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M2i.7211
Pattern generator with programmable levels
Description:
The M2i.72xx pattern generator series gives the user the possibility to generate digital data with a wide range of output levels. For every 4 bit the LOW and HIGH levels can be programmed from -2.0 V up to +10.0 V. Even at high speeds you are not limited concerning the maximum output swing. This enables the user to drive devices of nearly any logic family, like ECL, PECL, TTL, LVDS, LVTTL, CMOS or LVCMOS. The potentially necessary differential signals are generated in hardware, so that only one data bit is used for each pair of differential signals.
Facts & Features:
- Up to 10 MS/s at 16 bit
- Up to 5 MS/s at 32 bit
- Programmable output levels from -2,0 V up to +10,0 V
- Levels individually programmable per 4 bit
- All Outputs can be separately disabled (Tristate)
- Hardware controlled differential output possible
- Up to 2 GByte on-board memory
- 512 MByte standard memory installed
- Edge / pulse width / delay trigger
- Sustained streaming mode
- 66 MHz 32 bit PCI-X interface
- 5V / 3.3V PCI compatible
- 100% compatible to conventional PCI >= V2.1
- Sustained streaming mode up to 245 MB/s
Application examples:
- Chip test
- Pattern stimulation
FIFO mode
The FIFO mode is designed for continuous data transfer between measurement board and PC memory (up to 245 MB/s on a PCI-X slot, up to 125 MB/s on a PCI slot and up to 160 MB/s on a PCIe slot) or hard disk. The control of the data stream is done automatically by the driver on interrupt request. The complete installed on-board memory is used for buffer data, making the continuous streaming extremely reliable.
BaseXIO (Optional)
The BaseXIO option offers 8 asynchronous digital I/O lines on the base card. The direction can be selected by software in groups of four. Two of these lines can also be used as additional external trigger sources. This allows the building of complex trigger conjunctions with external gated triggers as well as AND/OR conjunction of multiple external trigger sources like, for example, the picture and row synchronisation of video signals. In addition one of the I/O lines can be used as reference clock for the Timestamp counter.
Star-Hub (Optional)
The star-hub is an additional module allowing the phase stable synchronization of up to 16 boards in one system. Independent of the number of boards there is no phase delay between all channels. The star-hub distributes trigger and clock information between all boards. As a result all connected boards are running with the same clock and the same trigger. All trigger sources can be combined with OR/AND allowing all channels of all cards to be trigger source at the same time. The star-hub is available as 5 card and 16 card version. The 5 card version doesn't need an extra slot.
Singleshot Output
When singleshot output is activated the data of the on-board memory is replayed exactly one time. As trigger source one can use the external TTL trigger or the software trigger.
Repeated Output
When repeated output is used the data of the on-board memory is replayed continuously until a stop command is executed or N times. As trigger source one can use the external TTL trigger or the software trigger.
Single Restart
When this mode is activated the data of the on-board memory will be replayed once after each trigger event. As Trigger source one can use the external TTL or software trigger.System Star-Hub (Optional)
Using the System Star-Hub for M2i series cards it is possible to synchronize several systems with each other having the same advantages that the standard Star-Hub gives. The system star-hub allows to extend the number of synchronous channels or set up multiple synchronous data streaming systems either for data storage or online calculations.
Multiple Replay
The Multiple Replay option allows the fast repetition output on several trigger events without restarting the hardware. With this option very fast repetition rates can be achieved. The on-board memory is divided in several segments of same size. Each of them is generated if a trigger event occurs.
Gated Replay
The Gated Sampling option allows data replay controlled by an external gate signal. Data is only replayed if the gate signal has a programmed level.
External Trigger
All boards can be triggered using an external TTL signal. It's possible to use positive or negative edge also in combination with a programmable pulse width. An internally recognized trigger event can - when activated by software - be routed to the trigger connector to start external instruments.
External Clock
Using a dedicated connector a sampling clock can be fed in from an external system. It's also possible to output the internally used sampling clock to synchronize external equipment to this clock.
Reference Clock
The option to use a precise external reference clock (normally 10 MHz) is necessary to synchronize the board for high-quality measurements with external equipment (like a signal source). It's also possible to enhance the quality of the sampling clock in this way. The driver automatically generates the requested sampling clock from the fed in reference clock.
High Precision PLL
The internal sampling clock of the card is generated using a high precision PLL. This powerful device allows to select the sampling rate with a fine step size making it possible to perfectly adopt to different measurement tasks. Most other cards on the market only allow the setup of fixed sampling rates like 100 MS/s, 50 MS/s, 25 MS/s, 10 MS/s, ... without any possibility to set the sampling rate to any value in between.Programmable Output Levels
One of the key features of the M2i.72xx pattern generator series is the high number of different logic levels that can be programmed per board. The low and high output level of the pattern can be programmed in the range from -2V to +10V covering nearly all logic levels that are available like ECL, PECL, TTL, LVDS, LVTTL, CMOS or LVCMOS.
This standard driver is included in the card delivery and it is possible to get the newest driver version free of charge from our homepage at any time. There are no additional SDK fees for the classical text-based programming. All boards are delivered with drivers for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10 and Windows 11, all 32 bit and 64 bit.
| Product | Channels | Max. Samplerate |
|---|---|---|
| M2i.7210 | 0 | 10 MS/s |
| M2i.7220 | 0 | 40 MS/s |
| M2i.7221 | 0 | 40 MS/s |
| On different platforms | Bus | Max. Bus Transfer speed |
|---|---|---|
| M2i.7211-Exp | PCI Express x1 | 160 MByte/s |
| MC.7211 | CompactPCI | 100 MByte/s |
| MI.7211 | PCI | 100 MByte/s |
Docking Stations (Optional)
All Spectrum products can be used in 3rd party docking stations, connected by either PCIe interface card or by Thunderbolt interface. Docking stations can extend a standard PC by up to 16 PCIe slots.Documents
 Legacy Windows Driver Installation |
Windows driver installation of driver versions < 4.0 |
21.02.2022 | 1 M | |
| M2i.72xx Datasheet |
Datasheet of the M2i.72xx family |
21.02.2022 | 665 K | |
| M2i.72xx Manual |
Manual of M2i.72xx family |
21.02.2022 | 6 M | |
| Streaming System |
Datasheet of Spectrum Terastore Streaming System |
21.02.2022 | 910 K | |
| M2i ClkTrigDistr Datasheet |
M2i Clock / Trigger distribution card |
21.02.2022 | 217 K | |
| M2i StarHub Datasheet |
M2i StarHub module datasheet |
21.02.2022 | 224 K | |
| Docking Station |
Data sheet of Docking Station |
21.02.2022 | 166 K | |
| IVI Driver Manual |
Short Manual for IVI Driver |
21.02.2022 | 532 K | |
| SBench 6 data sheet |
Data sheet of SBench 6 |
14.08.2025 | 1 M | |
| MATLAB Manual |
Manual for MATLAB driver M2p/M4i/M4x/M5i/M2i/M3i/DN2/DN6 |
19.05.2026 | 1 M | |
| LabVIEW Manual |
Manual for LabVIEW drivers for M2i/DN2 |
21.02.2022 | 2 M | |
| SBench 6 Manual |
Manual for SBench 6 |
21.02.2022 | 7 M |
WINDOWS DRIVER + SOFTWARE
 Win32 Driver Win2k |
M2i / M3i driver - last Version for Windows 2000 |
2 | 21.02.2022 | 437 K |
 Driver Win7/8/10/11 |
M2p/M4i/M4x/M5i/M2i/M3i/DN2/DN6 driver for Windows 7, 8, 10, 11 (32/64 bit) |
7.010 | 19.05.2026 | 5 M |
| Win32 Driver WinXP/Vista |
M2i/M3i/M4i/M4x driver - last Version for Windows 32 XP / Vista |
3.30 | 21.02.2022 | 2 M |
| Win64 Driver WinXP/Vista |
M2i/M3i/M4i/M4x driver - last Version for Windows 64 XP / Vista |
3.20 | 21.02.2022 | 3 M |
| c_header |
C/C++ driver header and library files |
7.010 | 19.05.2026 | 46 K |
| Control Center Win2k |
Spectrum Control Center - last Version for Windows 2000 |
1.41 | 21.02.2022 | 8 M |
| SBench5 |
SBench 5 Installer |
5.3.0 | 21.02.2022 | 5 M |
| Control Center (32-bit) |
Spectrum Control Center (32-bit) / Windows 7, 8, 10 |
2.44 | 19.05.2026 | 24 M |
| Control Center (64-bit) |
Spectrum Control Center (64-bit) / Windows 7, 8, 10, 11 |
2.44 | 19.05.2026 | 37 M |
| Control Center WinXP |
Spectrum Control Center - last Version for Windows XP |
1.74 | 21.02.2022 | 8 M |
| SBench6 (32-bit) |
SBench 6 (32-bit) Installer / Windows 7, 8, 10 |
6.5.15 | 19.05.2026 | 31 M |
| SBench6 (64-bit) |
SBench 6 (64-bit) Installer / Windows 7, 8, 10, 11 |
6.5.15 | 19.05.2026 | 44 M |
| SBench6 WinXP |
SBench6 - last Version for Windows XP |
6.3.5 | 21.02.2022 | 41 M |
| Remote Server Windows |
Windows Installer for Remote Server Option |
19.05.2026 | 12 M | |
| LabView driver |
M2i/M2p/M3i/M4i/M4x/M5i/DN2/DN6 LabView driver installer |
19.05.2026 | 20 M | |
| Matlab driver |
M2p/M4i/M4x/M5i/M2i/M3i/DN2/DN6 Matlab driver + examples installer |
19.05.2026 | 25 M | |
| Examples for Windows |
Windows Examples (C/C++, .NET, Delphi, Java, Python, Julia ...) |
7.05 | 19.05.2026 | 2 M |
LINUX DRIVER + SOFTWARE
 Linux Driver Complete |
M2p/M4i/M4x/M5i/M2i/M3i drivers (Kernel + Library) for Linux 32 bit and 64 bit |
7.010 | 19.05.2026 | 45 M |
| Linux Driver Library |
Driver libraries (no Kernel) for Linux 32 bit and 64 bit |
7.010 | 19.05.2026 | 12 M |
| Remote Server Linux |
Spectrum Remote Server Linux Installer Package |
19.05.2026 | 14 K | |
| Control Center |
Spectrum Control Center |
2.44 | 19.05.2026 | 38 M |
| SBench6 |
SBench 6 Linux 32 (.rpm) |
6.5.08 | 22.04.2024 | 26 M |
| SBench6 |
SBench 6 Linux 64 (.rpm) |
6.5.15 | 20.05.2026 | 17 M |
| SBench6 |
SBench 6 Linux 32 (.deb) |
6.5.08 | 15.04.2026 | 23 M |
| SBench6 |
SBench 6 Linux 64 (.deb) |
6.5.15 | 20.05.2026 | 17 M |
| SBench6 |
SBench6 Jetson (.deb) |
6.5.15 | 19.05.2026 | 26 M |
| MATLAB Driver |
Drivers + examples for MATLAB for Linux (DEB + RPM) |
19.05.2026 | 158 K | |
| Examples for Linux |
Linux Examples (C/C++, Python, Julia ...) |
7.05 | 19.05.2026 | 453 K |
Firmware
| Firmware Update (Windows) |
M2i/M2p/M3i/M4i/M4x/M5i firmware update (Windows) |
19.05.2026 | 33 M | |
| Firmware Update (Linux) |
M2i/M2p/M3i/M4i/M4x/M5i firmware update (Linux) |
19.05.2026 | 51 M |
Product Notes
| Trigger and Sync | Trigger, Clock and Synchronization Details at high-speed Digitizers |
21.02.2022 | 1 M | |
| Digitizer Software Integration | Software Support for Modular Digitizers |
21.02.2022 | 724 K | |
| SBench 6 Introduction | SBench 6 - Data Acquisition and Analysis of Digitizer Data |
21.02.2022 | 1 M |
Application Notes
| AN008 Install Legacy Win Drivers | Application Note: Legacy Windows Driver Installation |
21.02.2022 | 1 M |