Data Acquisition with Onboard Processing – DAP 5000a
Pentium Powers New Mid-Range DAP Board
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Bellevue, WA, June 22, 2006 -- When your data acquisition application needs real-time processing and you need to provide a Windows solution, take a look at what Microstar Laboratories now offers. The company makes Data Acquisition Processor (DAP) boards and systems for data acquisition and control, and today announced a new mid-range DAP board, model number DAP 5000a/526, powered by an Intel Pentium 233MHz CPU.
DAP 5000a/526 – a mid-range DAP board
The DAP 5000a/526 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 14-bit data at up to 800k samples per second, and can convert 833k values per second on each of the two onboard analog outputs. The onboard Pentium processor allows fast real-time processing, and low latency – 0.1 ms task time quantum – provides for 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 control signals. 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 your data acquisition application needs real-time processing and you need to provide a Windows solution, you can use a DAP board to give your system an additional processor running a real-time operating system that you control from your Windows application. The new mid-range DAP 5000a/526 board includes an Intel Pentium 233MHz CPU. You can configure the board using DAPstudio, a Windows application. You can order the board now for immediate delivery. The company provides unrestricted 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 real-time processing and you need to provide a Windows solution, use a product with a powerful additional processor – one that runs a real-time OS you control from Windows. Microstar Laboratories, Inc., maker of Data Acquisition Processor (DAP) boards and systems for data acquisition and control, today announced a new mid-range board, the DAP 5000a/526, that includes an Intel Pentium 233MHz CPU. 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. The company provides unrestricted versions of both hardware and software for evaluation at no charge. 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:
The Intel Pentium 233MHz CPU on this DAP 5000a/526 Data Acquisition Processor board runs a real-time OS that you control from Windows.
Microstar Laboratories, Inc. claims Microstar Laboratories, Data Acquisition Processor, DAP, DAP 5000a, DAPL, and DAPstudio as trademarks. Intel Corporation has registered Intel and Pentium 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.