Spectrum has introduced the M3i.41xx series, the first of a new series of ultra fast, high precision digitisers. The complete series consists of 6 different versions ranging from 100 MS/s to 400 MS/s with one or two synchronous channels. All versions are available as PCI/PCI-X and PCI express version for the same price. The M3i.41xx series is suitable for a large range of application areas especially high energy physics, research and development, radar, spectroscopy and laser applications.
Nearly 20 years of development expertise in the field of high speed PC based instruments have been incorporated into the new design. The M3i.41xx card series uses monolithic A/D converters even for the 400 MS/s acquisition mode. This eliminates all problems that come from interlaced A/D converters often used by competitor products in this speed range.
The highly configurable A/D amplifier stage consists of a 50 ohm terminated path with a bandwidth of 200 MHz and a second, high impedance path with a bandwidth > 100 MHz. 6 input ranges between ±100 mV and ±5 V can be software selected. In addition each channel has a programmable AC/DC coupling and a selectable low pass filter to optimise noise figures. The input stage can be on-board calibrated by just issuing a calibration command in software. Calibration values are stored in an on-board EEProm.
The card comes as a standard with 128 MSample and can be equipped with up to 2 GSample of on-board memory to cope with the large amounts of data. Using the full memory option it is possible to acquire more than 5 seconds of data with 400 MS/s. By choosing either the PCI 33/66 MHz (PCI-X) or PCI express interface model, continuous data can be streamed to PC RAM, its potential capacity now greatly extended in the new 64 bit Windows and Linux environments.
The fast FIFO data interface (up to 245 MByte/s) in combination with the Multiple Recording option and the complete on-board memory used as a FIFO buffer makes it possible to acquire data segments on every trigger event for hours. The option Multiple Recording can be programmed with pre- and posttrigger, an extended trigger delay and a wide combination of trigger modes to cover nearly all application needs that may occur. Multiple Recording may be combined with the timestamp option that will stamp each trigger event in relation to the internal clock base or even an external time signal.
The M3i.41xx is delivered with Windows 2000/XP/XP64/Vista/Vista64 and Linux 32/64 bit drivers, a set of programming examples and a basic version of the new SBench 6 software. SBench 6 is a powerful newly designed state-of-the-art digitiser software, that supports all software programmable features of the hardware. SBench 6 has been optimized for handling GBytes of acquired data and is available for Windows and Linux with KDE and Gnome.
The existing Spectrum SPCM drivers are used for programming the board, with the flexibility of the drivers allowing the programmer to build and design an application to exactly meet his requirements. The driver supports all M3i cards as well as all M2i cards allowing to easy upgrade hardware for existing applications. A set of standard programming examples is provided to illustrate the boards main signal capture functions. Extensive support includes Visual C++, Borland C++, Gnu C++, Visual Basic, VB.NET, C#, J# and Delphi code. This card series comes with a 2-year manufacturer guarantee. Drivers, software and firmware updates are available free of charge as it is the support given directly by the developer engineers themselves.
EPP Europe 567
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