PCI-345 Dual-Page Arbitrary Waveform Generator
The PCI-345 Dual-Page Arbitrary Waveform Generator (AWG) is one of the most sophisticated AWGs in the industry. The PCI-345 starts with the features found on the PCI-343 (waveform memory segmentation, linking, looping, loop until trigger, and multi-sequence mode), and in addition the PCI-345 has two waveform memory pages. While one page is used by the waveform generator, the other page is accessible by the PC for loading a new waveform. Dual waveform memory pages allow engineers to create infinitely long waveforms by concatenating portions of a waveform together, or they can be used in process control (i.e. feedback) systems for tuning a waveform pattern. Page switching is accomplished without glitches. For more information, download the .pdf of the complete, detailed data sheet and specifications.
The PCI-345 provides two capabilities not found on single-page AWGs. First of all, very long waveforms can be created by concatenating waveform segments together. Medical waveforms, such as EEG and ECG, are created by transferring part of the waveform from the hard drive to one of the pages of the AWG, while the other waveform memory page is being used by the generator to output the previous section of the waveform. The second capability provided by the dual-page design of the PCI-345 is very useful in automatic test systems (ATE) and process control (i.e. feedback systems). The PC can create a series of different waveforms and switching from one waveform to the next is accomplished without any glitches. In ATE systems, a series of interactive test vectors can be generated by the AWG. Depending on the result of a test, the PC can choose to utilize a different test vector for the subsequent test, and the PCI-345 provides a glitchless method for implementing this procedure. In process control systems, the PCI-345 can be utilized in a feedback system. Depending on the outputs of the process, the control software will 'tweak' the stimulus waveform, and load the waveform into the memory page that is accessible to the PC. Then, without glitches, the PCI-345 can switch from the old waveform to the newly calculated waveform.。