DAPstudio PC-Based Measurement Software Speeds Development
Configure High-Channel Count Real-Time Systems Quickly and Easily
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Bellevue, WA, November 24, 2004 -- Microstar Laboratories, Inc., maker of Data Acquisition Processor (DAP) boards, has announced DAP Measurement Studio (DAPstudio) software - available for immediate download. If you develop, or intend to develop, data acquisition and control systems with a real-time component or with a high channel count, then check out DAPstudio. DAPstudio hands you each design tool you need, precisely when you need it, to create elegant and powerful data acquisition systems quickly and well. Some DAPstudio tools address a long-felt need for a simple way to develop systems with high channel counts. Others address more general issues. All of them - and all future DAPstudio design tools - will make it easier for you to develop data acquisition applications that use onboard intelligence.
Real-Time Response Free from Local or Network-Related Delays
A processor on every DAP board runs DAPL 2000: a 32-bit multitasking real-time operating system for PC-based data acquisition and control, the onboard intelligence that comes with every DAP. You control DAPL1, either locally or over a network, through a Windows application like Visual Basic, LabVIEW, or, naturally, DAPstudio. DAPL runs on the onboard processor that every DAP uses to perform data acquisition and control tasks in real time, free from any delays imposed by the operating system or by other software running on the PC.
Onboard intelligence not only protects against local delays, it allows synchronization between hardware in different PCs on a network over a separate DAP-to-DAP network independent of main network delays. Microstar Laboratories has shipped systems like this with many hundreds of channels. A scalable benchmark server has shown that such a distributed system could acquire data at over 50 million samples per second.
High Channel Counts
If your application has many inputs, many outputs, or many inputs and outputs, you will find DAPstudio especially helpful. With just a few mouse movements, you can select and deselect channels, set all or some of them to certain values, apply gains selectively, and so on. And when you have finished with the relevant design tool, DAPstudio documents what you have done: as perfectly formed DAPL commands that configure the DAP to behave precisely as you intend it to at run-time. You can choose whether to look at these commands or simply to save them as part of a working DAP configuration without even reviewing them.
Conclusion and Next Step
DAP boards acquire data by converting analog signals into digital values. These stream through conceptual pipes that you set up in DAPstudio. Onboard intelligence performs any required operations as it transfers data from pipe to pipe. You choose these operations from the more than 100 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. The commands configure the DAP for the application. DAPstudio lets you specify 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. Download DAPstudio right now, and see for yourself.
DAPstudio costs US$199. The evaluation version costs nothing. The company offers a CD that contains all software and hardware manuals for all products, including DAPstudio. You can visit www.mstarlabs.com to download the contents. Contact Microstar Laboratories for more information.
1 For brevity, here and elsewhere this document uses DAPL to mean DAPL 2000.
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Editorial Overview:
Microstar Laboratories, Inc., maker of Data Acquisition Processor (DAP) boards, has announced DAP Measurement Studio (DAPstudio) software for building systems to run on its hardware. This Windows application presents you with the right tool just when you need it at each step of the design process. It fills a gap in the tool space for anyone developing high-channel count applications. DAPstudio complements or replaces third-party development systems like LabVIEW, and lets you make full use of the processing power built into each DAP board. DAPstudio costs US$199. The evaluation version costs nothing. The company offers a CD that contains all software and hardware manuals for all products, including DAPstudio. You can visit www.mstarlabs.com to download the CD. Contact Microstar Laboratories for more information.
Note to the Editor:
Microstar Laboratories uses this text to go with the available images:
- You now can develop and run complete PC-based data acquisition systems quickly and easily in a 3-step process shown in the screenshots here: 1) configure your channels, 2) add processing, 3) then run your application.
- DAPstudio makes it easy to add all the onboard processing you require.
Microstar Laboratories, Inc. claims Microstar Laboratories, Data Acquisition Processor, DAP, DAPL, DAPL 2000, and DAPstudio as trademarks.
Microsoft Corporation has registered Windows as a trademark. Microsoft and 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.