A/D and D/A conversion. The unit's 32/64-bit PCI bus is capable of up to 264 Mbytes/s data bursts. On-chip resources include two 32-bit counter/timers, 16 DMA channels, 64 kbytes of dual-access SRAM, and a prioritized interrupt controller. The Toro features a choice of triggering modes that allows the user to select start/stop trigger events from on-chip timers, external trigger, and analog threshold on synclink signals from other cards. A built-in real-time event log in the firmware provides the user with a record of trigger times and user-defined events. For more information, contact Innovative Integration 2655 Park Center Dr. Simi Valley, Calif. 93065 Phone: (805) 520-3300 FAX: (805) 579-1730

It's remarkable what you can pop in a PC slot these days, and this product is a good example. For $2,850, it is one fast—and cost-effective—analog I/O board. Take a gander at this block diagram to see what I mean. click for full-size image Packing a 150 MHz Texas Instruments TMS320C6711 32-bit floating-point DSP, this half-sized PCIbus plug-in is chock full of resources—including a direct digital synthesizer (DDS) clock. Innovative's PCI board also houses two 32-bit counter/timers, offers 16 DMA channels, and has 64 kbytes of dual-access SRAM and 32 Mbytes of one wait-state synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), replete with on-chip Level 1 and 2 cache controllers. The arbitrated dual-port RAM is used for data passing and general communications, where it serves a mailbox, or bulletin board, letting the DSP and host swap status and data structures. Multi-Channel DSP Power For its part, the TI DSP crunches data at rates to 900 MFLOPS, for up to 16 simultaneous (not synchronous; no MUX is used) channels of independent 16-bit 250 kHz acquisition-rate conversion. The system transfers words on the 32-bit (5 V) or 64-bit (3.3 V) PCI bus at speeds up to 264 Mbytes/s in bursts (on 64-bit buses). The board's digitized samples are also routed into a FIFO that holds up to 256 samples. The FIFO ensures no missed samples, essentially buffering the DSP. At the same time, the PCI interface manages bus mastering activities independently of the DSP. Adoption and integration is also eased, as data simply appear in host memory, ready for use by your host program. Also, at the PC interface is a Host Port Interface. The HPI lets you load DSP code, debug, and monitor DSP status—all without interfering with normal bus traffic. Speaking of ease of integration, Innovative Integration supplies a raft of development tools for this product. You can take your choice of visual software components, utility applets, source code libraries, and APIs. Support includes optimized DSP peripheral libraries, Windows 9x, Windows NT, and Windows 2000 device drivers and DLLs, and Visual Component Libraries for data-streaming products. Innovative also proivides the hooks for Visual C/C++, Borland C++ Builder, Delphi, and VisualBASIC. Multiple Cards For expansion purposes, the system's so-called FIFOPort supports parallel board-to-board communication between multiple plug-ins, including other FIFOPort-compatible cards, all at bidirectional rates up to 64 Mbytes/s. Innovative Integration can also supply a special cable, dubbed FIFOCable, that handles LVDS (low-voltage differential signaling) signal conditioning. There are also other features that support system-level integration, such as Plug-n-Play PCI. The board's TTL-compatible SyncLink/ClkLink port, for example, also enhances multiple-card synchronization. The SyncLink/ClkLink interface permits up to four unique TTL timing signals, and event triggers, to be shared among up to 16 boards. Each can also pack a switch matrix that routes any event trigger to any SyncLink/ClkLink port, under software control. This scheme sidesteps the need for additional cabling. In multi-card systems, you can sync multiple Toro boards with a common trigger or clock. Two TTL-compatible signals (master or slave) and two high-speed LVDS signals for clocks are available. Independent Channels What's also neat is that the product's 16 data conversion channels are truly independent (note all the data converter chips on the photograph). The independent channeling permits simultaneous non-MUXed sampling, a feat that could prove useful where channel-to-channel phase matching might be important. Each high-Z A/D converter channel's input also runs in a noise-immune differential mode. This is augmented by multi-pole anti-alias filtering. The A/D converter channels also feature digital gain and offset correction, so there are no cal potentiometers to tweak or to get out of adjustment. On the D/A converter side, all of the card's channels are also separate and independent. Outputs include digital error correction (accomplished in a Xilinx FPGA backed by a 256-sample FIFO), with offset and gain correction. Each 250 kHz D/A converter output also feeds a 5-pole reconstruction filter. By themselves, the board's D/A converters generate low glitch-energy, so sample-to-sample outputs won't include spikes or glitches. The bipolar analog output spans ± 10 V, but Innovative Integration will also build these products with custom ranges to suit your application. Millihertz Steps Back to the DDS. The output of an Analog Devices Inc. Type AD9851 digital synthesizer chip is routed to all 16 analog channels, providing a programmable clock spanning zero to 25 MHz. It's programmable in increments as small as 0.02 Hz! The AD9851 DDS chip generates a stable frequency and phase-programmable time base, and also contains its own reference clock multiplier. That sidesteps the need for Innovative Integration to include a reference oscillator for the DDS. For general-purpose digital I/O, the board uses a memory-mapped 32-bit latched TTL configuration. The digital I/O port's direction is software-configurable in banks of eight bits. This port can also be software-clocked, or externally clocked, at rates to 10 MHz. Lastly, you can also get a streamlined version of the Toro with eight I/O channels. it's priced at about $1,900. Innovative Integration also offers numerous screw-terminal connectors and breakout boxes, and a JTRAG emulator host and pod. This product, with its high-throughput DSP, can offer the real-time responses necessary for time-critical applications that normally wouldn't be considered in a relatively slow PC environment. The PCI interface also ensures a high-speed exchange between the DSP and your host PC.

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