M4i.6622-x8 | Spectrum

General Information

The M4i.66xx-x8 series arbitrary waveform generators (AWG) deliver the highest performance in both speed and resolution. The series includes PCIe cards with either one, two or four synchronous channels. The large onboard memory can be segmented to replay different waveform sequences. The AWG features a PCI Express x8 Gen 2 interface that offers outstanding data streaming performance. The interface and Spectrum’s optimized drivers enable data transfer rates in excess of 2.8 GB/s so that signals can continuously replayed at a high output rate. While the cards have been designed using the latest technology they are still software compatible with the drivers from earlier Spectrum waveform generators. So, existing customers can use the same software they developed for a 10 year old 20 MS/s AWG card and for an M4i series 625 MS/s AWG.

In contrast to the parallel PCI buses PCI Express slots contain serial point to point connections. Each connection pair (lane) is able to reach a burst connection speed of 250 MB/s (Gen 1) or 500 MB/s (Gen2). The fast streaming cards from Spectrum with PCI Express x8 Gen 2 interface need a physical connector of x8 or x16. The card interface can adopt to any electrical PCI Express interface, be it x1, x4, x8 or x16 with any PCI Express generation. One advantage of the PCI Express technology is the direct connection of each slot allowing a full transfer bandwidth for each single card. PCI Express is the bus standard for PC based systems for the next couple of years. Today's State-of-the-art motherboards normally have a couple of PCI Express slots but only one or two PCI-X slots. Server and industrial motherboards as well as high performance cosumer motherboards offer normally PCI Express x8 slots.

The FIFO mode is designed for continuous data transfer between measurement board and PC memory or hard disk. The write(replay) transfer rate reached depends on the motherboard and can be up to 2.8 GByte/s on a PCI Express x8 Gen2 slot. 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.

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.

The sequence mode allows to split the card memory into several data segments of different length. These data segments are chained up in a user chosen order using an additional sequence step memory with the ability to program loops and triggers and to reload data while output is running.

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.

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.

Star-Hub (Optional)

The star-hub is an additional module allowing the phase stable synchronization of up to 8 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 allowing all channels of all cards to be trigger source at the same time. The star-hub is available as either piggy-back version (extending the width of the card) or as extension version (extending the length of the card to full length).

All boards can be triggered using a separate external trigger signal with a two level programmable window comparator and a second separate external trigger with a single programmable level comparator. It's possible to use positive or negative edge. An internally recognized trigger event can - when activated by software - be routed to a multi purpose i/o connector to start external instruments.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Additional synchronous digital channels (markers) can be replayed phase-stable with the analog data. When this mode is active up to 3 additional digital marker outputs can be used by reducing the analog resolution of the D/A converter.

The Spectrum Arbitrary Waveform Generators are equipped with a very wide programmable output amplitude. This allows to adapt the output signal level to the needs of the stimulated device while also having the maximum output resolution available for the signal.

This option is available for all 663x products with 1.25 GS/s. One option is needed per card/internal AWG of a generatorNETBOX. The bandwidth is extended from 400 MHz to 600 MHz. The maximum output level is reduced to ±480 mV. An external reconstruction filter is needed to remove mirror signals that result from higher Nyquist images.

3rd Party Drivers

A lot of third-party products are supported by the Spectrum driver. Choose between LabVIEW, MATLAB, LabWindows/CVI and IVI. All drivers come with examples and detailed documentation.

Programming Examples

Programming examples for C++, Delphi, Visual Basic, C#, J#, VB.Net, Java, Python and LabWindows/CVI are delivered with the driver. Due to the simple interface of the driver, the integration in other programming languages or special measurement software is an easy task.

Linux

All cards are delivered with full Linux support. Pre compiled kernel modules are included for the most common distributions like RedHat, Fedora, Suse, Ubuntu or Debian. The Linux support includes SMP systems, 32 bit and 64 bit systems, versatile programming examples for Gnu C++ as well as the possibility to get the driver sources for own compilation.

Remote Server (Optional)

Using the Spectrum Remote Server it is possible to access the M2p/M2i/M3i/M4i/M4x card(s) installed in one PC (server) from another PC (client) via local area network (LAN), similar to using a digitizerNETBOX. To operate it the remote server option has to be activated by a software license for any of the Spectrum cards in the remote system.

SBench6

SBench 6 is a powerful and intuitive interactive measurement software. Besides the possibility to commence the measuring task immediately, without programming, SBench 6 combines the setup of hardware, data display, oscilloscope, transient recorder, waveform generator, analyzing functions, import and export functions under one easy-to-use interface.

SCAPP - CUDA Interface (Optional)

The SDK option allows to directly transfer data between the Spectrum card and a NVIDA CUDA GPU card. The GPU card is optimized for parallel data processing. The package comes with a number of detailed examples like FFT or block average.

Windows

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 and Windows 10, all 32 bit and 64 bit.