Spectrum Brands MI.61 Series User Manual

SPECTRUM SYSTEMENTWICKLUNG MICROELECTRONIC GMBH · AHRENSFELDER WEG 13-17 · 22927 GROSSHANSDORF · GERMANY PHONE: +49 (0)4102-6956-0 · FAX: +49 (0)4102-6956-66 · E-MAIL: info@spec.de · INTERNET: http://www.spectrum-instrumentation.com

MI.61xx

fast 8 bit arbitrary waveform generator

D/A converter board

for PCI bus

Hardware Manual

Driver Manual

English version November 9, 2012

SBench is a registered trademark of Spectrum Systementwicklung Microelectronic GmbH.

Microsoft, Visual C++, Visual Basic, Windows, Windows 98, Windows NT, Window 2000 and Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 are trademarks/registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

LabVIEW, DASYLab, Diadem and LabWindows/CVI are trademarks/registered trademarks of National Instruments Corporation.

MATLAB is a trademark/registered trademark of The Mathworks, Inc.

Agilent VEE, VEE Pro and VEE OneLab are trademarks/registered trademarks of Agilent Technologies, Inc.

FlexPro is a registered trademark of Weisang GmbH & Co. KG.

Introduction....................................................................................................................... 6

Preface ............................................................................................................................................................................... 6

General Information ............................................................................................................................................................. 6

Different models of the MI.61xx series .................................................................................................................................... 7

Additional options................................................................................................................................................................ 8

Extra I/O (Option -XMF).................................................................................................................................................. 8

Extra I/O (Option -XIO)................................................................................................................................................... 8

Starhub ......................................................................................................................................................................... 9

The Spectrum type plate ...................................................................................................................................................... 10

Hardware information......................................................................................................................................................... 11

Block diagram.............................................................................................................................................................. 11

Clock and Filter............................................................................................................................................................ 12

Dynamic Parameters ..................................................................................................................................................... 12

Hardware Installation ..................................................................................................... 13

System Requirements .......................................................................................................................................................... 13

Warnings.......................................................................................................................................................................... 13

ESD Precautions ........................................................................................................................................................... 13

Cooling Precautions...................................................................................................................................................... 13

Sources of noise ........................................................................................................................................................... 13

Installing the board in the system.......................................................................................................................................... 13

Installing a single board without any options.................................................................................................................... 13

Installing a board with digital inputs/outputs.................................................................................................................... 14

Installing a board with extra I/O (Option -XMF) ............................................................................................................... 14

Installing multiple boards synchronized by starhub............................................................................................................ 15

Installing multiple synchronized boards ........................................................................................................................... 16

Software Driver Installation............................................................................................. 17

Interrupt Sharing ................................................................................................................................................................ 17

Important Notes on Driver Version 4.00................................................................................................................................ 17

Windows XP 32/64 Bit ...................................................................................................................................................... 18

Installation ................................................................................................................................................................... 18

Version control ............................................................................................................................................................. 18

Driver - Update............................................................................................................................................................. 19

Windows Vista/7 32/64 Bit ............................................................................................................................................... 20

Installation ................................................................................................................................................................... 20

Version control ............................................................................................................................................................. 21

Driver - Update............................................................................................................................................................. 21

Windows NT / Windows 2000 32 Bit ................................................................................................................................. 22

Installation ................................................................................................................................................................... 22

Adding boards to the Windows NT / Windows 2000 driver............................................................................................. 22

Driver - Update............................................................................................................................................................. 22

Important Notes on Driver Version 4.00 .......................................................................................................................... 22

Linux................................................................................................................................................................................. 23

Overview .................................................................................................................................................................... 23

Installation ................................................................................................................................................................... 23

Software ......................................................................................................................... 25

Software Overview............................................................................................................................................................. 25

SPEasyGenerator ............................................................................................................................................................... 25

C/C++ Driver Interface....................................................................................................................................................... 26

Header files ................................................................................................................................................................. 26

Microsoft Visual C++ .................................................................................................................................................... 26

Borland C++ Builder ..................................................................................................................................................... 26

Linux Gnu C................................................................................................................................................................. 26

Other Windows C/C++ compilers ................................................................................................................................. 27

National Instruments LabWindows/CVI........................................................................................................................... 27

Driver functions ............................................................................................................................................................ 27

Delphi (Pascal) Programming Interface .................................................................................................................................. 30

Type definition ............................................................................................................................................................. 30

Include Driver............................................................................................................................................................... 30

Examples..................................................................................................................................................................... 30

Driver functions ............................................................................................................................................................ 30

Visual Basic Programming Interface ...................................................................................................................................... 32

Include Driver............................................................................................................................................................... 32

Visual Basic Examples................................................................................................................................................... 32

VBA for Excel Examples ................................................................................................................................................ 32

Driver functions ............................................................................................................................................................ 32

Programming the Board .................................................................................................. 34

Overview .......................................................................................................................................................................... 34

Register tables ................................................................................................................................................................... 34

Programming examples....................................................................................................................................................... 34

Error handling.................................................................................................................................................................... 34

Initialization....................................................................................................................................................................... 35

Starting the automatic initialization routine ...................................................................................................................... 35

PCI Register ................................................................................................................................................................. 35

Hardware version......................................................................................................................................................... 36

Date of production........................................................................................................................................................ 36

Serial number .............................................................................................................................................................. 36

Maximum possible sample rate ...................................................................................................................................... 36

Installed memory .......................................................................................................................................................... 36

Installed features and options ......................................................................................................................................... 37

Used interrupt line ........................................................................................................................................................ 37

Used type of driver ....................................................................................................................................................... 37

Example program for the board initialization ................................................................................................................... 38

Powerdown and reset ......................................................................................................................................................... 38

Analog Outputs ............................................................................................................... 39

Channel Selection .............................................................................................................................................................. 39

Important note on channels selection............................................................................................................................... 39

Disabling the outputs..................................................................................................................................................... 39

Setting up the outputs.................................................................................................................................................... 40

Output Amplifiers ......................................................................................................................................................... 40

Output offset ................................................................................................................................................................ 40

Output Filters ............................................................................................................................................................... 41

Standard generation modes ............................................................................................ 42

General description............................................................................................................................................................ 42

Singleshot mode........................................................................................................................................................... 42

Continuous Mode ......................................................................................................................................................... 42

Posttrigger Mode.......................................................................................................................................................... 42

Programming..................................................................................................................................................................... 42

Partitioning the memory................................................................................................................................................. 42

Starting without interrupt (classic mode)........................................................................................................................... 44

Starting with interrupt driven mode ................................................................................................................................. 44

Data organization ........................................................................................................................................................ 45

Writing data with SpcSetData........................................................................................................................................ 45

Sample format.............................................................................................................................................................. 46

FIFO Mode....................................................................................................................... 47

Overview .......................................................................................................................................................................... 47

General Information...................................................................................................................................................... 47

Background FIFO Write................................................................................................................................................. 47

Speed Limitations.......................................................................................................................................................... 47

Programming..................................................................................................................................................................... 48

Software Buffers ........................................................................................................................................................... 48

Buffer processing.......................................................................................................................................................... 49

FIFO mode .................................................................................................................................................................. 50

Example FIFO generation mode ........................................................................................................................................... 50

Data organization ........................................................................................................................................................ 51

Sample format.............................................................................................................................................................. 51

Clock generation ............................................................................................................. 52

Overview .......................................................................................................................................................................... 52

Internally generated sample rate .......................................................................................................................................... 52

Standard internal sample rate ........................................................................................................................................ 52

Using plain quartz without PLL........................................................................................................................................ 53

External reference clock ................................................................................................................................................ 53

External clocking................................................................................................................................................................ 54

Direct external clock ..................................................................................................................................................... 54

External clock with divider ............................................................................................................................................. 55

Trigger modes and appendant registers .......................................................................... 56

General Description............................................................................................................................................................ 56

Software trigger ................................................................................................................................................................. 56

External TTL trigger ............................................................................................................................................................. 56

Edge triggers ............................................................................................................................................................... 57

Option Multiple Replay.................................................................................................... 59

Output modes .................................................................................................................................................................... 59

Standard Mode............................................................................................................................................................ 59

FIFO Mode .................................................................................................................................................................. 59

Trigger modes.................................................................................................................................................................... 59

Resulting start delays..................................................................................................................................................... 60

Option Gated Replay....................................................................................................... 61

Output modes .................................................................................................................................................................... 61

Standard Mode............................................................................................................................................................ 61

FIFO Mode .................................................................................................................................................................. 61

Trigger modes.................................................................................................................................................................... 61

General information and trigger delay ............................................................................................................................ 61

Alignement samples per channel .................................................................................................................................... 62

Resulting start delays..................................................................................................................................................... 62

Number of samples on gate signal ................................................................................................................................. 63

Allowed trigger modes .................................................................................................................................................. 63

Example program............................................................................................................................................................... 63

Option Extra I/O ............................................................................................................. 64

Digital I/Os....................................................................................................................................................................... 64

Channel direction ......................................................................................................................................................... 64

Transfer Data ............................................................................................................................................................... 64

Analog Outputs.................................................................................................................................................................. 65

Programming example ........................................................................................................................................................ 65

Synchronization (Option) ................................................................................................. 66

The different synchronization options .................................................................................................................................... 66

Synchronization with option cascading ........................................................................................................................... 66

Synchronization with option starhub ............................................................................................................................... 66

The setup order for the different synchronization options ......................................................................................................... 67

Setup Order for use with standard (non FIFO) mode and equally clocked boards ................................................................. 67

Setup synchronization for use with FIFO mode and equally clocked boards ......................................................................... 71

Additions for synchronizing different boards .................................................................................................................... 73

Additions for equal boards with different sample rates ...................................................................................................... 74

Resulting delays using different boards or speeds ............................................................................................................. 75

Appendix ........................................................................................................................ 76

Error Codes....................................................................................................................................................................... 76

Pin assignment of the multipin connector ............................................................................................................................... 77

Extra I/O with external connector(Option -XMF) ............................................................................................................... 77

Pin assignment of the multipin cable ..................................................................................................................................... 77

IDC footprints............................................................................................................................................................... 78

Pin assignment of the internal multipin connector .................................................................................................................... 78

Extra I/O with internal connector (Option -XIO)................................................................................................................ 78

6 MI.61xx Manual

Preface Introduction

Introduction

Preface

This manual provides detailed information on the hardware features of your Spectrum instrumentation board. This information includes technical data, specifications, block diagram and a connector description.

In addition, this guide takes you through the process of installing your board and also describes the installation of the delivered driver package for each operating system.

Finally this manual provides you with the complete software information of the board and the related driver. The reader of this manual will be able to integrate the board in any PC system with one of the supported bus and operating systems.

Please note that this manual provides no description for specific driver parts such as those for LabVIEW or MATLAB. These drivers are provided by special order.

For any new information on the board as well as new available options or memory upgrades please contact our website http://www.spectrum-instrumentation.com. You will also find the current driver package with the latest bug fixes and new features on our site.

Please read this manual carefully before you install any hardware or software. Spectrum is not responsible for any hardware failures resulting from incorrect usage.

General Information

The MI.61xx series contains 2 different versions of arbitrary waveform generators for the PCI bus. With these boards it is possible to generate free definable waveforms on several channels synchronously. There are up to four channels on one board with a maximum sample rate of 125 MS/s. The internal standard Syncbus allows the setup of synchronous multi channel systems with higher channel numbers. It is also possible to combine the arbitrary waveform generator with other boards of the MI product family like analogue or digital acquisition boards.

With the up to 512 MSample (512 MByte) large on-board memory long waveform could be generated even with high sample rates. The memory can also be used as a FIFO buffer to make continuous data transfer from PC memory or hard disk.

Application examples: Automatic test systems, Synthesizer, Supersonics, Signal generators.

Introduction Different models of the MI.61xx series

Different models of the MI.61xx series

The following overwiew shows the different available models of the MI.61xx series. They differ in the number mounted generation modules and the number of available channels. You can also see the model dependant allocation of the output connectors.

• MI.6110

• MI.6111

8 MI.61xx Manual

Additional options Introduction

Additional options

Extra I/O (Option -XMF)

With this simple-to-use enhancement it is possible to control a wide range of external instruments or other equipment. Therefore you have 24 digital I/O and the 4 analog outputs available.

The extra I/O option is useful if an external amplifier should be controlled, any kind of signal source must be programmed, an antenna must be adjusted, a status information from external machine has to be obtained or different test signals have to be routed to the board.

The additional inputs and outputs are mounted on an extra bracket. The figure shows the allocation of the two connectors. The shown option is mounted exemplarily on a board with two modules. Of course you can also combine this option as well with a board that is equipped with only one module.

It is not possible to use this option together with the star hub or timestamp option, because there is just space for one piggyback module on the on-board expansion slot.

Extra I/O (Option -XIO)

With this simple-to-use enhancement it is possible to control a wide range of external instruments or other equipment. Therefore you have 16 digital I/O and the 4 analog outputs available.

The additional inputs and outputs are not mounted on an extra brakket, but are available on an internal connector. The figure shows the position of this connector on the bottom side of the extra I/O piggy-back module. The shown option is mounted exemplarily on a board with two modules. Of course you can also combine this option as well with a board that is equipped with only one module.

It is not possible to use this option together with the star hub or timestamp option, because there is just space for one piggyback module on the on-board expansion slot.

Introduction Additional options

Starhub

The star hub module allows the synchronisation of up to 16 MI boards. It is possible to synchronise boards of the same type with each other as well as different types.

The module acts as a star hub for clock and trigger signals. Each board is connected with a small cable of the same length, even the master board. That minimises the clock skew between the different boards. The figure shows the piggyback module mounted on the base board schematically without any cables to achieve a better visibility.

Any board could be the clock master and the same or any other board could be the trigger master. All trigger modes that are available on the master board are also available if the synchronisation star hub is used.

The cable connection of the boards is automatically recognised and checked by the driver at load time. So no care must be taken on how to cable the boards. The programming of the star hub is included in the standard board interface and consists of only 3 additional commands.

It is not possible to use this option together with the timestamp or extra I/O option, because the is just space for one piggyback module on the on-board expansion slot.

10 MI.61xx Manual

The Spectrum type plate Introduction

The Spectrum type plate

The Spectrum type plate, which consists of the following components, can be found on all of our boards.

The board type, consisting of the two letters describing the bus (in this case MI for the PCI bus) and the model number.

The size of the on-board installed memory in MSamples. In this example there are 8 MS (16 MByte) installed.

The serial number of your Spectrum board. Every board has a unique serial number.

The board revision, consisting of the base version and the module version.

A list of the installed options. A complete list of all available options is shown in the order information. In this example the options ’Multiple recording’ and ’Extra I/O with external outputs’ are installed.

The date of production, consisting of the calendar week and the year.

Please always supply us with the above information, especially the serial number in case of support request. That allows us to answer your questions as soon as possible. Thank you.

Introduction Hardware information

Hardware information

Block diagram

Technical Data

Resolution 8 Bit Dimension 312 mm x 107 mm Integral linearity (DAC) ± 1.5 LSB typ. Width (Standard) 1 full size slot Differential linearity (DAC) ± 1.0 LSB typ. Width (with star hub option) 2 full size slots Output resistance < 1 Ohm Width Amplifier option 1 half size slot Max output swing in 50 Ohm ± 3 V (offset + amplitude) Analogue connector 3 mm SMB male Max slew rate (no filter) > 0.9 V/ns Warm up time 10 minutes Multi: Trigger to 1st sample delay fixed Operating temperature 0°C - 50°C Multi: Recovery time < 20 samples Storage temperature -10°C - 70°C Ext. clock: delay to internal clock 42 ns ± 2 ns Humidity 10% to 90% Output to trigger out delay 1 channel <10 MS/s: -10 sampl., >10 MS/s: -42 sampl. Offset stepsize < 2 mV Output to trigger out delay 2 channels <5 MS/s: -5 sampl., > 5 MS/s: -21 sampl. Amplitude stepsize < 1 mV Crosstalk @ 1 MHz signal ±3 V < -80 dB Output accuracy < 1% Min internal clock 1 kS/s Power consumption 5 V @ full speed max 3.7 A (18.5 Watt) Min external clock DC Power consumption 5 V @ power down max 2.3 A (11.5 Watt)

Trigger input:Standard TTL level Low: -0.5 > level < 0.8 V

High: 2.0 V > level < 5.5 V Trigger pulse must be valid > 2 clock periods.

Clock input: Standard TTL level Low: -0.5 V > level < 0.8 V

High: 2.0 V > level < 5.5 V Rising edge. Duty cycle: 50% ± 5%

Trigger output Standard TTL, capable of driving 50 Ohm.

Low < 0.4 V (@ 20 mA, max 64 mA) High > 2.4 V (@ -20 mA, max -48 mA) One positive edge after the first internal trigger

Clock output Standard TTL, capable of driving 50 Ohm

Low < 0.4 V (@ 20 mA, max 64 mA) High > 2.4 V (@ -20 mA, max -48 mA)

12 MI.61xx Manual

Hardware information Introduction

Clock and Filter

Dynamic Parameters

Dynamic parameters are measured at the given output level and 50 Ohm termination with a high resolution data acquisition card and are calculated from the spectrum. The sample rate that is selected is the maximum possible one. All available channels are activated for the tests. SNR and SFDR figures may differ depending on the quality of the used PC. SNR = Signal to Noise Ratio, THD = Total Harmonic Distortion, SFDR = Spurious Free Dynamic Range

Order information

MI.6110 MI.6111 max internal clock 125 MS/s 125 MS/s max external clock 125 MS/s 125 MS/s

-3 dB bandwidth no filter > 60 MHz > 60 MHz

Filter 3: Characteristics 5th order Butterworth Filter 3: -3 dB bandwidth 25 MHz (typ. 25.6 MHz) Filter 2: Characteristics 4th order Butterworth Filter 2: -3 dB bandwidth 5 MHz (typ. 5.8 MHz) Filter 1: Characteristics 4th order Butterworth Filter 1: -3 dB bandwidth 500 kHz (typ. 495 kHz)

MI.6110

MI.6111

MI.6110

MI.6111 Test - Samplerate 125 MS/s 125 MS/s Output Frequency 400 kHz 4 MHz Output Level ±2 V ±2 V Used Filter 500 kHz 5 MHz SNR (typ) > 60.9 dB > 55.2 dB THD (typ) < -69.1 dB < -58.08 dB SFDR (typ), excl harm. > 71.9 dB > 65.6 dB

Order No Description Order No Description

MI6110 MI.6111 with 16 MSample memory and drivers/SBench 5.x MI61xx-32M Option: 32 MSample mem instead of 16 MSample standard mem MI6111 MI.6111 with 16 MSample memory and drivers/SBench 5.x MI61xx-64M Option: 64 MSample mem instead of 16 MSample standard mem

MI61xx-128M Option: 128 MSample mem instead of 16 MSample standard mem MI6xxx-mr Option Multiple Replay: Memory segmentation MI61xx-256M Option: 256 MSample mem instead of 16 MSample standard mem MI6xxx-gs Option Gated Sampling: Gate signal controls replay MI61xx-512M Option: 512 MSample mem instead of 16 MSample standard mem MI6xxx-cs Synchronisation of 2 - 4 boards, one option per system MI61xx-up Additional handling costs for later memory upgrade

MI6xxx-smod Star Hub: Synchronisation of 2 - 16 boards, one option per system MI6xxx-1Amp ±10 V Amplifier board with 1 channel MIxxxx.xio Extra I/O, internal connector: 16 DI/O, 4 Analog out MI6xxx-2Amp ±10 V Amplifier board with 2 channels MIxxxx-xmf Extra I/O, external connector: 24 DI/O, 4 Analog out, incl. cable MI6xxx-4Amp ±10 V Amplifier board with 4 channels

Cab-3f-9m-80 Adapter cable: SMB female to BNC male 80 cm MI61xx-dl DASYLab driver for MI.61xx series Cab-3f-9m-200 Adapter cable: SMB female to BNC male 200 cm MI61xx-hp VEE driver for MI.61xx series Cab-3f-9f-80 Adapter cable: SMB female to BNC female 80 cm MI61xx-lv LabVIEW driver for MI.61xx series Cab-3f-9f-200 Adapter cable: SMB female to BNC female 200 cm MATLAB MATLAB driver for all MI.xxxx, MC.xxxx and MX.xxxx series.

Hardware Installation System Requirements

Hardware Installation

System Requirements

All Spectrum MI.xxxx instrumentation boards are compliant to the PCI standard and require in general one free full length slot. Depending on the installed options additional free slots can be necessary.

Warnings

ESD Precautions

The boards of the MI.xxxx series contain electronic components that can be damaged by electrostatic discharge (ESD).

Before installing the board in your system or even before touching it, it is absolutely necessary to bleed of any electrostatic electricity.

Cooling Precautions

The boards of the MI.xxxx series operate with components having very high power consumption at high speeds. For this reason it is absolutely required to cool this board sufficiently. It is strongly recommended to install an additional cooling fan producing a stream of air across the boards surface. In most cases professional PC-systems are already equipped with sufficient cooling power. In that case please make sure that the air stream is not blocked.

During longer pauses between the single measurements the power down mode should be called to reduce the heat production.

Sources of noise

The boards of the MI.xxxx series should be placed far away from any noise producing source (like e.g. the power supply). It should especially be avoided to place the board in the slot directly adjacent to another fast board (like the graphics controller).

Installing the board in the system

Installing a single board without any options

Before installing the board you first need to unscrew and remove the dedicated blind-bracket usually mounted to cover unused slots of your PC. Please keep the screw in reach to fasten your Spectrum board afterwards. All Spectrum boards require a full length PCI slot with a track at the backside to guide the board by it’s retainer. Now insert the board slowly into your computer. This is done best with one hand each at both fronts of the board.

While inserting the board take care not to tilt the retainer in the track.

Please be very carefully when inserting the board in the PCI slot, as most of the mainboards are mounted with spacers and therefore might be damaged if they are exposed to high preasure.

After the board’s insertion fasten the screw of the bracket carefully, without overdoing.

14 MI.61xx Manual

Installing the board in the system Hardware Installation

Installing a board with digital inputs/outputs

Before installing the board you first need to unscrew and remove the dedicated blind-brackets usually mounted to cover unused slots of your PC. Please keep the screws in reach to fasten your Spectrum board and the extra bracket afterwards. All Spectrum boards require a full length PCI slot with a track at the backside to guide the board by it’s retainer. Now insert the board and the extra bracket slowly into your computer. This is done best with one hand each at both fronts of the board.

While inserting the board take care not to tilt the retainer in the track.

Please be very carefully when inserting the board in the PCI slot, as most of the mainboards are mounted with spacers and therefore might be damaged they are exposed to high preasure.

After the board’s insertion fasten the screws of both brackets carefully, without overdoing. The figure shows an example of a board with two installed modules.

Installing a board with extra I/O (Option -XMF)

While inserting the board take care not to tilt the retainer in the track.

Please be very carefully when inserting the board in the PCI slot, as most of the mainboards are mounted with spacers and therefore might be damaged they are exposed to high preasure.

After the board’s insertion fasten the screws of both brackets carefully, without overdoing. The figure shows an example of a board with two installed modules.

Hardware Installation Installing the board in the system

Installing multiple boards synchronized by starhub

Hooking up the boards

Before mounting several synchronized boards for a multi channel system into the PC you can hook up the boards with their synchronization cables first. If there is enough space in your computer’s case (e.g. a big tower case) you can also mount the boards first and hook them up afterwards. Spectrum ships the boards together with the needed amount of synchronization cables. All of them are matched to the same length, to achieve a zero clock delay between the boards.

Only use the included flat ribbon cables.

All of the boards, including the board that carrys the starhub piggy-back module, must be wired to the starhub as the figure is showing exemplarily for three synchronized boards.

It does not matter which of the 16 connectors on the starhub module you use for which board. The software driver will detect the types and order of the synchronized boards automatically. The figure shows the three cables mounted next to each other only to achieve a better visibility.

As some of the synchronization cables are not secured against wrong plugging you should take care to have the pin 1 markers on the multiple connectors and the cable on the same side, as the figure on the right is showing.

Mounting the wired boards

Before installing the boards you first need to unscrew and remove the dedicated blind-brackets usually mounted to cover unused slots of your PC. Please keep the screws in reach to fasten your Spectrum boards afterwards. All Spectrum boards require a full length PCI slot with a track at the backside to guide the board by it’s retainer. Now insert the board and the extra bracket slowly into your computer. This is done best with one hand each at both fronts of the board. Please keep in mind that the board carrying the starhub piggy-back module requires the width of two slots.

While inserting the boards take care not to tilt the retainers in the tracks.

Please be very carefully when inserting the boards in the PCI slots, as most of the mainboards are mounted with spacers and therefore might be damaged if they are exposed to high preasure.

After the boards insertion fasten the screws of all brackets carefully, without overdoing. The figure shows an example of three boards with two installed modules.

16 MI.61xx Manual

Installing the board in the system Hardware Installation

Installing multiple synchronized boards

Hooking up the boards

Before mounting several synchronized boards for a multi channel system into the PC you can hook up the boards with the synchronization cable first. If there is enough space in your computer’s case (e.g. a big tower case) you can also mount the boards first and hook them up afterwards. Spectrum ships the boards together with the needed synchronization cable.

All of the possible four boards must be wired with the delivered synchronization cable. The figure is showing an example of three synchronized boards.

The outer boards have a soldered termination for the sync bus. These boards are marked with an additional sticker.

Only mount the cluster of synchronized boards in a row with the dedicated boards on the outer sides.

Mounting the wired boards

Before installing the boards you first need to unscrew and remove the dedicated blind-brackets usually mounted to cover unused slots of your PC. Please keep the screws in reach to fasten your Spectrum boards afterwards. All Spectrum boards require a full length PCI slot with a track at the backside to guide the board by it’s retainer. Now insert the boards slowly into your computer. This is done best with one hand each at both fronts of the board.

While inserting the boards take care not to tilt the retainers in the tracks.

Please be very carefully when inserting the boards in the PCI slots, as most of the mainboards are mounted with spacers and therefore might be damaged if they are exposed to high preasure.

After the boards insertion fasten the screws of all brackets carefully, without overdoing. The figure shows an example of three boards with two installed modules.

Software Driver Installation Interrupt Sharing

Software Driver Installation

Before using the board a driver must be installed that matches the operating system. The installation is done in different ways depending on the used operating system. The driver that is on CD supports all boards of the MI, MC and MX series. That means that you can use the same driver for all boards of theses families.

Interrupt Sharing

This board uses a PCI interrupt for DMA data transfer and for controlling the FIFO mode. The used interrupt line is allocated by the PC BIOS at system start and is normally depending on the selected slot. Because there is only a limited number of interrupt lines available on the PCI bus it can happen that two or more boards must use the same interrupt line. This so called interrupt sharing must be supported by all drivers of the participating equipment.

Most available drivers and also the Spectrum driver for your board can manage interrupt sharing. But there are also some drivers on the market that can only use one interrupt exclusively. If this equipment shares an interrupt with the Spectrum board, the system will hang up if the second driver is loaded (the time is depending on the operating system).

If this happens it is necessary to reconfigure the system in that way that the critical equipment has an exclusive access to an interrupt.

On most systems the BIOS shows a list of all installed PCI boards with their allocated interrupt lines directly after system start. You have to check whether an interrupt line is shared between two boards. Some BIOS allow the manual allocation of interrupt lines. Have a look in your mainboard manual for further information on this topic.

Because normally the interrupt line is fixed for one PCI slot it is simply necessary to use another slot for the critical board to force a new interrupt allocation. You have to search a configuration where all critical boards have only exclusive access to one interrupt.

Depending on the system, using the Spectrum board with a shared interrupt may degrade performance a little. Each interrupt needs to be checked by two drivers. For this reason when using time critical FIFO mode even the Spectrum board should have an exclusively access to one interrupt line.

Important Notes on Driver Version 4.00

With Windows driver version V4.00 and later the support for Windows 64 bit versions was added for MI, MC and MX series cards. This required an internal change such that Windows 98, Windows ME, and Windows 2000 versions are no longer compatible with the WDM driver version.

Windows 98 and Windows ME should use the latest 3.39 driver version (delivered on CD revision 3.06), because with driver version V4.00 on these two operating systems are no longer supported.

Windows 2000 users can alternatively change from the existing WDM driver to the Windows NT legacy driver, which is still supported by Spectrum.

Because changing from one driver model (WDM) to another (NT legacy) might result in conflicts please contact Spectrum prior to the update.

18 MI.61xx Manual

Windows XP 32/64 Bit Software Driver Installation

Windows XP 32/64 Bit

Installation

When installing the board in a Windows XP system the Spectrum board will be recognized automatically on the next start-up.

The system offers the direct installation of a driver for the board.

Do not let Windows automatically search for the best driver, because sometimes the driver will not be found on the CD. Please take the option of choosing a manual installation path instead.

Allow Windows XP to search for the most suitable driver in a specific directory. Select the CD that was delivered with the board as installation source. The driver files are located on CD in the directory \Driver\win32\winxp_vista_7 for Windows Vista/7 (for 32 Bit) or \Driver\win64\winxp_vista_7 for Windows Vista/7 (for 64 Bit)

The hardware assistant shows you the exact board type that has been found like the MI.3020 in the example. Older boards (before june 2004) show „Spectrum Board“ instead.

The drivers can be used directly after installation. It is not necessary to restart the system. The installed drivers are linked in the device manager.

Below you’ll see how to examine the driver version and how to update the driver with a newer version.

Version control

If you want to check which driver version is installed in the system this can be easily done in the device manager. Therefore please start the device manager from the control panel and show the properties of the installed driver.

Software Driver Installation Windows XP 32/64 Bit

On the property page Windows XP shows the date and the version of the installed driver.

After clicking the driver details button the detailed version information of the driver is shown. In the case of a support question this information must be presented together with the board’s serial number to the support team to help finding a fast solution.

Driver - Update

If a new driver version should be installed no Spectrum board is allowed to be in use by any software. So please stop and exit all software that could access the boards.

A new driver version is directly installed from the device manager. Therefore please open the properties page of the driver as shown in the section before. As next step click on the update driver button and follow the steps of the driver installation in a similar way to the previous board and driver installation.

Please select the path where the new driver version was unzipped to. If you’ve got the new driver version on CD please select the proper path on the CD containing the new driver version: \Driver\win32\winxp_vista_7 for Windows Vista/7 (for 32 Bit) or \Driver\win64\winxp_vista_7 for Windows Vista/7 (for 64 Bit)

The new driver version can be used directly after installation without restarting the system. Please keep in mind to update the driver of all installed Spectrum boards.

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Windows Vista/7 32/64 Bit Software Driver Installation

Windows Vista/7 32/64 Bit

Installation

When installing the card in a Windows Vista or Windows 7 system, it might be recognized automatically on the next start-up. The system tries at first to automatically search and install the drivers from the Microsoft homepage.

This mechanism will fail at first for the „PCI Device“ device, because the Spectrum drivers are not available via Microsoft, so simply close the dialog. This message can be safely ignored.

Afterwards open the device manager from the Windows control panel, as shown on the right.

Find the above mentioned „PCI Device“, right-click and select „Update Driver Software...“

Do not let Windows Vista/7 automatically search the for the best driver, because it will search the internet and not find a proper driver. Please take the option of browsing the computer manually for the driver software instead. Allow Windows Vista/7 to search for the most suitable driver in a specific directory.

Now simply select the root folder of the CD that was delivered with the board as installation source and enable the „Include subfolders“ option.

Alternatively you can browse to the installtions folders. The driver files are located on CD in the directory \Driver\win32\winxp_vista_7 for Windows Vista/7 (for 32 Bit) or \Driver\win64\winxp_vista_7 for Windows Vista/7 (for 64 Bit)

Software Driver Installation Windows Vista/7 32/64 Bit

On the upcoming Windows security dialog select install. To prevent Windows Vista/7 to always ask this question for future updates, you can optionally select to always trust software from Spctrum.

The hardware assistant then shows you the exact board type that has been found like the MI.3120 in the example.

The drivers can be used directly after installation. It is not necessary to restart the system. The installed drivers are linked in the device manager.

Below you’ll see how to examine the driver version and how to update the driver with a newer version.

Version control

On the property page Windows Vista/7 shows the date and the version of the installed driver. After clicking the driver details button the detailed version information of the driver is shown. In the case of a support question this information must be presented together with the board’s serial number to the support team to help finding a fast solution.

Driver - Update

The driver update under Windows Vista/7 is exact the same procedure as the initial installation. Please follow the steps above, starting from the device manager, select the Spectrum card to be updated, right-click and select „Update Driver Software...“ and follow the steps above.

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Windows NT / Windows 2000 32 Bit Software Driver Installation

Windows NT / Windows 2000 32 Bit

Installation

Under Windows NT and Windows 2000 the Spectrum driver must be installed manually. The driver is found on CD in the directory \Driver\win32\winnt. Please start the „winNTDrv_Install.exe“ program. The installation is performed totally automatically, simply click on the „Next“ button. After installtion the system must be rebooted

once (see picture on the right side). The driver is install to support one PCI/PXI or CompactPCI device. If more boards are installed in the system the configuration of the driver has to be changed. Please see the following chapter for this topic.

Adding boards to the Windows NT / Windows 2000 driver

The Windows NT lagacy driver must be configured by the Driver Configuration utility to support more than one board. The Driver Configuration utility is automatically installed with the driver. The Utility can be found in the start menu as „DrvConfig“.

To add a new card please follow these steps:

• Increase the board number on top of the screen by pressing the right button

• Change the board type from „Not Installed“ to „PCI Board“

• Press the „Apply changes“ button

• Press the „OK“ button

• Restart the system

Driver - Update

If a new driver version should be installed no Spectrum board is allowed to be in use by any software. So please stop and exit all software that could access the boards. When updating a system please simply execute the setup file of the new driver version. Afterwards the system has to be rebooted. The driver configuration is not changed.

Important Notes on Driver Version 4.00

Because changing from one driver model (WDM) to another (NT legacy) might result in conflicts please contact Spectrum prior to the update.

Software Driver Installation Linux

Linux

Overview

The Spectrum boards are delivered with drivers for linux. It is necessary to install them manually following the steps explained afterwards. The linux drivers can be found on CD in the directory /Driver/linux. As linux is an open source operating system there are several distributions in use world-wide that are compiled with different kernel settings. As we are not able to install and maintain hundreds of different distributions and versions we had to focus on some common used linux distributions. However if your distribution does not work with one of these pre-compiled kernel modules or you have a specialized kernel installed (like a SMP kernel) you can get the linux driver sources directly from us. With this sources it’s no problem to compile and use the linux driver on your system. Please contact your local distributor to get the sources. The Spectrum linux drivers are compatible with kernel versions 2.4, 2.6 and

3.x.

On this CD you’ll find pre-compiled linux kernel modules for the following versions

64 bit

The Spectrum Linux Drivers also run under 64 bit systems based on the AMD 64 bit architecture (AMD64). The Intel architecture (IA64) is not supported and has not been tested. All drivers, examples and programs need to be recompiled to run under 64 bit Linux. The 64 bit support is available starting with driver version 3.18. Due to the different pointer size two additional functions have been implemented that are described later on. All special functionality concerning 64 bit Linux support is marked with the logo seen on the right.

Installation

It is necessary to have the root rights for installing a driver.

Select the right driver from the CD.

Refer to the list shown above. If your distribution is not listed there please select the module that most closely matches your installed kernel version. Copy the driver kernel module spc.o from the CD directory to your hard disk. Be sure to use a hard disk directory that is a accessible by all users who should work with the board.

First time load of the driver

The linux driver is shipped as the loadable module spc.o. The driver includes all Spectrum PCI, PXI and CompactPCI boards. The boards are recognized automatically after driver loading.Load the driver with the insmod command:

The insmod command may generate a warning that the driver module was compiled for another kernel version. In that case you may try to load the driver module with the force parameter and test the board very carefully.

If the kernel module could not be loaded in your linux installation it is necessary to compile the driver directly on your system. Please contactSpectrum to get the needed source files including the compilation description.

Distribution Kernel Version Processor Width Distribution Kernel Version Processor Width

Suse 9.0 2.4.21 single only 32 bit Redhat 9.0 2.4.20 single and smp 32 bit Suse 9.1 2.6.4 single and smp 32 bit Fedora Core 3 2.6.9 single and smp 32 bit Suse 9.3 2.6.11 single and smp 32 bit Fedora Core 4 2.6.11 single and smp 32 bit Suse 10.0 2.6.13 single only 32 bit and 64 bit Fedora Core 5 2.6.15 single and smp 32 bit and 64 bit Suse 10.1 2.6.16 single only 32 bit and 64 bit Fedora Core 6 2.6.18 single and smp 32 bit and 64 bit Suse 10.2 2.6.18 single and smp 32 bit and 64 bit Fedora Core 7 2.6.21 single and smp 32 bit and 64 bit Suse 10.3 2.6.22 single and smp 32 bit and 64 bit Fedora 8 2.6.23 single and smp 32 bit and 64 bit Suse 11.0 2.6.25 single and smp 32 bit and 64 bit Fedora 9 2.6.25 single and smp 32 bit and 64 bit Suse 11.1 2.6.27 single and smp 32 bit and 64 bit Fedora 10 2.6.27 single and smp 32 bit and 64 bit Suse 11.2 2.6.31 single and smp 32 bit and 64 bit Fedora 11 2.6.29 single and smp 32 bit and 64 bit Suse 11.3 2.6.34 single and smp 32 bit and 64 bit Fedora 12 2.6.31 single and smp 32 bit and 64 bit Suse 11.4 2.6.38 single and smp 32 bit and 64 bit Fedora 13 2.6.33.3 single and smp 32 bit and 64 bit Suse 12.1 3.1 single and smp 32 bit and 64 bit Fedora 14 2.6.35.6 single and smp 32 bit and 64 bit

Fedora 15 2.6.38.6 single and smp 32 bit and 64 bit Debian Sarge 2.4.27 single 32 bit Fedora 16 3.1 single and smp 32 bit and 64 bit Debian Etch 2.6.18 single and smp 32 bit and 64 bit Fedora 17 3.3.4 single and smp 32 bit and 64 bit Debian Sarge 2.6.8 single 32 bit Debian Lenny 2.6.26 single and smp 32 bit and 64 bit Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 3.2 single and smp 32 bit and 64 bit

linux:~ # insmod spc.o

linux:~ # insmod -f spc.o

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Linux Software Driver Installation

Depending on the used linux distribution the insmod command generates a message telling the driver version and the board types and serial numbers that have been found. If your distribution does not show this message it is possible to view them with the dmesg command:

In the example we show you the output generated by a MI.3020. All other board types are similar to this output but showing the correct board type.

Udev support

Starting with driver version 3.21 build 1548 the driver natively supports udev. Once the driver is loaded it automatically generates the device nodes under /dev. The cards are automatically named to /dev/spc0, /dev/spc1, ... If udev is installed on your system the following two installtion steps are not necessary to be made manually. You may use all the standard naming and rules that are available with udev.

Examine the major number of the driver

For accessing the device driver it is necessary to know the major number of the device. This number is listed in the /proc/devices list. The device driver is called "spec" in this list. Normally this number is 254 but this depends on the device drivers that have been installed before.

Installing the device

You connect a device to the driver with the mknod command. The major number is the number of the driver as shown in the last step, the minor number is the index of the board starting with 0. This step must only be done once for the system where the boards are installed in. The device will remain in the file structure even if the board is de-installed from the system.

The following command makes a device for the first Spectrum board the driver has found:

Make sure that the users who work with the driver have full rights access for the device. Therefore you should give all persons all rights to the device:

Now it is possible to access the board using this device.

Driver info

Information about the installed boards could be found in the /proc/spectrum file. All PCI, PXI and CompactPCI boards show the basic information found in the EEProm there. This is an example output generated by a MI.3020:

Automatic load of the driver

It is necessary to load the kernel driver module after each start of the system before using the boards. Therefore you may add the „insmod spc.o“ command in one of the start-up files. Or you may load the kernel driver module manually whenever you need access to the board.

linux:~ # dmesg ... some other stuff spc driver version: 3.07 build 0 sp0: MI.3020 sn 01234

linux:~ # cat /proc/devices Character devices: ... 171 ieee1394 180 usb 188 ttyUSB 254 spec

Block devices: 1 ramdisk 2 fd ...

linux:~ # mknod /dev/spc0 c 254 0

linux:~ # chmod a+w /dev/spc0

linux:~ # cat /proc/spectrum

Spectrum driver information

--------------------------Driver Version: 3.07 build 0

Board#0: MI.3020 serial number: 01234 production month: 05/2004 version: 9.6 samplerate: 100 MHz installed memory: 16 MBytes

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Spectrum Brands MI.61 Series User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual