M2p/M4i Multipurpose I/O Asynchronous speed

The multi-purpose I/O lines of the M2p and M4i series as well as the digitizerNETBOX and generatorNETBOX models of these cards can be used for asynchronous I/O operation. This acces is completely controlled by software and there is no hardware timing involved. The speed that is reached depends on the system the card is used in and the software environment.

For a standard PC with Intel i5 processor and a PCIe slot matching the slot width and speed of the card the following results have been measured. The measuring have been made with a simple loop that polls the input in a input case and that outputs an alternating signal in the output case. There was no other operation in parallel:

• M2p series using C++ examples: asynchronous output: ~540 kHz
• M2p series using C++ examples: asynchronous input: ~250 kHz
• M4i series using C++ examples: asynchronous output: ~340 kHz
• M4i series using C++ examples: asynchronous input: ~220 kHz

These resuls may vary from system to system. Please also keep in mind that these are average results and not a minimum speed that can be reached.