Designers of general-purpose test and measurement equipment like oscilloscopes and logic analyzers have historically implemented custom designed hardware. Now commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) modular systems based on single board computers (SBC) or embedded CPU boards are increasingly available, comprising either:
- x86 CPU based technology with Windows OS
or - An open standard operating system like Linux, coupled with RISC CPU(s)
These SBCs previously used PCI parallel standards as their I/O expansion interface for data movement, with much of the equipment functionality implemented in software. Moving forward, these SBCs will enable:
- PCI Express (PCIe) function boards, while maintaining PCI software compatibility
- Gigabit Ethernet and wireless for connectivity to other equipment and the Internet
For your application-specific needs, you can now:
- Easily implement modular PCIe-based function boards using Altera’s PCIe MegaCore® IP
- Integrate multiple serializer/deserializer (SERDES) channels up to 6.5 Gbps, within Stratix® II GX FPGAs
- Rapidly create custom functionality and interfaces using Stratix II FPGAs and the Quartus® II software
Figure 1 shows how these PCIe function boards can be made application independent, thus providing higher volumes across multiple test platforms by separating the application-specific digital/analog interfaces into pin probes and placing them on modular daughter cards.
Figure 1. Modular-Based Systems
