Spectrum M4i series digitiser cards firmware options

Using hardware-based data analysis and reduction technology, Spectrum has created firmware options that allow its high-speed M4i series digitiser cards to perform peak detection and output the corresponding statistical data.

The cards offer real-time sampling rates of up to 500 MSps with 14-bit resolution and 250 MSps with 16-bit resolution. The cards are available with two or four channels and use a fast PCIe bus to transfer acquired or processed data to a host PC at speeds of up to 3.4 GBps.

The firmware options, featuring ultrafast performance, are able to scan blocks of data and then extract a waveform’s minimum, maximum, average, peak positions and trigger time stamp information. The analysis can be made on waveform block sizes from as small as 32 samples to as large as 2 gigasamples at rates of up to 5,000,000 events per second.

The peak detection and block statistics functions will be suitable in applications where users need to quickly characterise pulses or determine the time between them. Examples include radar, lidar, sonar, ultrasound, laser ranging, nuclear physics, power glitch monitoring and component testing.