PC-Based Testers use Eurocard channel architecture.

Press Release Summary:




DAPserver 200 and 200R models combine 5-slot PCI backplane and 10-slot Eurocard cage in industrial-grade chassis. Linux or Windows and DAPcell Network Server software are preloaded on hard drive, running on 1.2GHz processor in one PCI slot. Remaining 4 PCI slots can contain any current DAP boards. DAPserver 200R features special packaging for rugged environments. DAPserver products conform to Eurocard channel architecture, which features signal connectors on 3U Eurocard B boards.



Original Press Release:



DAPserver PC-Based Test Products Use Eurocard Channel Architecture



Response Times Free of Local or Network-Related Delays

Bellevue, WA, March 26, 2003 - Microstar Laboratories, Inc., maker of Data Acquisition Processor (DAP) boards, today announced the first members of a family of DAPserver test, measurement, and control products. The new DAPserver products combine a 5-slot PCI backplane and a 10-slot Eurocard cage in an industrial-grade chassis. Server software runs on a processor that occupies one of the PCI slots. Microstar Laboratories preloads every DAPserver with Windows or Linux software.

The first two products available, the DAPserver 200 and DAPserver 200R models, each include a hard drive - shock-rated to 800g - and a floppy disk drive. Both models have front-panel handles suitable for equipment installed in 19" industry-standard racks. To create a heavy-duty model, the DAPserver 200R, Microstar Laboratories built the same components used in the DAPserver 200 into specially engineered packaging for use in rugged environments.

What follows applies equally to both models.

After simply unpacking the DAPserver and applying power, customers can load their favorite software and start development right away. The DAPserver has either Linux or Windows and DAPcell Network Server software, preloaded on the hard drive, running on a 1.2GHz processor in one of the PCI slots. The remaining four PCI slots can contain any current DAP boards, and Microstar Laboratories provides hardware and software that combines these DAP boards into a single synchronized system.

DAPserver products conform to the channel architecture used by Microstar Laboratories: signal connectors on 3U (100mm high) Eurocard B (220mm deep) boards - Eurocards - that often pre-process a signal. The DAPserver can contain up to ten of these Eurocards, and it can connect to many more in other rack-mounted industrial enclosures. Most Microstar Laboratories Eurocards multiplex inputs or outputs to or from DAP boards. Many perform additional functions. The Web site gives the full range, arranged in these seven main function groups:

o simple termination
o simple multiplexing
o anti-alias filtering
o simultaneous sampling
o isolation
o counter/timer
o quadrature-decoder

To find out more about Microstar Laboratories Eurocards, go to www.mstarlabs.com and select Channel Architecture.

Response Times Free of Local or Network-Related Delays

A processor on every DAP board in a DAPserver runs DAPL 2000: the 32-bit multitasking real-time operating system for PC-based data acquisition and control, the onboard intelligence that comes with every DAP. A user normally controls DAPL1 through Windows, either locally or over a network using DAPcell client software and a Windows application like LabVIEW or Visual Basic. Every standard DAP model in current production also will run under Linux. And DAPL runs on the onboard processor that every DAP uses to perform data acquisition and control tasks in real time, free from any delays imposed by the operating system or by other software running on the local server hardware.

Onboard intelligence not only protects against local delays, it allows synchronization between hardware in different DAPservers on a network over a separate DAP-to-DAP network independent of other network delays. Microstar Laboratories has shipped systems like this on third-party server hardware with many hundreds of channels. A scalable benchmark server has shown that such a distributed system could acquire data at over 50 million samples per second.

The DAPserver 200 costs $5,495 and the DAPserver 200R costs $6,495. Microstar Laboratories will accept orders today for immediate shipment. The company offers a CD that contains all software and hardware manuals for all products, including full documentation for the DAPcell Network Server software and the new DAPserver hardware. You can visit www.mstarlabs.com to request a free copy of the CD. Or - in North America - call toll-free: 888 MSTARLABS (888 678-2752).

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