Distributed intelligence allows engineers to run timing-critical processes in real-time, with PC-based data acquisition under Windows. Microstar Laboratories has introduced the xDAP 7400, which features an embedded 1.8GHz Intel processor and DAPL 3000, a new release of DAPL, the real-time operating system that operates on every data-acquisition-processor system. The local PC that controls the acquisition system connects to it through the front-panel USB 2.0 connector. That PC also can provide the system's data-acquisition services to other PCs over network connections. The system is semi-autonomous; it can run independently from its host PC after programming. PC software communicates with, configures, and controls the system, but the acquisition system can be set up for long periods without any connection to a PC. With an application using a software trigger, data can be selected for processing automatically, and the host PC can be disconnected. While operating independently, the acquisition can extract and process only what interests you from a sampled data stream. It lets you improve your signal quality by running the data stream through digital filters before storing it in local memory for transfer to the PC when the PC is connected and ready to accept the transfer. The distributed intelligence of multiple data-acquisition systems allow capture, buffering, and reduction of data, for faster transfer of information through limited PC-host capacity. The system includes a 16bit ADC running at 1Msample/s on each of eight channels simultaneously, for a throughput of 8Msamples/s. 1Gbyte of local memory provides space for data buffers and lets the data-acquisition system sustain this throughput indefinitely, transferring samples to the PC as required, with no loss of data.
