Software

DASYLab^® is easy-to-use software that "lets you interactively develop PC-based data acquisition applications by simply attaching functional icons" according to the datasheet. Nevertheless, easy-to-use doesn’t mean limited. A wealth of functionality is included.

The power of LAN-based communications interfaces has transformed the way we approach everyday activities. Whether checking in for a flight or watching a movie, applications abound to save time and simplify transactions. Many of the time-saving utilities once viewed as consumer-based gimmicks, such as accessing a wide range of information on your hand-held, now are finding their way into business transactions and gaining much wider acceptance.

It’s inevitable. Basic electronic technology evolves. Chips and circuit boards are designed and made differently today than they were 10 years or even five years ago. It stands to reason that the technologies that manufacturers have deployed to test chips and circuit boards would evolve right along with the chips and boards.

What kinds of things can you accomplish with a PC DAQ board? Fundamentally, you’ve got analog input and output, digital input and output, and counter/timer functions to choose from. So, there is a small, well-defined list of basic categories.

Over the past few months, and especially in our update on Class B instruments in the September 2008 issue "The Killer Bs Are Coming," we have been reporting on the advantages of the IEEE 1588 precision timing protocol (PTP) and the application areas it is opening up for LXI instruments. There are, however, considerable 1588 interest and emerging activity in other industrial branches. In some cases, it even could initiate a switch away from some of today’s dominant timing methods.

SignalMeister™ v3.0 is Keithley Instruments’ software complement to the company’s line of vector signal analyzers (VSAs) and vector signal generators (VSGs). It’s a comprehensive application that addresses generation and analysis of single-input single-output (SISO) and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications signals within a user-friendly drag-and-drop programming environment. In addition to interfacing with real test instruments, simulated signals may be generated and analyzed with the results displayed in a number of formats.

The drive toward embedded instrumentation is not new. The force of miniaturization has been pervasive in the industry for more than three decades. Typically, it’s only a matter of time before a popular technology that was first implemented discretely in multiple chips or multiple circuit boards is eventually shrunk down and integrated into one or more chips.

The U.S. Department of Defense’s Synthetic Instrument Working Group (SIWG) originally defined synthetic instruments (SIs) in 2004 as elemental hardware and software components with standardized interfaces and measurement software, which yield a smaller footprint and greater flexibility.¹ Once the standard was defined, the group disbanded, and the remaining work moved to IEEE’s Automatic Test Markup Language (ATML) Group and the IVI Foundation Synthetic Instrument Groups.

Boundary scan is well established in the industry, a fact strengthened by major ATE companies like Agilent Technologies and Teradyne that have added boundary scan capabilities to their in-circuit testers. The next step is to increase its application by combining it with multiple test technologies and improving its features such as ease-of-use in design validation, repair on the manufacturing floor and in field service, and fault injection for non-boundary scan devices.

To ensure customers receive high-quality products, engineers must consider testing strategies before they even think about a schematic diagram. These days, most engineers realize boundary scan techniques described in IEEE 1149.1 aptly meet a broad range of test requirements.

Scripting is a powerful and convenient way to provide programmability for instruments in test and measurement applications. Script-based instruments provide architectural flexibility, improved performance, and lower cost for many applications. Scripting enhances the benefits of LXI instruments, and LXI offers features that both enable and enhance scripting.

With more LXI hardware coming to market and engineers taking a closer look at this technology, questions from developers and system integrators also involve software issues: What tools are available to help me program an LXI system, and how do they differ? For example, what debug facilities are at my disposal?

With extended support for Visual Basic (VB) 6.0 nearing its end this year, many developers are looking for guidance on whether to upgrade, reuse, rewrite, or replace their legacy VB 6 code in favor of developing on supported software platforms. VB .NET, the designated successor of VB 6, looks more like C++ than traditional Basic, making the move from VB 6 less than ideal—but the move may be worth the effort.

Shipping high-quality ICs requires that design-for-test (DFT) methodologies be included in a design. DFT provides external access at the device’s I/O pins to internal registers to either control or observe state data during manufacturing test.

In the past, chip manufacturers increased processor clock speed to double chip performance from 100 MHz to 200 MHz and more recently into the multigigahertz range. Today, however, increasing clock speeds for performance gains is not viable because of power-consumption and heat-dissipation constraints. Instead, vendors have moved to entirely new architectures with multiple processor cores on a single chip.