Strategic Test Debuts 125 MHz 1 To 16 Channel Digital Bit Stream PCIe Card

Woburn, MA - Strategic Test has introduced the UF2e-7005 Digital Bit Stream card. This PCI Express card has 16 channels that can all be set to either input or output with a maximum clock rate of 125 MHz. What makes this card unique is that it is possible to use only 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 channels and use all of the available card memory. Also, when using fewer channels, it is possible to stream the data to or from a PC at higher rates than usual, allowing much longer signals to be recorded or generated.

"While a number of high-speed digital input and output boards are available, these typically provide 16 or 32 fixed channels and as a consequence map the entire available card memory to these channels," commented Bob Giblett, President of Strategic Test. "For applications that require recording or playback on fewer channels, this effectively wastes expensive card memory or requires more memory to be purchased in order to achieve a specific recording or playback duration."

The UF2e-7005 is equipped with 64 MBytes memory as standard, but can be expanded to 4 GBytes. This enables signals to be recorded or generated for periods of up to 16 seconds on 16 channels at 125 MHz and to 262 seconds when using just one channel.

For many applications, it will not be necessary to purchase additional memory as the signal data can be streamed to or from the host PC. As the PCI Express x1 bus has a maximum continuous transfer rate of 120 MBytes/s this means 8 bits or less can be streamed at just less than the maximum clock rate, while 4, 2 or 1 channels can be streamed at the maximum rate. Due to the serial bus nature of PCIe, every card can operate at this rate, unlike the 66 MHz / 33 Mhz PCI bus where the bandwidth is shared between multiple cards or attached motherboard devices.

Strategic Test provides the industry's most comprehensive software support with the following Software Development Kits available:

• Windows Vista and XP64, XP, 2000, NT and 98
• Linux drivers for RedHat, Suse, Fedora and Debian
• MATLAB
• LabVIEW
• Agilent-VEE
• LabWindows/CVI
• DASYLab

Advantages of PCI Express for Test & Measurement

More information on the advantages of PCI Express over 66/33 MHz PCI can be found on Strategic Test's website: http://www.strategic-test.com/library/

SOURCE: Strategic Test