In all sectors, how the computer is connected to its measurement and control
environment is a significant issue. The choice of connection modality is
governed by the priorities of the system's end-user.
FemtoTek draws on its considerable expertise in using different connection methods to ensure that the measurement or control software makes best use of the features and throughput available.
PC Connections
In PC-based measurement applications, the PC application software communicates with the measurement hardware via any of a number of instrumentation and data acquisition connections, such as:
- USB - low-cost, high-speed serial bus
- Ethernet - various protocols, local and wide area
- LXI - ethernet with timing features
- GPIB - IEEE488 standard, rugged, still widely used
- PCI - high-speed, integrated hardware
- PXI - high-speed, modular compact rack with timing signals
- CAN - especially in vehicle measurements
Networked instruments are increasingly important in measurement and instrumentation applications.
The increase in speed of networks makes them suitable for an evolving range of measurement applications. The result is that you can build a PC-based measurement or control system without opening the PC to install additional plug-in cards.
Especially for measurement applications, issues of throughput and triggering are important. These requirements can be accommodated by careful design of the system architecture and the use of extended network schemes like LXI that have fast triggering capabilities.