Download Spectrum Catalogue 2010(10MB)

P C I N S T R U M E N T A T I O N
for PCI, PCI-X, PCI Express, PXI and CompactPCI
Volume 16
100 kS/s up to 1 GS/s, up to 256 synchronous channels

Preface by the Managing Director
Judging when a technical solution works well can only be known when the results can be read in precise data.
This idea and its practical application is the subject of our ambition.
Precision needs on one hand accurately fitting technology, whilst on the other precise communication. Therefore
the sixteenth volume of our catalog is produced in its new format for the second time – with coloured
structuring for the benefit of higher clarity, providing an overview of soft and hardware possibilities combined
with comprehensive technical details, as well as easy handling – just like the usability of the products.
What is our aim? Not only to have satisfied and well informed readers, but also provide the basis of research
in finding the best optimised solutions for you.
Finding the best solution is not just about technology. First of all it´s all about communication! We want to
stimulate communication between Spectrum and its business partners. It´s our customers demands that stimulates
our ambition to find the best solution to your requirements! Take our product-offers as an invitation to ask for more, it is you who help us to keep
standards up and improve. So once more: Any requests, suggestions and comments are welcome!
Gisela Hassler
Managing Director
Preface by the Technical Director
In 2010 the Spectrum M3i product line (14 bit 400 MS/s, 12 bit 500 MS/s and 8 bit
1 GS/s) got into full production. All M3i products can now be ordered with SMA
connection to enhance the high frequency signal quality even more and to simplify
the interconnection between high frequency components. November 2010 the fourth
M3i series was released, a high speed high resolution 16 bit digitizer with up to 180
MS/s of sampling speed.
As all Spectrum cards of the last years each version of the M3i.48xx series is available
as PCI/PCI-X version as well as PCI Express version for the same price. We advise
customers to check carefully their use of PCI cards as the PC market has discontin ued
PCI slots and already standard systems with PCI slots are becoming rare. Don’t bind
your future to a manufacturer that can only deliver PCI components!
1
The measurement software SBench 6 is now supporting all Spectrum products that
have been released in the last 10 years. SBench 6 allows to acquire and replay analog and digital data from memory and from hard disks. The software
has proven its unique design showing sustained throughput of several hundred MB/s from and to hard disk.
Our software development team is permanently improving SBench 6 and a new version with new features and improvements is released monthly.
Li censed users have access to this new version without any upgrade fees. Simply download and install the new release to have access to all features.
A full running demo version is available – please feel free to test the software with your hardware or even with simulated hardware to get to know the
new powerful and easy-to-use features.
Oliver Rovini
Technical Director
Editor
Spectrum Systementwicklung
Microelectronic GmbH
Ahrensfelder Weg 13-17,
22927 Grosshansdorf / Germany
Phone: +49 (0)4102-6956-0
Fax: +49 (0)4102-6956-66
E-Mail: info@spec.de
www.spectrum-instrumentation.com
Trademarks / registered trademarks
Microsoft, Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual C#, Visual J#, Visual
Studio, Windows, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000,
Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 are trademarks or
registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, DASYLab and DIAdem are trademarks or
registered trademarks of National Instruments Corporation.
Delphi and C++Builder are trademarks or registered trademarks of
Embarcadero Technologies, Inc.
MATLAB is a trademark or registered trademark of The MathWorks, Inc.
Agilent VEE, VEE Pro and VEE OneLab are trademarks or registered
trademarks of Agilent Technologies, Inc.
PCI-SIG, PCI, PCI-X and the PCI EXPRESS/PCIe design mark are
registered trademarks and/or service marks of PCI-SIG.
SBench is a registered trademark of Spectrum Systementwicklung
Microelectronic GmbH.
Changes and copyright
Adaptations and changes to the
products that are necessary for the
technical development are possible.
We take no liability for faulty
values or printing errors.
Copyright © 2010 by Spectrum
Systementwicklung Microelectronic GmbH.
Reprinting and copying is only allowed
with a written permission.
All rights reserved.

Table of Contents
SB6
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 1
Imprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 1
Your benefits – Good Service! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 4
Company history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 4
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 5
Software support
Operating system drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 6
Linux support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 7
Spectrum Control Center and Demo Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 7
SBench 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 8
LabVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 12
MATLAB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 13
VEE / LabWindows/CVI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 13
2
PCI / PCI-X / PCI Express based cards
Bus systems and product overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 14
M2i/M3i – new generation of instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 16
Transient capture or streaming? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 18
Options / features of M2i and M3i series
Trigger, additional I/O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 20
Clock, operation modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 21
Synchronization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 22
Digitizers / DAQ cards
Introduction to Spectrum digitizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 24
Extended trigger modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 25
Input signal conditioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 26
Products
M3i.21xx – 8 bit high-speed digitizer up to 1 GS/s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 28
M2i.20xx – 8 bit multi-purpose digitizer up to 200 MS/s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 30
M3i.32xx – 12 bit fastest digitizers up to 500 MS/s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 32
M2i.30xx – 12 bit multi-purpose digitizer up to 200 MS/s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 34
M2i.31xx – 12 bit multi-channel data acquisition up to 25 MS/s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 36
M3i.41xx – 14 bit digitizer up to 400 MS/s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 38
M2i.40xx – 14 bit multi-purpose 14 bit DAQ up to 50 MS/s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 40
M3i.48xx – 16 bit high-precision digitizer up to 180 MS/s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 42
M2i.46xx – 16 bit high-precision digitizer up to 3 MS/s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 44
M2i.47xx – 16 bit, 16 channel synchronous data acquisition up to 1.33 MS/s . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 46
Arbitrary Waveform Generators / D/A cards
Introduction to Spectrum D/A cards, operation modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 48
Output signal conditioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 49
Products
M2i.61xx – 8 bit high-speed generator cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 50
M2i.60xx – 14 bit high-speed, high-precision AWG cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 50
www.spectrum-instrumentation.com – extensive homepage service
Our web page informs you 24 hours the day about hardware, software,
options and new products. You have a full-text search engine
as well as a parametric search.

Digital I/O cards and pattern generators
Introduction to Spectrum DIO cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 52
Operation modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 53
Trigger / output signal conditioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 53
Products
M2i.70xx – Fast digital I/O with TTL levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 54
M2i.72xx – Pattern generator with programmable levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 56
CompactPCI 6U and PXI 3U cards
Bus systems and product overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 58
Options / features of MC and MX series
Transfer modes, trigger, clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 60
Operation modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 61
Synchronization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 62
PXI features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 63
Digitizers / DAQ cards
Introduction to Spectrum industrial digitizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 64
Trigger and input signal conditioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 64
Products
MC.20xx / MX.20xx – 8 bit digitizer up to 200 MS/s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 66
MC.30xx / MX.30xx – 12 bit digitizer up to 200 MS/s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 68
MC.31xx / MX.31xx – 12 bit multi-channel data acquisition up to 25 MS/s . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 70
MC.40xx / MX.40xx – 14 bit multi-purpose 14 bit DAQ up to 50 MS/s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 72
MC.46xx / MX.46xx – 16 bit high-precision digitizer up to 3 MS/s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 74
MC.47xx / MX.47xx – 16 bit, 16 channel synchronous data acquisition up to 500 kS/s . . . . .Page 76
Arbitrary Waveform Generators / D/A cards
Introduction to Spectrum industrial D/A cards, operation modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 78
Output signal conditioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 79
Products
MC.61xx / MX.61xx – 8 bit high-speed generator cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 80
MC.60xx / MX.60xx – 14 bit high-speed, high-precision AWG cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 80
Digital I/O cards and pattern generators
Introduction to Spectrum industrial DIO cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 82
Operation modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 82
Trigger, output signal conditioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 83
Products
MC.70xx / MX.70xx – Fast digital I/O with TTL levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 84
MC.72xx / MX.72xx – Pattern generator with programmable levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 86
3
Complete measurement systems
19” industrial systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 88
Portable systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 89
Docking stations for Laptop based measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 90
Adapter cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 91
Spectrum’s Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 92
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 93
At the moment this information is available:
Data sheets
Manuals
Software SBench
The newest driver version (Windows/Linux)
Examples for different programming languages
Application notes
Information about new products
Information about enhanced functionality
of hardware and software

Your Benefits – Good Service!
We are here for you – indeed!
We have always given the customer our highest priority. Handling inquiries and orders on the
same day is a matter of course for us. Since the testing, configuration and commissioning always
occurs on our premises with process optimisation and our design engineers are constantly devel -
oping new or refined product lines, we achieve high standards of service and quality. With all of
the specialised departments concentrated under one roof on the basis of competencies, we can
flexibly implement our customers’ wishes. Short delivery periods and technical adaptations due
to special customer specifications are examples of this.
Call center? No thank you!
You get free-of-charge support and technical advice directly from our local partners. For any more extensive questions and support issues, our design
and production team in Grosshansdorf, Germany is ready to assist you and answer your inquiries.
“Made in Germany”
All of the products from Spectrum are “Made in Germany” – from design to production! – fulfilling the highest quality standards.
Lifetime Updates
Software updates are available free of charge for a lifetime. The current version is available for download on our homepage.
2 Years of Product Warranty
A shorter warranty period would be possible for business-to-business. But we trust in our product quality, so we offer a two-year warranty that begins
with the delivery of our products. In order to meet customer project requirements, we also offer a warranty extension for a period of up to 5 years.
Product Availability
As long as requested. We still sold ISA boards that were developed in 1991 until 2008, even though we have not included them for years in our catalogue
or on our homepage.
History
4
1989
Company founded with the business objective of developing custom-built instrumentation
1991 Began developing own product line and created the first ISA card
1993 First 200 MS/s 8 bit ISA DAQ card released
1993 Office relocation from Hamburg to Schleswig-Holstein
1994 High-speed 8-bit 400 MS/s ISA card developed
1995 First Arbitrary Waveform Generator card released
1996 Prototype card of the new bus standard PCI is completed
1997 First PCI DAQ card was created
1998 First 12 bit DAQ card with 80 MS/s
1999 First digital I/O card – still sold to OEM customers
2000 Fastest 8 bit digitizer with 500 MS/s and 512 MByte of memory

Introduction
Application Areas
A PC instrumentation board, be it PCI, PCI-X, PCI Express, PXI or CompactPCI, transforms a
standard PC to a universal powerful instrument. Compared to a stand-alone solution there are
several advantages:
Best flexibility
Data is rapidly available for calculation
A wide range of available software solutions
Software programmable hardware settings for ease of use and highest performance
Easy combination of different hardware possible
Scalable memory size
Excellent price-performance ratio
Processing power is not limited by the instrument but can simply be increased by
updating the host PC
Setting up a mixed mode system or stimulus-response test benches is no problem combining
the wide range of multi channel A/D, D/A and Digital I/O cards with the internal card synchronisation.
In contrast to stand-alone instruments which only have one fixed function, the modular
instruments from Spectrum can turn into any kind of virtual instrument using the latest PC
processing technology.
Spectrum has focused its business on the high-speed A/D, D/A and Digital I/O range with sampling
rates between 100 kS/s and 1 GS/s. Fast amplifiers and high-quality converters allow the
acquisition and replay of high-frequency signals. As a result of the substantial on-board
memory even fast signals may be recorded over a long time period with a high precision. The
modular product line first introduced in 2001 has a host of advantages compared to earlier
product lines:
Wide range of products available for different bus systems
Universal, easy-to-program driver
On-board memory standardised at 256 MBytes (16 MBytes for MC and MX)
Standard on-board memory expandable to 4 GBytes (depending on card family)
Continuous data transfer up to 245 MBytes/s in PCI-X/PCI-66 slots
Continuous data transfer up to 125 MBytes/s in PCI slots
Thousands of installations world-wide stand for best quality and reliable products
The cards are also available in a completely installed system. We offer a wide range of standard
systems, 19“ industrial systems or mobile PCs. For the mobile use together with a notebook,
a range of high-performance docking stations that can hold up to three PCI boards is
also available.
Sonar
Radar
Laser
Acoustics
Ultrasound
LDA/PDA
Medical equipment
Automation
Production tests
Chip test
Research and development
Automotive
Laboratory equipment
Spectroscopy
Quality control
Long-time data streaming
Instrument development
Prototype development
ATE
and many more
5
2001 Launch of MI series, the first modular PCI cards
2002 12 bit digitizer of the MI.30xx series reach 200 MS/s
2003 First 14 bit fast DAQ card with sampling rate of 50 MS/s
2004 MC and MX cards allow MI to go industrial
2004 Expansion – move to new and bigger office building
2005 More than 70 different PCI based cards available
2006 Delivery of the first M2i cards – a new generation of modular instruments
2007 All M2i cards available as PCI Express version
2009 Launch of the first M3i card with 500 MS/s 12 bit A/D
2009 SBench 6, the new measurement software, is ready
2010 First 1 GS/s digitizer released
2010 16 bit high-speed digitizer

Software
The connecting link between the user and the hardware is always the software. The wide range of software products supported by Spectrum allows the
user to choose the software that he wants. There are four different ways to use the high-end PC instruments from Spectrum:
Easy-to-use software SBench 6 (Windows and Linux) either as stand-alone
application or in combination with further analysis software like MATLAB, FlexPro
or Diadem
Classical text based programming with C/C++, Visual Basic, Delphi, C#, J# or
VB.NET languages
Advanced text based programming with MATLAB or LabWindows/CVI
Graphical programming with LabVIEW or Agilent VEE
Text based Application SBench 6
3rd Party Measurement SW
Visual
C++
C++
Builder
Visual
Basic
Borland
Delphi
.Net based
C# J# VB.NET
Other
Compiler
Gnu
C/C++
LabVIEW
Driver
MATLAB
Driver
VEE
Driver
LabWindows
CVI
Windows 32 Bit
Kernel Driver
Common Library (DLL) with a common interface on all supported platforms
Windows 64 Bit
Kernel Driver
Linux
Kernel Driver
Windows 32 Bit Windows 64 Bit (PCI Express and PCI only) Linux 32/64 Bit
6
Operating System Drivers The standard driver is available for different operating systems and is programmed every -
where in the same way. This allows an easy change from one operating system to another
without major changes in the source code.
This standard driver is included in the card delivery and it is possible to get the newest driver
version free of charge from our homepage at any time. There are no additional SDK fees for
the classical text-based programming. All boards are delivered with drivers for Windows
2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 as well as drivers for a huge variety of
Linux systems.
The driver has an unique interface for all boards within one series allowing an easy switch
from one card type to another without big changes in the software. The different functionality
of the boards is realised with the help of board specific software registers.
Programming examples for Microsoft Visual C++, Borland C++ Builder, Gnu C++ (CygWin),
Borland Delphi, Microsoft Visual Basic, C#, J#, VB.Net, Python and LabWindows/CVI are
delivered with the driver. Due to the simple interface of the driver, the integration in other
pro gramm ing languages or special measurement software is an easy task.
The number of examples is continuously increasing giving more detailed programming
examp les that allow an easy start with the Spectrum cards.
64 Bit Systems
Todays data acquisition cards offer up to 4 GByte of on-board memory. Handling such a lot of data
on a 32 bit operating system which normally has a maximum of 2 GB of free available memory,
limits the usage in all directions. Spectrum therefore offers full 64 bit support for Windows and
Linux for M2i and M3i series (PCI and PCI Express) and full Linux 64 bit support for all card series.
All drivers and libraries are available as 64 bit versions opening the huge 64 bit address range for
data acquisition and streaming applications.
When using Windows 64 bit it is still possible to run 32 bit applications using the so-called WOW64
(Windows on Windows 64 Bit) extension, a Windows operating system component. As shown in the
drawing any application whether 32 bit or 64 bit can access the hardware using a dedicated library
that accesses the low level 64 bit kernel driver.
32 Bit Application 64 Bit Application
32 Bit Driver DLL 64 Bit Driver DLL
64 Bit Kernel Driver
Hardware

Linux Support
Full Linux support included with no extra costs
More than 50 different pre-compiled kernel driver modules
Support of latest Suse, Fedora and Debian versions
Kernel driver sources available against NDA
Linux control center for card maintenance and updates
SBench 6 Linux version – powerful data acquisition software
In many areas Linux has itself proven as a high-quality alternative to Windows. Also the instrumentation market uses more and more Linux-based
systems. Spectrum delivers loadable Linux modules for the common Linux distributions with all products for years now. But also less common Linux versions
are supported. For this the source code of the driver module and the required makefiles are available from Spectrum. The user can then compile a
perfectly matching version for his Linux installation.
Linux driver delivery contains driver modules for more than 50 different Linux distribution versions over a number of years, including the latest version
of openSUSE, Fedora and Debian, each as 32 bit and 64 bit kernel module.
Besides the Linux drivers Spectrum is giving full Linux support for all current cards. The Linux version of the Spectrum control center allows all card maintenance
including firmware updates, calibration and test programs. Using the Linux versions of SBench 6 provides a fully functional data acquisition and
streaming application under Linux. Both programs are made from the same source code as the Windows version giving Linux users full features and func -
tions on the same level as Windows users. There’s no development or porting delay between versions.
Control Center and Demo Mode
A special card control center is available for the
Spectrum M2i/M3i driver as a stand-alone application
and add-on for the drivers. This powerful
tool is delivered with the cards and available
under Windows and Linux and groups together
all hardware main tenance functions:
7
Hardware information: Through the control center you can
easily get the main information about all the installed Spectrum
hardware: Basic information as the type of card, the production
date and its serial number as well as the installed memory, the
hardware revisions or the installed firmware.
Installation of demo cards: With the help of the card control
center one can install demo cards in the system. A demo card is simulated by the
Spectrum driver including data generation for acquisition cards. As the demo card is
simulated on the lowest driver level all software can be tested including SBench, own
applications and drivers for third-party products like LabVIEW.
Debug logging: The setup of the card, driver and firmware version, all command
sequences and other information can be logged to an ASCII file and can then be used
for support cases.
Features and Software license: SBench 6 software licenses as well as all optional
features of the M2i/M3i cards, that do not require any hardware modifications, can
be installed on fielded cards. The customer will get a personalised upgrade code for
installation.
Firmware upgrade: All M2i and M3i cards can have a later firmware upgrade to install
new functions and to fix bugs. Firmware upgrade runs under Windows and Linux.
Calibration: The card control center also provides an easy way to access the automatic
card calibration routines of the Spectrum A/D converter cards. Depending on the used
card family this can affect offset calibration only or also might include gain calibration.
Memory test: The complete on-board memory of the Spectrum M2i/M3i cards is
test ed with randomised data for proper functionality. Any read or write errors are
documented.
Transfer speed test: Measures the bus transfer speed of an installed Spectrum card
in the specific system. This gives you a performance index of the system and shows
which sustained data rates can be reached.
Continuous memory: Setup of the desired continuous memory buffer for the next
system start.
Continuous Memory
A special feature of the driver allows to allocate continuous
memory at boot time to speed up the data transfer by up to
30%.
All modern operating systems use a very complex memory
management strategy that strictly separates between physical
memory, kernel memory and user memory, a particular
result of this is a memory management based on memory
pages. This will lead to the circumstance that although a user
program allocated a larger memory block (as an example
1 MByte) and it sees the whole 1 MByte as a virtual con -
tinuous memory area, this memory is physically located as
4 kByte pages, spread all over the physical memory.
The DMA engine of any hardware can only access physical
addresses. As a result the DMA engine has to access each
4 kByte page separately by using a Scatter-Gather list. For
each transferred memory page of data it is necessary to also
load one Scatter-Gather entry and do a new bus arbitration.
The Spectrum drivers allow removal of this limitation by allocating
a continuous memory buffer at boot time. Getting rid
of the need for a Scatter-Gather list speeds up the transfer
between 10% and nearly 30% compared to standard DMA
transfers.

Software
SBench 6
SB6
Comfortable and fast data acquisition, replay
and analysis of GByte of analog and digital
data together with powerful export functions.
SBench 6 is a powerful and intuitive interactive measurement software.
Besides the possibility to commence the measuring task immediately,
without programming, SBench 6 combines the setup of
hardware, data display, oscilloscope, transient recorder, waveform
generator, analysing functions, import and export functions under
one easy-to-use interface. All current Spectrum cards M3i, M2i, MC
and MX analog and digital data acquisition, arbitrary waveform generator
and pattern generator cards as well as the former MI series
are supported.
8
Available for Windows 2000 / XP / Vista / Windows 7
Available for Linux KDE / GNOME
Fast data acquisition supporting RAID disk arrays
Designed to acquire and handle GBytes of data
Display of analog data, digital data and frequency spectrum
Integrated analysis functions
Import and export filter
Enhanced cursor functions
Fast data preview function
State-of-the-art drag-and-drop technology
Thread based program structure, optimized to run with
todays multi processor technology
Easy usage with docking windows and context menus
The software is available for Windows and Linux. Both versions are
based on the same source code to ensure that the Windows and the
Linux version are equally provided for. The software development is
based on a common API that is available for Windows, KDE and
GNOME still providing the look and feel of the specific window
manager.
SBench 6 is a completely new concept and has been adapted to the
increased needs. Spectrum can easily and fast adopt new card series
or new features to the software due to the modular structure of
SBench 6.
Data Storage
The SBench 6 engine controls the complete data transfer whether into the PC RAM or onto hard disk. This software component has been designed for
fast and continuous data transfer. Data is stored in an intelligent and fast data format allowing maximum system performance. As the acquired data is
directly stored to disk without first sending to GUI nor being resorted, one will get the same average streaming speed that is also possible with plain
C++ programming. Data storage speed with > 200 MB/s is easily achieved using todays hard disks with RAID arrays.
The streaming engine supports different binary formats that can directly be used for data storage. This eliminates all time-consuming conversion jobs
after the end of the acquisition. Data files can automatically be split into smaller pieces even while writing data.
The strict separation between display layer and the hardware control provides maximum performance for data acquisition and replay. SBench 6 has been
optimized for the work with multi GBytes data files. With this technology it is possible to work within SBench 6 with data from up to 4 GBytes on-board
memory as well as hard disk recordings of several GBytes.
Setup Windows
All hardware settings can be reached using sophisticated tabbed setup windows for every
aspect of the card hardware. All setup windows can be docked wherever it is required to have
full overview of the setup. If more than one card is used (option SBench6-Multi required)
each can be set up individually by the user either for a reduced sampling clock on one card
or different memory settings on another.
Input signals can be scaled and given an individual unit to show real world measured values
by compensating sensor re-scaling. This scaling and unit is used throughout the complete
SBench software be it in the display screen or in the calculation results.
The look and feel of SBench 6 can be individually set-up by locating setup widgets wherever
necessary and by individual configuration of toolbars and shortcuts. The layout can be stored
separately in a user file that can be used for all sessions of SBench 6.

Acquisition and Replay
SBench 6 is able to act as a recorder as well as a generator front-end. The software is able to replay GBytes of either analog or digital data from various
sources. Data can be imported from different file formats as well as using previously acquired data. SBench 6 automatically rescales and converts data
to allow the mixed use of acquisition and replay cards of different resolutions and channels counts.
Calculation Routines and Measuring Results
A special info window shows extended information on the current cursor positions within
the display windows. Each cursor can be locked on a signal showing the precise values for
this signal. By utilising both cursors it is already possible to obtain some simple measurement
functions. The current cursor values are also shown in the display window directly at
the cursor.
With only one mouse click it is possible to use additional calculation routines on any signal.
The signal used as calculation base can be any acquired signal, any loaded signal or even
a freshly calculated signal like FFT allowing to run nested calculations. The calculation area
can be selected to be the whole signal, just the area that is shown inside the display window,
or the segment defined by the two cursor positions. Please see the list of current available
calculation routines further below. Suggestions for new calculation routines are always
welcome.
Using SBench 6 to get data into MATLAB
The SBench 6 software allows to acquire data in a very comfortable way without
any programming. The SBench 6 software package (Professional version) contains
a powerful MATLAB export filter. Using SBench 6 together with MATLAB
gives you an easy and powerful access to the data without any further programming
needs for the acquisition.
This also gives the opportunity to use MATLAB for Linux to work with the highprecision
Spectrum data acquisition cards, as SBench 6 has full Linux support
included.
9
FFT Analysis and Display (Professional Version)
Using the FFT calculation turns the oscilloscope like software to a Spectrum analyzer. Using the FFT
analysis shows the frequency domain information of the signal. The input signal can be weighted by
different window functions like Hanning, Hamming, Blackman and some more. The resulting FFT plot
is shown as dBc, dBFS, dBuV, dBm or plain Voltage giving the best suitable view on the data.
The resulting FFT signal can be used for further calculations
like SNR, THD, MAX value or others.
A harmonics cursor is available for FFT display in addition
to the standard measurement cursor. This cursor shows a
programmable number of harmonics based on the current
cursor position.

Software
Digital Data Display (Logic Analyzer)
Besides the acquisition and display of analog data SBench 6 also contains a powerful digital data display allowing to group signals to a bus and to navigate
through data by edge detection and pulse measurements. The digital data display is available for pure digital acquisition cards as well as for additional
digital inputs of an analog data acquisition card. Analog data can be converted to digital data and vice versa to combine different signals into
a mixed mode display. Digital displays and analog displays can be synchronized
to have cursor and zoom settings automatically synchronous between different
displays.
Licenses and Features
The following table lists all cards and features/options that are currently supported by SBench 6. Supported features are depending on the installed software
license. This list is valid at the time when printed. SBench 6 is under permanent development – please check the latest version of the data sheet
in the internet to see which new features have been added.
The base license of SBench 6 is available free of charge and is included in every card delivery. This
license allows to test the cards with all features and to examine acquired data. It can also be used
to check proper card functionality when doing own programming.
10
The Professional license is available for single and multiple cards and is installed on the hardware
itself. Using the Professional license adds a huge variety of features to the software allowing to
stream data with high-speed, use a lot of measurement and calculation functions or use one of the
universal export formats. To test all Professional features a full working demo license is installed
on each delivered hardware.
When using multiple cards only one SBench6–Multi license is needed no matter whether one uses
two or 16 cards in one system. Once set up, a system can be extended by new cards without any
further costs.
Supported Cards
M3i.21xx + M3i.21xx-Exp series
M3i.32xx + M3i.32xx-Exp series
M3i.41xx + M3i.41xx-Exp series
M3i.48xx + M3i.48xx-Exp series
M2i.20xx + M2i.20xx-Exp series
M2i.30xx + M2i.30xx-Exp series
M2i.31xx + M2i.31xx-Exp series
M2i.40xx + M2i.40xx-Exp series
M2i.46xx + M2i.46xx-Exp series
M2i.47xx + M2i.47xx-Exp series
M2i.60xx + M2i.60xx-Exp series
M2i.61xx + M2i.61xx-Exp series
M2i.70xx + M2i.70xx-Exp series
M2i.72xx + M2i.72xx-Exp series
MX.20xx + MC.20xx + MI.20xx series
MX.30xx + MC.30xx + MI.30xx series
MX.31xx + MC.31xx + MI.31xx series
MX.40xx + MC.40xx + MI.40xx series
MX.45xx + MC.45xx + MI.45xx series
MX.46xx + MC.46xx series
MX.47xx + MC.47xx series
MX.60xx + MC.60xx + MI.60xx series
MX.61xx + MC.61xx + MI.61xx series
MX.70xx + MC.70xx + MI.70xx series
MX.72xx + MC.72xx + MI.72xx series

Supported Features for different Licenses
Base License Professional License
Operating Systems
Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 Supported Supported
Linux + KDE Environment Supported Supported
Linux + Gnome Environment Supported Supported
Card + Configuration
Single Card Supported Supported
Multiple Cards (one system) n.a. Option –Multi required
Licensing fee Free Purchase
Configuration Load/Store Supported Supported
Modes and Features
Standard Acquisition / Replay Supported Supported
FIFO Acq of several GS / Replay n.a. Supported
Multiple Recording Simple display Segmented Display
Gated Sampling Simple display Segmented Display
ABA Mode n.a. Segmented Display
Timestamp n.a. Supported
Digital Inputs Supported Supported
BaseXIO trigger lines n.a. Supported
Base License Professional License
Setup Functions
Channel Setup Included Included
Clock Setup Included Included
Trigger Setup Included Included
Mode + Memory Setup Included Included
Streaming Setup n.a. Included
Display Functions
Preview Display Included Included
Analog Waveform Display Included Included
Digital Waveform Display Included Included
History Mode Included Included
FFT Display n.a. Included
FFT Signal Harmonics Cursor n.a. Included
Cursor Measurement Functions Included Included
Physical Units n.a. Included
Layout/Auto Layout Functions Included Included
Define Shortcuts Fixed set Configurable
Individual Toolbars Included Included
Calculation Functions
File Functions
Auto Storage
Split Files
Acquisition Format
SBench 6
Wave File (*.wav)
Pure Binary File
Export Functions
Screenshot
SBench 6
MATLAB
SBench 5
ASCII
Wave File (*.wav)
Pure Binary File
Signal cut-off
License
Prof
Prof
Base + Prof
Prof
Prof
Prof
Base + Prof
Prof
Prof
Prof
Prof
Prof
Prof
Cycle based Calculations
Number of Cycles
Frequency/Period
Duty Cycle
Pos/Neg Width
Cylce Min/Max
Cycle Average
Cycle Peak-Peak
Cycle Effective
Cylce Rise/Fall Time
Basic Calculations
Min/Max
Average
Peak-Peak
Effective
Signal Info
License
Prof
Prof
Prof
Prof
Prof
Prof
Prof
Prof
Prof
Base + Prof
Base + Prof
Base + Prof
Base + Prof
Base + Prof
Math Signals
ADD/SUB/MUL/DIV
AND/OR/XOR
NAND/NOR/XNOR
Copy as Reference
Conversion A to D
Conversion D to A
Signal Averaging
Multi Averaging
Frequency Calculations
FFT
SNR/THD/SINAD
SFDR, ENOB
Enhanced Calculations
RMS Noise
Histogram
License
Prof
Prof
Prof
Prof
Prof
Prof
Prof
Prof
Prof
Prof
Prof
Prof
Prof
11
Import Functions
SBench 6
SBench 5
ASCII
Wave File (*.wav)
Pure Binary File
Base + Prof
Prof
Prof
Prof
Prof
Order Information
SBench6
SBench6-Pro
SBench6-Pro3
SBench6-Pro5
SBench6-Pro10
SBench6-Multi
SBench6-Mul3
SBench6-Mul5
SBench6-Mul10
Base version which supports standard mode for one card
Professional version for one card: FIFO mode, export/import,
calculation functions
3 professional licenses, each for one card
5 professional licenses, each for one card
10 professional licenses, each for one card
Option multiple cards: Needs professional version. Handles
multiple synchronised cards in one system.
3 licenses of option multiple cards
5 licenses of option multiple cards
10 licenses of option multiple cards

Software
LabVIEW
LabVIEW – the most common graphical programming language for measurement applications
– is excellently supported by the Spectrum cards with the use of dedicated LabVIEW
drivers. These drivers are based on the proven standard drivers of Spectrum. They combine
different functions into functional blocks and make them available within LabVIEW. The
drivers delivered include the basic LabVIEW diagrams allowing the user to change them to
match his special needs and to understand how the programming of the hardware works.
The LabVIEW driver package consists of several different dynamic libraries (LLBs) and some
example VIs showing the use of the driver.
The LabVIEW driver supports all versions starting with version 6 up to the current version.
All new product releases are installed on our test systems and all examples are checked
against the new version immediately.
Matching the up-to-date features of the M2i and M3i card series has required to renew the
LabVIEW driver completely and provides easier operation. The libraries consist of dedicated
VIs grouping card functions for easy access. Besides this, a powerful library is included implementing
time consuming functions like data sorting or recalculation of digital values to
analog voltage levels for fast applications. Using these speed-optimized functions it is possible
to reach the same data throughput between card and memory that can also be reached
by plain C++ programming.
LabVIEW Application (Example)
spcm_card.llb spcm_tools.llb
spcm_drv_interface.llb
spcm_datasort_win32.dll
Windows Driver DLL spcm_win32.dll
Windows 32 Bit Kernel Driver
12
The LabVIEW driver is completed by a number of fully executable
LabVIEW examples suitable as a base for programming your own
LabVIEW applications. The following examples amongst others are
available:
Oscilloscope
Data recorder with on-line display
Hard disk streaming utility
Block orientated access to several GByte of acquisition
memory
Signal generator
Multiple Recording/Gated Sampling with Timestamps
ABA mode with Timestamps
Complex trigger examples
Synchronisation of analog cards
Synchronisation of digital cards
Besides the libraries delivered with the drivers all driver functions
can also be directly called. Due to the carefully designed interface
based on software registers, access to all card features is possible.

MATLAB
The math software packet MATLAB from The Mathworks Inc. is supported with
the help of a universal driver for all boards of one series. The driver supports
MATLAB starting with version 5.0. The MATLAB driver itself consists of a set of
DLLs (Mex-files on newer MATLAB versions) converting the functionality of the
Windows driver to MATLAB. These DLLs only act as a link between MATLAB and
the driver to allow complete access to the functionality of the board without any
restriction. For each kind of board an m-language example is de livered with the
MATLAB driver. This example may be used as a base for user pro gramm ing. The
interface also offers an easy way to use the Spectrum cards with Simulink.
For the usage of the cards under MATLAB only the base version of the software package is necessary, no additional software options like the data
acquisition toolkit are necessary.
The MATLAB driver for the M2i and M3i card series includes a complete library of functions allowing the access to certain function areas of the card
with an easy interface. These library functions are also written in the m-language and are included in the delivery of the MATLAB driver along with
universal examples showing different aspects of the cards.
The data handling has been optimised for the M2i/M3i version including a special library. This library can perform fast data sorting as well as recalculation
of digital data to real-world voltage levels.
The MATLAB drivers run on Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, all 32 bit and 64 bit (except CompactPCI and PXI cards) versions.
The Spectrum MATLAB drivers have been verified to run with MATLAB version 5.0 (R8) up to 7.11 (R2010b).
VEE
Spectrum drivers support the graphical programming lan guage VEE and VEEPro
from Agilent. The VEE driver consists of a few functions offering the functionality
of the basic Spectrum driver. The examples that are delivered with the driver can
be directly used as a stand-alone oscilloscope application (shown in the picture) or
as a streaming application. All VEE drivers are delivered as editable diagrams. That
allows the user to adopt the different function blocks and the example diagrams
exactly to his needs.
13
LabWindows / CVI
LabWindows/CVI offers an easy-to-use mixture of graphical elements for controlling of
hardware and display of measured data and a universal C-compiler. For a fast start with
the Spectrum boards there are some universal examples showing how to include the
Spectrum driver. There are some example applications integrated like a universal oscilloscope
program and a universal signal generator. All programs are available as source
code. LabWindows/CVI offers a fast way to develop graphical measurement applications
including the performance of a C-compiler.

PCI/PCI-X and PCI Express cards
The Spectrum boards are available for different PC bus
systems. Due to the modular design of the boards nearly
the complete product range is available for all PCI-based
buses. That allows the user to select the bus system that
matches his requirement best without making any compromise
regarding the technical productivity.
PCI/PCI-X Bus
The PCI bus in the form that is used today was first introduced in 1995. The last years it has been the
most common platform for PC based instrumentation boards. Nowadays PCI based systems are more
and more superseded by PCI Express based systems.
Its world-wide range of installations, especially in the consumer market, still makes it a platform with
good value. Based on the PCI bus the PCI-X bus was specified for applications needing a higher data
throughput. On the PCI-X bus there are bus frequencies up to 133 MHz and data bus widths up to 64 bit available. The M2i and M3i cards use the
PCI-X bus with 66 MHz to gain a high data throughput. All PCI and PCI-X cards from Spectrum are compatible to PCI as well as to PCI-X with 33 MHz
up to 133 MHz bus frequency.
PCI Express Bus
In contrast to the parallel PCI buses PCI Express slots contain serial point to point connections. Each
connection pair (lane) is able to reach a burst connection speed of 250 MBytes/s. The Spectrum PCI
Express cards base on the most commonly used x1 lane slot type. One advantage of the PCI Express
technology is the direct connection of each slot allowing a full transfer bandwidth for each single
card. On the software side there is no difference between PCI/PCI-X or PCI Express.
14
PCI Express is the bus standard for PC based systems for the next couple of years. Today’s State-of-the-art motherboards normally have a couple of PCI
Express slots but only one or two PCI-X slots.
Spectrums PCI Express x1 cards can be used in any standard PCI Express slot be it x1, x4, x8 or x16. Only some dedicated PCI Express graphics slots may
not work.
Spectrum Compatibility Advantage
Instrumentation cards normally live far longer than the PC system they are
plugged-in. Best choice for the customer is to buy a card that can also be used
in future system designs. As Spectrum offers all current cards in PCI/PCI-X as
well as in PCI Express technology with no price difference and the exact same
functionality the customer has the free choice of the bus system.
Besides this all PCI/PCI-X and PCI Express cards of one series can be synchronized
without any problem. This even allows the combination of M2i PCI cards
with M2i PCI Express cards or M3i PCI cards with M3i PCI Express in one
system. The cards are 100% software and functionality compatible.
CompactPCI 3U and 6U and PXI Products
Spectrum also offers a wide range of CompactPCI and PXI products. More than
100 different board level products for A/D, D/A and Digital I/O are available for
these industrial grade buses. While the CompactPCI bus offers an industrial grade
chassis and cooling with a standard PCI interface only, the PXI bus also offers some
extra value for instrumentation users. Some additional lines between the cards
offer clock and trigger signals for easy integration of different products into one
system. Please see page 58 for details on the CompactPCI and PXI product line.

PCI/PCI-X and PCI Express A/D Cards and Digitizers
Series Resolution Speed Channels Details
M3i.21xx Series 8 Bit 250 MS/s up to 1 GS/s 1 to 2 Channels Page 28
M2i.20xx Series 8 Bit 50 MS/s up to 200 MS/s 2 to 4 Channels Page 30
M3i.32xx Series 12 Bit 250 MS/s up to 500 MS/s 1 to 2 Channels Page 32
M2i.30xx Series 12 Bit 40 MS/s up to 200 MS/s 1 to 4 Channels Page 34
M2i.31xx Series 12 Bit 1 MS/s up to 25 MS/s 2 to 8 Channels Page 36
M3i.41xx Series 14 Bit 100 MS/s up to 400 MS/s 1 to 2 Channels Page 38
M2i.40xx Series 14 Bit 20 MS/s up to 50 MS/s 1 to 4 Channels Page 40
M3i.48xx Series 16 Bit 65 MS/s up to 180 MS/s 1 to 2 Channels Page 42
M2i.46xx Series 16 Bit 200 kS/s up to 3 MS/s 2 to 8 Channels Page 44
M2i.47xx Series 16 Bit 100 kS/s up to 1.33 MS/s 8 to 16 Channels Page 46
M3i.21xx Series
Resolution
8 Bit
M2i.20xx Series
M3i.32xx Series
12 Bit
M2i.30xx Series
M2i.31xx Series
14 Bit
M2i.40xx Series
M3i.41xx Series
16 Bit
M3i.48xx Series
M2i.46xx Series
M2i.47xx Series
Sampling Speed
Channels
100 kS/s 200 kS/s 500 kS/s 1 MS/s 2 MS/s 5 MS/s 10 MS/s 20 MS/s 50 MS/s 100 MS/s 200 MS/s 500 MS/s 1 GS/s 1 Ch 2 Ch 4 Ch 8 Ch 16 Ch
15
PCI/PCI-X and PCI Express D/A Cards and Arbitrary Waveform Generators
Series Resolution Speed Channels Details
M2i.61xx Series 8 Bit 125 MS/s 1 to 4 Channels Page 50
M2i.60xx Series 14 Bit 20 MS/s up to 125 MS/s 1 to 4 Channels Page 50
Resolution
8 Bit
14 Bit M2i.60xx Series
M2i.61xx
Sampling Speed
Channels
100 kS/s 200 kS/s 500 kS/s 1 MS/s 2 MS/s 5 MS/s 10 MS/s 20 MS/s 50 MS/s 100 MS/s 200 MS/s 500 MS/s 1 GS/s 1 Ch 2 Ch 4 Ch 8 Ch 16 Ch
PCI/PCI-X and PCI Express Digital I/O Cards and Pattern Generators
Series Type Speed Channels Details
M2i.70xx Series TTL Digital I/O 60 MS/s to 125 MS/s 16 to 64 Channels Page 54
M2i.72xx Series Programmable Pattern 10 MS/s to 40 MS/s 16 to 32 Channels Page 56
Digital I/O
M2i.70xx Series
Type
Pattern Generator
M2i.72xx Series
Sampling Speed
Channels
100 kS/s 200 kS/s 500 kS/s 1 MS/s 2 MS/s 5 MS/s 10 MS/s 20 MS/s 50 MS/s 100 MS/s 200 MS/s 500 MS/s 1 GS/s 1-4 Ch 8 Ch 16 Ch 32 Ch 64 Ch

M2i/M3i – new generation of PC instruments
The M3i series introduced 2009 and the M2i series introduced 2006/2007 are
today’s State-of-the-art generation of PCI/PCI Express cards. Both families are
complete new designs. The M2i series is the successor of the MI card series which
is used in hundreds of different projects world-wide since 2002.
More than 20 years of experience and know-how as well as several wishes and
ideas of long-time partners have incorporated into these series. The M2i and M3i
cards offer a huge variety of features, fast speed, best software support and a
very large on-board memory.
Both series share the software interface and drivers making it easy to program
any of the 150+ different versions with one software.
Front-End Modules
One or two of the new designed analog front-end modules or
some of the well proven analog and digital front-end modules
already used on the MI, MC and MX series are mounted on
the M2i base card. The modules have been reworked and offer
some new features, additional settings and status details.
One powerful analog front-end module with versatile functionality
and enhanced analog amplifiers and trigger detection
is mounted on the M3i series base cards.
Multi-Purpose I/O
16
The M3i cards offer two universal multi-purpose I/O lines,
which can be separately programmed as either input or output.
These lines can be used as additional TTL trigger inputs
for more complex trigger conditions. Additionally these lines
can also be used to acquire digital data synchronously with
the analog data (see Digital Inputs page 27). When used as
outputs, these lines can be used to output card status signals
like trigger-armed or to output the trigger to synchronise external
equipment.
Main Control
Using State-of-the-art FPGA technology allows us to offer
several enhanced features like Multiple Recording, Timestamp
or ABA mode (dual timebase). The complete control section is
individually configurable and allows a later update of the
firmware by software. The control unit can use the complete
installed on-board memory as a buffer in FIFO mode and
simultaneously offers a minimum latency time.
PCI Express bus interface
As an alternative interface all cards of the M2i and M3i series
are available with a PCI Express x1 interface. All hardware
features are identical and there is no difference in the software
interface between PCI Express and PCI version. The Spectrum
PCI Express interface will fit into any standard PCI Express x1,
x4, x8 or x16 slot.
PCI-X bus interface
The combined universal PCI / PCI-X interface is compatible to
all PCI and PCI-X slots with 33, 66, 100 and 133 MHz, 3.3V or
5V bus I/O voltage as well as 32 and 64 bit. The two hardware
controlled Scatter-Gather busmaster DMA controller reach a
maximum continuous transfer speed of up to 240 MB/s (PCI-X)
and 125 MB/s (PCI) allowing continuous streaming in FIFO
mode.

Clock generation
The completely reworked clock section has been optimised for
the needs of fast PC instruments. In the clock section a PLL
as well as a quartz oscillator can be used as internal clock
source. An additional divider is used to obtain a fine granu -
larity and can also be used for the division of external clock
signals.
The powerful high precision clock interface of the M3i series
offers a very fine adjustable PLL with an extremely low clock
jitter making it possible to get best performance together with
high variability of clock settings. External clock signals can be
used as a reference clock for internal clock generation.
Synchronisation
The Star-Hub option is able to synchronise multiple cards of
one family in one system with no phase delay between the
channels. With this option trigger and clock information is
routed between the cards, each of the cards or even a combination
of multiple cards can be used as trigger source for the
complete synchronised system.
17
BaseXIO
The 8 asynchronous digital I/O lines can be used for control
or status request of external instruments or as additional
external trigger lines (M2i only) for implementation of complex
gated trigger sources.
Up to 4 GBytes on-board memory
The standard version is already equipped with 256 MBytes
memory. With up to 4 GBytes on-board memory, long-term full
speed acquisitions even with high sampling rates and/or a
high channel count are possible. Equipped with the maximum
memory it is for example possible to acquire one 8 bit A/D
channel with 200 MS/s sampling rate for 20 seconds. The
complete memory, even 4 GBytes, can be used as a FIFO buffer
to make continuous operation very reliable. Thereby the complete
memory is directly mounted on-board of the card – no
extra system slot will be blocked.
Spectrum is a signed member of the PCI Special Interest Group.
This gives Spectrum early access on detailed specifications and
additional information. As a member of the PCI SIG, Spectrum has
its own Vendor ID allowing an automatic installation of the drivers
for our measurement cards.

Transient Capture or Streaming?
Most products on the market offer either a transient recording mode, which
acquires data to the on-board memory or a streaming mode which has a small
FIFO buffer and streams data directly to PC memory. The Spectrum products of the
M2i and M3i series offer both modes on all cards as a standard. No additional
option needs to be purchased to use these modes with the cards:
Transient Capture / Ring Buffer Mode
Memory
......
Trig
The ring buffer mode is the standard mode of all digitizer/oscilloscope boards. Data is written in a ring memory on the board until a trigger event is
detected. After the event the posttrigger values are recorded. Because of this continuous recording into a ring buffer there are also samples prior to the
trigger event visible: Pretrigger = Memsize – Posttrigger. The pretrigger area can be of any length up to the total programmed acquisition memory when
using the ring buffer mode.
Reading of the so far acquired data is possible directly after recognition of the trigger event. With this, data is much faster available for analysis and
further calculations. While competitor cards only allow reading of data after the complete acquisition has finished, this Spectrum advantage can increase
the repetition rate a lot.
18
FIFO Mode
FIFO
The FIFO mode is designed for continuous data transfer between measurement board and PC memory (up to 245 MB/s on a PCI-X slot, up to 125 MB/s
on a PCI slot and up to 170 MB/s on a PCIe slot) or hard disk. The control of the data stream is done automatically by the driver on interrupt request.
The complete installed on-board memory is used for buffering data, making the continuous streaming extremely reliable.
The M2i and M3i cards contain two completely independent and hardware
controlled Scatter-Gather busmaster DMA engines using the complete
on-board memory as a FIFO buffer. Using the standard memory of
256 MByte as a buffer more than 1 second of transfer data can be held
allowing your PC system to have a sustained data rate even if some
background processes disturb the transfer.
In contrast to most other cards on the market the M2i and M3i cards
use the on-board memory as a real FIFO buffer while a lot of other
cards only use double buffering technology. Double buffering is an
easy-to-implement technology that unfortunately has some drawbacks
like a very long latency and a lower stability which leads to a worse
sustained data rate.
What is DMA and Busmaster?
Both terms are used often throughout digitizer manuals. The DMA
(Direct Memory Access) transfers data directly from/to card memory
to/from PC memory without any interaction of the CPU. The CPU therefore
can handle other tasks while data is transferred automatically. The
PC has a limited number of DMA channels which can only be used exclusively
by one hardware. If all DMA channels are used by one simple
measurement card the system cannot be enhanced by more cards.
All Spectrum cards use a so named busmaster controller meaning that
the card itself has an on-board DMA controller which is independent
from the CPU DMA channels. Any number of cards can then act as busmaster
in a PC not limiting the number of cards doing DMA transfer at
the same time.

Data Transfer Speed
The data transfer speed to be reached is depending on the card, the controller, the motherboard, the bus type and the overall structure of the system.
Spectrum M2i and M3i cards get most performance out of the system due to the optimized hardware and a perfectly matching package of kernel driver,
library and application software. All figures shown here give real world figures on a system based on standard components measured in real applications.
Card type M2i/M3i PCI/PCI-X M2i/M3i PCI Express
Slot PCI 33 MHz PCI-X 66 MHz PCI Express
Direction Card to PC PC to Card Card to PC PC to Card Card to PC PC to Card
Standard PC Memory 110 MB/s 105 MB/s 200 MB/s 190 MB/s 130 MB/s 120 MB/s
Continuous Memory 125 MB/s 120 MB/s 245 MB/s 235 MB/s 170 MB/s 160 MB/s
The results may vary from system to system and from OS installation
to OS installation. If it is intended to store data to hard disk or to replay
data from hard disk a powerful hard disk system is needed. We
suggest using a dedicated RAID controller running multiple fast hard
disks in RAID0 array.
What is continuous memory?
All modern operating systems use a very complex memory management
strategy that strictly separates between physical memory, kernel memory
and user memory. The memory management is based on memory
pages (normally 4 kByte = 4096 Bytes). All software only sees virtual
memory that is translated into physical memory addresses by a memory
management unit based on the mentioned pages.
This will lead to the circumstance that although a user program allo -
cated a larger memory block (as an example 1 MByte) and it sees the
whole 1 MByte as a virtual continuous memory area, this memory is
physically located as spread 4 kByte pages all over the physical memory.
When using this virtual memory for a DMA transfer the DMA engine
has to access each 4 kByte page separately by using a Scatter-Gather
list.
The DMA transfer can be sped up a lot if the user buffer is not only
virtually continuous but also physically continuous. The continuous
memory buffer is allocated by the kernel driver at load time and can be
used for ultra fast DMA transfers.
19

Options / Features of M2i and M3i series
The instrumentation boards from Spectrum offer a wide variety of options that
enlarge the application range where the boards could be used. 20 years of industry
know-how and exchange of ideas with customers have led to options where
the practical use is the first aim. The most important possibilities of the boards are
explained on the next pages. Please contact us for the discussion about further
options or customer-specific modifications.
Features that are more function related are explained in the A/D (page 24), D/A
(page 48) and Digital I/O (page 52) chapter respectively.
External Trigger
Trig
All boards may be triggered using an external TTL signal. It’s also possible to use positive or negative edge in combination with a programmable
pulsewidth (M2i Series only). An internally recognised trigger event could – once activated by software – be routed to the output connector to start
external instruments.
The external trigger signal can be used as a gate signal for other trigger sources. By using the BaseXIO option (M2i series) or by using one of the Multi
Purpose I/O lines (M3i series) multiple external trigger signals can be conjuncted by OR/AND.
The external trigger on the M3i card series is a fully programmable trigger input which has two trigger levels between –5 V and +5 V and which
offers standard edge trigger as well as re-arming trigger and window trigger.
Pulsewidth Trigger (M2i only)
Trig
20
Two different pulsewidth triggers are possible: the more common mode defines a minimum pulsewidth that must be reached to detect a trigger event
(like shown in the picture). This modes avoid triggering of small pulses or spikes above the defined trigger level that are present on an input.
A second mode works in the opposite way and detects pulses that are shorter than a defined pulsewidth. Using this mode it is possible to trigger on
false or crippled signals without triggering on the “good” signal.
Both pulsewidth modes can be combined with channel trigger, pattern trigger and external trigger.
Multi-Purpose I/O (M3i only)
All M3i cards offer two universal multi-purpose I/O lines, which can be separately programmed as either input or output. These lines can be used as
additional TTL trigger inputs for more complex trigger conditions. Additionally these lines can also be used to acquire digital data synchronously with
the analog data (see Digital Inputs). When used as outputs, these lines can be used to output card status signals like trigger-armed , run-state or to output
the trigger to synchronise external equipment.
The Multi-Purpose I/O lines are also ready to be programmed to your application’s special needs. The structure of the card control FPGA allows Spectrum
to put additional signals on this line to match special requirements. Just ask the Spectrum support team if you have some special needs.
Option BaseXIO
The BaseXIO option offers 8 asynchronous digital I/O lines on the base card. The direction can be selected
by software in groups of four. Two of these lines can also be used as additional external trigger sources
(M2i only, M3i series uses Multi Purpose I/O lines for this). This allows the building of complex trigger
conjunctions with external gated triggers as well as AND/OR conjunction of multiple external trigger
sources like, for example, the picture and row synchronisation of video signals.
In addition one of the I/O lines can be used as reference clock for the Timestamp counter making it possible to connect the Timestamp to an external
device like a radio clock or a GPS receiver’s sync output. Using this option systems that are based on different locations can be time synchronised.

High Precision PLL
10 MHz
PLL
The internal sampling clock of the M2i and M3i cards is generated using a high precision PLL. This powerful device allows to select the sampling rate
with a fine step size making it possible to perfectly adopt to different measurement tasks. Most other cards on the market only allow the setup of fixed
sampling rates like 100 MS/s, 50 MS/s, 25 MS/s, 10 MS/s, ... without any possibility to set the sampling rate to any value in between.
The newly designed clock section of the M3i card series allow the setup of the sampling clock with an extremely small step size of 1 Hz (with
3 small gaps of sampling rates that can not be reached).
External Clock
Using an external connector a sampling clock may be fed in from an external system. Due to the
well designed structure of the card the phase delay between external and internal sampling
clock is fixed. It’s also possible to output the internally used sampling clock signal to synchronise
external equipment with the hardware.
Reference Clock
PLL
The option to use a precise external reference clock (normally 10 MHz) is necessary to synchronise the board for high-quality measurements with external
equipment (like a signal source). It’s also possible to further enhance the quality of the sampling clock this way. The driver automatically generates the
requested sampling clock from the externally applied reference clock.
21
Special Clock Option
For special customer demands concerning the clock source the card design is
already prepared for an extra quartz oscillator. This option can be used for
special quartz oscillators with exact matching frequencies for a special application
or to equip an extremely accurate reference clock to increase the overall
clock accuracy. Please ask for an individual offer matching your needs.
Option Multiple Recording
The Multiple Recording option allows the recording of several trigger events without
restarting the hardware. With this option very fast repetition rates can be achieved. The
on-board memory is divided in several segments of same size. Each of them is filled with
data if a trigger event occurs. The number and size of the segments is only limited by the
installed on-board memory. On all M2i and M3i cards Multiple Recording can be combined
with the Timestamp option to get the exact trigger times of the different segments.
The free definition of segment size, pretrigger, posttrigger and delay trigger allows the adaption to nearly every measurement task. A very small
re-arming time of a few samples only allows fastest repetition rates.
Using Multiple Recording option together with the FIFO mode makes application demands solvable, that require continuous but segmented data acquisi
tion for hours.

Options / Features of M2i and M3i series
Option Gated Sampling (M2i only)
The Gated Sampling option allows data recording controlled by an external gate signal. Data is
only recorded if the gate signal has a programmed level. Gated Sampling can be combined with
the Timestamp option to record the exact start and stop time of the diverse gate segments.
The M2i cards series offers additional acquisition of data before the gate start and after the gate end. The length of this additional acquired data can
be programmed individually.
Option ABA mode
...
...
The ABA option combines slow continuous recording with very fast acquisitions on the trigger
event. Using the Timestamp option a time relation between the data recorded with the fast
time base and the data recorded with the slower second timebase can be made. The ABA mode works like the combination of data recorder and transient
recorder inside one instrument.
Option Timestamp
22
The Timestamp option writes the time positions of the trigger events in an extra memory. The
Timestamps are relative to the start of recording, to a defined zero time or externally synchronised
to a radio clock or a GPS receiver. With this option acquisitions of systems on different
locations may be set in a precise time relation. The Timestamp option was developed as a useful extension to the Multiple Recording, Gated Sampling
and ABA mode options but can also be used without these options.
The Timestamp memory is designed as a FIFO buffer allowing the readout of Timestamps also in FIFO mode. The cards therefore use a second DMA engine
that runs totally independent of the first DMA engine transferring the main data. The driver also allows a polling access to Timestamp data to get one
Timestamp by another.
The reference signal for synchronisation with a radio clock or a GPS receiver is connected using the BaseXIO option.
Option Star-Hub
The Star Hub is an additional module allowing the phase stable synchronization of up to 16
boards (M2i series) or up to 8 boards (M3i series). This can be boards of the same type or mixedmode
boards. Independent of the number of boards there is no phase delay between all channels.
As a result all connected boards are running with the same clock and the same trigger.
Each board is connected with a small cable of the same length, even the master board. That minimises the clock skew between the different boards.
Any board inside this system can be the clock master (on M3i series the clock master is fixed). All clock sources of this board can be used, be it internal
clock, reference clock or external clock. Every single or even several boards can be used as trigger sources for the complete system. The trigger source
of all boards can be combined with logical functions. All trigger modes that are available on the master boards are also available if the synchronization
Star-Hub is used.
The Star-Hub is available in two versions, a big version that supports the maximum number of cards to be connected but blocking an adjacent slot space
and a smaller, space saving version, that doesn’t block an additional slot space. The small version is able to synchronize 5 cards (M2i series) or 4 cards
(M3i series) in one system.
On the M2i series the Star Hub allows the synchronization of various cards when running with different sampling rates. This allows a mix of slow and
fast sampling in one system whilst still preserving the phase relation between the different channels.

System Star-Hub (M2i cards only)
Using the System Star-Hub for M2i series cards it is possible to synchronize several systems with each other having the same advantages that the
standard Star-Hub gives. The need for multiple system synchronization can be given if:
The number of channels that fit into one system should be exceeded.
Data should be stored continuously to hard disk RAID array and the limits of the PCI/PCI-X or PCIe bus do not allow the placing of all cards in
one system.
Extensive online calculations have to be made for several channels and the bus bandwidth is not capable of streaming data for all channels or
the CPU power is not sufficient.
This system synchronization can be done using special System Star-Hubs. Each system is then equipped with one System Star-Hub which is connected with
a Master System Star-Hub. In this setup the master system generates clock and trigger as described before. All slave systems only receive clock and trigger
information and can not be used as clock or trigger sources. The complete system can be extended step by step by adding new systems with a Slave
System Star-Hub or by adding new cards to one system. This extension can be continued until the maximum number of supported cards is reached.
23

Digitizers / DAQ Cards
The Spectrum fast data acquisition cards are very suitable for individual applications. The
wide range of different products cover the use as plain DAQ cards as well as fast digitizers
or transient recording applications. Together with the wide range of options and software
support all cards can be used in many different ways.
Waveform digitizers are plug-in cards for PCs or industrial PCs that are used to measure
continuous voltage signals as well as fast signal changes like voltage transients. The voltage
inputs of the cards with their different programmable input ranges allow to connect
any sensor or electronic machine (like radar receiver, ultrasound sensor or any slow speed
sensor like strain gauge, pressure or temperature) that generates voltage levels. Besides
the A/D section with its amplifiers the digitizer also consists of a large on-board memory
which stores the acquired data.
High quality amplifiers and A/D converters allow the acquisition of high-frequency signals.
All boards have a separate A/D converter and a separate amplifier for each channel. That
allows the synchronous sampling on all channels without the phase delay or crosstalk
inherent with multiplex boards. In ring buffer mode the boards act independently from
the PC and acquire data into the on-board memory. In FIFO mode the on-board memory
switches to a buffer and data can be read continuously.
Synchronous Sampling
24
All acquisition cards from Spectrum are built with a completely synchronous design. Every
channel has its own independent input amplifier as well as an independent A/D converter.
This synchronous design is made for cards of 2 to 16 channels, even 16 channel 16 bit
acquisition cards such as M2i.47xx series. All input channel related settings can be individually
programmed for each channel. Compared with standard cards with multiplex technology,
where scanning of each channel one after the other with a single A/D converter
occurs, the more sophisticated design of the Spectrum cards has a lot of advantages:
Full sampling rate for all channels
No phase delay between the single channels
Smallest crosstalk between adjacent channels due to individual input amplifiers
Direct comparison of acquired values with no need for interpolation

A/D Features
Please also see the common features of the M2i and M3i range that are suitable for
all card series. These features are explained on page 18 - 23 in more detail.
Enhanced Trigger Modes
The M2i and M3i series are equipped with an extremely enhanced trigger
engine.The force trigger command allows the implementation of an auto
mode as known from stand-alone oscilloscopes. The explicit trigger
enable/disable commands enhance the exactly defined synchronisation
with external instruments. Additionally all trigger sources can be merged
using combined AND and OR masks leading to a maximum flexibility. On
top of all these options a programmable trigger delay can be used.
Channel Trigger
.............
Trig
The data acquisition boards offer a wide variety of trigger modes. Besides the standard signal checking for level and edge as known from oscilloscopes,
it’s also possible to define a window trigger. All trigger modes may also be combined with the pulsewidth trigger (M2i cards only). This makes it possible
to trigger on signal events such as pulses, which are defined as too long or too short.
For most of the trigger modes there is an independent trigger recognition for every channel, that can be combined with an OR function if desired. This
allows the easy setup of a multi-channel error recognition. All M2i and M3i data acquisition cards offer a re-arm trigger in addition. In this mode an
additional re-arming level is programmed guaranteeing that the trigger is done on the correct edge and minimizing trigger problems with noisy signals.
25
Spike Trigger
dU
.............
dt
Trig
The 16 bit data acquisition cards M2i.46xx and M2i.47xx series allow the programming of a spike trigger. The trigger event is a slope inside the signal
that is larger (or even smaller) than a programmed slope. Internally the difference of two adjacent samples is calculated and then compared to the programmed
trigger level. This trigger mode allows the detection of signal distortions as needed for power line monitoring.

Digitizers / DAQ Cards
Programmable Input Amplifier
To optimise the use of the resolution of the converter when doing A/D conversion it is necessary to prepare the physically available input signal to match
the converter’s needs. With 4 to 8 input ranges and additional features like programmable termination 1 , programmable AC coupling 1 , programmable
input offset 1 or a programmable input filter 1 the card can adapt to almost any real world signal and have it mapped in a way perfectly using the A/D
converters resolution. Each input range is individually calibrated to minimize any mapping error.
1
Some of the settings are not available for all card families.
Programmable Input Offset
Offs
+
–
Most of the Spectrum A/D cards offer a user programmable signal offset opening the Spectrum boards to a wide variety of setups. The signal offset at
least covers a range of +/-100 % of the currently selected input range making unipolar measurements with the card possible. Besides this the input range
offset can be programmed individually allowing a perfect match of the A/D card section to the real world signal. As an example: if the physical signal
is between -200 mV and 800 mV it is possible to shift the input signal by -300 mV to use the ±500 mV input range instead of the next higher one of
±1 V. With this configuration the full resolution range of the A/D converter is available for the complete signal swing.
Selectable Input Path (M3i cards only)
26
On the M3i cards the user has the choice between two analog input paths for each of the analog channels . The “Buffered” path offers a high impedance
input to connect signals that cannot be loaded with low termination like oscilloscope probes. The carefully selected input buffer has a slightly decreased
bandwidth compared to the “50 Ohm” path.
The “50 Ohm” path on the other hand provides the highest bandwidth and the best signal integrity with a fixed 50 Ohm termination. It is optimized for
high speed and high quality signals that can drive a 50 ohm load. Best performance is reached with the 50 Ohm path.
Selectable Low Pass Filter (M3i cards only)
Each analog channel of the M3i series contains a software selectable low pass filter to limit the input bandwidth. Reducing the analog input bandwidth
results in a lower total noise and can be useful especially with low voltage input signals.
SMA connectors for high frequency signals (M3i cards only)
SMA
A D
As an alternative to the standard SMB and MMCX connections all M3i high speed cards can also be equipped with SMA
connectors. The SMA connections are available for the analog input signals as well as for two of the additonal connections.
These connections must be defined on the purchase order and can be a selection of: Trig-In, Trig-Out, Multi-Purpose X0,
Clk-In, Clk-Out. A variety of adapter cables to different other connector types is available on page 91.

Differential Inputs
+
–
A D
The 16 bit acquisition cards of Spectrum of the M2i.46xx series can change the inputs by software command between single-ended (related to a
common ground) and true differential. Unlike the common pseudo-differential inputs which only allow the feed-in of a single ground signal, the true
differential inputs allow the feed-in of the two complementary phases of a differential signal. The channel count is not reduced in this setup. Especially
when using high resolution converters, the usage of true differential signals can greatly reduce the noise and distortion of the recorded signal.
Option Digital Inputs
A D
All A/D boards with 12 and 14 bit resolution have the option of synchronously acquiring digital data, phase-stable with the analog data. On M2i cards
with 12 bit analog resolution there are 4 additional digital inputs for every analog channel, on M2i cards with 14 bit analog resolution there are
2 additional digital inputs per channel and on M3i cards there are two Multi Purpose I/O which can be used as one or two additional digital inputs. Digital
data is recorded together with the analog data in 16 bit wide samples and can be used to set-up mixed mode systems or to acquire some additional
marker signals.
On-Board Calibration
A D
D A
All parts used on any electronic device in the world are subject to external influences and aging and therefore slightly change their behaviour over the
time. On high precision analog data acquisition cards this results in an offset and gain error that will get higher over the operating time. Therefore the
on-board calibration can be run on user request and calibrates the amplifier against a dedicated internal high precision calibration source. After this
calibration data is stored permanently in an on-board EEPROM and is automatically used for further acquisitions.
27
External Pre-Amplifier
Although all Spectrum A/D cards have a very powerful input section with a highly configurable input amplifier and a variety of input ranges it is sometimes
necessary to have additional external amplifiers if the signal to acquire has an extremely low level. Spectrum offers a range of perfectly matching
external amplifiers to cover such cases. These powerful amplifiers have been rated using the Spectrum cards and offer best performance together with
high amplification rates.
The amplifiers are simply connected between the signal source and the Spectrum A/D card input and can be manually switched between different
settings using small lever keys. All amplifiers allow the offset compensation by using an adjustable screw.
Order Information
Order Number Bandwidth Input Coupling Amplification
SPA.1231 10 MHz 50 Ohm AC/DC x 100 (40 dB), x 1000 (60 dB)
SPA.1232 10 MHz 1 MOhm AC/DC x 100 (40 dB), x 1000 (60 dB)
SPA.1411 200 MHz 50 Ohm AC/DC x 10 (20 dB), x 100 (40 dB)
SPA.1412 200 MHz 1 MOhm AC/DC x 10 (20 dB), x 100 (40 dB)
SPA.1601 500 MHz 50 Ohm DC x 10 (20 dB)

M3i.21xx series
1 GS/s 8 Bit Digitizer with up to 4 GByte Memory
4 different versions with one or two channels and
sampling rates between 250 MS/s and 1 GS/s
PCI
PCI Express
Up to 1 GS/s on one channel and up to 500 MS/s
on two channels
Simultaneous sampling on all channels
Separate monolithic ADC and amplifier per channel
No ADC interleaving best quality
8 input ranges: ±50 mV up to ±10 V
Edge, window, re-arm, OR/AND trigger
256 MByte on-board memory (up to 4 GByte)
Trigger Clock Input (A/D) General
.............
Trig
Channel Trigger
Option Multiple Recording
External Clock
Selectable Input Path
D A
A D
On-board Calibration
Memory
......
Ring Buffer Mode
Trig
Software
32 Bit
64 Bit
Linux
Trig
...
...
PLL
FIFO
32 Bit
64 Bit
External Trigger
Multi Purpose I/O
Option ABA Mode
Option Timestamp
Reference Clock
10 MHz PLL
High Precision PLL
Programmable Input
Amplifiers
Offs
+
–
Multi Purpose I/O
SMA
Programmable Input Offset SMA Connectors
A D
FIFO Mode
Option BaseXIO
Windows
SB6
SBench6
LabVIEW MATLAB
Agilent VEE
LabWindows / CVI
board options are explained in detail on page 18 - 27
Selectable Low Pass Filter
Option Star-Hub
Option 3rd Party Drivers
C/C++ VB.NET C#
Gnu C++ J# Delphi
Borland C++ Builder
Programming Examples
28
General Information
The new M3i.21xx series, released end of 2009, offer 4 different versions ranging from 250 MS/s up to 1 GS/s with one or two channels. The powerful
analog section has been designed for highest bandwidth together with best signal quality and a versatile highly configurable amplifier section. An
extremely low dead time between segments in Multiple Recording mode specifies this card for fast repeating signals like LDA/PDA, RADAR or
Ultrasound applications. This card series replaces the PCI.248/PCI.258 card series and offers 256 MByte of memory as the standard version.
Application Examples
Ultrasound
Spectroscopy
RADAR
Laser Applications

Technical Details
Analog Inputs
Resolution
8 bit
Channel Selection (Sharing Memory)
any 1 or 2 channels
Differential Non Linearity (DNL)
≤ 0.6 LSB (ADC)
Integral Non Linearity (INL)
≤ 1.0 LSB (ADC)
Offset Error after calibration ≤ 0.5 %
Gain Error after calibration ≤ 1 %
Programmable Input Ranges
±50 mV, ±100 mV, ±250 mV,
±500 mV, ±1 V, ±2 V, ±5 V, ±10 V
Programmable Input Offset
±100% of current input range
Crosstalk Sine Signal ±1 V, 50 Ohm Term -75 dB @ 100 MHz
Input Impedance (Buffered Path)
1 MOhm || 25 pF
Input Impedance (50 Ohm Path)
fixed 50 Ohm
Input Signal (50 Ohm Path)
3.5 Vrms (< ±1 V range),
5 Vrms (≥ ±1 V range)
Over Voltage Protection (Buffered Path) ±5 V (< ±1 V range),
±30 V (≥ ±1 V range)
Lower Bandwidth Limit (AC Coupled, 50 Ohm) < 30 kHz
Lower Bandwidth Limit (AC Coupled, 1 MOhm) < 2 Hz
Trigger
Trigger Sources
Channel, External, Multi purpose I/O,
BaseXIO, AND/OR, Sync
Channel Trigger Resolution
8 bits
Internal Trigger Accuracy
1 sample
Multi, Gate: Re-Arming Time ≤ 64 samples
Max Number of Segments
unlimited
Max Pretrigger at Multi, FIFO 16384 samples as sum of all active channels
External Trigger Type (Ext0)
analog window comparator
External Trigger Impedance (Ext0) 50 Ohm / 1 MOhm || 25 pF
Trigger Output
low ≤ 0.4 V, high ≥ 2.4 V
Clock
External Clock Impedance
Clock Modes
Internal Clock Range
Internal Clock Accuracy
Internal Clock Granularity
Reference Clock Input Range
External Clock Delay to Internal Clock
Clock Output
Clock Input
Environmental and Physical Details
50 Ohm fixed
Int. PLL, Ref. Clock, Sync
22.5 MS/s to max sampling clock
max ±32 ppm
1 Hz
≥ 10.0 MHz and ≤ 1.0 GHz
3.7 ns (8.2 ns at synchronized cards)
single-ended, 3.3 V LVPECL
sine or rectangle, AC coupled
Connector Types (Analog, BaseXIO) 3 mm SMB male
Connector Types (Clock, Trigger,
Multi Purpose I/O)
MMCX female
Dimension (PCB only)
312 mm x 107 mm (full PCI length)
Width (Standard or Star-Hub 4) 1 full size slot
Width (Star-Hub 8)
2 full size slots
Width (with BaseXIO)
1 full size slot + 1 half size slot
Operating Temperature 0°C - 50°C
Max Power Consumption (PCI) 20 W (standard mem), 24 W (full mem)
Max Power Consumption (PCI Express) 25 W (standard mem), 34 W (full mem)
PCI / PCI-X Bus Slot Compatibility 32 / 64 bit, 33-133 MHz, 3,3 and 5 V I/O
PCIe Slot Compatibility
x1 / x4 / x8 / x16 (dedicated graphics
slot may not work)
Dynamic Performance
M3i.212x
M3i.213x
Max Sampling Clock 500 MS/s 1 GS/s
-3 dB Bandwidth (Buffered Path) 150 MHz 200 MHz
-3 dB Bandwidth (50 Ohm Path) 250 MHz 500 MHz
-3 dB Bandwidth (BW Limit) 20 MHz 20 MHz
Zero Noise Level ≤ 0.5 LSB ≤ 0.6 LSB
Test Sampling Rate 500 MS/s 1 GS/s
Test Signal Frequency 9 MHz 40 MHz 9 MHz 40 MHz
SNR (typ) (dB) 46.0 46.1 44.9 44.7
THD (typ) (dB) 53.1 51.7 54.2 54.2
SFDR (typ), excl. harm. (dB) 61.2 64.4 62.7 59.5
ENOB (SNR) (bit) 7.3 7.3 7.2 7.1
ENOB (SINAD) (bit) 7.2 7.2 7.1 7.0
Pure low pass filtered sine signal measured at ±500 mV range, HF path, AC coupled, fixed 50 Ohm
All details are to be found in
the data sheet under
www.spec.de/m3i21xx.html
Lifetime driver and firmware
updates free of charge
2 years warranty
29
Order Information
Card Versions
PCI/PCI-X PCI Express 1 channel 2 channels
M3i.2120 M3i.2120-exp 500 MS/s
M3i.2122 M3i.2122-exp 500 MS/s 250 MS/s
M3i.2130 M3i.2130-exp 1 GS/s
M3i.2132 M3i.2132-exp 1 GS/s 500 MS/s
3rd Party Drivers
M3i.xxxx-ml
M3i.21xx-lv
M3i.21xx-vee
MATLAB driver for all M3i cards
LabVIEW driver for all M3i.21xx cards
Agilent VEE driver for all M3i.21xx cards
Cables not included.
Please see the cable overview
on page 91 for adapter cables
Memory
M3i.xxxx-512MB
M3i.xxxx-1GB
M3i.xxxx-2GB
M3i.xxxx-4GB
Options
M3i.xxxx-mr
M3i.xxxx-mt
M3i.xxxx-mtab
M3i.xxxx-SH4
M3i.xxxx-SH8
M3i.xxxx-SMA
M3i.xxxx-bxio
M3i-upgrade
Memory upgrade to 512 MByte total memory
Memory upgrade to 1 GByte total memory
Memory upgrade to 2 GByte total memory
Memory upgrade to 4 GByte total memory
Option Multiple Recording
Option pack including Multiple Recording, Timestamp
Option pack including Multiple Recording, Timestamp, ABA mode
Synchronization Star-Hub for up to 4 cards, only 1 slot width
Synchronization Star-Hub for up to 8 cards, 2 slots width
SMA connectors for analog-in, clock/trigger
Option BaseXIO: 8 digital I/O lines usable as asynchronous I/O and
timestamp ref-clock, additional bracket with 8 SMB connectors
Upgrade for M3i.xxxx: later installation of option -bxio

M2i.20xx series
8 Bit Multi-Purpose Digitizers up to 200 MS/s
4 different versions with two to four channels and
sampling rates between 50 MS/s and 200 MS/s
PCI
PCI Express
Up to 200 MS/s on two channels and
up to 100 MS/s on four channels
Simultaneous sampling on all channels
Separate ADC and amplifier per channel
7 input ranges: ±50 mV up to ±5 V
Window, pulse width, re-arm, OR/AND trigger
Programmable input offset of ±400 %
256 MByte on-board memory (up to 4 GByte)
Trigger Clock Input (A/D) General
.............
Trig
Channel Trigger
Option Multiple Recording
External Clock
Programmable Input Amplifiers
Memory
......
Ring Buffer Mode
Trig
Software
32 Bit
64 Bit
Linux
LabVIEW MATLAB
Agilent VEE
LabWindows / CVI
Option 3rd Party Drivers
Trig
PLL
Offs
+
–
FIFO
32 Bit
64 Bit
C/C++ VB.NET C#
Gnu C++ J# Delphi
Borland C++ Builder
External Trigger
Option Gated Sampling
Reference Clock
Programmable Input Offset
FIFO Mode
Windows
Programming Examples
Trig
...
...
10 MHz
PLL
SB6
Pulsewidth Trigger
Option ABA Mode
High Precision PLL
Option BaseXIO
SBench6
Option Timestamp
Option Star-Hub
board options are explained in detail on page 18 - 27
30
General Information
The cards of the M2i.20xx series are designed for the fast and high quality data acquisition. Each of the up to four input channels has its own A/D
converter and its own programmable input amplifier. This allows the recording of signals on all channels with 8 bit resolution without any phase
delay between them.
The inputs can be selected to one of seven input ranges by software and can be programmed to compensate for an input offset of ±400% of
the input range. All four cards of the M2i.20xx series may use the whole installed on-board memory completely for the currently activated number of
channels. A FIFO mode is also integrated on the board.
Application Examples
Acquisition / Replay of fast data in
combination with M2i.61xx (page 50)
Laser Doppler Anemometer
Ultrasound Inspection System
Radar Applications

Technical Details
Analog Inputs
Resolution
Channel Selection (Sharing Memory)
Differential Non Linearity (DNL)
Integral Non Linearity (INL)
Offset Error
Gain Error
Programmable Input Ranges
Programmable Input Offset
Crosstalk 1 MHz Signal, 50 Ohm Term
Programmable Input Impedance
Input Signal with 50 Ohm Termination
Over Voltage Protection
Trigger
Trigger Sources
Channel Trigger Resolution
Internal Trigger Accuracy
Multi, Gate: Re-Arming Time
Max Number of Segments
Max Pretrigger at Multi, Gate, FIFO
External Trigger Type
External Trigger Impedance
Trigger Output
8 bit
any 1, 2 or 4 channels
±0,5 LSB (ADC)
±0,5 LSB (ADC)
can be calibrated by user
< 2% of current value
±50 mV, ±100 mV, ±200 mV, ±500 mV,
±1 V, ±2 V, ±5 V
±400 % of current input range
< -62 dB between any adjacent channels
50 Ohm / 1 MOhm || 25 pF
max 5 V rms
±5 V (≤ ±500 mV), ±50 V (> ±500 mV)
Channel, External, BaseXIO, AND/OR, Sync
8 bits
1 sample (≤ 100 MS/s),
2 samples (> 100 MS/s)
< 4 samples
unlimited
16352 samples as sum of all active channels
3.3 V LVTTL compatible (5 V tolerant)
50 Ohm / 5 kOhm programmable
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
Clock
External Clock Impedance
Clock Modes
Internal Clock Range (PLL Mode)
Internal Clock Accuracy
Internal Clock Granularity (≤ 100M)
Reference Clock Input Range
External Clock Delay to Internal Clock
Clock Output
Clock Input
Environmental and Physical Details
50 Ohm / 5 kOhm
Int. PLL / Quartz, Ext. Direct / Divided,
Ref. Clock, Sync
1 kS/s to max sampling clock
20 ppm
< 1% of range (100M, 10M, 1M, 100k,...)
≥ 1.0 MHz and ≤ 125.0 MHz
5.4 ns
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
rectangle of 3.3 V LVTTL
Connector Types
(Analog, Clock, Trigger, BaseXIO) 3 mm SMB male
Dimension (PCB only)
312 mm x 107 mm (full PCI length)
Width (Standard or Star-Hub 5) 1 full size slot
Width (Star-Hub 16)
2 full size slots
Operating Temperature 0°C - 50°C
Max Power Consumption (PCI) 13 W (standard mem), 17 W (full mem)
Max Power Consumption (PCI Express) 16 W (standard mem), 25 W (full mem)
PCI / PCI-X Bus Slot Compatibility 32 / 64 bit, 33-133 MHz, 3,3 and 5 V I/O
PCIe Slot Compatibility
x1 / x4 / x8 / x16 (dedicated graphics
slot may not work)
Dynamic Performance
M2i.202x
M2i.203x
-3 dB Bandwidth (±50 mV) DC to 25 MHz DC to 60 MHz
-3 dB Bandwidth (≥ ±100 mV) DC to 25 MHz DC to 90 MHz
Zero Noise Level < 0.9 LSB rms < 2.0 LSB rms
Test Sampling Rate 50 MS/s 100 MS/s
Test Signal Frequency 1 MHz 4 MHz 1 MHz 9 MHz
SNR (typ) (dB) 46.8 46.5 45.0 44.5
THD (typ) (dB) -56.0 -55.5 -49.5 -49.5
SFDR (typ), excl. harm. (dB) 60.3 60.1 59.0 57.0
ENOB (SNR) (bit) 7.5 7.4 7.2 7.2
ENOB (SINAD) (bit) 7.4 7.3 7.1 7.0
Pure low pass filtered sine signal measured at ±1V range, 50 Ohm
All details are to be found in
the data sheet under
www.spec.de/m2i20xx.html
Lifetime driver and firmware
updates free of charge
2 years warranty
31
Order Information
Card Versions
PCI/PCI-X PCI Express 1 channel 2 channels 4 channels
M2i.2020 M2i.2020-exp 50 MS/s 50 MS/s
M2i.2021 M2i.2021-exp 50 MS/s 50 MS/s 50 MS/s
M2i.2030 M2i.2030-exp 200 MS/s 100 MS/s
M2i.2031 M2i.2031-exp 200 MS/s 200 MS/s 100 MS/s
3rd Party Drivers
M2i.xxxx-ml
M2i.20xx-lv
M2i.20xx-vee
MATLAB driver for all M2i cards
LabVIEW driver for all M2i.20xx cards
Agilent VEE driver for all M2i.20xx cards
Cables not included.
Please see the cable overview
on page 91 for adapter cables
Memory
M2i.xxxx-512MB
M2i.xxxx-1GB
M2i.xxxx-2GB
M2i.xxxx-4GB
Options
M2i.xxxx-mr
M2i.xxxx-mgt
M2i.xxxx-mgtab
M2i.xxxx-SH5
M2i.xxxx-SH16
M2i.xxxx-SSHM
M2i.xxxx-SSHS5
M2i.xxxx-SSHS16
M2i.xxxx-bxio
M2i-upgrade
Memory upgrade to 512 MB total memory
Memory upgrade to 1 GB total memory
Memory upgrade to 2 GB total memory
Memory upgrade to 4 GB total memory
Option Multiple Recording
Option pack including Multiple Recording, Gated Sampling, Timestamp
Option pack including Multiple Recording, Gated Sampling, Timestamp,
ABA Mode
Synchronization Star-Hub for up to 5 cards, only 1 slot width
Synchronization Star-Hub for up to 16 cards
System-Star-Hub Master for up to 17 systems, sync cables included
System-Star-Hub Slave for up to 5 cards in one system
System-Star-Hub Slave for up to 16 cards in one system
Option BaseXIO: 8 digital I/O for asynchronous I/O, Timestamp refclock,
additional triggers, additional bracket with 8 SMB connectors
Upgrade for M2i.xxxx: later installation of option -bxio

M3i.32xx series
Fastest 12 Bit Digitizers with 500 MS/s
4 different versions with one or two channels and
sampling rates between 250 MS/s and 500 MS/s
PCI
PCI Express
Up to 500 MS/s on one channel and up to 250 MS/s on
two channels
Simultaneous sampling on all channels
Separate monolithic ADC and amplifier per channel
No ADC interleaving best quality
6 input ranges: ±200 mV up to ±10 V
Up to 2 synchronous digital channels with multi-purpose I/O
Edge, window, re-arm, OR/AND trigger
128 MSample on-board memory (up to 2 GSample)
Trigger Clock Input (A/D) General
.............
Trig
Channel Trigger
Option Multiple Recording
External Clock
Selectable Input Path
Memory
......
Ring Buffer Mode
Trig
Software
32 Bit
64 Bit
Linux
LabVIEW MATLAB
Agilent VEE
LabWindows / CVI
Option 3rd Party Drivers
Trig
...
...
PLL
FIFO
32 Bit
64 Bit
C/C++ VB.NET C#
Gnu C++ J# Delphi
Borland C++ Builder
External Trigger
Option ABA Mode
Reference Clock
Programmable Input Amplifiers
FIFO Mode
Windows
Programming Examples
10 MHz PLL
A D
D A
SB6
Multi Purpose I/O
Option Timestamp
High Precision PLL
On-board Calibration
Option BaseXIO
SBench6
board options are explained in detail on page 18 - 27
Selectable Low Pass Filter
Option Star-Hub
SMA
A D
SMA Connectors
32
General Information
The 4 models of the M3i.32xx series are designed for the fast and high quality data acquisition. Each of the input channels has its own monolithic
A/D converter and its own programmable input amplifier. This allows the recording of signals simultaneously on both channels with 12 bit resolution
without any phase delay between them. The card uses only one A/D converter even when running with 500 MS/s, guaranteeing best signal quality
without any interleaving technology. The extremely large on-board memory allows long time recording even with the highest sampling rates.
Application Examples
High Energy Physics
Research and Development
Radar
Spectroscopy
Laser Applications

Technical Details
Analog Inputs
Resolution
12 bit
Channel Selection (Sharing Memory)
any 1 or 2 channels
Differential Non Linearity (DNL)
≤ 1.0 LSB (ADC)
Integral Non Linearity (INL)
≤ 2.5 LSB (ADC)
Offset Error
can be calibrated by user
Gain Error
can be calibrated by user
Programmable Input Ranges (Buffered Path) ±200 mV, ±500 mV, ±1 V,
±2 V, ±5 V, ±10 V
Programmable Input Ranges (50 Ohm Path)
±500 mV, ±1 V, ±2.5 V, ±5 V
Crosstalk Sine Signal ±5 V, 50 Ohm Term
1 MHz: < -100 dB,
20 MHz: < -100 dB
Programmable Input Impedance (Buffered Path) 50 Ohm, 1 MOhm || 25 pF
Input Impedance (50 Ohm Path)
fixed 50 Ohm
Input Signal with 50 Ohm Termination (50 Ohm Path) max 2 Vrms (≤ ±1 V range),
max 6 Vrms (> ±1 V range)
Input Signal with 50 Ohm Termination (Buffered Path) max 5 Vrms
Over Voltage Protection with 1 MOhm (Buffered Path) ±5 V (≤ ±1 V range),
±30 V (> ±1 V range)
Lower Bandwidth Limit (AC Coupled, 50 Ohm) < 30 kHz
Lower Bandwidth Limit (AC Coupled, 1 MOhm) < 2 Hz
Trigger
Trigger Sources
Channel, External, Multi purpose I/O,
BaseXIO, AND/OR, Sync
Channel Trigger Resolution
10 bits
Trigger Accuracy
1 sample
Multi, Gate: Re-Arming Time ≤ 32 samples
Max Number of Segments
Unlimited
Max Pretrigger at Multi, FIFO 8192 samples as sum of all active channels
External Trigger Type (Ext0)
analog window comparator
External Trigger Impedance (Ext0) 50 Ohm / 1 MOhm || 25 pF
Trigger Output
low ≤ 0.4 V, high ≥ 2.4 V
Dynamic Performance
Clock
External Clock Impedance
Clock Modes
Internal Clock Range
Internal Clock Accuracy
Internal Clock Granularity
Reference Clock Input Range
External Clock Delay to Internal Clock
Clock Output
Clock Input
Environmental and Physical Details
50 Ohm fixed
Int. PLL, Ref. Clock, Sync
10 MS/s to max sampling clock
max ±32 ppm
1 Hz
≥ 10.0 MHz and ≤ 1.0 GHz
3.7 ns (8.2 ns at synchronized cards)
single-ended, 3.3 V LVPECL
sine or rectangle, AC coupled
Connector Types (Analog, BaseXIO) 3 mm SMB male
Connector Types (Clock, Trigger,
Multi Purpose I/O)
MMCX female
Dimension (PCB only)
312 mm x 107 mm (full PCI length)
Width (Standard or Star-Hub 4) 1 full size slot
Width (Star-Hub 8)
2 full size slots
Width (with BaseXIO)
1 full size slot + 1 half size slot
Operating Temperature 0°C - 50°C
Max Power Consumption (PCI) 22 W (standard mem), 25 W (full mem)
Max Power Consumption (PCI Express) 23 W (standard mem), 31 W (full mem)
PCI / PCI-X Bus Slot Compatibility 32 / 64 bit, 33-133 MHz, 3,3 and 5 V I/O
PCIe Slot Compatibility
x1 / x4 / x8 / x16 (dedicated graphics
slot may not work)
All details are to be found in
the data sheet under
www.spec.de/m3i32xx.html
M3i.322x
M3i.324x
Max Sampling Clock 250 MS/s 500 MS/s
-3 dB Bandwidth (Buffered Path) 90 MHz 125 MHz
-3 dB Bandwidth (50 Ohm Path) 125 MHz 250 MHz
-3 dB Bandwidth (BW Limit) 20 MHz 20 MHz
Zero Noise Level < 1.2 LSB rms < 1.9 LSB rms
Test Sampling Rate 250 MS/s 500 MS/s
Test Signal Frequency 9 MHz 40 MHz 9 MHz 40 MHz
SNR (typ) (dB) 63.8 63.7 63.1 62.7
THD (typ) (dB) -70.1 -70.7 -72.5 -71.8
SFDR (typ), excl. harm. (dB) 80.5 80.4 85.3 80.0
ENOB (SNR) (bit) 10.3 10.3 10.2 10.1
ENOB (SINAD) (bit) 10.2 10.2 10.1 10.0
Pure low pass filtered sine signal measured at ±1 V range, HF path, AC coupled, fixed 50 Ohm
Lifetime driver and firmware
updates free of charge
2 years warranty
33
Order Information
Card Versions
PCI/PCI-X PCI Express 1 channel 2 channels
M3i.3220 M3i.3220-exp 250 MS/s
M3i.3221 M3i.3221-exp 250 MS/s 250 MS/s
M3i.3240 M3i.3240-exp 500 MS/s
M3i.3242 M3i.3242-exp 500 MS/s 250 MS/s
3rd Party Drivers
M3i.xxxx-ml MATLAB driver for all M3i cards
M3i.32xx-lv LabVIEW driver for all M3i.32xx cards
M3i.32xx-vee Agilent VEE driver for all M3i.32xx cards
Cables not included.
Please see the cable overview
on page 91 for adapter cables
Memory
M3i.xxxx-256MS
M3i.xxxx-512MS
M3i.xxxx-1GS
M3i.xxxx-2GS
Options
M3i.xxxx-mr
M3i.xxxx-mt
M3i.xxxx-mtab
M3i.xxxx-SH4
M3i.xxxx-SH8
M3i.xxxx-SMA
M3i.xxxx-bxio
M3i-upgrade
Memory upgrade to 256 MSample (512 MB) total memory
Memory upgrade to 512 MSample (1 GB) total memory
Memory upgrade to 1 GSample (2 GB) total memory
Memory upgrade to 2 GSample (4 GB) total memory
Option Multiple Recording
Option pack including Multiple Recording, Timestamp
Option pack including Multiple Recording, Timestamp, ABA mode
Synchronization Star-Hub for up to 4 cards, only 1 slot width
Synchronization Star-Hub for up to 8 cards, 2 slots width
SMA connectors for analog-in, clock/trigger
Option BaseXIO: 8 digital I/O lines usable as asynchronous I/O and
timestamp ref-clock, additional bracket with 8 SMB connectors
Upgrade for M3i.xxxx: later installation of option -bxio

M2i.30xx series
12 Bit Multi-Purpose Digitizers up to 200 MS/s
17 different versions with one to four channels and
sampling rates between 40 MS/s and 200 MS/s
PCI
PCI Express
Up to 105 MS/s on two channels and
up to 60 MS/s on four channels
Simultaneous sampling on all channels
Separate ADC and amplifier per channel
6 input ranges: ±200 mV up to ±10 V
Window, pulse width, re-arm, OR/AND trigger
Programmable input offset of ±100 %
128 MSample on-board memory (up to 2 GSample)
Trigger Clock Input (A/D) General
.............
Trig
Channel Trigger
Option Multiple Recording
External Clock
Programmable Input Amplifiers
Memory
......
Ring Buffer Mode
Trig
Software
32 Bit
64 Bit
Linux
LabVIEW MATLAB
Agilent VEE
LabWindows / CVI
Option 3rd Party Drivers
Trig
PLL
Offs
+
–
FIFO
32 Bit
64 Bit
C/C++ VB.NET C#
Gnu C++ J# Delphi
Borland C++ Builder
External Trigger
Option Gated Sampling
Reference Clock
Programmable Input Offset
FIFO Mode
Windows
Programming Examples
Trig
...
...
10 MHz
PLL
A D
SB6
Pulsewidth Trigger
Option ABA Mode
High Precision PLL
Option Digital Inputs
Option BaseXIO
SBench6
34
board options are explained in detail on page 18 - 27
General Information
Option Timestamp
A D
A D
Digital
Diff
With a simple
software Pseudo Differential Inputs
command two single-ended inputs
can be combined to one pseudodifferential
channel (both inputs still
related to GND). The difference is
calculated in hardware in real-time
on the digital side.
Option Star-Hub
The 17 models of the M2i.30xx series are designed for the fast and high quality data acquisition. Each of the (up to four) input channels has its own
A/D converter and its own programmable input amplifier. This allows the recording of signals simultaneously on all channels with 12 bit resolution
without any phase delay between them.
The extremely large on-board memory allows long time recording even with the highest sampling rates. All boards of the M2i.30xx series may use the
whole installed on-board memory for the currently activated number of channels. A FIFO mode is also integrated on the board. This allows continuous
acquisition of data for online processing or for data storage to hard disk.
Application Examples
Transient Recording
Spectroscopy
Vibration Analyiys of Nano Parts
Special Radar Applications

Technical Details
Analog Inputs
Resolution
12 bit
Channel Selection (Sharing Memory) any 1, 2 or 4 channels
Differential Non Linearity (DNL) ± 1 LSB (ADC)
Integral Non Linearity (INL)
± 1 LSB (ADC)
Offset Error
can be calibrated by user
Gain Error
< 1% of current value
Programmable Input Ranges ±200 mV, ±500 mV, ±1 V, ±2 V, ±5 V, ±10 V
Programmable Input Offset
±100% of current input range
Crosstalk 1 MHz Signal, 50 Ohm Term < -70 dB between any adjacent channels
Programmable Input Impedance 50 Ohm / 1 MOhm || 25 pF
Input Signal with 50 Ohm Termination max 5 V rms
Over Voltage Protection ±5 V (≤ ±1 V), ±50 V (> ±1 V)
Trigger
Trigger Sources
Channel, External, BaseXIO, AND/OR, Sync
Channel Trigger Resolution
10 bits
Internal Trigger Accuracy
1 sample
Multi, Gate: Re-arming Time
< 4 samples
Max Number of Segments
unlimited
Max Pretrigger at Multi, Gate, FIFO 8176 samples as sum of all active channels
External Trigger Type
3.3 V LVTTL compatible (5 V tolerant)
External Trigger Impedance
50 Ohm / 5 kOhm programmable
Trigger Output
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
Dynamic Performance
Clock
External Clock Impedance
Clock Modes
Internal Clock Range (PLL Mode)
Internal Clock Accuracy
Internal Clock Granularity (

M2i.31xx series
8 Channels up to 25 MS/s
9 different 12 bit digitizers with two to eight channels
and sampling rates between 1 MS/s and 25 MS/s
PCI
2, 4, 8 channels with 1 MS/s, 10 MS/s and 25 MS/s
Simultaneous sampling on all channels
Separate ADC and amplifier per channel
8 input ranges: ±50 mV up to ±10 V
Window, pulse width, re-arm, OR/AND trigger
Programmable input offset of ±100 %
128 MSample on-board memory (up to 2 GSample)
PCI Express
Trigger Clock Input (A/D) General
.............
Trig
Channel Trigger
Option Multiple Recording
External Clock
Programmable Input Amplifiers
Memory
......
Ring Buffer Mode
Trig
Software
32 Bit
64 Bit
Linux
LabVIEW MATLAB
Agilent VEE
LabWindows / CVI
Option 3rd Party Drivers
Trig
PLL
Offs
+
–
FIFO
32 Bit
64 Bit
C/C++ VB.NET C#
Gnu C++ J# Delphi
Borland C++ Builder
External Trigger
Option Gated Sampling
Reference Clock
Programmable Input Offset
FIFO Mode
Windows
Programming Examples
Trig
...
...
10 MHz
PLL
A D
SB6
Pulsewidth Trigger
Option ABA Mode
High Precision PLL
Option Digital Inputs
Option BaseXIO
SBench6
Option Timestamp
Option Star-Hub
board options are explained in detail on page 18 - 27
36
General Information
The M2i.31xx series allows simultaneous recording of two, four or eight channels with sampling rates of 1 MS/s, 10 MS/s or 25 MS/s. Due to the
proven design a wide variety of 12 bit A/D converter boards for PCI/PCI-X bus and PCI Express can be offered.
As an option 4 digital inputs per channel can be recorded synchronously making a total of up to 32 additional digital channels for mixed-mode
operation.
Application Examples
Multi-channel data acquisition
Vibration Analysis of nano parts
Combustion optimization

Technical Details
Analog Inputs
Resolution
12 bit
Channel Selection (Sharing Memory) any 1, 2 or 4 channels
Differential Non Linearity (DNL) ≤ 1 LSB (ADC)
Integral Non Linearity (INL)
≤ 2.5 LSB (ADC)
Offset Error
can be calibrated by user
Gain Error
< 1% of current value
Programmable Input Ranges ±50 mV, ±100 mV, ±200 mV, ±500 mV,
±1 V, ±2 V, ±5 V, ±10 V
Programmable Input Offset
±100 % of current input range
Crosstalk 1 MHz Signal, 50 Ohm Term < -70 dB between any adjacent channels
Programmable Input Impedance 50 Ohm / 1 MOhm || 25 pF
Input Signal with 50 Ohm Termination max 5 V rms
Over Voltage Protection ±5 V (≤ ±1 V), ±50 V (> ±1 V)
Trigger
Trigger Sources
Channel, External, BaseXIO, AND/OR, Sync
Channel Trigger Resolution
10 bits
Internal Trigger Accuracy
1 sample
Multi, Gate: Re-Arming Time < 4 samples
Max Number of Segments
unlimited
Max Pretrigger at Multi, Gate, FIFO 8176 samples as sum of all active channels
External Trigger Type
3.3 V LVTTL compatible (5 V tolerant)
External Trigger Impedance
50 Ohm / 5 kOhm programmable
Trigger Output
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
Clock
External Clock Impedance
Clock Modes
Internal Clock Range (PLL Mode)
Internal Clock Accuracy
Internal Clock Granularity
Reference Clock Input Range
External Clock Delay to Internal Clock
Clock Output
Clock Input
Environmental and Physical Details
50 Ohm / 5 kOhm
Int. PLL / Quartz, Ext. Direct / Divided,
Ref. Clock, Sync
1 kS/s to max sampling clock
20 ppm
< 1% of range (100M, 10M, 1M, 100k,...)
≥ 1.0 MHz and ≤ 125.0 MHz
5.4 ns
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
rectangle of 3.3 V LVTTL
Connector Types
(Analog, Clock, Trigger, BaseXIO) 3 mm SMB male
Connector Types (Digital Inputs) 40 pole half pitch (Hirose FX2 series)
Dimension (PCB only)
312 mm x 107 mm (full PCI length)
Width (Standard or Star-Hub 5) 1 full size slot
Width (Star-Hub 16)
2 full size slots
Width (with Digital Inputs)
1 full size slot + 1 half size slot
Operating Temperature 0°C - 50°C
Max Power Consumption (PCI) 17 W (standard mem), 21 W (full mem)
Max Power Consumption (PCI Express) 19 W (standard mem), 26 W (full mem)
PCI / PCI-X Bus Slot Compatibility 32 / 64 bit, 33-133 MHz, 3,3 and 5 V I/O
PCIe Slot Compatibility
x1 / x4 / x8 / x16 (dedicated graphics
slot may not work)
Dynamic Performance
M2i.311x M2i.312x M2i.313x
-3 dB Bandwidth DC to 500 kHz DC to 5 MHz DC to 12.5 MHz
Zero Noise Level (Range > ±100 mV) 0.8 LSB rms 1.2 LSB rms 1.2 LSB rms
Test Signal Frequency 10 kHz 90 kHz 90 kHz 1 MHz 1 MHz 4 MHz
SNR (typ) (dB) 66.5 66.1 65.5 65.0 63.5 62.5
THD (typ) (dB) -63.1 -62.9 -63.0 -62.8 -62.3 -61.0
SFDR (typ), excl. harm. (dB) 82.7 81.5 82.5 79.5 79.2 78.5
ENOB (SNR) (bit) 10.7 10.6 10.5 10.4 10.2 10.1
ENOB (SINAD) (bit) 9.9 9.8 9.8 9.7 9.6 9.5
Pure low pass filtered sine signal measured at ±1V range, 50 Ohm
All details are to be found in
the data sheet under
www.spec.de/m2i31xx.html
Lifetime driver and firmware
updates free of charge
2 years warranty
37
Order Information
Card Versions
PCI/PCI-X PCI Express Channels Max Speed
M2i.3110 M2i.3110-exp 2 1 MS/s
M2i.3111 M2i.3111-exp 4 1 MS/s
M2i.3112 M2i.3112-exp 8 1 MS/s
M2i.3120 M2i.3120-exp 2 10 MS/s
M2i.3121 M2i.3121-exp 4 10 MS/s
M2i.3122 M2i.3122-exp 8 10 MS/s
M2i.3130 M2i.3130-exp 2 25 MS/s
M2i.3131 M2i.3131-exp 4 25 MS/s
M2i.3132 M2i.3132-exp 8 25 MS/s
3rd Party Drivers
M2i.xxxx-ml
M2i.31xx-lv
M2i.31xx-vee
MATLAB driver for all M2i cards
LabVIEW driver for all M2i.31xx cards
Agilent VEE driver for all M2i.31xx cards
Memory
M2i.xxxx-256MS
M2i.xxxx-512MS
M2i.xxxx-1GS
M2i.xxxx-2GS
Options
M2i.xxxx-mr
M2i.xxxx-mgt
M2i.xxxx-mgtab
M2i.xxxx-SH5
M2i.xxxx-SH16
M2i.xxxx-SSHM
M2i.xxxx-SSHS5
M2i.xxxx-SSHS16
M2i.3xxx-dig
M2i.xxxx-bxio
M2i-upgrade
Memory upgrade to 256 MSample (512 MB) total memory
Memory upgrade to 512 MSample (1 GB) total memory
Memory upgrade to 1 GSample (2 GB) total memory
Memory upgrade to 2 GSample (4 GB) total memory
Option Multiple Recording
Option pack: Multiple Recording, Gated Sampling, Timestamp
Option pack: Multiple Recording, Gated Sampling, Timestamp,
ABA mode
Synchronization Star-Hub for up to 5 cards, only 1 slot width
Synchronization Star-Hub for up to 16 cards
System-Star-Hub Master for up to 17 systems, sync cables included
System-Star-Hub Slave for up to 5 cards in one system
System-Star-Hub Slave for up to 16 cards in one system
Synchronous digital inputs (4 per channel) including Cab-d40-idc-100
Option BaseXIO: 8 digital I/O for asynchronous I/O, Timestamp refclock,
additional triggers, additional bracket with 8 SMB connectors
Upgrade for M2i.xxxx: later installation of option -dig or -bxio
Cables not included.
Please see the cable overview
on page 91 for adapter cables

M3i.41xx series
14 Bit Digitizers up to 400 MS/s
6 different versions with one or two channels and
sampling rates between 100 MS/s and 400 MS/s
PCI
PCI Express
Up to 400 MS/s on one channel and up to 250 MS/s on
two channels
Simultaneous sampling on all channels
Separate monolithic ADC and amplifier per channel
No ADC interleaving best quality
6 input ranges: ±200 mV up to ±10 V
Up to 2 synchronous digital channels with multi-purpose I/O
Window, re-arm, OR/AND trigger
128 MSample on-board memory (up to 2 GSample)
Trigger Clock Input (A/D) General
.............
Trig
Channel Trigger
Option Multiple Recording
External Clock
Digital Inputs
A D
Selectable Low Pass Filter
Memory
......
Ring Buffer Mode
Trig
Software
32 Bit
64 Bit
Linux
Trig
...
...
PLL
D A
A D
FIFO
32 Bit
64 Bit
External Trigger
Option ABA Mode
Reference Clock
Selectable Input Path
On-board Calibration
FIFO Mode
Windows
10 MHz
PLL
SB6
Multi Purpose I/O
Option Timestamp
High Precision PLL
Programmable Input Amplifiers
Option BaseXIO
SBench6
board options are explained in detail on page 18 - 27
SMA
SMA Connectors
A D
Option Star-Hub
LabVIEW MATLAB
Agilent VEE
LabWindows / CVI
Option 3rd Party Drivers
C/C++ VB.NET C#
Gnu C++ J# Delphi
Borland C++ Builder
Programming Examples
38
General Information
The 6 models of the M3i.41xx series are designed for the fast and high quality data acquisition. Each of the input channels has its own monolithic
A/D converter and its own programmable input amplifier. This allows the recording of signals simultaneously on both channels with 14 bit resolution
without any phase delay between them. The card uses only one A/D converter even when running with 400 MS/s, guaranteeing best signal quality
without any interleaving technology. The extremely large on-board memory allows long time recording even with the highest sampling rates.
Application Examples
High energy physics
Research and development
Radar
Spectroscopy
Laser applications

Technical Details
Analog Inputs
Resolution
14 bit
Channel Selection (Sharing Memory)
any 1 or 2 channels
Differential Non Linearity (DNL)
≤ 1.5 LSB (ADC)
Integral Non Linearity (INL)
≤ 3.0 LSB (ADC)
Offset Error
can be calibrated by user
Gain Error
can be calibrated by user
Programmable Input Ranges (Buffered Path) ±200 mV, ±500 mV, ±1 V,
±2 V, ±5 V, ±10 V
Programmable Input Ranges (50 Ohm Path)
±500 mV, ±1 V, ±2.5 V, ±5 V
Crosstalk Sine Signal ±5 V, 50 Ohm Term
1 MHz: < -100 dB,
20 MHz: < -100 dB
Programmable Input Impedance (Buffered Path) 50 Ohm, 1 MOhm || 25 pF
Input Impedance (50 Ohm Path)
fixed 50 Ohm
Input Signal with 50 Ohm Termination (50 Ohm Path) max 2 Vrms (≤ ±1 V range),
max 6 Vrms (> ±1 V range)
Input Signal with 50 Ohm Termination (Buffered Path) max 5 Vrms
Over Voltage Protection with 1 MOhm (Buffered Path) ±5 V (≤ ±1 V range),
±30 V (> ±1 V range)
Lower Cutoff Frequency (AC Coupled, 50 Ohm) < 30 kHz
Lower Cutoff Frequency (AC Coupled, 1 MOhm) < 2 Hz
Trigger
Trigger Sources
Channel Trigger Resolution
Trigger Accuracy
Multi, Gate: Re-Arming Time
Max Number of Segments
Max Pretrigger at Multi, FIFO
External Trigger Type (Ext0)
External Trigger Impedance (Ext0)
Trigger Output
Dynamic Performance
Order Information
Channel, External, Multi purpose I/O,
BaseXIO, AND/OR, Sync
10 bits
1 sample
≤32 samples
unlimited
8192 samples as sum of all active channels
analog window comparator
50 Ohm / 1 MOhm || 25 pF
low ≤ 0.4 V, high ≥ 2.4 V
Clock
External Clock Impedance
Clock Modes
Internal Clock Range
Internal Clock Accuracy
Internal Clock Granularity
Reference Clock Input Range
External Clock Delay to Internal Clock
Clock Output
Clock Input
Environmental and Physical Details
M3i.411x M3i.412x M3i.414x
Max Sampling Clock 100 MS/s 250 MS/s 400 MS/s
-3 dB Bandwidth (Buffered Path) 50 MHz 90 MHz 125 MHz
-3 dB Bandwidth (50 Ohm Path) 50 MHz 125 MHz 200 MHz
-3 dB Bandwidth (BW Limit) 20 MHz 20 MHz 20 MHz
Zero Noise Level < 2.2 LSB rms < 2.2 LSB rms < 3.3 LSB rms
Test Sampling Rate 100 MS/s 250 MS/s 400 MS/s
Test Signal Frequency 9 MHz 40 MHz 9 MHz 40 MHz 9 MHz 40 MHz
SNR (typ) (dB) 67.7 n.a 67.7 67.7 65.6 65.6
THD (typ) (dB) -78.6 n.a -80.2 -82.8 -81.1 -76.1
SFDR (typ), excl. harm. (dB) 84.2 n.a 83.8 83.6 84.3 82.7
ENOB (SNR) (bit) 11.0 n.a 11.0 11.0 10.6 10.6
ENOB (SINAD) (bit) 10.9 n.a 10.9 10.9 10.6 10.6
Pure low pass filtered sine signal measured at ±1 V range, HF path, AC coupled, fixed 50 Ohm
50 Ohm fixed
Int. PLL, Ref. Clock, Sync
10 MS/s to max sampling clock
max ±32 ppm
1 Hz
≥ 10.0 MHz and ≤ 1.0 GHz
3.7 ns (8.2 ns at synchronized cards)
single-ended, 3.3 V LVPECL
sine or rectangle, AC coupled
Connector Types (Analog, BaseXIO) 3 mm SMB male
Connector Types (Clock, Trigger,
Multi Purpose I/O)
MMCX female
Dimension (PCB only)
312 mm x 107 mm (full PCI length)
Width (Standard or Star-Hub 4) 1 full size slot
Width (Star-Hub 8)
2 full size slots
Width (with BaseXIO)
1 full size slot + 1 half size slot
Operating Temperature 0°C - 50°C
Max Power Consumption (PCI) 22 W (standard mem), 25 W (full mem)
Max Power Consumption (PCI Express) 24 W (standard mem), 32 W (full mem)
PCI / PCI-X Bus Slot Compatibility 32 / 64 bit, 33-133 MHz, 3,3 and 5 V I/O
PCIe Slot Compatibility
x1 / x4 / x8 / x16 (dedicated graphics
slot may not work)
All details are to be found in
the data sheet under
www.spec.de/m3i41xx.html
Lifetime driver and firmware
updates free of charge
2 years warranty
Cables not included.
Please see the cable overview
on page 91 for adapter cables
39
Card Versions
PCI/PCI-X PCI Express 1 channel 2 channels
M3i.4110 M3i.4110-exp 100 MS/s
M3i.4111 M3i.4111-exp 100 MS/s 100 MS/s
M3i.4120 M3i.4120-exp 250 MS/s
M3i.4121 M3i.4121-exp 250 MS/s 250 MS/s
M3i.4140 M3i.4140-exp 400 MS/s
M3i.4142 M3i.4142-exp 400 MS/s 250 MS/s
3rd Party Drivers
M3i.xxxx-ml MATLAB driver for all M3i cards
M3i.41xx-lv LabVIEW driver for all M3i.41xx cards
M3i.41xx-vee Agilent VEE driver for all M3i.41xx cards
Memory
M3i.xxxx-256MS
M3i.xxxx-512MS
M3i.xxxx-1GS
M3i.xxxx-2GS
Options
M3i.xxxx-mr
M3i.xxxx-mt
M3i.xxxx-mtab
M3i.xxxx-SH4
M3i.xxxx-SH8
M3i.xxxx-SMA
M3i.xxxx-bxio
M3i-upgrade
Memory upgrade to 256 MSample (512 MB) total memory
Memory upgrade to 512 MSample (1 GB) total memory
Memory upgrade to 1 GSample (2 GB) total memory
Memory upgrade to 2 GSample (4 GB) total memory
Option Multiple Recording
Option pack including Multiple Recording, Timestamp
Option pack including Multiple Recording, Timestamp, ABA mode
Synchronization Star-Hub for up to 4 cards, only 1 slot width
Synchronization Star-Hub for up to 8 cards, 2 slots width
SMA connectors for analog-in, clock/trigger
Option BaseXIO: 8 digital I/O lines usable as asynchronous I/O and
timestamp ref-clock, additional bracket with 8 SMB connectors
Upgrade for M3i.xxxx: later installation of option -bxio

M2i.40xx series
General Purpose 14 bit Digitizers
8 different versions with one to four channels and
sampling rates between 20 MS/s and 50 MS/s
PCI
Simultaneous sampling on all channels
Separate ADC and amplifier per channel
6 input ranges: ±200 mV up to ±10 V
Window, pulse width, re-arm, OR/AND trigger
Programmable input offset of ±200 %
Mixed-mode acquisition with option digital inputs
128 MSample on-board memory (up to 2 GSample)
PCI Express
Trigger Clock Input (A/D) General
.............
Trig
Channel Trigger
Option Multiple Recording
External Clock
Programmable Input Amplifiers
Memory
......
Ring Buffer Mode
Trig
Software
32 Bit
64 Bit
Linux
LabVIEW MATLAB
Agilent VEE
LabWindows / CVI
Option 3rd Party Drivers
Trig
PLL
Offs
+
–
FIFO
32 Bit
64 Bit
C/C++ VB.NET C#
Gnu C++ J# Delphi
Borland C++ Builder
External Trigger
Option Gated Sampling
Reference Clock
Programmable Input Offset
FIFO Mode
Windows
Programming Examples
Trig
...
...
10 MHz
PLL
A D
SB6
Pulsewidth Trigger
Option ABA Mode
High Precision PLL
Option Digital Inputs
Option BaseXIO
SBench6
Option Timestamp
Option Star-Hub
board options are explained in detail on page 18 - 27
40
M2i.40x8 – combined A/D + Digital Data Acquisition – RADAR optimized
Simultaneous sampling on one 14 bit Operating Modes of the
A/D channel and 16 digital channels M2i.4028/4038
Acquisition of angle encoder for
Digital data can be either acquired fully
azimuth and elevation angle
in parallel or as a combination of a counter
input and parallel digital data. The ac -
Special marker mode for segmented
acquisition
quisition mode can be programmed by
Very short dead time between segments
software. When operating in continuous
mode the analog and digital data is stored
alternating in the on-board memory.
For each 14 bit analog sample there is
one corresponding 16 bit digital sample.
When operating in segmented marker
mode there is one 16 bit digital sample
stored at the end of each acquired segment
holding the azimuth and elevation
angle for this segment of analog data.
Acquisition can run with full sampling
speed independent of the selected mode.
Application Examples
Explosion Tests
Ignition Voltage Tests
IQ Base Signal Acquisition
(replay with M2i.60xx series – page 50)
NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance)
Weather Radar

Technical Details
Analog Inputs
Resolution
14 bit
Channel Selection (Sharing Memory) any 1, 2 or 4 channels
Differential Non Linearity (DNL) ≤ ±0.5 LSB (ADC)
Integral Non Linearity (INL)
≤ ±1 LSB (ADC)
Offset Error
can be calibrated by user
Gain Error
< 1% of current value
Programmable Input Ranges ±200 mV, ±500 mV, ±1 V, ±2 V, ±5 V, ±10 V
Programmable Input Offset
±200% of current input range
Crosstalk 1 MHz Signal, 50 Ohm Term < -80 dB between any adjacent channels
Programmable Input Impedance 50 Ohm / 1 MOhm || 25 pF
Input Signal with 50 Ohm Termination max 5 V rms
Over Voltage Protection ±5 V (≤ ±1 V), ±50 V (> ±1 V)
Trigger
Trigger Sources
Channel, External, BaseXIO, AND/OR, Sync
Channel Trigger Resolution
10 bits
Internal Trigger Accuracy
1 sample
Multi, Gate: Re-Arming Time < 4 samples
Max Number of Segments
unlimited
Max Pretrigger at Multi, Gate, FIFO 8176 samples as sum of all active channels
External Trigger Type
3.3 V LVTTL compatible (5 V tolerant)
External Trigger Impedance
50 Ohm / 5 kOhm programmable
Trigger Output
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
Clock
External Clock Impedance
Clock Modes
Internal Clock Range (PLL Mode)
Internal Clock Accuracy
Internal Clock Granularity
Reference Clock Input Range
External Clock Delay to Internal Clock
Clock Output
Clock Input
Environmental and Physical Details
50 Ohm / 5 kOhm
Int. PLL / Quartz, Ext. Direct / Divided,
Ref. Clock, Sync
1 kS/s to max sampling clock
20 ppm
< 1% of range (100M, 10M, 1M, 100k,...)
≥ 1.0 MHz and ≤ 125.0 MHz
5.4 ns
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
rectangle of 3.3 V LVTTL
Connector Types
(Analog, Clock, Trigger, BaseXIO) 3 mm SMB male
Connector Types (Digital Inputs) 40 pole half pitch (Hirose FX2 series)
Dimension (PCB only)
312 mm x 107 mm (full PCI length)
Width (Standard or Star-Hub 5) 1 full size slot
Width (Star-Hub 16)
2 full size slots
Width (with Digital Inputs)
1 full size slot + 1 half size slot
Operating Temperature 0°C - 50°C
Max Power Consumption (PCI) 16 W (standard mem), 20 W (full mem)
Max Power Consumption (PCI Express) 20 W (standard mem), 27 W (full mem)
PCI / PCI-X Bus Slot Compatibility 32 / 64 bit, 33-133 MHz, 3,3 and 5 V I/O
PCIe Slot Compatibility
x1 / x4 / x8 / x16 (dedicated graphics
slot may not work)
Dynamic Performance
M2i.402x
M2i.403x
-3 dB Bandwidth DC to 10 MHz DC to 25 MHz
Zero Noise Level at 50 Ohm ≤ 2.6 LSB rms ≤ 3.6 LSB rms
Test Sampling Rate 20 MS/s 50 MS/s
Test Signal Frequency 1 MHz 4 MHz 1 MHz 4 MHz
SNR (typ) (dB) 71.4 67.0 69.0 66.0
THD (typ) (dB) -74.4 -65.5 -72.0 -62.5
SFDR (typ), excl. harm. (dB) 86.3 74.0 85.0 80.3
ENOB (SNR) (bit) 11.5 10.8 11.1 10.6
ENOB (SINAD) (bit) 11.2 10.2 10.8 9.8
Pure low pass filtered sine signal measured at ±1V range, 50 Ohm
All details are to be found in
the data sheet under
www.spec.de/m2i40xx.html
Lifetime driver and firmware
updates free of charge
2 years warranty
41
Order Information
Card Versions
PCI/PCI-X PCI Express Channels Speed
M2i.4020 M2i.4020-exp 1 20 MS/s
M2i.4021 M2i.4021-exp 2 20 MS/s
M2i.4022 M2i.4022-exp 4 20 MS/s
M2i.4030 M2i.4030-exp 1 50 MS/s
M2i.4031 M2i.4031-exp 2 50 MS/s
M2i.4032 M2i.4032-exp 4 50 MS/s
PCI/PCI-X PCI Express Analog Digital Speed
Cannels Cannels
M2i.4028 M2i.4028-exp 1 16 20 MS/s
M2i.4038 M2i.4038-exp 1 16 50 MS/s
3rd Party Drivers
M2i.xxxx-ml MATLAB driver for all M2i cards
M2i.40xx-lv LabVIEW driver for all M2i.40xx cards
M2i.40xx-vee Agilent VEE driver for all M2i.40xx cards
Memory
M2i.xxxx-256MS
M2i.xxxx-512MS
M2i.xxxx-1GS
M2i.xxxx-2GS
Options
M2i.xxxx-mr
M2i.xxxx-mgt
M2i.xxxx-mgtab
M2i.xxxx-SH5
M2i.xxxx-SH16
M2i.xxxx-SSHM
M2i.xxxx-SSHS5
M2i.xxxx-SSHS16
M2i.4xxx-dig
M2i.xxxx-bxio
M2i-upgrade
Memory upgrade to 256 MSample (512 MB) total memory
Memory upgrade to 512 MSample (1 GB) total memory
Memory upgrade to 1 GSample (2 GB) total memory
Memory upgrade to 2 GSample (4 GB) total memory
Option Multiple Recording
Option pack: Multiple Recording, Gated Sampling, Timestamp
Option pack: Multiple Recording, Gated Sampling, Timestamp,
ABA mode
Synchronization Star-Hub for up to 5 cards, only 1 slot width
Synchronization Star-Hub for up to 16 cards
System-Star-Hub Master for up to 17 systems, sync cables included
System-Star-Hub Slave for up to 5 cards in one system
System-Star-Hub Slave for up to 16 cards in one system
Synchronous digital inputs (2 per channel) including Cab-d40-idc-100
Option BaseXIO: 8 digital I/O for asynchronous I/O, Timestamp refclock,
additional triggers, additional bracket with 8 SMB connectors
Upgrade for M2i.xxxx: later installation of option -dig or -bxio
Cables not included.
Please see the cable overview
on page 91 for adapter cables

M3i.48xx series
16 Bit High-Precision Digitizers up to 180 MS/s
6 different versions with one or two channels and
sampling rates between 65 MS/s and 180 MS/s
PCI
Up to 180 MS/s on one channel and on two channels
Simultaneous sampling on all channels
Separate monolithic ADC and amplifier per channel
6 input ranges: ±200 mV up to ±10 V
Window, re-arm, OR/AND trigger
128 MSample on-board memory (up to 2 GSample)
PCI Express
Trigger Clock Input (A/D) General
.............
Trig
Channel Trigger
Option Multiple Recording
External Clock
Selectable Input Path
Selectable Low Pass Filter
Memory
......
Ring Buffer Mode
Trig
Software
32 Bit
64 Bit
Linux
Trig
...
...
PLL
D A
A D
FIFO
32 Bit
64 Bit
External Trigger
Option ABA Mode
Reference Clock
10 MHz PLL
Programmable
Input Amplifiers
On-board Calibration
A
SMA
D
FIFO Mode
Windows
SB6
Multi Purpose I/O
Option Timestamp
High Precision PLL
SMA Connectors
Option BaseXIO
SBench6
board options are explained in detail on page 18 - 27
Option Star-Hub
LabVIEW MATLAB
Agilent VEE
LabWindows / CVI
Option 3rd Party Drivers
C/C++ VB.NET C#
Gnu C++ J# Delphi
Borland C++ Builder
Programming Examples
42
General Information
The 6 models of the M3i.48xx series are designed for the fast and high quality data acquisition. Each of the input channels has its own monolithic
A/D converter and its own programmable input amplifier. This allows the recording of signals simultaneously on both channels with 16 bit resolution
without any phase delay between them. The extremely large on-board memory allows long time recording even with the highest sampling rates.
Application Examples
High energy physics
Research and development
Radar
Spectroscopy
Laser applications

Preliminary Information – please see data sheet for current figures
Technical Details
Analog Inputs
Resolution
16 bit
Channel Selection (Sharing Memory)
any 1 or 2 channels
Differential Non Linearity (DNL)
TBD
Integral Non Linearity (INL)
TBD
Offset Error
can be calibrated by user
Gain Error
can be calibrated by user
Programmable Input Ranges ±200 mV, ±500 mV, ±1 V,
±2 V, ±5 V, ±10 V
Crosstalk Sine Signal ±5 V, 50 Ohm Term
TBD
Programmable Input Impedance
50 Ohm, 1 MOhm || 25 pF
Input Impedance (50 Ohm Path)
fixed 50 Ohm
Input Signal with 50 Ohm Termination (50 Ohm Path) max 2 Vrms (≤ ±1 V range),
max 6 Vrms (> ±1 V range)
Input Signal with 50 Ohm Termination (Buffered Path) max 5 Vrms
Over Voltage Protection with 1 MOhm (Buffered Path) ±5 V (≤ ±1 V range),
±30 V (> ±1 V range)
Lower Cutoff Frequency (AC Coupled, 50 Ohm) < 30 kHz
Lower Cutoff Frequency (AC Coupled, 1 MOhm) < 2 Hz
Trigger
Trigger Sources
Channel Trigger Resolution
Internal Trigger Accuracy
Multi, Gate: Re-Arming Time
Max Number of Segments
Max Pretrigger at Multi, FIFO
External Trigger Type (Ext0)
External Trigger Impedance (Ext0)
Trigger Output
Dynamic Performance
Order Information
Card Versions
PCI/PCI-X PCI Express 1 channel 2 channels
M3i.4830 M3i.4830-exp 65 MS/s
M3i.4831 M3i.4831-exp 65 MS/s 65 MS/s
M3i.4840 M3i.4840-exp 105 MS/s
M3i.4841 M3i.4841-exp 105 MS/s 105 MS/s
M3i.4860 M3i.4860-exp 180 MS/s
M3i.4861 M3i.4861-exp 180 MS/s 180 MS/s
Cables not included.
Please see the cable overview
on page 91 for adapter cables
Channel, External, Multi purpose I/O,
BaseXIO, AND/OR, Sync
10 bits
1 sample
≤32 samples
unlimited
8192 samples as sum of all active channels
analog window comparator
50 Ohm / 1 MOhm || 25 pF
low ≤ 0.4 V, high ≥ 2.4 V
Memory
Clock
M3i.xxxx-256MS
M3i.xxxx-512MS
M3i.xxxx-1GS
M3i.xxxx-2GS
Options
M3i.xxxx-mr
M3i.xxxx-mt
M3i.xxxx-mtab
M3i.xxxx-SH4
M3i.xxxx-SH8
M3i.xxxx-SMA
M3i.xxxx-bxio
M3i-upgrade
External Clock Impedance
Clock Modes
Internal Clock Range
Internal Clock Accuracy
Internal Clock Granularity
Reference Clock Input Range
External Clock Delay to Internal Clock
Clock Output
Clock Input
Environmental and Physical Details
Max Sampling Clock 65 MS/s 105 MS/s 180 MS/s
-3 dB Bandwidth 30 MHz 50 MHz 90 MHz
-3 dB Bandwidth (BW Limit) 20 MHz 20 MHz 20 MHz
Zero Noise Level TBD TBD TBD
Test Sampling Rate 65 MS/s 105 MS/s 180 MS/s
Test Signal Frequency
SNR (typ) (dB)
THD (typ) (dB)
TBD
SFDR (typ), excl. harm. (dB)
please see data sheet for details
ENOB (SNR) (bit)
ENOB (SINAD) (bit)
Pure low pass filtered sine signal measured at ±1 V range, HF path, AC coupled, fixed 50 Ohm
3rd Party Drivers
M3i.xxxx-ml MATLAB driver for all M3i cards
M3i.48xx-lv LabVIEW driver for all M3i.48xx cards
M3i.48xx-vee Agilent VEE driver for all M3i.48xx cards
M3i.483x M3i.484x M3i.486x
50 Ohm fixed
Int. PLL, Ref. Clock, Sync
10 MS/s to max sampling clock
max ±32 ppm
1 Hz
≥ 10.0 MHz and ≤ 1.0 GHz
3.7 ns (8.2 ns at synchronized cards)
single-ended, 3.3 V LVPECL
sine or rectangle, AC coupled
Connector Types (Analog, BaseXIO) 3 mm SMB male
Connector Types (Clock, Trigger,
Multi Purpose I/O)
MMCX female
Dimension (PCB only)
312 mm x 107 mm (full PCI length)
Width (Standard or Star-Hub 4) 1 full size slot
Width (Star-Hub 8)
2 full size slots
Width (with BaseXIO)
1 full size slot + 1 half size slot
Operating Temperature 0°C - 50°C
Max Power Consumption (PCI) TBD
Max Power Consumption (PCI Express) TBD
PCI / PCI-X Bus Slot Compatibility 32 / 64 bit, 33-133 MHz, 3,3 and 5 V I/O
PCIe Slot Compatibility
x1 / x4 / x8 / x16 (dedicated graphics
slot may not work)
All details are to be found in
the data sheet under
www.spec.de/m3i48xx.html
Lifetime driver and firmware
updates free of charge
2 years warranty
Memory upgrade to 256 MSample (512 MB) total memory
Memory upgrade to 512 MSample (1 GB) total memory
Memory upgrade to 1 GSample (2 GB) total memory
Memory upgrade to 2 GSample (4 GB) total memory
Option Multiple Recording
Option pack including Multiple Recording, Timestamp
Option pack including Multiple Recording, Timestamp, ABA mode
Synchronization Star-Hub for up to 4 cards, only 1 slot width
Synchronization Star-Hub for up to 8 cards, 2 slots width
SMA connectors for analog-in, clock/trigger
Option BaseXIO: 8 digital I/O lines usable as asynchronous I/O and
timestamp ref-clock, additional bracket with 8 SMB connectors
Upgrade for M3i.xxxx: later installation of option -bxio
43

M2i.46xx series
16 Bit Digitizers up to 15.0 ENOB
12 different versions with two to eight channels and
sampling rates between 200 kS/s and 3 MS/s
PCI
PCI Express
Simultaneous sampling on all channels
Separate ADC and amplifier per channel
Software selectable single-ended or differential inputs
Complete on-board calibration
8 input ranges: ±50 mV up to ±10 V
Programmable input offset of ±5 V
Window, pulse width, re-arm, spike, OR/AND trigger
128 MSample on-board memory (up to 2 GSample)
Trigger Clock Input (A/D) General
.............
Trig
Channel Trigger
Option Multiple Recording
External Clock
Programmable Input Amplifiers
Memory
......
Ring Buffer Mode
Trig
Software
32 Bit
64 Bit
Linux
LabVIEW MATLAB
Agilent VEE
LabWindows / CVI
Option 3rd Party Drivers
Trig
PLL
+
–
A D
FIFO
32 Bit
64 Bit
C/C++ VB.NET C#
Gnu C++ J# Delphi
Borland C++ Builder
External Trigger
Option Gated Sampling
Reference Clock
Differential Inputs
FIFO Mode
Windows
Programming Examples
Trig
...
...
10 MHz
PLL
Offs
+
–
SB6
Pulsewidth Trigger
Option ABA Mode
High Precision PLL
Programmable Input Offset
Option BaseXIO
SBench6
dU
.............
dt
Trig
D A
A D
Spike Trigger
Option Timestamp
On-board Calibration
Option Star-Hub
board options are explained in detail on page 18 - 27
44
General Information
The M2i.46xx series allows recording of one, two, four or eight channels with sampling rates of 200 kS/s up to 3 MS/s. These cards offer outstanding
A/D features both in resolution and speed for PCI/PCI-X and PCI Express. The powerful A/D amplifier section offers 8 different input ranges, pro -
grammable offset and a software switching from single-ended to differential inputs without decreasing the number of channels. The enhanced FIFO
engine is capable of streaming even 8 channels at a sustained 3 MS/s to memory or hard disk.
Application Examples
High precision audio measurements
Vibration analysis
Life cycle tests of plastic components

Technical Details
Analog Inputs
Resolution
Channel Selection
ADC Differential Non Linearity (DNL)
ADC Integral Non Linearity (INL)
Offset Error
Gain Error
Programmable Input Ranges
Programmable Input Offset
Crosstalk: all Ranges 500 kHz Signal
Input Impedance
Over Voltage Protection
Trigger
Trigger Sources
Channel Trigger Resolution
Internal Trigger Accuracy
Multi, Gate: Re-Arming Time
Max Number of Segments
Max Pretrigger at Multi, Gate, FIFO
External Trigger Type
External Trigger Impedance
Trigger Output
16 bit (±32000 values)
any 1, 2 , 4 or 8 channels
465x: ±2 LSB, all others ±1 LSB
465x: ±2 LSB, all others ±1 LSB
≤ 0.1% of range (after warm-up and
calibration)
≤ 0.1% (after warm-up and calibration)
±50 mV, ±100 mV, ±250 mV, ±500 mV,
±1 V, ±2 V, ±5 V, ±10 V
±5 V for single-ended ranges < ±10 V
≤ -110 dB, 50 Ohm term
1 MOhm to GND
±30 V all ranges (activated card)
Channel, External, BaseXIO, AND/OR, Sync
14 bits
1 sample
< 4 samples
unlimited
8176 samples as sum of all active channels
3.3 V LVTTL compatible (5 V tolerant)
50 Ohm / 5 kOhm programmable
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
Clock
External Clock Impedance
50 Ohm / 5 kOhm
Clock Modes
Int. PLL / Quartz, Ext. Direct / Divided,
Ref. Clock, Sync
Internal Clock Range (PLL Mode) 1 kS/s to max sampling clock
Internal Clock Accuracy
≤ 20 ppm
Internal Clock Granularity < 1% of range (1M, 100k, 10k, ...)
Reference Clock Input Range ≥ 1.0 MHz and ≤ 125.0 MHz
External Clock Delay to Internal Clock 5.4 ns
Clock Output
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
Clock Input
rectangle of 3.3 V LVTTL
Environmental and Physical Details
Connector Types (Analog, BaseXIO) MMCX female
Connector Types (Clock, Trigger) 3 mm SMB male
Dimension (PCB only)
312 mm x 107 mm (full PCI length)
Width (Standard or Star-Hub 5) 1 full size slot
Width (Star-Hub 16)
2 full size slots
Operating Temperature 0°C - 50°C
Max Power Consumption (PCI) 16 W (standard mem), 20 W (full mem)
Max Power Consumption (PCI Express) 19 W (standard mem), 26 W (full mem)
PCI / PCI-X Bus Slot Compatibility 32 / 64 bit, 33-133 MHz, 3,3 and 5 V I/O
PCIe Slot Compatibility
x1 / x4 / x8 / x16 (dedicated graphics
slot may not work)
Dynamic Performance
M2i.4620 M2i.464x M2i.465x
Max Sampling Clock 200 kS/s 1 MS/s 3 MS/s
-3 dB Bandwidth > 100 kHz > 500 kHz > 1.5 MHz
Zero Noise Level (Range ≥ ±500 mV) < 0.8 LSB rms < 1.1 LSB rms < 3.0 LSB rms
Test Sampling Rate 200 kS/s 1 MS/s 3 MS/s
Test Signal Frequency 10 kHz 10 kHz 10 kHz
SNR (typ) (dB) 91.8 90.7 82.5
THD (typ) (dB) -102.0 -100.8 -90.1
SFDR (typ), excl. harm. (dB) 112.0 111.2 105.5
ENOB (SNR) (bit) 15.0 14.7 13.4
ENOB (SINAD) (bit) 14,9 14.6 13.3
Pure low pass filtered sine signal measured at ±5 V range, 1 MOhm
All details are to be found in
the data sheet under
www.spec.de/m2i46xx.html
Lifetime driver and firmware
updates free of charge
2 years warranty
45
Order Information
Card Versions
PCI/PCI-X PCI Express Channels Speed
M2i.4620 M2i.4620-exp 2 200 kS/s
M2i.4621 M2i.4621-exp 4 200 kS/s
M2i.4622 M2i.4622-exp 8 200 kS/s
M2i.4630 M2i.4630-exp 2 500 kS/s
M2i.4631 M2i.4631-exp 4 500 kS/s
M2i.4632 M2i.4632-exp 8 500 kS/s
M2i.4640 M2i.4640-exp 2 1 MS/s
M2i.4641 M2i.4641-exp 4 1 MS/s
M2i.4642 M2i.4642-exp 8 1 MS/s
M2i.4650 M2i.4650-exp 2 3 MS/s
M2i.4651 M2i.4651-exp 4 3 MS/s
M2i.4652 M2i.4652-exp 8 3 MS/s
3rd Party Drivers
M2i.xxxx-ml
M2i.46xx-lv
M2i.46xx-vee
MATLAB driver for all M2i cards
LabVIEW driver for all M2i.46xx cards
Agilent VEE driver for all M2i.46xx cards
Memory
M2i.xxxx-256MS
M2i.xxxx-512MS
M2i.xxxx-1GS
M2i.xxxx-2GS
Options
M2i.xxxx-mr
M2i.xxxx-mgt
M2i.xxxx-mgtab
M2i.xxxx-SH5
M2i.xxxx-SH16
M2i.xxxx-SSHM
M2i.xxxx-SSHS5
M2i.xxxx-SSHS16
M2i.xxxx-bxio
M2i-upgrade
Memory upgrade to 256 MSample (512 MB) total memory
Memory upgrade to 512 MSample (1 GB) total memory
Memory upgrade to 1 GSample (2 GB) total memory
Memory upgrade to 2 GSample (4 GB) total memory
Option Multiple Recording
Option pack: Multiple Recording, Gated Sampling, Timestamp
Option pack: Multiple Recording, Gated Sampling, Timestamp,
ABA mode
Synchronization Star-Hub for up to 5 cards, only 1 slot width
Synchronization Star-Hub for up to 16 cards
System-Star-Hub Master for up to 17 systems, sync cables included
System-Star-Hub Slave for up to 5 cards in one system
System-Star-Hub Slave for up to 16 cards in one system
Option BaseXIO: 8 digital I/O for asynchronous I/O, Timestamp refclock,
additional triggers. Additional bracket with 8 SMB connectors
Upgrade for M2i.xxxx: later installation of option -bxio
Cables not included.
Please see the cable overview
on page 91 for adapter cables

M2i.47xx series
16 Bit Data Acquisition of 16 Synchronous Channels
8 different versions with eight or sixteen channels and
sampling rates between 100 kS/s and 1.33 MS/s
PCI
Simultaneous sampling on all channels
Separate ADC and amplifier per channel
Complete on-board calibration
8 input ranges: ±50 mV up to ±10 V
Window, pulse width, re-arm, spike, OR/AND trigger
128 MSample on-board memory (up to 2 GSample)
PCI Express
Trigger Clock Input (A/D) General
.............
Trig
Channel Trigger
Option Multiple Recording
External Clock
Programmable Input Amplifiers
Memory
......
Ring Buffer Mode
Trig
Software
32 Bit
64 Bit
Linux
LabVIEW MATLAB
Agilent VEE
LabWindows / CVI
Option 3rd Party Drivers
Trig
PLL
D A
A D
FIFO
32 Bit
64 Bit
C/C++ VB.NET C#
Gnu C++ J# Delphi
Borland C++ Builder
External Trigger
Option Gated Sampling
Reference Clock
On-board Calibration
FIFO Mode
Windows
Programming Examples
Trig
...
...
10 MHz
PLL
SB6
Pulsewidth Trigger
Option ABA Mode
High Precision PLL
Option BaseXIO
SBench6
dU
.............
dt
Trig
Spike Trigger
Option Timestamp
Option Star-Hub
board options are explained in detail on page 18 - 27
46
General Information
The M2i.47xx series allows recording of one, two, four, eight or sixteen channels with sampling rates of 100 kS/s up to 1.33 MS/s. These cards offer
outstanding A/D features both in resolution and speed for PCI/PCI-X and PCI Express. Using the M2i.47xx series it is possible to set-up systems with
up to 256 synchronous 16 bit channels of data recording. The enhanced FIFO engine is capable of streaming even 16 channels at a sustained 1.33 MS/s
to memory or hard disk.
Application Examples
Production tests
Massive multi-channel systems
High-speed temperature and strain
gauge measurements

Technical Details
Analog Inputs
Resolution
Channel Selection (Sharing Memory)
Differential Non Linearity (DNL)
Integral Non Linearity (INL)
Offset Error
Gain Error
Programmable Input Ranges
Crosstalk: all Ranges 100 kHz Signal
Input Impedance
Over Voltage Protection
Trigger
Trigger Sources
Channel Trigger Resolution
Internal Trigger Accuracy
Multi, Gate: Re-Arming Time
Max Number of Segments
Max Pretrigger at Multi, Gate, FIFO
External Trigger Type
External Trigger Impedance
Trigger Output
16 bit (±32000 values)
any 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 channels
±1 LSB (ADC)
±3 LSB (ADC)
≤ 0.1% of range (after warm-up and
calibration)
≤ 0.1% (after warm-up and calibration)
±50 mV, ±100 mV, ±250 mV, ±500 mV,
±1 V, ±2 V, ±5 V, ±10 V
< -100 dB
1 MOhm to GND
±30 V all ranges (activated card)
Channel, External, BaseXIO, AND/OR, Sync
14 bits
1 sample
< 4 samples
unlimited
8176 samples as sum of all active channels
3.3 V LVTTL compatible (5 V tolerant)
50 Ohm / 5 kOhm programmable
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
Clock
External Clock Impedance
50 Ohm / 5 kOhm
Clock Modes
Int. PLL / Quartz, Ext. Direct / Divided,
Ref. Clock, Sync
Internal Clock Range (PLL Mode) 1 kS/s to max sampling clock
Internal Clock Accuracy
≤ 20 ppm
Internal Clock Granularity < 1% of range (1M, 100k, 10k, ...)
Reference Clock Input Range ≥ 1.0 MHz and ≤ 125.0 MHz
External Clock Delay to Internal Clock 5.4 ns
Eyternal Clock Range
DC to max sampling clock
Clock Output
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
Clock Input
rectangle of 3.3 V LVTTL
Environmental and Physical Details
Connector Types (Analog, BaseXIO) MMCX female
Connector Types (Clock, Trigger) 3 mm SMB male
Dimension (PCB only)
312 mm x 107 mm (full PCI length)
Width (Standard or Star-Hub 5) 1 full size slot
Width (Star-Hub 16)
2 full size slots
Operating Temperature 0°C - 50°C
Max Power Consumption (PCI) 19 W (standard mem), 23 W (full mem)
Max Power Consumption (PCI Express) 21 W (standard mem), 28 W (full mem)
PCI / PCI-X Bus Slot Compatibility 32 / 64 bit, 33-133 MHz, 3,3 and 5 V I/O
PCIe Slot Compatibility
x1 / x4 / x8 / x16 (dedicated graphics
slot may not work)
Dynamic Performance
M2i.471x M2i.472x M2i.473x M2i.474x
Max Sampling Clock 100 kS/s 250 kS/s 500 kS/s 1.33 MS/s
-3 dB Bandwidth > 50 kHz > 125 kHz > 250 kHz > 500 kHz
RMS Zero Noise Level (≥ ±500 mV) < 0.8 LSB < 0.9 LSB < 1.0 LSB < 1.0 LSB
Test Sampling Rate 100 kS/s 250 kS/s 500 kS/s 1.33 MS/s
Test Signal Frequency 10 kHz 10 kHz 10 kHz 10 kHz
SNR (typ) (dB) 91.2 90.5 88.5 89.2
THD (typ) (dB) -101.2 -100.5 -92.5 -101.4
SFDR (typ), excl. harm. (dB) 108.9 106.8 104.3 105.8
ENOB (SNR) (bit) 14.8 14.7 14.4 14.5
ENOB (SINAD) (bit) 14.6 14.6 14.2 14.4
Pure low pass filtered sine signal measured at ±5 V range, 1 MOhm
All details are to be found in
the data sheet under
www.spec.de/m2i47xx.html
Lifetime driver and firmware
updates free of charge
2 years warranty
47
Order Information
Card Versions
PCI/PCI-X PCI Express Channels Speed
M2i.4710 M2i.4710-exp 8 100 kS/s
M2i.4711 M2i.4711-exp 16 100 kS/s
M2i.4720 M2i.4720-exp 8 250 kS/s
M2i.4721 M2i.4721-exp 16 250 kS/s
M2i.4730 M2i.4730-exp 8 500 kS/s
M2i.4731 M2i.4731-exp 16 500 kS/s
M2i.4740 M2i.4740-exp 8 1.33 MS/s
M2i.4741 M2i.4741-exp 16 1.33 MS/s
3rd Party Drivers
M2i.xxxx-ml
M2i.47xx-lv
M2i.47xx-vee
MATLAB driver for all M2i cards
LabVIEW driver for all M2i.47xx cards
Agilent VEE driver for all M2i.47xx cards
Cables not included.
Please see the cable overview
on page 91 for adapter cables
Memory
M2i.xxxx-256MS
M2i.xxxx-512MS
M2i.xxxx-1GS
M2i.xxxx-2GS
Options
M2i.xxxx-mr
M2i.xxxx-mgt
M2i.xxxx-mgtab
M2i.xxxx-SH5
M2i.xxxx-SH16
M2i.xxxx-SSHM
M2i.xxxx-SSHS5
M2i.xxxx-SSHS16
M2i.xxxx-bxio
M2i-upgrade
Memory upgrade to 256 MSample (512 MB) total memory
Memory upgrade to 512 MSample (1 GB) total memory
Memory upgrade to 1 GSample (2 GB) total memory
Memory upgrade to 2 GSample (4 GB) total memory
Option Multiple Recording
Option pack: Multiple Recording, Gated Sampling, Timestamp
Option pack: Multiple Recording, Gated Sampling, Timestamp,
ABA mode
Synchronization Star-Hub for up to 5 cards, only 1 slot width
Synchronization Star-Hub for up to 16 cards
System-Star-Hub Master for up to 17 systems, sync cables included
System-Star-Hub Slave for up to 5 cards in one system
System-Star-Hub Slave for up to 16 cards in one system
Option BaseXIO: 8 digital I/O for asynchronous I/O, Timestamp refclock,
additional triggers. Additional bracket with 8 SMB connectors
Upgrade for M2i.xxxx: later installation of option -bxio

D/A Cards, Arbitrary Waveform Generators
Arbitrary waveform generators generate an individually programmed electrical waveform from memory using fast D/A converters
and output amplifiers. The waveform can either be repetitive, continuous or single-shot. The resulting waveform can
be used to stimulate a DUT (device under test), can be simulation data or can be previously recorded data that should be
replayed. The waveform is either generated starting with a software command or the output can be started by an external
trigger signal.
Function generators normally have a fixed set of pre-calculated waveforms. On the contrary the Arbitrary Waveform Generator
can generate any complex waveform as each output point can be individually programmed.
Each independent channel has its own output amplifier that allows programming of offset and amplitude. To smooth the
output signal, several filters can be selected for each channel. Data generated from the on-board memory or using FIFO
mode can be continuously loaded from the host PC. If so required this generated waveform may be converted and recorded
by an A/D card.
D/A Features
Please also see the common features of the M2i and M3i range that are suitable for all card
series. These features are explained on page 18 - 27 in detail.
The Arbitrary Waveform Generators from Spectrum can be operated in one of the following replay modes. Depending on the application one of the
modes can be used to perfectly feed in data into a test bench or an experiment.
Singleshot Output
Tr
The singleshot output replays the waveform once after having received the trigger event. The waveform is loaded to card memory before the replay. After
the replay has been done the card can be restarted to replay the same waveform again or a new waveform is loaded into the card memory.
48
Single Restart
Tr
The Single Restart mode is a singleshot output that is automatically restarted in hardware. Therefore it will generate the same waveform on each received
trigger event. The dead time between end of the replayed waveform until the trigger engine is armed again is only a few samples making this function
extremely suitable for test systems where a very high repetition rate needs to be reached. The number of restarts can be programmed. The card will then
automatically stop to replay after having reached this number of singleshots.
Repeated Output
Tr
Using the repeated output the card will loop through the data once a trigger event has been reached. The output signal will directly start with the first
sample again after having reached the last sample of the waveform. The number of loops that the repeated output should run can be programmed by
software. The card will then automatically stop to replay after having reached this number of loops.
FIFO Replay
FIFO
The FIFO replay mode is a standard feature of the arbitrary waveform generators. In this mode a waveform that exceeds the capabilities of the on-board
memory or a dynamically calculated waveform is loaded continuously into the card and replayed at the same time. In this case the full on-board memory
acts as a big FIFO buffer. If needed the desired latency can be programmed by limiting the fill size of the FIFO buffer.
The FIFO replay mode can be combined with one of the options Multiple Replay or Gated Replay to even allow running the output at higher speeds than
the underlying PC bus is capable of supporting.

Option Multiple Replay
The on-board memory will be divided into several segments of the same size. Each segment will be filled with data before the output starts. With every
detected trigger event one data block is replayed. The length of one multiple replay segment is defined before start and can be programmed with a small
step size. There is no limit by the number of segments that can be processed as long as they fit into the memory.
As the Multiple Replay mode is totally controlled in hardware there is a very small re-arm time from end of one segment until the trigger detection is
enabled again.
Using an internal loops parameter one can further program whether all segments should be replayed once or continuously or whether a dedicated
number of segments should be replayed.
If combining this mode with the FIFO replay new data can be loaded into the card memory continuously allowing to run this mode for very long times.
The number of segments is not limited in any way when running the FIFO Multiple Replay Mode.
Option Gated Replay
Data will be replayed as long as the gate signal fulfils the programmed gate condition. At the end of the gate interval the replay will be stopped and
the card will pause until another gate signal appears. If the loops parameter is set to 1 the card stops immediately as soon as the total amount of data
has been replayed. In that case the last gate segment is ended by the expiring memory size counter and not by the gate end signal. If loops is set to
zero the Gated Replay mode will run in a continuous loop until explicitly stopped by user. If the replay reaches the end of the programmed memory it
will start again at the beginning with no gap in between. If setting loops to a number larger than 1 this number of complete gates will be replayed and
the card will be stopped afterwards automatically.
If combining this mode with the FIFO replay new data can be loaded into the card memory continuously allowing to run this mode for hours or even for days.
Programmable Offset + Amplitude
49
Amp
Offs
The Spectrum Arbitrary Waveform Generators are equipped with a very wide programmable output offset and amplitude. This allows to adapt the output
signal level to the needs of the stimulated device while also having the maximum output resolution available for the signal. While the maximum output
swing of ±3 V will have a step size of 360 uV the smallest output swing of ±100 mV will then have a step size of 12 uV (at 14 bit resolution). In addition
to this an output offset of ±3 V can be added to the signal as long as the resulting signal remains in the ±3 V range. This offset then shifts the output
signal into the desired region. Using this mode even unipolar output signals with full amplitude resolution can be generated.
The output amplifier has an output resistance of < 1 Ohm making it possible to even drive full ±3 V signals into 50 Ohm load without reducing the output
level.
Option Digital Outputs
A D
This option outputs additional synchronous digital channels phase-stable with the analog data. When this option is installed there are 2 additional digital
channels for every 14 bit analog D/A channel. Digital data is written together with the analog data in 16 bit wide samples thus not needing any additional
memory space for the digital signals. The digital output signals can be used as marker outputs or control outputs for the device under test.
10 V Amplifier Card
± 10V
As an additional option for all arbitrary waveform generators from Spectrum, a special amplifier card with 1, 2 or 4 parallel amplifier channels and a
large signal bandwidth of 30 MHz is available. The ±3 V signal of the generator card is amplified to ±10 V. The output impedance is 50 Ohm resulting
in an output level of ±5 V when terminated with 50 Ohm. The amplifiers are available as PCI, PXI and CompactPCI versions and are calibrated together
with the related output channel of the generator card to minimize offset and gain errors.

M2i.60xx | M2i.61xx series
125 MS/s Arbitrary Waveform Generator
11 different versions with one to four channels and replay
rates between 20 MS/s and 125 MS/s
PCI
PCI Express
Versions with 8 bit and 14 bit resolution available
1, 2, 4 channels with 20 MS/s, 60 MS/s or
125 MS/s (M2i.60xx)
Simultaneous generation on all channels
Output up to ± 3 V in 50 Ohm
Amplifier option available for ± 10 V
Offset and amplitude programmable
3 software selectable filters
FIFO mode continuous streaming output
128 MSample on-board memory (up to 2 GSample)
Trigger Clock Output (D/A) General
Software
Trig
Amp
Offs
FIFO
Tr
32 Bit
64 Bit
External Trigger
Trig
Option Gated Replay
External Clock
PLL
Programmable Offset +
Amplitude
A D
FIFO Mode
Singleshot Output
Tr
Linux
32 Bit
64 Bit
Pulsewidth Trigger
Option Multiple Replay
board options are explained
in detail on page 20 - 23 and 48 - 49
Reference Clock
10 MHz PLL
High Precision PLL
Option Digital Outputs
± 10V
10V Amplifier Card
Option BaseXIO
Option Star-Hub
Repeated Output
Tr
Single Restart
Windows
LabVIEW MATLAB
Agilent VEE
LabWindows / CVI
Option 3rd Party Drivers
C/C++ VB.NET C#
Gnu C++ J# Delphi
Borland C++ Builder
General Information
Programming Examples
50
The Arbitrary Waveform Generators of the M2i.60xx
and M2i.61xx series are available as 8 bit and 14 bit
versions ranging from 20 MS/s up to 125 MS/s output
rate. With these boards it is possible to generate
free definable waveforms on several channels synchronously.
With one of the synchronization options
the setup of synchronous multi channel systems is
possible. It is also possible to combine the arbitrary
waveform generator with other boards of the M2i
product family like analog acquisition or digital I/O
boards.
Clock and Filter
M2i.601x M2i.602x M2i.603x | M2i.61xx
-3 dB Bandwidth no filter > 10 MHz > 30 MHz > 60 MHz
Filter 3: Characteristics 4th order Butterworth 5th order Butterworth
Filter 3: -3 dB Bandwidth 5 MHz 10 MHz 25 MHz
Filter 2: Characteristics 4th order Butterworth 4th order Butterworth
Filter 2: -3 dB Bandwidth 1 MHz 2 MHz 5 MHz
Filter 1: Characteristics 4th order Butterworth 4th order Butterworth
Filter 1: -3 dB Bandwidth 100 kHz 200 kHz 500 kHz
Application Examples
IQ Base signal generation
Production tests
Replay of acquired test data
Radar signal simulation

Technical Details
Analog Outputs
Resolution
14 bit (M2i.60xx), 8 bit (M2i.61xx)
Channel Selection (Sharing Memory) any 1, 2 or 4 channels
INL, Integral Non Linearity (DAC only) ± 1.5 LSB typ.
DNL, Diff. Non Linearity (DAC only) ± 1.0 LSB typ.
Output Resistance
< 1 Ohm
Max Output Swing in 50 Ohm ± 3 V (offset + amplitude)
Max Slew Rate (no Filter)
> 0.9 V/ns
Output Amplitude
±100 mV up to ±3 V in 1 mV steps
(Amp option: ±333 mV up to ±10 V)
Output Offset
±3 V selectable in 1 mV steps
(Amp otpion: ±10 V in 3 mV steps)
Crosstalk 1 MHz Signal ±3 V < -80 dB
Output Accuracy < 1%
Trigger
Trigger Sources
External, BaseXIO, AND/OR, Sync
Multi, Gate: Re-Arming Time < 4 Samples
External Trigger Type
3.3 V LVTTL compatible (5 V tolerant)
External Trigger Impedance
50 Ohm / 5 kOhm programmable
Trigger Output
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
Dynamic Performance
Clock
External Clock Impedance
Clock Modes
Internal Clock Range (PLL Mode)
Internal Clock Accuracy
Internal Clock Granularity
Reference Clock Input Range
External Clock Delay to Internal Clock
Clock Output
Clock Input
Environmental and Physical Details
50 Ohm / 5 kOhm
Int. PLL / Quartz, Ext. Direct / Divided,
Ref. Clock, Sync
1 kS/s to max sampling clock
20 ppm
< 1% of range
(100 M, 10 M, 1 M, 100 k,...)
≥ 1.0 MHz and ≤ 125.0 MHz
5.4 ns
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
rectangle of 3.3 V LVTTL
Connector Types
(Analog, Clock, Trigger, BaseXIO) 3 mm SMB male
Connector Types (Digital Outputs) 40 pole half pitch (Hirose FX2 series)
Dimension (PCB only)
312 mm x 107 mm (full PCI length)
Width (Standard or Star-Hub 5) 1 full size slot
Width (Star-Hub 16)
2 full size slots
Width (with Digital Outputs) 1 full size slot + 1 half size slot
Operating Temperature 0°C - 50°C
Max Power Consumption (PCI) 16 W (standard mem), 22 W (full mem)
Max Power Consumption (PCI Express) 16 W (standard mem), 22 W (full mem)
PCI / PCI-X Bus Slot Compatibility 32 / 64 bit, 33-133 MHz, 3,3 and 5 V I/O
PCIe Slot Compatibility
x1 / x4 / x8 / x16 (dedicated graphics
slot may not work)
M2i.601x M2i.602x M2i.603x M2i.61xx
Test Sampling Rate 20 MS/s 60 MS/s 125 MS/s 125 MS/s 125 MS/s
Output Frequency 80 kHz 170 kHz 400 kHz 400 kHz 4 MHz
Output Level ±2 V ±2 V ±2 V ±2 V ±2 V
Used Filter 100 kHz 200 kHz 500 kHz 500 kHz 5 MHz
SNR (typ) (dB) > 61.5 > 61.5 > 61.0 > 60.9 > 55.2
THD (typ) (dB) < -70.4 < -72.7 < -71.5 < -69.1 < -58.1
SFDR (typ), excl. harm. (dB) 85.5 81.5 72.0 > 71.9 > 65.6
Measured at the given output level and 50 Ohm termination
Order Information
All details are to be found in
the data sheet under
www.spec.de/m2i60xx.html or
www.spec.de/m2i61xx.html
Lifetime driver and firmware
updates free of charge
2 years warranty
51
Card Versions
PCI/PCI-X PCI Express Resolution 1 channel 2 channels 4 channels
M2i.6011 M2i.6011-exp 14 bit 20 MS/s 20 MS/s
M2i.6012 M2i.6012-exp 14 bit 20 MS/s 20 MS/s 20 MS/s
M2i.6021 M2i.6021-exp 14 bit 60 MS/s 60 MS/s
M2i.6022 M2i.6022-exp 14 bit 60 MS/s 60 MS/s 60 MS/s
M2i.6030 M2i.6030-exp 14 bit 125 MS/s
M2i.6031 M2i.6031-exp 14 bit 125 MS/s 125 MS/s
M2i.6033 M2i.6033-exp 14 bit 125 MS/s 60 MS/s
M2i.6034 M2i.6034-exp 14 bit 125 MS/s 125 MS/s 60 MS/s
PCI/PCI-X PCI Express Resolution 1 channel 2 channels 4 channels
M2i.6105 M2i.6105-exp 8 bit 125 MS/s
M2i.6110 M2i.6110-exp 8 bit 125 MS/s 125 MS/s
M2i.6111 M2i.6111-exp 8 bit 125 MS/s 125 MS/s 125 MS/s
3rd Party Drivers
M2i.xxxx-ml
M2i.60xx-lv
M2i.60xx-vee
M2i.61xx-lv
M2i.61xx-vee
MATLAB driver for all M2i cards
LabVIEW driver for all M2i.60xx cards
Agilent VEE driver for all M2i.60xx cards
LabVIEW driver for all M2i.61xx cards
Agilent VEE driver for all M2i.61xx cards
Cables not included.
Please see the cable overview
on page 91 for adapter cables
Memory
M2i.xxxx-256MS
M2i.xxxx-512GS
M2i.xxxx-1GS
M2i.xxxx-2GS
Options
M2i.xxxx-mr
M2i.xxxx-gs
M2i.xxxx-SH5
M2i.xxxx-SH16
M2i.xxxx-SSHM
M2i.xxxx-SSHS5
M2i.xxxx-SSHS16
MI.6xxx-1Amp
MI.6xxx-2Amp
MI.6xxx-4Amp
M2i.60xx-dig
M2i.xxxx-bxio
M2i-upgrade
Memory upgrade to 256 MSample (512 MB) total memory
Memory upgrade to 512 MSample (1 GB) total memory
Memory upgrade to 1 GSample (2 GB) total memory
Memory upgrade to 2 GSample (4 GB) total memory
Option Multiple Replay
Option Gated Replay
Synchronization Star-Hub for up to 5 cards, only 1 slot width
Synchronization Star-Hub for up to 16 cards
System-Star-Hub Master for up to 17 systems, sync cables included
System-Star-Hub Slave for up to 5 cards in one system
System-Star-Hub Slave for up to 16 cards in one system
±10 V output amplifier card with 1 channel including SMB to
SMB connection cable
±10 V output amplifier card with 2 channel including SMB to
SMB connection cable
±10 V output amplifier card with 4 channel including SMB to
SMB connection cable
Additional synchronous digital outputs (2 per analog channel)
including Cab-d40-idc-100 (M2i.60xx only)
Option BaseXIO: 8 digital I/O for asynchronous I/O, Timestamp refclock,
additional triggers. Additional bracket with 8 SMB connectors
Upgrade for M2i.xxxx: later installation of option -dig or -bxio

Digital I/O Cards and Pattern Generators
The fast Digital I/O boards may be used as pattern generators or for digital data acquisition. The extremely large on-board
memory and the fast FIFO mode allow output and input of long data streams. A special on-board clock preparation
minimises the phase skew between internal and external clock signals.
DIO Features
Please also see the common features of the M2i and M3i range that are suitable for all card series. In here also the
acquisition modes of the Digital I/O card are explained. These features are explained on page 18 - 27 in detail.
The Digital I/O cards and pattern generators of Spectrum can be operated in one of the following replay modes. Depending on the application one of
the modes can be used to perfectly feed in data into a test bench or an experiment.
Singleshot Output
Tr
The singleshot output replays the pattern once after having received the trigger event. The pattern is loaded into card memory before the replay. After
the singleshot replay has been done the card can be restarted to replay the same pattern again or a new pattern is loaded into the card memory.
Single Restart
Tr
52
The Single Restart mode is a singleshot output that is automatically restarted in hardware. Therefore it will generate the same pattern on each received
trigger event. The dead time between end of the replayed pattern until the trigger engine is armed again is only a few samples making this function extremely
suitable for test systems where a very high repetition rate needs to be reached. The number of restarts can be programmed. The card will then
automatically stop to replay after having reached this number of singleshots.
Repeated Output
Tr
Using the repeated output the card will loop through the data once a trigger event has been reached. The output signal will directly start with the first
sample again after having reached the last sample of the pattern. The number of loops that the repeated output should run can be programmed by software.
The card will then automatically stop to replay after having reached this number of loops.
FIFO Replay
FIFO
The FIFO replay mode is a standard feature of the Digital I/O cards and pattern generators. In this mode a pattern that exceeds the capabilities of the
on-board memory or a dynamically calculated pattern is loaded continuously into the card and replayed at the same time. In this case the full on-board
memory acts as a big FIFO buffer. If needed the desired latency can be programmed by limiting the fill size of the FIFO buffer.
The FIFO replay mode can be combined with one of the options Multiple Replay or Gated Replay to allow running the output at even higher speeds than
the underlying PC bus is capable of supporting.

Option Multiple Replay
The on-board memory will be divided into several segments of the same size. Each segment will be filled with data before the output starts. With every
detected trigger event one data block is replayed. The length of one multiple replay segment is fixed and can be programmed with a small step size. As
this mode is totally controlled in hardware there is a very small re-arm time from end of one segment until the trigger detection is enabled again.
Using an internal loops parameter one can further program whether all segments should be replayed once or continuously or whether a dedicated
number of segments should be replayed.
If combining this mode with the FIFO replay new data can be loaded into the card memory continuously allowing this mode to run for a very long time.
Option Gated Replay
Data will be replayed as long as the gate signal fulfils the programmed gate condition. At the end of the gate interval the replay will be stopped and
the card will pause until another gate signal appears. If the loops parameter is set to 1 the card stops immediately as soon as the total amount of data
has been replayed. In that case the last gate segment is ended by the expiring memory size counter and not by the gate end signal. If loops is set to
zero the Gated Replay mode will run in a continuous loop until explicitly stopped by user. If the replay reaches the end of the programmed memory it
will start again at the beginning with no gap in between. If setting loops to a number larger than 1 this number of complete gates will be replayed and
the card stopped afterwards automatically.
If combining this mode with the FIFO replay new data can be loaded into the card memory continuously allowing this mode to run for a very long time.
Pattern Trigger
Trig
53
On all digital acquisition boards there is powerful trigger recognition implemented. For every digital input channel the pattern trigger individually defines
each bit and its expected level, or sets the bit as “don’t care“. In combination with pulsewidth counter and edge detection the pattern trigger can be
used to recognise a huge variety of trigger events.
Programmable Output Levels
D A
D A
One of the key features of the M2i.72xx pattern generator series is the high number of different logic levels that can be programmed per board. The low
and high output level of the pattern can be programmed in the range from -2V to +10V covering nearly all logic levels that are available like ECL, PECL,
TTL, LVDS, LVTTL, CMOS or LVCMOS.
The levels are generated by a 16 bit Digital-to-Analog converter (DAC). Every pair of logic levels therefore requires one pair of DACs. As there are eight
available DACs on one 16 bit module, you can program the level for a group of every four output bits. This is a maximum of up to eight different logic
levels on a 32 bit board.
Using these 16 bit DACs on the pattern generator allows to set-up one of the logic output levels or even to exceed these output levels to test the performance
of a device at the minimum and maximum ratings.

M2i.70xx series
64 Bit Fast Digital I/O with TTL Levels
5 different versions with 16 to 64 I/O lines and
sampling rates up to 125 MS/s
PCI
16, 32 or 64 bit digital I/O
Up to 125 MS/s at 32 bit and up to 60 MS/s at 64 bit
110 Ohm input impedance selectable
Inputs 3.3 V and 5 V TTL compatible
FIFO mode for input and output
Pattern / edge / pulse width / delay trigger
256 MByte on-board memory (up to 4 GByte)
PCI Express
Trigger Clock General
Software
Trig
Memory
......
Trig
Tr
32 Bit
64 Bit
LabVIEW MATLAB
Agilent VEE
LabWindows / CVI
External Trigger
Option Multiple Recording
External Clock
Ring Buffer Mode
Singleshot Output
Linux
Option 3rd Party Drivers
Trig
PLL
FIFO
Tr
32 Bit
64 Bit
C/C++ VB.NET C#
Gnu C++ J# Delphi
Borland C++ Builder
Pattern Trigger
Option Gated Sampling
Reference Clock
FIFO Mode
Repeated Output
Windows
Programming Examples
Trig
10 MHz
PLL
Tr
SB6
Pulsewidth Trigger
Option Timestamp
High Precision PLL
Option BaseXIO
Single Restart
SBench6
Option Gated Replay
Option Multiple Replay
Option Star-Hub
board options are explained in detail on page 18 - 23 and 52 - 53
54
General Information
The M2i.70xx series of fast digital I/O boards offer a resolution between 1 bit and 64 bit with a maximum sampling rate of 125 MS/s (60 MS/s). All
I/O lines of the card can be programmed for either input or output direction. The on-board memory of up to 4 GByte can be used completely for
recording or replaying digital data. The internal standard synchronisation bus allows synchronisation of several cards of the M2i series. Therefore the
M2i.70xx board can be used in combination with analog boards.
Application Examples
Pattern generation for parameter tester
A/D converter development
Data acquisition at a medical
tomograph
Production test of IGBT modules
CCD sensor simulation

Technical Details
Digital Inputs
Input Impedance (Programmable) 110 Ohm / 50 kOhm || 15 pF
110 Ohm Termination Voltage 2.5 V
Standard Input Levels
low ≤ 0.8 V, high ≥ 2.0 V
Absolute Maximum Input Levels ≥ -0.5 V and ≤ 7.0 V
Digital Outputs
Typical Output Levels (High Impedance)
Output Max Current Load
Output Levels at Max Load
Output Impedance (Typical)
Output Delay (≥ 8 Active Channels)
Trigger
low: 0.2 V high: 2.8 V
low: 64 mA high: -32 mA
low: < 0.5 V high: > 2.0 V
ca. 7 Ohms
19 samples fix
Trigger Sources
Pattern, External, BaseXIO, AND/OR, Sync
Internal Trigger Accuracy
1 sample (≥ 8 active channels)
Multi, Gate: Re-Arming Rime
< 4 samples (≥ 8 channels)
Max Number of Segments
unlimited
Max Pretrigger at Multi, Gate, FIFO 16352 bytes as sum of all active channels
External Trigger Type
5 V TTL
External Trigger Impedance
110 Ohm / 1 MOhm programmable
Trigger Output TTL levels, capable of driving 110
and 50 Ohm load
Clock
External Clock Impedance
Clock Modes
Internal Clock Range (PLL Mode)
Internal Clock Accuracy
Internal Clock Granularity
Reference Clock Input Range
External Clock Delay to Internal Clock
Clock Output
Clock Input
Environmental and Physical Details
50 Ohm / 1 MOhm
Int. PLL / Quartz, Ext. Direct / Divided,
Ref. Clock, Sync
1 kS/s to max sampling clock
20 ppm
< 1% of range
(100 M, 10 M, 1 M, 100 k,...)
≥ 1.0 MHz and ≤ 125.0 MHz
5.4 ns
TTL levels, capable of driving
50 Ohm load
rectangle of 3.3 V LVTTL
Connector Types (Digital Inputs) 40 pole half pitch (Hirose FX2 series)
Connector Types (BaseXIO)
8 x SMB (8 x MMCX internal)
Dimension (PCB only)
312 mm x 107 mm (full PCI length)
Width (all except M2i.7021 or Star-Hub 5) 1 full size slot
Width (Star-Hub 16 and M2i.7021) 2 full size slots
Width (with BaseXIO)
1 full size slot + 1 half size slot
Operating Temperature 0°C - 50°C
Max Power Consumption (PCI)
22 W (standard mem), 25 W (full mem)
Max Power Consumption (PCI Express) 17 W (standard mem), 24 W (full mem)
PCI / PCI-X Bus Slot Compatibility 32 / 64 bit, 33-133 MHz, 3,3 and 5 V I/O
PCIe Slot Compatibility
x1 / x4 / x8 / x16 (dedicated graphics
slot may not work)
Order Information
Card Versions
PCI/PCI-X PCI Express 1-4 bit 8 bit 16 bit 32 bit 64 bit
M2i.7005 M2i.7005-exp 125 MS/s 125 MS/s 125 MS/s
M2i.7010 M2i.7010-exp 125 MS/s 125 MS/s
M2i.7011 M2i.7011-exp 125 MS/s 125 MS/s 60 MS/s
M2i.7020 M2i.7020-exp 125 MS/s 125 MS/s 125 MS/s
M2i.7021 M2i.7021-exp 125 MS/s 125 MS/s 125 MS/s 60 MS/s
3rd Party Drivers
M2i.xxxx-ml
M2i.70xx-lv
M2i.70xx-vee
Memory
MATLAB driver for all M2i cards
LabVIEW driver for all M2i.70xx cards
Agilent VEE driver for all M2i.70xx cards
All details are to be found in
the data sheet under
www.spec.de/m2i70xx.html
Lifetime driver and firmware
updates free of charge
2 years warranty
55
M2i.xxxx-512MB
M2i.xxxx-1GB
M2i.xxxx-2GB
M2i.xxxx-4GB
Memory upgrade to 512 MB total memory
Memory upgrade to 1 GB total memory
Memory upgrade to 2 GB total memory
Memory upgrade to 4 GB total memory
Options
M2i.xxxx-mr
M2i.xxxx-mgt
M2i.xxxx-SH5
M2i.xxxx-SH16
M2i.xxxx-SSHM
M2i.xxxx-SSHS5
M2i.xxxx-SSHS16
M2i.xxxx-bxio
M2i-upgrade
Option Multiple Recording / Replay
Option pack including Multiple Recording / Replay, Gated Sampling, Timestamp
Synchronization Star-Hub for up to 5 cards, only 1 slot width
Synchronization Star-Hub for up to 16 cards
System-Star-Hub Master for up to 17 systems, sync cables included
System-Star-Hub Slave for up to 5 cards in one system
System-Star-Hub Slave for up to 16 cards in one system
Option BaseXIO: 8 digital I/O for asynchronous I/O, Timestamp refclock,
additional triggers. Additional bracket with 8 SMB connectors
Upgrade for M2i.xxxx: later installation of option -bxio

M2i.72xx series
32 Bit Pattern Generator with Programmable Levels
4 different versions with 16 to 32 bits and up to 40 MS/s
PCI
Programmable output levels from -2.0 V up to 10.0 V
Levels individually programmable per 4 bit
All Outputs can be separately disabled (Tristate)
Hardware controlled differential output possible
Sustained streaming mode
Edge / pulse width / delay trigger
256 MByte on-board memory (up to 4 GByte)
PCI Express
Trigger Clock Output General
Software
Trig
D A
D A
FIFO
Tr
32 Bit
64 Bit
External Trigger
Option Multiple Replay
External Clock
Programmable Output Levels
FIFO Mode
Singleshot Output
Linux
Trig
PLL
Tr
32 Bit
64 Bit
Pulsewidth Trigger
Option Gated Replay
Reference Clock
Option BaseXIO
Repeated Output
Windows
10 MHz
PLL
Tr
LabVIEW MATLAB
Agilent VEE
LabWindows / CVI
High Precision PLL
Option Star-Hub
Single Restart
Option 3rd Party Drivers
board options are explained in detail on page 20 - 23 and 52 - 53
C/C++ VB.NET C#
Gnu C++ J# Delphi
Borland C++ Builder
Programming Examples
56
General Information
The M2i.72xx pattern generator series gives the user the possibility to generate digital data with a wide range of output levels. For every 4 bit the
LOW and HIGH levels can be programmed from -2.0 V up to +10.0 V. Even at high speeds you are not limited concerning the maximum output swing.
This enables the user to drive devices of nearly any logic family, like ECL, PECL, TTL, LVDS, LVTTL, CMOS or LVCMOS. The potentially necessary differential
signals are generated in hardware, so that only one data bit is used for each pair of differential signals.
Application Examples
Chip test
Pattern stimulation

Technical Details
Outputs
Output Impedance
Data Signal Level
Programmable Level Accuracy
Max Output Current per Pin
Max Output Current per Nibble (4 Bit)
Max Output Current per Card
Rise / Fall Time 10 % to 90 %, 110 Ohm
Trigger
approximately 80 Ohm
programmable from -2.0 V up to +10.0 V
±10 mV
100 mA
200 mA
500 mA (M2i.721x cards, otherwise no
limit)
2.0 ns (1 MS/s) up to 2.25 ns (40 MS/s)
Trigger Sources
External, BaseXIO, AND/OR, Sync
Internal Trigger Accuracy
1 sample (≥ 8 active channels)
Multi, Gate: Re-Arming Time
< 4 samples (≥ 8 channels)
External Trigger Type
TTL compatible
External Trigger Impedance
110 Ohm / 1 MOhm programmable
Trigger Output 5 V TTL levels, capable of driving 110
and 50 Ohm load
Clock
External Clock Impedance
110 Ohm / 1 MOhm
Clock Modes
Int. PLL / Quartz, Ext. Direct / Divided,
Ref. Clock, Sync
Internal Clock Range (PLL Mode) 1 kS/s to max sampling clock
Internal Clock Accuracy
20 ppm
Internal Clock Granularity < 1% of range (10 M, 1 M, 100 k, ...)
Reference Clock Input Range
≥ 1.0 MHz and ≤ 125.0 MHz
Clock Output
5 V TTL levels, capable of driving
110 and 50 Ohm load
Clock Input
rectangle of 3.3 V LVTTL
Environmental and Physical Details
Connector Types (Outputs)
40 pole half pitch (Hirose FX2 series)
Connector Types (BaseXIO)
8 x SMB (8 x MMCX internal)
Dimension (PCB only)
312 mm x 107 mm (full PCI length)
Width (Standard or sh5) M2i.721x 1 full size slot
Width (Star-Hub 16 or M2i.722x) 2 full size slots
Width (with BaseXIO) M2i.721x 1 full size slot + 1 half size slot
Width (with BaseXIO) M2i.722x 2 full size slots + 1 half size slot
Operating Temperature 0°C - 50°C
Max Power Consumption (PCI)
18W (M2i.721x), 13W bus + 36W
cable (M2i.722x)
Max Power Consumption (PCI Express) 21W (M2i.721x), 16W bus + 36W
cable (M2i.722x)
PCI / PCI-X Bus Slot Compatibility 32 / 64 bit, 33-133 MHz, 3,3 and 5 V I/O
PCIe Slot Compatibility
x1 / x4 / x8 / x16 (dedicated graphics slot
may not work)
Order Information
Card Versions
PCI/PCI-X PCI Express 1-4 bit 8 bit 16 bit 32 bit
M2i.7210 M2i.7210-exp 10 MS/s 10 MS/s 10 MS/s
M2i.7211 M2i.7211-exp 10 MS/s 10 MS/s 10 MS/s 5 MS/s
M2i.7220 M2i.7220-exp 40 MS/s 40 MS/s 40 MS/s
M2i.7221 M2i.7221-exp 40 MS/s 40 MS/s 40 MS/s 40 MS/s
All details are to be found in
the data sheet under
www.spec.de/m2i72xx.html
Lifetime driver and firmware
updates free of charge
57
3rd Party Drivers
M2i.xxxx-ml
M2i.72xx-lv
M2i.72xx-vee
Memory
M2i.xxxx-512MB
M2i.xxxx-1GB
M2i.xxxx-2GB
M2i.xxxx-4GB
Options
M2i.xxxx-mr
M2i.xxxx-gs
M2i.xxxx-SH5
M2i.xxxx-SH16
M2i.xxxx-SSHM
M2i.xxxx-SSHS5
M2i.xxxx-SSHS16
M2i.xxxx-bxio
M2i-upgrade
MATLAB driver for all M2i cards
LabVIEW driver for all M2i.72xx cards
Agilent VEE driver for all M2i.72xx cards
Memory upgrade to 512 MB total memory
Memory upgrade to 1 GB total memory
Memory upgrade to 2 GB total memory
Memory upgrade to 4 GB total memory
Option Multiple Replay
Option Gated Replay
Synchronization Star-Hub for up to 5 cards, only 1 slot width
Synchronization Star-Hub for up to 16 cards
System-Star-Hub Master for up to 17 systems, sync cables included
System-Star-Hub Slave for up to 5 cards in one system
System-Star-Hub Slave for up to 16 cards in one system
Option BaseXIO: 8 digital I/O for asynchronous I/O, Timestamp refclock,
additional triggers. Additional bracket with 8 SMB connectors
Upgrade for M2i.xxxx: later installation of option -bxio
2 years warranty

CompactPCI 6U and PXI 3U cards
The Spectrum boards are also available for different industrial grade PC bus systems. Due to the modular
design of the boards a large range of products are available for both industrial platforms CompactPCI 6U and
PXI 3U. That allows the user to select the bus system that matches his requirements best without
making any compromise regarding the technical productivity.
CompactPCI 6U Bus – MC Series
CompactPCI combines the advantages of the PCI bus with the needs of the industrial user. CompactPCI uses wellknown
and stable 19“ technology and offers robust systems for industrial needs. The defined cooling power and
the robust connector extend the life of the product. CompactPCI systems are defined in two different sizes: 6U
and 3U. The CompactPCI 6U products from Spectrum have the same product range as the PCI pendants (former
MI series).
PXI/CompactPCI 3U Bus – MX Series
Based on the CompactPCI 3U standard the PXI (PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation) enhancement
was defined especially for the measurement user. In this specification additional lines for mea -
sure ment purposes are defined. There is a high-quality 10 MHz reference clock, as well as a star
trigger and a trigger bus. The Spectrum boards support all these features, most notably with the
help of the reference clock and the star trigger module for an easy combination of products – including
those from different companies. Since September 2003 Spectrum is a member of the PXI
system alliance.
The Spectrum PXI cards run in a plain CompactPCI 3U slot as well as in a dedicated PXI 3U slot.
If using the MX series in a plain CompactPCI slot the PXI features will not be available.
58
CompactPCI/PXI A/D Cards and Digitizers
Series Resolution Speed Channels Details
MC/MX.20xx Series 8 Bit 50 MS/s up to 200 MS/s 2 to 4 Channels Page 66
MC/MX.30xx Series 12 Bit 40 MS/s up to 200 MS/s 1 to 4 Channels Page 68
MC/MX.31xx Series 12 Bit 1 MS/s up to 25 MS/s 2 to 8 Channels Page 70
MC/MX.40xx Series 14 Bit 20 MS/s up to 50 MS/s 1 to 4 Channels Page 72
MC/MX.46xx Series 16 Bit 200 kS/s up to 3 MS/s 2 to 8 Channels Page 74
MC/MX.47xx Series 16 Bit 100 kS/s up to 500 kS/s 8 to 16 Channels Page 76
Resolution
8 Bit
12 Bit
MX.31xx Series
MX.20xx Series
MC.20xx Series
MX.30xx Series
MC.30xx Series
MC.31xx Series
14 Bit
MX.40xx Series
MC.40xx Series
MX.46xx Series
16 Bit
MC.46xx Series
MX.47xx Series
MC.47xx Series
Sampling Speed
Channels
100 kS/s 200 kS/s 500 kS/s 1 MS/s 2 MS/s 5 MS/s 10 MS/s 20 MS/s 50 MS/s 100 MS/s 200 MS/s 500 MS/s 1 GS/s 1 Ch 2 Ch 4 Ch 8 Ch 16 Ch

CompactPCI/PXI D/A Cards and Arbitrary Waveform Generators
Series Resolution Speed Channels Details
MC/MX.61xx Series 8 Bit 125 MS/s 2 to 4 Channels Page 80
MC/MX.60xx Series 14 Bit 20 MS/s up to 125 MS/s 1 to 4 Channels Page 80
Resolution
8 Bit
14 Bit
MX.61xx
MC.61xx
MX.60xx Series
MC.60xx Series
Sampling Speed
Channels
100 kS/s 200 kS/s 500 kS/s 1 MS/s 2 MS/s 5 MS/s 10 MS/s 20 MS/s 50 MS/s 100 MS/s 200 MS/s 500 MS/s 1 GS/s 1 Ch 2 Ch 4 Ch 8 Ch 16 Ch
CompactPCI/PXI Digital I/O Cards and Pattern Generators
Series Type Speed Channels Details
MC/MX.70xx Series TTL Digital I/O 60 MS/s to 125 MS/s 16 to 64 Channels Page 84
MC/MX.72xx Series Programmable Pattern 10 MS/s to 40 MS/s 16 to 32 Channels Page 86
Type
Digital I/O
Pattern Generator
MX.72xx Series
MC.72xx Series
MX.70xx Series
MC.70xx Series
Sampling Speed
Channels
100 kS/s 200 kS/s 500 kS/s 1 MS/s 2 MS/s 5 MS/s 10 MS/s 20 MS/s 50 MS/s 100 MS/s 200 MS/s 500 MS/s 1 GS/s 1-4 Ch 8 Ch 16 Ch 32 Ch 64 Ch
59

Options / Features of MC and MX series
The instrumentation boards from Spectrum offer a wide variety of options that enlarge extend the application range
where the boards could be used. 20 years of industry know-how and exchange of ideas with customers have led to options
where the practical use is the first aim. The most important possibilities of the boards are explained on the next
pages. Please contact us for the discussion about further options or customer-specific modifications.
Features that are more function related are explained in the A/D (page 64), D/A (page 78) and Digital I/O (page 82)
chapter respectively.
Transient Capture / Ring Buffer Mode
Memory
......
Trig
The ring buffer mode is the standard mode of all digitiser/oscilloscope boards. Data is written in a ring memory on the board until a trigger event is detected.
After the event the posttrigger values are recorded. Because of this continuous recording into a ring buffer there are also samples prior to the
trigger event visible: Pretrigger = Memsize – Posttrigger. The pretrigger area can be of any length up to the total programmed acquisition memory when
using the ring buffer mode.
FIFO Mode
FIFO
The FIFO mode is designed for continuous data transfer between measurement board and PC memory or hard disk. The control of the data stream is
done automatically by the driver on interrupt request. The complete installed on-board memory is used for buffer data, making the continuous streaming
extremely reliable.
60
The MC and MX card series are equipped with a completely independent and hardware controlled DMA engine using the on-board memory as a FIFO
buffer. Using the standard memory of 16 MByte as a buffer more than 100 milliseconds of transfer data can be held allowing your PC system to have a
sustained data rate even if some background processes disturb the transfer.
External Trigger
Trig
All boards may be triggered using an external TTL signal. It’s also possible to use positive or negative edge in combination with a programmable pulsewidth.
An internally recognised trigger event can – once activated by software – be routed to the output connector to start external instruments.
Pulsewidth Trigger
Trig
Two different pulsewidth triggers are possible: the more common mode defines a minimum pulsewidth that must be reached to detect a trigger event
(like shown in the picture). This modes avoids triggering of small pulses or spikes above the defined trigger level that are present on an input.
A second mode works in the opposite way and detects pulses that are shorter than a defined pulsewidth. Using this mode it is possible to trigger on
false or crippled signals without triggering on the “good” signal.
Both pulsewidth modes can be combined with channel trigger, pattern trigger and external trigger.
External Clock
Using an external connector a sampling clock may be fed in from an external system. Due to the
well designed structure of the card the phase delay between external and internal sampling
clock is fixed. It’s also possible to output the internally used sampling clock signal to synchronise
external equipment with the hardware.

Reference Clock
PLL
The option to use a precise external reference clock (normally 10 MHz) is necessary to synchronise the board for high-quality measurements with external
equipment (like a signal source). It’s also possible to further enhance the quality of the sampling clock this way. The driver automatically generates the
requested sampling clock from the externally applied reference clock.
Option Multiple Recording
The Multiple Recording option allows the signal recording from several trigger events without restarting the hardware. With this option very fast
repetition rates can be achieved. The on-board memory is divided in several segments of same size. Each of them is filled with data if a trigger event
occurs. The number and size of the segments is only limited by the installed on-board memory.
In Multiple Recording mode there is no pretrigger data available on MC and MX card series. On all MC cards Multiple Recording can be combined with
the Timestamp option to get the exact trigger times of the different segments.
Using Multiple Recording option together with the FIFO mode makes application demands solvable that require continuous but segmented data acquisition
for hours.
Option Gated Sampling
The Gated Sampling option allows data recording controlled by an external gate signal. Data is only recorded if the gate signal has a programmed level.
On MC card series Gated Sampling can be combined with the Timestamp option to record the exact start and stop time of the diverse gate segments.
61
Option Timestamp (MC only)
The Timestamp option writes the time positions of the trigger events in an extra memory. The Timestamps are relative to the start of recording, to a defined
zero time or externally synchronised to a seconds signal from a radio clock or a GPS receiver. With this option acquisitions of systems on different
locations may be set in a precise time relation. The Timestamp option was developed as a useful extension to the Multiple Recording and Gated Sampling
mode options but can also be used without these options.
The Timestamp memory is designed as a FIFO buffer allowing the readout of Timestamps also in FIFO mode.
The reference signal for synchronisation with a radio clock or a GPS receiver is connected using an additional special connector that had to be requested
separately.

Options / Features of MC and MX series
Option Star-Hub (MC only)
The Star Hub is an additional module allowing the phase stable synchronisation of up to 16
CompactPCI 6U cards. This could be boards of the same type or mixed-mode boards. Independent
of the number of boards there is no phase delay between all channels. As a result all connected
boards are running with the same clock and the same trigger.
Each board is connected with a small cable of the same length, even the master board. That minimises the clock skew between the different boards.
Any board inside this system can be the clock master. All clock sources of this board can be used, be it internal clock, reference clock or external clock.
Any single or even several boards can be used as trigger sources for the complete system. The trigger source of all boards can be combined with logical
functions. All trigger modes that are available on the master boards are also available if the synchronisation Star-Hub is used.
The Star-Hub allows the synchronisation of various cards when running with different sampling rates. This allows to mix slow and fast sampling in one
system but still preserving the phase relation between the different channels.
Option Cascading (MC only)
The cascading option synchronises up to 4 Spectrum boards internally. It’s the simplest way to
build up a multi channel system. On the internal synchronisation bus clock and trigger signals
are routed between the different boards. All connected boards are then working with the same
clock and trigger information. There is a phase delay between two boards of about 500 picoseconds
when this synchronisation option is used.
62
Option Extra I/O (MC only)
D A
The Extra I/O module adds 24 additional digital I/O lines and 4 analog outputs on an extra connector.
These additional lines are independent from the standard function and can be controlled
asynchronously. There is also an internal version available with 16 digital I/Os and 4 analog
outputs that can be used directly at the rear board connector.
Application examples:
Programming of external pre-amplifier
Communication with a signal source
Adjustment of an antenna
Reading of extended status information from external instruments
Switching of various test signals

PXI Clock (MX only)
The PXI reference clock is a 10 MHz square wave signal with an accuracy of 100 ppm or better.
This reference clock is located on the PXI backplane and is routed to every PXI slot with the same
trace length. PXI cards from Spectrum are able to use the PXI reference clock for sampling clock
generation. One big advantage of using the reference clock is the fact that all cards which are
synchron ised to the reference clock are running with the same clock frequency.
PXI Trigger (MX only)
Trig
One slot of the PXI system has special connections and is used as a star trigger slot. Every PXI slot is connected with a special star trigger line to this
slot. Each of these connections has the same trace length as well. When using a special star trigger card it is possible to send out a trigger pulse to every
connected PXI card at the same time. Using a star trigger card together with the reference clock allows the synchronization of multiple cards with a very
high accuracy. All Spectrum PXI cards support the star trigger line.
In addition to the star trigger, the PXI specification also defines an 8 line trigger bus that is connected to each PXI slot. The use of this trigger bus is not
specified in detail but it is mostly used to provide trigger information throughout the system. On the Spectrum cards PXI trigger[0] to PXI trigger [5] can
be individually programmed as trigger input and/or trigger output to connect multiple Spectrum PXI cards or to connect the Spectrum PXI card with other
manufacturers cards.
PXI Star-Trigger Card
2
63
The MX.9010 is a special PXI star trigger card designed for the Spectrum PXI products. It allows to route clock and trigger synchronously to all PXI slots
that are connected to the star trigger slot. The PXI reference clock is overwritten and external trigger events are synchronized to the sampling clock.
Using the MX.9010 one can set-up synchronous PXI systems with absolutely no card to card jitter or phase delay. As a standard the PXI star trigger lines
are connected to 13 peripheral slots allowing to use more than 100 synchronous channels on PXI. In addition to this the MX.9010 also offers trigger
and clock input and output connections and can be extended by custom features on request.

Digitizers / DAQ Cards
The Spectrum fast data acquisition cards are very suitable for individual applications.
The wide range of different products covers the use as plain DAQ cards as well as fast
digitizers or transient recording applications. Together with the wide range of options
and software support all cards can be used in many different ways.
Waveform digitizers are plug-in cards for PCs or industrial PCs that are used to measure
continuous voltage signals as well as fast signal changes like voltage transients. The voltage
inputs of the cards with their various programmable input ranges allows to connect
any sensor or electronic machine (like radar receiver, ultrasound sensor or any slow speed
sensor like strain gauge, pressure or temperature) that generates voltage levels. Besides
the A/D section with its amplifiers the digitiser also consists of a large on-board memory
which stores the acquired data.
Synchronous Sampling
High quality amplifiers and A/D converters allow the acquisition of high-frequency signals.
All boards have a separate A/D converter and a separate amplifier for each channel. That
allows the synchronous sampling on all channels without the phase delay or crosstalk
inherent with multiplex boards. In ring buffer mode the boards act independently from
the PC and acquire data in the on-board memory. In FIFO mode the on-board memory
switches to a buffer and data can be read continuously.
All acquisition cards from Spectrum are built with a completely synchronous design. Every
channel has its own independent input amplifier as well as an independent A/D converter.
This synchronous design is made for cards of 2 to 16 channels, even 16 channel 16 bit
acquisition cards such as MC.47xx series. All input channel related settings can be individually
programmed for each channel. Compared with standard cards with multiplex
technology, where scanning of each channel one after the other with a single A/D converter
occurs, the more sophisticated design of the Spectrum cards has a lot of advantages:
64
Full sampling rate for all channels
No phase delay between the single channels
Smallest crosstalk between adjacent channels due to individual input amplifiers
Direct comparison of acquired values with no need for interpolation
A/D Features
Please also see the common features of the MC and MX card range that are suitable
for all card series. These features are explained on page 60 - 63 in more detail.
Channel Trigger
.............
Trig
The data acquisition boards offer a wide variety of trigger modes. Besides the standard signal checking for level and edge as known from oscilloscopes,
it’s also possible to define a window trigger. All trigger modes may also be combined with the pulsewidth trigger. This makes it possible to trigger on
signal events such as pulses, which are defined as too long or too short.
For most of the trigger modes there is an independent trigger recognition for every channel, that can be combined with an OR function if desired. This
allows the easy setup of a multi-channel error recognition.
Programmable Input Amplifier
To optimise the use of the resolution of the converter when doing A/D conversion it is necessary to prepare the physically available input signal to match
the converters needs. With 6 to 8 input ranges and additional features like programmable termination 1 , programmable AC coupling 1 , programmable
input offset 1 or a programmable input filter 1 the card can adapt to almost any real world signal and have it mapped in a way perfectly using the A/D
converters resolution. Each input range is individually calibrated to minimize any mapping error.
1
Some of the settings are not available for all card families.

Programmable Input Offset
Offs
+
–
Most of the Spectrum A/D cards offer a user programmable signal offset opening the Spectrum boards to a wide variety of setups. The signal offset at
least covers a range of +/-100% of the currently selected input range making unipolar measurements with the card possible. Besides this the signal user
offset can be programmed individually allowing a perfect match of the A/D card section to the real world signal. As an example: if the physical signal
is between -200 mV and 800 mV it is possible to shift the input signal by -300 mV to use the ±500 mV input range instead of the next higher one of
±1 V. With this configuration the full resolution range of the A/D converter is available for the complete signal swing.
Differential Inputs
+
–
A D
The 16 bit acquisition cards of the MC.46xx and MX.46xx series can change the inputs by software command between single-ended (related to a common
ground) and true differential. Unlike the common pseudo-differential inputs which only allow the feed-in of a single ground signal, the true differential
inputs allow the feed-in of the two complementary phases of a differential signal. The channel count is not reduced in this setup. Especially when using
high resolution converters, the usage of true differential signals can greatly reduce the noise and distortion of the recorded signal.
Option Digital Inputs
A D
All A/D boards with 12 and 14 bit resolution have the option of acquiring synchronously, digital data phase-stable with the analog data. On cards with
12 bit analog resolution there are 4 additional digital inputs for every analog channel, on cards with 14 bit analog resolution there are 2 additional digital
inputs per channel. Digital data is recorded together with the analog data in 16 bit wide samples and can be used to set-up mixed mode systems or to
acquire some additional marker signals.
65
On-Board Calibration
A D
D A
All parts used on any electronic device in the world are subject to external influences and aging and therefore slightly change behaviour over the time.
On high precision analog data acquisition cards this results in an offset and gain error that will get higher over the operating time. Therefore the
on-board calibration can be run on user request and calibrates the amplifier against a dedicated internal high precision calibration source. After this
procedure calibration data is stored permanently in an on-board EEPROM and is automatically used for further acquisitions.
External Pre-Amplifier
Although all Spectrum A/D cards have a very powerful input section with a highly configurable input amplifier and a wide range of input ranges it is
sometimes necessary to have additional external amplifiers if the signal to acquire has an extremely low level. Spectrum offers a range of perfectly
matching external amplifiers to cover such cases. These powerful amplifiers have been rated using the Spectrum cards and offer best performance
together with high amplification rates.
The amplifiers are simply connected between the signal source and the Spectrum A/D card input and can be manually switched between different
settings using small lever keys. All amplifiers allow the offset compensation by using an adjustable screw.
Order Information
Order Number Bandwidth Input Coupling Amplification
SPA.1231 10 MHz 50 Ohm AC/DC x 100 (40 dB), x 1000 (60 dB)
SPA.1232 10 MHz 1 MOhm AC/DC x 100 (40 dB), x 1000 (60 dB)
SPA.1411 200 MHz 50 Ohm AC/DC x 10 (20 dB), x 100 (40 dB)
SPA.1412 200 MHz 1 MOhm AC/DC x 10 (20 dB), x 100 (40 dB)
SPA.1601 500 MHz 50 Ohm DC x 10 (20 dB)

MC.20xx | MX.20xx series
8 Bit Digitizers up to 200 MS/s
CompactPCI
6 different versions with two to four channels and
sampling rates between 50 MS/s and 200 MS/s
PXI
CompactPCI 6U and PXI / CompactPCI 3U format
Up to 200 MS/s on 2 channels and up to 100 MS/s on 4 channels (6U)
Up to 200 MS/s on 1 channel and up to 100 MS/s on 2 channels (3U)
Simultaneous sampling on all channels
Separate ADC and amplifier per channel
7 input ranges: ±50 mV up to ±5 V
Window and pulse width trigger
Programmable input offset of ±400 %
16 MByte on-board memory (up to 512 MByte)
Trigger Clock Input (A/D) General
.............
Trig
Channel Trigger Option Multiple Recording External Clock
Programmable Input Amplifiers
Memory
......
Ring Buffer Mode
Trig
D A
Option Extra I/O (6U only)
Software
32 Bit
64 Bit
Linux
Trig
PLL
Offs
+
–
FIFO
2
32 Bit
External Trigger Option Gated Sampling Reference Clock
Programmable Input Offset
FIFO Mode
PXI Star Trigger (3U only)
Windows
Trig
SB6
Pulsewidth Trigger Option Timestamp (6U only) PXI Reference Clock (3U only)
Option Star-Hub (6U only)
SBench6
Trig
LabVIEW MATLAB
Agilent VEE
LabWindows / CVI
PXI Trigger (3U only)
Option Cascading (6U only)
Option 3rd Party Drivers
board options are explained in detail on page 60 - 65
C/C++ Visual Basic
Gnu C++ Delphi
Borland C++ Builder
Programming Examples
66
General Information
The cards of the MC/MX.20xx series are designed for the fast and high quality data acquisition. Each of the up to four input channels has its own A/D
converter and its own programmable input amplifier. This allows to record signals on all channels with 8 bit resolution without any phase delay
between them.
The inputs can be selected to one of seven input ranges by software and can be programmed to compensate for an input offset of ±400% of the input
range. All six cards of the MC/MX.20xx series may use the whole installed on-board memory completely for the currently activated number of channels.
A FIFO mode is also integrated on the board.
Application Examples
Acquisition / Replay of fast data in
combination with MC or MX.61xx (page 80)
Laser Doppler Anemometer
Ultrasound inspection system
Radar Applications

Technical Details
Analog Inputs
Resolution
Channel Selection (Sharing Memory)
Differential Non Linearity (DNL)
Integral Non Linearity (INL)
Offset Error
Gain Error
Programmable Input Ranges
Programmable Input Offset
Crosstalk 5 MHz Signal, 50 Ohm Term
Programmable Input Impedance
Input Signal with 50 Ohm Termination
Over Voltage Protection
Trigger
Trigger Sources
Channel Trigger Resolution
Internal Trigger Accuracy
Max Number of Segments
Max Pretrigger at Multi, Gate, FIFO
External Trigger Type
External Trigger Impedance
Trigger Output
8 bit
1, 2 or 4 channels
0.5 LSB typ (ADC)
0.5 LSB typ (ADC)
< 1 LSB, adjustable by user
< 2 % of current value
±50 mV, ±100 mV, ±200 mV, ±500 mV,
±1 V, ±2 V, ±5 V
±400 % of current input range
< -62 dB
50 Ohm / 1 MOhm || 25 pF
max 5 V rms
±5 V (≤ ±500 mV), ±50 V (> ±500 mV)
Channel, External, PXI Line (3U),
PXI Startrigger (3U)
6 bit
1 sample (2 or 4 channel mode),
2 samples (1 channel mode)
unlimited
no pretrigger
3.3 V LVTTL compatible (5 V tolerant)
50 Ohm / > 4 kOhm programmable
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
Clock
External Clock Impedance
50 Ohm / > 4 kOhm
Clock Modes
Int. PLL / Quartz, Ext. Direct / Divided,
Ref. Clock, PXI Ref Clock (3U)
Internal Clock Range (PLL Mode) 1 kS/s to max sampling clock
Internal Clock Granularity (≤ 100 M) < 1 % of range
(100 M, 10 M, 1 M, 100 k, ...)
Reference Clock Input Range ≥ 1.0 MHz and ≤ 125.0 MHz
External Clock Delay to Internal Clock 42 ns ±2 ns
Clock Output
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
Environmental and Physical Details
Connector Types (Analog, Clock, Trigger) 3 mm SMB male
Dimension (MC.20xx)
160 mm x 233 mm (6U)
Dimension (MX.20xx)
160 mm x 100 mm (3U)
Width (Standard)
1 slot
Width (with Star-Hub)
2 slots
Operating Temperature 0°C - 50°C
Max Power Consumption (6U) 12.3 Watt
Max Power Consumption (3U) 9.1 Watt
Dynamic Performance
MC.202x
MX.2020
MC.203x
MX.2030
Max Sampling Clock 50 MS/s 200 MS/s
-3 dB Bandwidth (±50 mV) DC to 25 MHz DC to 60 MHz
-3 dB Bandwidth (≥ ±100 mV) DC to 25 MHz DC to 90 MHz
Zero Noise Level < 1.0 LSB rms < 1.5 LSB rms
Test Sampling Rate 50 MS/s 100 MS/s
Test Signal Frequency 1 MHz 1 MHz
SNR (typ) (dB) 47.5 45.9
THD (typ) (dB) -52.5 -49.1
SFDR (typ), incl. harm. (dB) 57.0 55.5
ENOB (SNR) (bit) 7.6 7.3
ENOB (SINAD) (bit) 7.3 7.1
Pure low pass filtered sine signal measured at ±1 V range, 50 Ohm
All details are to be found in
the data sheet under
www.spec.de/mc20xx.html or
www.spec.de/mx20xx.html
Lifetime driver and firmware
updates free of charge
2 years warranty
67
Order Information
Card Versions
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U 1 channel 2 channels 4 channels
MC.2020 MX.2020 50 MS/s 50 MS/s
MC.2021 – 50 MS/s 50 MS/s 50 MS/s
MC.2030 MX.2030 200 MS/s 100 MS/s
MC.2031 – 200 MS/s 200 MS/s 100 MS/s
3rd Party Drivers
MATLAB MATLAB MATLAB driver for all MC/MX cards
MC.20xx-lv MX.20xx-lv LabVIEW driver for all MC/MX.20xx cards
MC.20xx-hp MX.20xx-hp Agilent VEE driver for all MC/MX.20xx cards
Cables not included.
Please see the cable overview
on page 91 for adapter cables
Memory
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U
MC.2xxx-32M MX.2xxx-32M Memory upgrade to 32 MB of total memory
MC.2xxx-64M MX.2xxx-64M Memory upgrade to 64 MB of total memory
MC.2xxx-128M MX.2xxx-128M Memory upgrade to 128 MB of total memory
MC.2xxx-256M – Memory upgrade to 256 MB of total memory
MC.2xxx-512M – Memory upgrade to 512 MB of total memory
MC.2xxx-up MX.2xxx-up Additional fee for later memory upgrade
Options
cPCI 6U
PXI / cPCI 3U
MC.2xxx-mr MX.2xxx-mr Option Multiple Recording
MC.2xxx-gs MX.2xxx-gs Option Gated Sampling
MC.2xxx-cs (2) – Option Cascading: Synchronization of up to 4 cards
MC.2xxx-smod (1)(2) – Option Star-Hub: Synchronization of up to 16 cards
– MX.9010 (2) Special Spectrum PXI Star Trigger synchronization card
MC.2xxx-time (1) – Option Timestamp: Recording of trigger timestamps in an
extra memory
MC.xxxx-xmf (1) – Option Extra I/O with external connector, 24 digital I/O +
4 analog outputs. Including one cable Cab-d40-idc-100
(1)
Just one of the options can be installed on a card at a time
(2)
One option needed per System

MC.30xx | MX.30xx series
12 Bit Digitizers up to 200 MS/s
CompactPCI
24 different versions with one to four channels and
sampling rates between 40 MS/s and 200 MS/s
PXI
CompactPCI 6U and PXI / CompactPCI 3U format
Up to 200 MS/s on 1 channel, up to 100 MS/s on 2 channels and
up to 60 MS/s on 4 channels (6U)
Up to 100 MS/s on 1 channel and up to 60 MS/s on 2 channels (3U)
Simultaneous sampling on all channels
Separate ADC and amplifier per channel
6 input ranges: ±200 mV up to ±10 V
Window and pulse width trigger
Programmable input offset of ±100 %
8 MSample on-board memory (up to 256 MSample)
Trigger Clock Input (A/D) General
.............
Trig
Channel Trigger
Option Multiple Recording
External Clock
Programmable Input Amplifiers
Memory
......
Ring Buffer Mode
Trig
D A
Option Extra I/O (6U only)
Software
32 Bit
64 Bit
Linux
Trig
PLL
Offs
+
–
FIFO
2
32 Bit
External Trigger
Option Gated Sampling
Reference Clock
Programmable Input Offset
FIFO Mode
PXI Star Trigger (3U only)
Windows
Trig
A D
SB6
Pulsewidth Trigger
Option Timestamp (6U only)
PXI Reference Clock (3U only)
Option Digital Inputs
Option Star-Hub (6U only)
SBench6
Trig
LabVIEW MATLAB
Agilent VEE
LabWindows / CVI
PXI Trigger (3U only)
Option Cascading (6U only)
Option 3rd Party Drivers
board options are explained in detail on page 60 - 65
C/C++ Visual Basic
Gnu C++ Delphi
Borland C++ Builder
Programming Examples
68
General Information
The 24 models of the MC/MX.30xx series are designed for the fast and high quality data acquisition. Each of the up to four input channels has its own
A/D converter and its own programmable input amplifier. This allows to record signals simultaneously on all channels with 12 bit resolution without
any phase delay between them.
The large on-board memory allows long time recording even with the highest sampling rates. All boards of the MC/MX.30xx series may use the whole
installed on-board memory for the currently activated number of channels. A FIFO mode is also integrated on the board. This allows the
acquisition of data continuously for online processing or for data storage to hard disk.
Application Examples
Transient Recording
Spectroscopy
Vibration Analysis of Nano Parts
Special Radar Applications

Technical Details
Analog Inputs
Resolution
12 bit
Channel Selection (Sharing Memory) 1, 2 or 4 channels
Differential Non Linearity (DNL) ±1 LSB typ (ADC)
Integral Non Linearity (INL)
±1 LSB typ (ADC)
Offset Error
can be calibrated by user
Gain Error
< 1 % of current value
Programmable Input Ranges ±200 mV, ±500 mV, ±1 V, ±2 V, ±5 V, ±10 V
Programmable Input Offset
±100 % of current input range
Crosstalk 1 MHz Signal, 50 Ohm Term < -70 dB between any adjacent channels
Programmable Input Impedance 50 Ohm / 1 MOhm || 25 pF
Input Signal with 50 Ohm Termination max 5 V rms
Over Voltage Protection ±5 V (≤ ±1 V), ±50 V (> ±1 V)
Trigger
Trigger Sources
Channel, External, PXI Line (3U),
PXI Startrigger (3U)
Channel Trigger Resolution
8 bit
Internal Trigger Accuracy
1 sample
Max Number of Segments
unlimited
Max Pretrigger at Multi, Gate, FIFO no pretrigger
External Trigger Type
3.3 V LVTTL compatible (5 V tolerant)
External Trigger Impedance
50 Ohm / > 4 kOhm programmable
Trigger Output
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
Clock
External Clock Impedance
50 Ohm / > 4 kOhm
Clock Modes
Int. PLL / Quartz, Ext. Direct / Divided,
Ref. Clock, PXI Ref Clock (3U)
Internal Clock Range (PLL Mode) 1 kS/s to max sampling clock
Internal Clock Granularity (≤ 100 M) < 1 % of range
(100 M, 10 M, 1 M, 100 k, ...)
Reference Clock Input Range ≥ 1.0 MHz and ≤ 125.0 MHz
External Clock Delay to Internal Clock 42 ns ±2 ns
Clock Output
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
Environmental and Physical Details
Connector Types (Analog, Clock, Trigger) 3 mm SMB male
Connector Types (Digital Inputs) 40 pole half pitch (Hirose FX2 series)
Dimension (MC.30xx)
160 mm x 233 mm (6U standard)
Dimension (MX.30xx)
160 mm x 100 mm (3U standard)
Width (Standard)
1 slot
Width (with Digital Inputs or Star-Hub) 2 slots
Operating Temperature 0°C - 50°C
Max Power Consumption (6U) 13.9 Watt
Max Power Consumption (3U) 8.1 Watt
Dynamic Performance
MC.3021 / 23 MC.3024 / 27 MC.3025 / 26
-3 dB Bandwidth DC to 25 MHz DC to 40 MHz DC to 40 MHz
Zero Noise Level (< 125 MS/s) < 1.5 LSB rms < 2.0 LSB rms < 2.0 LSB rms
Test Sampling Rate 50 MS/s 100 MS/s 100 MS/s
Test Signal Frequency 1 MHz 1 MHz 1 MHz
SNR (typ) (dB) 64.8 64.7 63.9
THD (typ) (dB) -73.8 -73.8 -73.5
SFDR (typ), excl. harm. (dB) 77.5 76.8 74.3
ENOB (SNR) (bit) 10.5 10.5 10.3
ENOB (SINAD) (bit) 10.4 10.4 10.2
Pure low pass filtered sine signal measured at ±1 V range, 50 Ohm
Order Information
All details are to be found in
the data sheet under
www.spec.de/mc30xx.html or
www.spec.de/mx30xx.html
Lifetime driver and firmware
updates free of charge
2 years warranty
69
Card Versions
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U 1 channel 2 channels 4 channels
MC.3010 MX.3010 80 MS/s
MC.3011 MX.3011 40 MS/s 40 MS/s
MC.3012 MX.3012 80 MS/s 40 MS/s
MC.3013 – 40 MS/s 40 MS/s 40 MS/s
MC.3014 – 80 MS/s 80 MS/s 40 MS/s
MC.3015 – 160 MS/s 80 MS/s
MC.3016 – 160 MS/s 80 MS/s 40 MS/s
MC.3020 MX.3020 100 MS/s
M2i.3021 MX.3021 50 MS/s 50 MS/s
MC.3022 MX.3022 100 MS/s 50 MS/s
MC.3023 – 50 MS/s 50 MS/s 50 MS/s
MC.3024 – 100 MS/s 100 MS/s 50 MS/s
MC.3025 – 200 MS/s 100 MS/s
MC.3026 – 200 MS/s 100 MS/s 50 MS/s
MC.3027 – 100 MS/s 100 MS/s
MC.3031 MX.3031 60 MS/s 60 MS/s
MC.3033 – 60 MS/s 60 MS/s 60 MS/s
3rd Party Drivers
MATLAB MATLAB MATLAB driver for all MC/MX cards
MC.30xx-lv MX.30xx-lv LabVIEW driver for all MC/MX.30xx cards
MC.30xx-hp MX.30xx-hp Agilent VEE driver for all MC/MX.30xx cards
Memory
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U
MC.3xxx-16M MX.3xxx-16M Memory upgrade to 16 MSample (32 MB) of total memory
MC.3xxx-32M MX.3xxx-32M Memory upgrade to 32 MSample (64 MB) of total memory
MC.3xxx-64M MX.3xxx-64M Memory upgrade to 64 MSample (128 MB) of total memory
MC.3xxx-128M – Memory upgrade to 128 MSample (256 MB) of total memory
MC.3xxx-256M – Memory upgrade to 256 MSample (512 MB) of total memory
MC.3xxx-up MX.3xxx-up Additional fee for later memory upgrade
Options
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U
MC.3xxx-mr MX.3xxx-mr Option Multiple Recording
MC.3xxx-gs MX.3xxx-gs Option Gated Sampling
MC.3xxx-dig MX.3xxx-dig Additional synchronous digital inputs (4 per analog channel)
including Cab-d40-idc-100
MC.3xxx-cs (2) – Option Cascading: Synchronization of up to 4 cards
MC.3xxx-smod (1)(2) – Option Star-Hub: Synchronization of up to 16 cards
– MX.9010 (2) Special Spectrum PXI Star Trigger synchronization card
MC.3xxx-time (1) – Option Timestamp: Recording of trigger timestamps in an
extra memory
MC.xxxx-xmf (1) – Option Extra I/O with external connector, 24 digital I/O +
4 analog outputs. Including one cable Cab-d40-idc-100
(1)
Just one of the options can be installed on a card at a time
(2)
One option needed per System
Cables not included.
Please see the cable overview
on page 91 for adapter cables

MC.31xx | MX.31xx series
12 Bit Multi Channel Digitizers
CompactPCI
15 different versions with two to eight channels and
sampling rates between 1 MS/s and 25 MS/s
PXI
CompactPCI 6U and PXI / CompactPCI 3U format
2, 4, 8 channels with 1 MS/s, 10 MS/s and 25 MS/s (6U)
2 and 4 channels with 1 MS/s, 10 MS/s and 25 MS/s (3U)
Simultaneous sampling on all channels
Separate ADC and amplifier per channel
8 input ranges: ±50 mV up to ±10 V
Window and pulse width trigger
Programmable input offset of ±100 %
8 MSample on-board memory (up to 256 MSample)
Trigger Clock Input (A/D) General
.............
Trig
Channel Trigger Option Multiple Recording External Clock
Programmable Input Amplifiers
Memory
......
Ring Buffer Mode
Trig
D A
Option Extra I/O (6U only)
Software
32 Bit
64 Bit
Linux
Trig
PLL
Offs
+
–
FIFO
2
32 Bit
External Trigger Option Gated Sampling Reference Clock
Programmable Input Offset
FIFO Mode
PXI Star Trigger (3U only)
Windows
Trig
A D
SB6
Pulsewidth Trigger Option Timestamp (6U only) PXI Reference Clock (3U only)
Option Digital Inputs
Option Star-Hub (6U only)
SBench6
Trig
LabVIEW MATLAB
Agilent VEE
LabWindows / CVI
PXI Trigger (3U only)
Option Cascading (6U only)
Option 3rd Party Drivers
board options are explained in detail on page 60 - 65
C/C++ Visual Basic
Gnu C++ Delphi
Borland C++ Builder
Programming Examples
70
General Information
The MC/MX.31xx series allows simultaneous recording of two, four or eight channels with sampling rates of 1 MS/s, 10 MS/s or 25 MS/s. Due to the
proven design a wide variety of 12 bit A/D converter boards for CompactPCI 6U and PXI 3U can be offered. As an option 4 digital inputs per channel
can be recorded synchronously making a total of up to 32 additional digital channels for mixed-mode operation.
Application Examples
Multi-channel data acquisition
Vibration Analysis of engine parts
Combustion optimization

Technical Details
Analog Inputs
Resolution
12 bit
Channel Selection (Sharing Memory) 1, 2, 4 or 8 channels
Differential Non Linearity (DNL) ±1 LSB (ADC)
Integral Non Linearity (INL)
±2.5 LSB (ADC)
Offset Error
can be calibrated by user
Gain Error
< 1 % of current value
Programmable Input Ranges
±50 mV, ±100 mV, ±200 mV, ±500 mV,
±1 V, ±2 V, ±5 V, ±10 V
Programmable Input Offset
±100 % of current input range
Crosstalk 500 kHz Signal, 50 Ohm Term < -70 dB between any adjacent channels
Programmable Input Impedance 50 Ohm / 1 MOhm || 25 pF
Input Signal with 50 Ohm Termination max 5 V rms
Over Voltage Protection ±5 V (≤ ±1 V), ±50 V (> ±1 V)
Trigger
Trigger Sources
Channel, External, PXI Line (3U),
PXI Startrigger (3U)
Channel Trigger Resolution
8 bit
Internal Trigger Accuracy
1 sample
Max Number of Segments
unlimited
Max Pretrigger at Multi, Gate, FIFO no pretrigger
External Trigger Type
3.3 V LVTTL compatible (5 V tolerant)
External Trigger Impedance
50 Ohm / > 4 kOhm programmable
Trigger Output
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
Clock
External Clock Impedance
50 Ohm / > 4 kOhm
Clock Modes
Int. PLL / Quartz, Ext. Direct / Divided,
Ref. Clock, PXI Ref Clock (3U)
Internal Clock Range (PLL Mode) 1 kS/s to max sampling clock
Internal Clock Granularity
< 1 % of range
(100 M, 10 M, 1 M, 100 k, ...)
Reference Clock Input Range ≥ 1.0 MHz and ≤ 125.0 MHz
External Clock Delay to Internal Clock 42 ns ±2 ns
Clock Output
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
Environmental and Physical Details
Connector Types (Analog, Clock, Trigger) 3 mm SMB male
Connector Types (Digital Inputs) 40 pole half pitch (Hirose FX2 series)
Dimension (MC.31xx)
160 mm x 233 mm (6U standard)
Dimension (MX.31xx)
160 mm x 100 mm (3U standard)
Width (Standard)
1 slot
Width (with Digital Inputs or Star-Hub) 2 slots
Operating Temperature 0°C - 50°C
Max Power Consumption (6U) 15.5 Watt
Max Power Consumption (3U) 9.3 Watt
Dynamic Performance
MC.311x MC.312x MC.313x
-3 dB Bandwidth DC to 500 kHz DC to 5 MHz DC to 12.5 MHz
Zero Noise Level < 1.0 LSB rms < 1.0 LSB rms < 1.0 LSB rms
Test Signal Frequency 90 kHz 1 MHz 1 MHz
SNR (typ) (dB) 66.9 64.9 62.4
THD (typ) (dB) -62.8 -62.5 -62.5
SFDR (typ), excl. harm. (dB) 80.5 78.5 79.3
ENOB (SNR) (bit) 10.8 10.5 10.1
ENOB (SINAD) (bit) 9.9 9.8 9.6
Pure low pass filtered sine signal measured at ±1 V range, 50 Ohm
All details are to be found in
the data sheet under
www.spec.de/mc31xx.html or
www.spec.de/mx31xx.html
Lifetime driver and firmware
updates free of charge
2 years warranty
71
Order Information
Card Versions
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U Channels Max Speed
MC.3110 MX.3110 2 channels 1 MS/s
MC.3111 MX.3111 4 channels 1 MS/s
MC.3112 – 8 channels 1 MS/s
MC.3120 MX.3120 2 channels 10 MS/s
MC.3121 MX.3121 4 channels 10 MS/s
MC.3122 – 8 channels 10 MS/s
MC.3130 MX.3130 2 channels 25 MS/s
MC.3131 MX.3131 4 channels 25 MS/s
MC.3132 – 8 channels 25 MS/s
3rd Party Drivers
MATLAB MATLAB MATLAB driver for all MC/MX cards
MC.31xx-lv MX.31xx-lv LabVIEW driver for all MC/MX.31xx cards
MC.31xx-hp MX.31xx-hp Agilent VEE driver for all MC/MX.31xx cards
Cables not included.
Please see the cable overview
on page 91 for adapter cables
Memory
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U
MC.3xxx-16M MX.3xxx-16M Memory upgrade to 16 MSample (32 MB) of total memory
MC.3xxx-32M MX.3xxx-32M Memory upgrade to 32 MSample (64 MB) of total memory
MC.3xxx-64M MX.3xxx-64M Memory upgrade to 64 MSample (128 MB) of total memory
MC.3xxx-128M – Memory upgrade to 128 MSample (256 MB) of total memory
MC.3xxx-256M – Memory upgrade to 256 MSample (512 MB) of total memory
MC.3xxx-up MX.3xxx-up Additional fee for later memory upgrade
Options
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U
MC.3xxx-mr MX.3xxx-mr Option Multiple Recording
MC.3xxx-gs MX.3xxx-gs Option Gated Sampling
MC.3xxx-dig MX.3xxx-dig Additional synchronous digital inputs (4 per analog channel)
including Cab-d40-idc-100
MC.3xxx-cs (2) – Option Cascading: Synchronization of up to 4 cards
MC.3xxx-smod (1)(2) – Option Star-Hub: Synchronization of up to 16 cards
– MX.9010 (2) Special Spectrum PXI Star Trigger synchronization card
MC.3xxx-time (1) – Option Timestamp: Recording of trigger timestamps in an
extra memory
MC.xxxx-xmf (1) – Option Extra I/O with external connector, 24 digital I/O +
4 analog outputs. Including one cable Cab-d40-idc-100
(1)
Just one of the options can be installed on a card at a time
(2)
One option needed per system

MC.40xx | MX.40xx series
14 Bit Digitizers up to 50 MS/s
CompactPCI
10 different versions with one to four channels and
sampling rates between 20 MS/s and 50 MS/s
PXI
CompactPCI 6U and PXI / CompactPCI 3U format
1, 2, 4 channels with 20 MS/s and 50 MS/s (6U)
1 and 2 channels with 20 MS/s and 50 MS/s (3U)
Simultaneous sampling on all channels
Separate ADC and amplifier per channel
6 input ranges: ±200 mV up to ±10 V
Window and pulse width trigger
Programmable input offset of ±200 %
8 MSample on-board memory (up to 256 MSample)
Trigger Clock Input (A/D) General
.............
Trig
Channel Trigger
Option Multiple Recording
External Clock
Programmable Input Amplifiers
Memory
......
Ring Buffer Mode
Trig
D A
Option Extra I/O (6U only)
Software
32 Bit
64 Bit
Linux
Trig
PLL
Offs
+
–
FIFO
2
32 Bit
External Trigger
Option Gated Sampling
Reference Clock
Programmable Input Offset
FIFO Mode
PXI Star Trigger (3U only)
Windows
Trig
A D
SB6
Pulsewidth Trigger
Option Timestamp (6U only)
PXI Reference Clock (3U only)
Option Digital Inputs
Option Star-Hub (6U only)
SBench6
Trig
LabVIEW MATLAB
Agilent VEE
LabWindows / CVI
PXI Trigger (3U only)
Option Cascading (6U only)
Option 3rd Party Drivers
board options are explained in detail on page 60 - 65
C/C++ Visual Basic
Gnu C++ Delphi
Borland C++ Builder
Programming Examples
72
General Information
The MC/MX.40xx series is best suitable for applications that need high sampling rates as well as a maximum signal dynamic. These boards offer a
resolution four times higher than 12 bit boards. On the MC/MX.40xx every channel has its own amplifier and A/D converter. Each input channel can
be adapted to a wide variety of signal sources. This is done by software selecting a matching input range, an input impedance and an individual
input offset compensation. The user will easily find a matching solution from the ten offered models.
Application Examples
Explosion Tests
Ignition Voltage Tests
IQ Base Signal Acquisition (replay with
MC/MC.60xx series – page 80)
NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance)

Technical Details
Analog Inputs
Resolution
14 bit
Channel Selection (Sharing Memory) 1, 2 or 4 channels
Differential Non Linearity (DNL) ±0.5 LSB (ADC)
Integral Non Linearity (INL)
±1.0 LSB (ADC)
Offset Error
can be calibrated by user
Gain Error
< 1 % of current value
Programmable Input Ranges ±200 mV, ±500 mV,
±1 V, ±2 V, ±5 V, ±10 V
Programmable Input Offset
±200 % of current input range
Crosstalk 1 MHz Signal, 50 Ohm Term < -80 dB between any adjacent channels
Programmable Input Impedance 50 Ohm / 1 MOhm || 25 pF
Input Signal with 50 Ohm Termination max 5 V rms
Over Voltage Protection ±5 V (≤ ±1 V), ±50 V (> ±1 V)
Trigger
Trigger Sources
Channel, External, PXI Line (3U),
PXI Startrigger (3U)
Channel Trigger Resolution
10 bit
Internal Trigger Accuracy
1 sample
Max Number of Segments
unlimited
Max Pretrigger at Multi, Gate, FIFO no pretrigger
External Trigger Type
3.3 V LVTTL compatible (5 V tolerant)
External Trigger Impedance
50 Ohm / > 4 kOhm programmable
Trigger Output
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
Clock
External Clock Impedance
50 Ohm / > 4 kOhm
Clock Modes
Int. PLL / Quartz, Ext. Direct / Divided,
Ref. Clock, PXI Ref Clock (3U)
Internal Clock Range (PLL Mode) 1 kS/s to max sampling clock
Internal Clock Granularity
< 1 % of range
(100 M, 10 M, 1 M, 100 k, ...)
Reference Clock Input Range ≥ 1.0 MHz and ≤ 125.0 MHz
External Clock Delay to Internal Clock 42 ns ±2 ns
Clock Output
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
Environmental and Physical Details
Connector Types (Analog, Clock, Trigger) 3 mm SMB male
Connector Types (Digital Inputs) 40 pole half pitch (Hirose FX2 series)
Dimension (MC.40xx)
160 mm x 233 mm (6U standard)
Dimension (MX.40xx)
160 mm x 100 mm (3U standard)
Width (Standard)
1 slot
Width (with Digital Inputs or Star-Hub) 2 slots
Operating Temperature 0°C - 50°C
Max Power Consumption (6U) 14.8 Watt
Max Power Consumption (3U) 8.8 Watt
Dynamic Performance
MC.402x
MC.403x
-3 dB Bandwidth DC to 10 MHz DC to 25 MHz
Zero Noise Level (< 125 MS/s) < 2.6 LSB rms < 3.6 LSB rms
Test Sampling Rate 20 MS/s 50 MS/s
Test Signal Frequency 1 MHz 1 MHz
SNR (typ) (dB) 70.1 65.5
THD (typ) (dB) -73.0 -72.8
SFDR (typ), excl. harm. (dB) 82.3 75.2
ENOB (SNR) (bit) 11.3 10.6
ENOB (SINAD) (bit) 11.1 10.5
Pure low pass filtered sine signal measured at ±1 V range, 50 Ohm
All details are to be found in
the data sheet under
www.spec.de/mc40xx.html or
www.spec.de/mx40xx.html
Lifetime driver and firmware
updates free of charge
2 years warranty
73
Order Information
Card Versions
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U Channels Max Speed
MC.4020 MX.4020 1 channel 20 MS/s
MC.4021 MX.4021 2 channels 20 MS/s
MC.4022 – 4 channels 20 MS/s
MC.4030 MX.4030 1 channel 50 MS/s
MC.4031 MX.4031 2 channels 50 MS/s
MC.4032 – 4 channels 50 MS/s
3rd Party Drivers
MATLAB MATLAB MATLAB driver for all MC/MX cards
MC.40xx-lv MX.40xx-lv LabVIEW driver for all MC/MX.40xx cards
MC.40xx-hp MX.40xx-hp Agilent VEE driver for all MC/MX.40xx cards
Cables not included.
Please see the cable overview
on page 91 for adapter cables
Memory
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U
MC.4xxx-16M MX.4xxx-16M Memory upgrade to 16 MSample (32 MB) of total memory
MC.4xxx-32M MX.4xxx-32M Memory upgrade to 32 MSample (64 MB) of total memory
MC.4xxx-64M MX.4xxx-64M Memory upgrade to 64 MSample (128 MB) of total memory
MC.4xxx-128M – Memory upgrade to 128 MSample (256 MB) of total memory
MC.4xxx-256M – Memory upgrade to 256 MSample (512 MB) of total memory
MC.4xxx-up MX.4xxx-up Additional fee for later memory upgrade
Options
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U
MC.4xxx-mr MX.4xxx-mr Option Multiple Recording
MC.4xxx-gs MX.4xxx-gs Option Gated Sampling
MC.4xxx-dig MX.4xxx-dig Additional synchronous digital inputs (2 per analog channel)
including Cab-d40-idc-100
MC.4xxx-cs (2) – Option Cascading: Synchronization of up to 4 cards
MC.4xxx-smod (1)(2) – Option Star-Hub: Synchronization of up to 16 cards
– MX.9010 (2) Special Spectrum PXI Star Trigger synchronization card
MC.4xxx-time (1) – Option Timestamp: Recording of trigger timestamps in an
extra memory
MC.xxxx-xmf (1) – Option Extra I/O with external connector, 24 digital I/O +
4 analog outputs. Including one cable Cab-d40-idc-100
(1)
Just one of the options can be installed on a card at a time
(2)
One option needed per System

MC.46xx | MX.46xx series
16 Bit Digitizers up to 3 MS/s
CompactPCI
20 different versions with two to eight channels and
sampling rates between 200 kS/s and 3 MS/s
PXI
CompactPCI 6U and PXI / CompactPCI 3U format
1, 2, 4 and 8 channels with 200 kS/s, 500 kS/s, 1MS/s and 3 MS/s (6U)
1, 2 and 4 channels with 200 kS/s, 500 kS/s, 1 MS/s and 3 MS/s (3U)
Simultaneous sampling on all channels
Separate ADC and amplifier per channel
Complete on-board calibration
8 input ranges: ±50 mV up to ±10 V
Window, pulse width trigger
Programmable input offset of ±5 V
True differential / single-ended selectable
8 MSample on-board memory (up to 256 MSample)
Trigger Clock Input (A/D) General
.............
Trig
Channel Trigger
Option Multiple Recording
External Clock
Programmable Input Amplifiers
Memory
......
Ring Buffer Mode
Trig
D A
Option Extra I/O (6U only)
Software
32 Bit
64 Bit
Linux
Trig
PLL
Offs
+
–
FIFO
2
32 Bit
External Trigger
Option Gated Sampling
Reference Clock
Programmable Input Offset
FIFO Mode
PXI Star Trigger (3U only)
Windows
Trig
SB6
Pulsewidth Trigger
Option Timestamp (6U only)
PXI Reference Clock (3U only)
Option Star-Hub (6U only)
SBench6
Trig
LabVIEW MATLAB
Agilent VEE
LabWindows / CVI
PXI Trigger (3U only)
Option Cascading (6U only)
Option 3rd Party Drivers
74
board options are explained in detail on page 60 - 65
C/C++ Visual Basic
Gnu C++ Delphi
Borland C++ Builder
Programming Examples
General Information
The MC/MX.46xx series allows recording of two, four or eight channels with sampling rates of 200 kS/s up to 3 MS/s. These cards offer outstanding
A/D features both in resolution and speed for CompactPCI and PXI. The powerful A/D amplifier section offers 8 different input ranges, programmable
offset and a software switching from single-ended to differential inputs without decreasing the number of channels. The FIFO engine is capable of
streaming even 8 channels at a sustained 3 MS/s to memory or hard disk.
Application Examples
High precision audio measurements
Vibration analysis
Life cycle tests of plastic components

Technical Details
Analog Inputs
Resolution
Channel Selection (Sharing Memory)
Differential Non Linearity (DNL)
Integral Non Linearity (INL)
Offset Error
Gain Error
Programmable Input Ranges
Programmable Input Offset
Crosstalk 100 kHz Signal, 50 Ohm Term
Input Impedance
Over Voltage Protection
Trigger
Trigger Sources
Channel Trigger Resolution
Internal Trigger Accuracy
Max Number of Segments
Max Pretrigger at Multi, Gate, FIFO
External Trigger Type
External Trigger Impedance
Trigger Output
16 bit (±32000 values)
1, 2, 4 or 8 channels
465x: ±2 LSB, all others ±1 LSB (ADC)
465x: ±2 LSB, all others ±1 LSB (ADC)
≤ 0.1% of range (after calibration)
≤ 0.1% of range (after calibration)
±50 mV, ±100 mV, ±250 mV, ±500 mV,
±1 V, ±2 V, ±5 V, ±10 V
±5 V for single-ended ranges < ±10 V
≤ -110 dB between any adjacent channels
1 MOhm to GND
±30 V all ranges (activated card)
Channel, External, PXI Line (3U),
PXI Startrigger (3U)
14 bit
1 sample
unlimited
no pretrigger
3.3 V LVTTL compatible (5 V tolerant)
50 Ohm / > 4 kOhm programmable
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
Clock
External Clock Impedance
50 Ohm / > 4 kOhm
Clock Modes
Int. PLL / Quartz, Ext. Direct / Divided,
Ref. Clock, PXI Ref Clock (3U)
Internal Clock Range (PLL Mode) 1 kS/s to max sampling clock
Internal Clock Granularity < 1 % of range (1 M, 100 k, 10 k, ...)
Reference Clock Input Range ≥ 1.0 MHz and ≤ 125.0 MHz
External Clock Delay to Internal Clock 42 ns ±2 ns
Clock Output
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
Environmental and Physical Details
Connector Types (Analog)
MMCX female
Connector Types (Clock, Trigger) 3 mm SMB male
Dimension (MC.46xx)
160 mm x 233 mm (6U standard)
Dimension (MX.46xx)
160 mm x 100 mm (3U standard)
Width (Standard)
1 slot
Width (with Star-Hub)
2 slots
Operating Temperature 0°C - 50°C
Max Power Consumption (6U) 14.6 Watt (standard mem),
19.9 W (full mem)
Max Power Consumption (3U) 11.0 Watt (standard mem),
12.3 W (full mem)
Dynamic Performance
MC / MX.462x MC / MX.464x MC / MX.465x
-3 dB Bandwidth DC to 100 kHz DC to 500 kHz DC to 1.5 MHz
Zero Noise Level (range ≥ ±500 mV) < 0.8 LSB rms < 1.1 LSB rms < 3.0 LSB rms
Test Sampling Rate 200 kS/s 1 MS/s 3 MS/s
Test Signal Frequency 10 kHz 10 kHz 10 kHz
SNR (typ) (dB) 91.5 90.7 82.5
THD (typ) (dB) -101.7 -100.8 -90.1
SFDR (typ), excl. harm. (dB) 111.5 111.2 105.5
ENOB (SNR) (bit) 14.9 14.7 13.4
ENOB (SINAD) (bit) 14.8 14.6 13.3
Pure low pass filtered sine signal measured at ±5 V range, 1 MOhm
All details are to be found in
the data sheet under
www.spec.de/mc46xx.html or
www.spec.de/mx46xx.html
Lifetime driver and firmware
updates free of charge
2 years warranty
75
Order Information
Card Versions
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U Channels Max Speed
MC.4620 MX.4620 2 channels 200 kS/s
MC.4621 MX.4621 4 channels 200 kS/s
MC.4622 – 8 channels 200 kS/s
MC.4630 MX.4630 2 channels 500 kS/s
MC.4631 MX.4631 4 channels 500 kS/s
MC.4632 – 8 channels 500 kS/s
MC.4640 MX.4640 2 channels 1 MS/s
MC.4641 MX.4641 4 channels 1 MS/s
MC.4642 – 8 channels 1 MS/s
MC.4650 MX.4650 2 channels 3 MS/s
MC.4651 MX.4651 4 channels 3 MS/s
MC.4652 – 8 channels 3 MS/s
3rd Party Drivers
MATLAB MATLAB MATLAB driver for all MC/MX cards
MC.46xx-lv MX.46xx-lv LabVIEW driver for all MC/MX.46xx cards
MC.46xx-hp MX.46xx-hp Agilent VEE driver for all MC/MX.46xx card
Cables not included.
Please see the cable overview
on page 91 for adapter cables
Memory
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U
MC.4xxx-16M MX.4xxx-16M Memory upgrade to 16 MSample (32 MB) of total memory
MC.4xxx-32M MX.4xxx-32M Memory upgrade to 32 MSample (64 MB) of total memory
MC.4xxx-64M MX.4xxx-64M Memory upgrade to 64 MSample (128 MB) of total memory
MC.4xxx-128M – Memory upgrade to 128 MSample (256 MB) of total memory
MC.4xxx-256M – Memory upgrade to 256 MSample (512 MB) of total memory
MC.4xxx-up MX.4xxx-up Additional fee for later memory upgrade
Options
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U
MC.4xxx-mr MX.4xxx-mr Option Multiple Recording
MC.4xxx-gs MX.4xxx-gs Option Gated Sampling
MC.4xxx-cs (2) – Option Cascading: Synchronization of up to 4 cards
MC.4xxx-smod (1)(2) – Option Star-Hub: Synchronization of up to 16 cards
– MX.9010 (2) Special Spectrum PXI Star Trigger synchronization card
MC.4xxx-time (1) – Option Timestamp: Recording of trigger timestamps in an
extra memory
MC.xxxx-xmf (1) – Option Extra I/O with external connector, 24 digital I/O +
4 analog outputs. Including one cable Cab-d40-idc-100
(1)
Just one of the options can be installed on a card at a time
(2)
One option needed per System

MC.47xx | MX.47xx series
16 Bit Digitizers up to 500 kS/s
CompactPCI
9 different versions with eight or sixteen channels and
sampling rates between 100 kS/s and 500 kS/s
PXI
CompactPCI 6U and PXI / CompactPCI 3U format
8 and 16 channels with 100 kS/s, 250 kS/s and 500 kS/s (6U)
8 channels with 100 kS/s, 250 kS/s and 500 kS/s (3U)
Simultaneous sampling on all channels
Separate ADC and amplifier per channel
Complete on-board calibration
8 input ranges: ±50 mV up to ±10 V
Window, pulse width trigger
8 MSample on-board memory (up to 256 MSample)
Trigger Clock Input (A/D) General
.............
Trig
Channel Trigger
Multiple Recording (3U only)
External Clock
Programmable Input
Amplifiers
Memory
......
Ring Buffer Mode
Trig
D A
Option Extra I/O (6U only)
Software
32 Bit
64 Bit
Linux
Trig
PLL
FIFO
2
32 Bit
External Trigger
Gated Sampling (3U only)
Reference Clock
FIFO Mode
PXI Star Trigger (3U only)
Windows
Trig
SB6
Pulsewidth Trigger
Option Timestamp (6U only)
PXI Reference Clock (3U only)
Option Star-Hub (6U only)
SBench6
Trig
LabVIEW MATLAB
Agilent VEE
LabWindows / CVI
PXI Trigger (3U only)
Option Cascading (6U only)
Option 3rd Party Drivers
board options are explained in detail on page 60 - 65
C/C++ Visual Basic
Gnu C++ Delphi
Borland C++ Builder
Programming Examples
76
General Information
The MC/MX.47xx series allows recording of eight or sixteen channels with sampling rates of 100 kS/s up to 500 kS/s. These cards offer outstanding
A/D features both in resolution and speed for CompactPCI and PXI. Using the MC.47xx series it is possible to set-up systems with up to 256 syn -
chronous 16 bit channels of data recording. The enhanced FIFO engine is capable of streaming even 16 channels with 500 kS/s sustained to memory
or harddisk.
Application Examples
Production tests
Massive multi-channel systems
High-speed temperature and strain
gauge measurements

Technical Details
Analog Inputs
Resolution
Channel Selection (Sharing Memory)
Differential Non Linearity (DNL)
Integral Non Linearity (INL)
Offset Error
Gain Error
Programmable Input Ranges
Crosstalk 100 kHz Signal
Input Impedance
Over Voltage Protection
Trigger
Trigger Sources
Channel Trigger Resolution
Internal Trigger Accuracy
Max Number of Segments
Max Pretrigger at Multi, Gate, FIFO
External Trigger Type
External Trigger Impedance
Trigger Output
16 bit (±32000 values)
1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 channels
±1 LSB (ADC)
±3 LSB (ADC)
≤ 0.1% of range (after warm-up and
calibration)
≤ 0.1% (after warm-up and calibration)
±50 mV, ±100 mV, ±250 mV, ±500 mV,
±1 V, ±2 V, ±5 V, ±10 V
≤ -100 dB between any adjacent channels
1 MOhm to GND
±30 V all ranges (activated card)
Channel, External, PXI Line (3U),
PXI Startrigger (3U)
14 bit
1 sample
unlimited
no pretrigger
3.3 V LVTTL compatible (5 V tolerant)
50 Ohm / > 4 kOhm programmable
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
Clock
External Clock Impedance
50 Ohm / > 4 kOhm
Clock Modes
Int. PLL / Quartz, Ext. Direct / Divided,
Ref. Clock, PXI Ref Clock (3U)
Internal Clock Range (PLL Mode) 1 kS/s to max sampling clock
Internal Clock Granularity < 1 % of range (1 M, 100 k, 10 k, ...)
Reference Clock Input Range ≥ 1.0 MHz and ≤ 125.0 MHz
External Clock Delay to Internal Clock 42 ns ±2 ns
External Clock Range
DC to max sampling clock
Clock Output
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
Environmental and Physical Details
Connector Types (Analog)
MMCX female
Connector Types (Clock, Trigger) 3 mm SMB male
Dimension (MC.47xx)
160 mm x 233 mm (6U standard)
Dimension (MX.47xx)
160 mm x 100 mm (3U standard)
Width (Standard)
1 slot
Width (with Star-Hub)
2 slots
Operating Temperature 0°C - 50°C
Max Power Consumption (6U) 18.1 Watt (standard mem),
23.4 W (full mem)
Max Power Consumption (3U) 11.3 Watt (standard mem),
12.6 W (full mem)
Dynamic Performance
MC / MX.471x MC / MX.472x MC / MX.473x
-3 dB Bandwidth DC to 50 kHz DC to 125 kHz DC to 250 kHz
Zero Noise Level (range ≥ ±500 mV) < 0.8 LSB rms < 0.9 LSB rms < 1.0 LSB rms
Test Sampling Rate 100 kS/s 250 kS/s 500 kS/s
Test Signal Frequency 10 kHz 10 kHz 10 kHz
SNR (typ) (dB) 91.2 90.5 88.5
THD (typ) (dB) -101.2 -100.5 -92.5
SFDR (typ), excl. harm. (dB) 108.9 106.8 104.3
ENOB (SNR) (bit) 14.8 14.7 14.4
ENOB (SINAD) (bit) 14.6 14.6 14.2
Pure low pass filtered sine signal measured at ±5 V range, 1 MOhm
All details are to be found in
the data sheet under
www.spec.de/mc47xx.html or
www.spec.de/mx47xx.html
Lifetime driver and firmware
updates free of charge
2 years warranty
77
Order Information
Card Versions
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U Channels Max Speed
MC.4710 MX.4710 8 channels 100 kS/s
MC.4711 – 16 channels 100 kS/s
MC.4720 MX.4720 8 channels 250 kS/s
MC.4721 – 16 channels 250 kS/s
MC.4730 MX.4730 8 channels 500 kS/s
MC.4731 – 16 channels 500 kS/s
3rd Party Drivers
MATLAB MATLAB MATLAB driver for all MC/MX cards
MC.47xx-lv MX.47xx-lv LabVIEW driver for all MC/MX.47xx cards
MC.47xx-hp MX.47xx-hp Agilent VEE driver for all MC/MX.47xx cards
Memory
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U
MC.4xxx-16M MX.4xxx-16M Memory upgrade to 16 MSample (32 MB) of total memory
MC.4xxx-32M MX.4xxx-32M Memory upgrade to 32 MSample (64 MB) of total memory
MC.4xxx-64M MX.4xxx-64M Memory upgrade to 64 MSample (128 MB) of total memory
MC.4xxx-128M – Memory upgrade to 128 MSample (256 MB) of total memory
MC.4xxx-256M – Memory upgrade to 256 MSample (512 MB) of total memory
MC.4xxx-up MX.4xxx-up Additional fee for later memory upgrade
Options
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U
– MX.4xxx-mr Option Multiple Recording
– MX.4xxx-gs Option Gated Sampling
MC.4xxx-cs (2) – Option Cascading: Synchronization of up to 4 cards
MC.4xxx-smod (1)(2) – Option Star-Hub: Synchronization of up to 16 cards
– MX.9010 (2) Special Spectrum PXI Star Trigger synchronization card
MC.4xxx-time (1) – Option Timestamp: Recording of trigger timestamps in an
extra memory
MC.xxxx-xmf (1) – Option Extra I/O with external connector, 24 digital I/O +
4 analog outputs. Including one cable Cab-d40-idc-100
(1)
Just one of the options can be installed on a card at a time
Cables not included.
Please see the cable overview
on page 91 for adapter cables
(2)
One option needed per System

D/A Cards, Arbitrary Waveform Generators
Arbitrary waveform generators output an individually programmed electrical waveform from memory using fast D/A converters
and output amplifiers. The waveform can either be repetitive, continuous or single-shot. The resulting waveform can
be used to stimulate a DUT (device under test), can be simulation data or can be previously recorded data that should be
replayed. The waveform is either generated starting with a software command or the output can be started by an external
trigger signal.
Function generators normally have a fixed set of pre-calculated waveforms. On the contrary the Arbitrary Waveform
Generator can generate any complex waveform as each output point can be individually programmed.
Each independent channel has its own output amplifier that allows programming of offset and amplitude. To smooth the
output signal, several filters can be selected for each channel. Data generated from the on-board memory or using FIFO
mode can be continuously loaded from the host PC. If required this generated waveform may be converted and recorded
by an A/D card.
D/A Features
Please also see the common features of the MC and MX card range that are suitable for all card series. These features
are explained on page 60 - 63 in more detail.
The Arbitrary Waveform Generators from Spectrum can be operated in one of the following replay modes. Depending on the application one of the
modes can be used to perfectly feed in data into a test bench or an experiment.
Singleshot Output
Tr
78
The singleshot output replays the waveform once after having received the trigger event. The waveform is loaded into card memory before the replay.
After the replay has been done the card can be restarted to replay the same waveform again or a new waveform is loaded into the card memory.
Repeated Output
Tr
Using the repeated output the card will loop through the data once a trigger event has been reached. The output signal will directly start with the first
sample again after having reached the last sample of the waveform.
FIFO Replay
FIFO
The FIFO replay mode is a standard feature of the arbitrary waveform generators. In this mode a waveform that exceeds the capabilities of the on-board
memory or a dynamically calculated waveform is loaded continuously into the card and replayed at the same time. In this case the on-board memory
acts as a big FIFO buffer.
The FIFO replay mode can be combined with one of the options Multiple Replay or Gated Replay to even allow running the output at higher speeds than
the underlying PC bus is capable of supporting.

Option Multiple Replay
The on-board memory will be divided into several segments of the same size. Each segment will be filled with data before the output starts. With every
detected trigger event one data block is replayed. The length of one multiple replay segment is defined before start and can be programmed with a small
step size. There is no limit of the number of segments that can be processed as long as they fit into the memory.
As the Multiple Replay mode is totally controlled in hardware there is a very small re-arm time from end of one segment until the trigger detection is
enabled again.
If combining this mode with the FIFO replay new data can be loaded into the card memory continuously allowing to run this mode for very long times.
The number of segments is not limited in any kind when running the FIFO Multiple Replay mode.
Option Gated Replay
Data will be replayed as long as the gate signal fulfils the programmed gate condition. At the end of the gate interval the replay will be stopped and
the card will pause until another gate signal appears. The Gated Replay mode can run in a continuous loop until explicitly stopped by user or in singleshot
mode until all memory is once replayed. If the replay reaches the end of the programmed memory it will start again at the beginning with no gap in
between.
If combining this mode with the FIFO replay new data can be loaded into the card memory continuously allowing to run this mode for hours or even for days.
Programmable Offset + Amplitude
Amp
Offs
The Spectrum Arbitrary Waveform Generators are equipped with a very wide programmable output offset and amplitude. This allows to adapt the output
signal level to the needs of the stimulated device also having the maximum output resolution available for the signal. While the maximum output swing
of ±3 V will have a step size of 360 uV the smallest output swing of ±100 mV will then have a step size of 12 uV. In addition to this an output offset of
±3 V can be added to the signal as long as the resulting signal remains in the ±3 V range. This offset then shifts the output signal into the desired region.
Using this mode even unipolar output signals with full amplitude resolution can be generated.
79
The output amplifier has an output resistance of < 1 Ohm making it possible to even drive full ±3 V signals into 50 Ohm load without reducing the output
level.
Option Digital Outputs
A D
This option outputs additional synchronous digital channels phase-stable with the analog data. When this option is installed there are 2 additional digital
channels for every 14 bit analog D/A channel. Digital data is written together with the analog data in 16 bit wide samples thus not needing any additional
memory space for the digital signals. The digital output signals can be used as marker outputs or control outputs for the device under test.
10 V Amplifier Card
± 10V
As an additional option for all arbitrary waveform generators from Spectrum, a special amplifier card with 1, 2 or 4 parallel amplifier channels and a
large signal bandwidth of 30 MHz is available. The ±3 V signal of the generator card is amplified to ±10 V. The output impedance is 50 Ohm resulting
in an output level of ±5 V when terminated with 50 Ohm. The amplifiers are available as PCI, PXI and CompactPCI versions and are calibrated together
with the related output channel of the generator card to minimize offset and gain errors.

MC/MX.60xx | MC/MX.61xx series
125 MS/s Arbitrary Waveform Generator
CompactPCI
15 different versions with one to four channels and replay
rates between 20 MS/s and 125 MS/s
PXI
CompactPCI 6U and PXI / CompactPCI 3U format
Up to 125 MS/s on 2 channels and up to 60 MS/s on 4 channels (6U)
Up to 125 MS/s on 1 channel and up to 60 MS/s on 2 channels (3U)
Up to 125 MS/s on 4 channels (MC.61xx)
Up to 125 MS/s on 2 channels (MX.61xx)
Simultaneous generation on all channels
Output up to ±3 V in 50 Ohm
Amplifier option available for ±10 V
Offset and amplitude programmable
3 software selectable filters
FIFO mode continuous streaming output
8 MSample on-board memory (up to 256 MSample)
Trigger Clock Output (D/A) General
Software
Trig
Amp
Offs
FIFO
Tr
32 Bit
64 Bit
External Trigger
Option Multiple Replay
Trig
External Clock
PLL
Programmable Offset +
Amplitude
A D
FIFO Mode
Singleshot Output
Tr
Linux
32 Bit
Option Gated Replay
PXI Trigger (3U only)
board options are explained
in detail on page 60 - 63 and 78 - 79
Reference Clock
PXI Reference Clock (3U only)
Option Digital Outputs
(only MC.60xx and MX.60xx)
± 10V
Star-Hub (6U only)
Cascading (6U only)
Repeated Output
D A
Option Extra I/O (6U only)
Windows
LabVIEW MATLAB
Agilent VEE
LabWindows / CVI
Option 3rd Party Drivers
10V Amplifier Card
2
C/C++ VB.NET C#
Gnu C++ J# Delphi
Borland C++ Builder
General Information
Clock and Filter
PXI Star Trigger (3U only)
Programming Examples
80
The Arbitrary Waveform Generators of the
MC/MX.60xx and MC/MX.61xx series are
available as 8 bit and 14 bit versions ranging
from 20 MS/s up to 125 MS/s output rate.
With these boards it is possible to generate
free definable waveforms on several channels
synchronously.
MC/MX.601x MC/MX.602x MC/MX.603x | MC/MX.61xx
-3 dB Bandwidth no filter > 10 MHz > 30 MHz > 60 MHz
Filter 3: Characteristics 4th order Butterworth 5th order Butterworth
Filter 3: -3 dB Bandwidth 5 MHz 10 MHz 25 MHz
Filter 2: Characteristics 4th order Butterworth 4th order Butterworth
Filter 2: -3 dB Bandwidth 1 MHz 2 MHz 5 MHz
Filter 1: Characteristics 4th order Butterworth 4th order Butterworth
Filter 1: -3 dB Bandwidth 100 kHz 200 kHz 500 kHz
Application Examples
IQ Base signal generation
Production tests
Replay of acquired test data
Radar signal simulation

Technical Details
Analog Outputs
Resolution
14 bit (MC/MX.60xx), 8 bit (MC/MX.61xx)
Channel Selection (Sharing Memory) any 1, 2 or 4 channels
INL, Integral Non Linearity (DAC only) ± 1.5 LSB typ.
DNL, Diff. Non Linearity (DAC only) ± 1.0 LSB typ.
Output Resistance
< 1 Ohm
Max Output Swing in 50 Ohm ± 3 V (offset + amplitude)
Max Slew Rate (no Filter)
> 0.9 V/ns
Output Amplitude
±100 mV up to ±3 V in 1 mV steps
(Amp option: ±333 mV up to ±10 V)
Output Offset
±3 V selectable in 1 mV steps
(Amp otpion: ±10 V in 3 mV steps)
Crosstalk 1 MHz Signal ±3 V < -80 dB
Output Accuracy < 1%
Trigger
Trigger Sources
External, PXI Line (3U), PXI Startrigger (3U)
External Trigger Type
3.3 V LVTTL compatible (5 V tolerant)
External Trigger Impedance
50 Ohm / 1 MOhm programmable
Trigger Output
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
Clock
External Clock Impedance
50 Ohm / 1 MOhm
Clock Modes
Int. PLL / Quartz, Ext. Direct / Divided,
Ref. Clock, Sync, PXI Ref Clock (3U)
Internal Clock Range (PLL Mode) 1 kS/s to max sampling clock
Internal Clock Granularity
< 1% of range
(100 M, 10 M, 1 M, 100 k, ...)
Reference Clock Input Range ≥ 1.0 MHz and ≤ 125.0 MHz
External Clock Delay to Internal Clock 42 ns ± 2 ns
Clock Output
TTL levels, capable of driving 50 Ohm load
Environmental and Physical Details
Connector Types (Analog, Clock, Trigger) 3 mm SMB male
Connector Types (Digital Outputs) 40 pole half pitch (Hirose FX2 series)
Dimension (MC.60/61xx)
160 mm x 233 mm (6U standard)
Dimension (MX.60/61xx)
160 mm x 100 mm (3U standard)
Width (Standard)
1 slot
Width (with Digital Outputs or Star-Hub) 2 slots
Operating Temperature 0°C - 50°C
Max Power Consumption (6U)
12.7 Watt
Max Power Consumption (3U)
9.7 Watt
Dynamic Performance
MC.601x MC.602x MC.603x MC.61xx
Test Sampling Rate 20 MS/s 60 MS/s 125 MS/s 125 MS/s 125 MS/s
Output Frequency 80 kHz 170 kHz 400 kHz 400 kHz 4 MHz
Output Level ±2 V ±2 V ±2 V ±2 V ±2 V
Used Filter 100 kHz 200 kHz 500 kHz 500 kHz 5 MHz
SNR (typ) (dB) 61.5 61.5 60.2 60.5 54.8
THD (typ) (dB) -70.4 -72.7 -71.5 -68.8 -57.8
SFDR (typ), excl. harm. (dB) 85.5 81.5 71.0 71.5 65.6
Measured at the given output level and 50 Ohm termination
All MC.60/61xx details are to be
found in the data sheet under
www.spec.de/mc60xx.html or
www.spec.de/mc61xx.html
All MX.60/61xx details are to be
found in the data sheet under
www.spec.de/mx60xx.html or
www.spec.de/mx61xx.html
Lifetime driver and firmware
updates free of charge
2 years warranty
81
Order Information
Card Versions
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U Resolution 1 channel 2 channels 4 channels
MC.6011 MX.6011 14 bit 20 MS/s 20 MS/s
MC.6012 – 14 bit 20 MS/s 20 MS/s 20 MS/s
MC.6021 MX.6021 14 bit 60 MS/s 60 MS/s
MC.6022 – 14 bit 60 MS/s 60 MS/s 60 MS/s
MC.6030 MX.6030 14 bit 125 MS/s
MC.6031 – 14 bit 125 MS/s 125 MS/s
MC.6033 MX.6033 14 bit 125 MS/s 60 MS/s
MC.6034 – 14 bit 125 MS/s 125 MS/s 60 MS/s
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U Resolution 1 channel 2 channels 4 channels
MC.6110 MX.6110 8 bit 125 MS/s 125 MS/s
MC.6111 – 8 bit 125 MS/s 125 MS/s 125 MS/s
3rd Party Drivers
MATLAB MATLAB MATLAB driver for all MC/MX cards
MC.60xx-lv MX.60xx-lv LabVIEW driver for all MC/MX.60xx cards
MC.60xx-hp MX.60xx-hp Agilent VEE driver for all MC/MX.60xx cards
MC.61xx-lv MX.61xx-lv LabVIEW driver for all MC/MX.61xx cards
MC.61xx-hp MX.61xx-hp Agilent VEE driver for all MC/MX.61xx cards
Cables not included.
Please see the cable overview
on page 91 for adapter cables
Memory
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U
MC.6xxx-16M MX.6xxx-16M Memory upgrade to 16 MSample (32 MB) of total memory
MC.6xxx-32M MX.6xxx-32M Memory upgrade to 32 MSample (64 MB) of total memory
MC.6xxx-64M MX.6xxx-64M Memory upgrade to 64 MSample (128 MB) of total memory
MC.6xxx-128M – Memory upgrade to 128 MSample (256 MB) of total memory
MC.6xxx-256M – Memory upgrade to 256 MSample (512 MB) of total memory
MC.6xxx-up MX.6xxx-up Additional fee for later memory upgrade
Options
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U
MC.6xxx-mr MX.6xxx-mr Option Multiple Replay
MC.6xxx-gs MX.6xxx-gs Option Gated Replay
MC.60xx-dig MX.60xx-dig Additional synchronous digital outputs (2 per analog channel)
including Cab-d40-idc-100 (only MC.60xx and MX.60xx)
MC.6xxx-cs (2) – Option Cascading: Synchronization of up to 4 cards
MC.6xxx-smod (1)(2) –
Option Star-Hub: Synchronization of up to 16 cards
– MX.9010 (2) Special Spectrum PXI Star Trigger synchronization card
MC.xxxx-xmf (1) – Option Extra I/O with external connector, 24 digital I/O +
4 analog outputs. Including one cable Cab-d40-idc-100
MC.6xxx-1Amp MX.6xxx-1Amp ±10 V output amplifier card with 1 channel including SMB
to SMB connection cable
MC.6xxx-2Amp MX.6xxx-2Amp ±10 V output amplifier card with 2 channels including SMB
to SMB connection cables
MC.6xxx-4Amp – ±10 V output amplifier card with 4 channels including SMB
to SMB connection cables
(1)
Just one of the options can be installed on a card at a time
(2)
one option needed per system

Digital I/O Cards and Pattern Generators
The fast digital I/O boards may be used as a pattern generator or for digital data acquisition. The extremely large onboard
memory and the fast FIFO mode allow output and input of long data streams. A special on-board clock preparation
minimises the phase skew between internal and external clock signals.
DIO Features
Please also see the common features of the MC and MX card range that are suitable for all card series. In here also
the acquisition modes of the Digital I/O card are explained. These features are explained on page 60 - 63 in detail.
The Digital I/O Cards and Pattern Generators of Spectrum can be operated in one of the following replay modes. Depending on the application one of
the modes can be used to perfectly feed in data into a test bench or an experiment.
Singleshot Output
Tr
The singleshot output replays the pattern once after having received the trigger event. The pattern is loaded to card memory before the replay. After the
singleshot replay has been done the card can be restarted to replay the same pattern again or a new pattern is loaded into the card memory.
Repeated Output
Tr
Using the repeated output the card will loop through the data once a trigger event has been reached. The output signal will directly start with the first
sample again after having reached the last sample of the pattern.
82
FIFO Replay
FIFO
The FIFO replay mode is a standard feature of the digital I/O cards and pattern generators. In this mode a pattern that exceeds the capabilities of the
on-board memory or a dynamically calculated pattern is loaded continuously into the card and replayed at the same time. In this case the on-board
memory acts as a big FIFO buffer.
The FIFO replay mode can be combined with one of the options Multiple Replay or Gated Replay to even allow running the output at higher speeds than
the underlying PC bus is capable of supporting.
yx
Option Multiple Replay
The on-board memory will be divided into several segments of the same size. Each segment will be filled with data before the output starts. With every
detected trigger event one data block is replayed. The length of one multiple replay segment is defind before start and can be programmed with a small
step size. There is no limit of the number of segments that can be processed as long as they fit into the memory.
As the Multiple Replay mode is totally controlled in hardware there is a very small re-arm time from end of one segment until the trigger detection is
enabled again.
If combining this mode with the FIFO replay new data can be loaded into the card memory continuously allowing to run this mode for very long times.
The number of segments is not limited in any kind when running the FIFO Multiple Replay Mode.

Option Gated Replay
Data will be replayed as long as the gate signal fulfils the programmed gate condition. At the end of the gate interval the replay will be stopped and
the card will pause until another gate signal appears. The Gated Replay mode can run in a continuous loop until explicitly stopped by user or in singleshot
mode until all memory is once replayed. If the replay reaches the end of the programmed memory it will start again at the beginning with no gap in
between.
If combining this mode with the FIFO replay new data can be loaded into the card memory continuously allowing to run this mode for hours or even for days.
Pattern Trigger
Trig
On all digital acquisition boards there is powerful trigger recognition implemented. For every digital input channel the pattern trigger defines individually
each bit and its expected level, or sets the bit as “don’t care“. In combination with pulsewidth counter and edge detection the pattern trigger can be
used to recognise a huge variety of trigger events.
Programmable Output Levels
D A
D A
One of the key features of the MC/MX.72xx pattern generator series is the high number of different logic levels that can be programmed per board. The
low and high output level of the pattern can be programmed in the range from -2V to +10V covering nearly all logic levels that are available like ECL,
PECL, TTL, LVDS, LVTTL, CMOS or LVCMOS.
The levels are generated by a 16 bit Digital-to-Analog converter (DAC). Every pair of logic levels therefore requires one pair of DACs. As there are eight
available DACs on one 16 bit module, you can program the level for a group of every four output bits. This is a maximum of up to eight different logic
levels on a 32 bit board.
83
Using these 16 bit DACs on the pattern generator allows to set-up one of the logic standards or even to exceed these output levels to test a device at
the minimum and maximum ratings it should perform.

MC.70xx | MX.70xx series
64 Bit Fast Digital I/O with TTL Levels
CompactPCI
8 different versions with 16 to 64 I/O lines and
sampling rates up to 125 MS/s
PXI
16, 32 (3U + 6U) or 64 bit (6U only) digital I/O
Up to 125 MS/s at 32 bit and up to 60 MS/s at 64 bit
110 Ohm input impedance selectable
Inputs 3.3 V and 5 V TTL compatible
FIFO mode for input and output
Pattern / edge / pulse width / delay trigger
16 MByte on-board memory (up to 512 MByte)
Trigger Clock General
Software
Trig
Memory
......
Trig
Tr
32 Bit
64 Bit
LabVIEW MATLAB
Agilent VEE
LabWindows / CVI
External Trigger
Option Multiple Recording
External Clock
Ring Buffer Mode
Singleshot Output
Linux
Option 3rd Party Drivers
Trig
PLL
FIFO
32 Bit
C/C++ Visual Basic
Gnu C++ Delphi
Borland C++ Builder
Pattern Trigger
Option Gated Sampling
Reference Clock
FIFO Mode
Option Cascading (6U only)
Windows
Programming Examples
Trig
D A
SB6
Pulsewidth Trigger
Option Timestamp
PXI Reference Clock (3U only)
Star-Hub (6U only)
Option Extra I/O (6U only)
SBench6
Trig
Tr
2
PXI Trigger (3U only)
Option Multiple Replay
Repeated Output
PXI Star Trigger (3U only)
Option Gated Replay
board options are explained in detail on page 60 - 63 and 82 - 83
84
General Information
The MC/MX.70xx series of fast digital I/O boards offer a resolution between 1 bit and 64 bit with a maximum sampling rate of 125 MS/s (60 MS/s).
All I/O lines of the card can be programmed for either input or output direction. The on-board memory of up to 512 MByte can be used completely for
recording or replaying digital data. The internal standard synchronisation bus allows synchronisation of several MC/MX series cards. Therefore the
MC/MX.70xx board can be used as an enlargement to analog boards.
Application Examples
Pattern generation for parameter tester
A/D converter development
Data acquisition at a medical
tomograph
Production test of IGBT modules
CCD sensor simulation

Technical Details
Digital Inputs
Input Impedance (Programmable) 110 Ohm / 50 kOhm || 15 pF
110 Ohm Termination Voltage 2.5 V
Standard Input Levels
low ≤ 0.8 V, high ≥ 2.0 V
Absolute Maximum Input Levels ≥ -0.5 V and ≤ 7.0 V
Digital Outputs
Typical Output Levels (High Impedance) low: 0.2 V high: 2.8 V
Output Max Current Load
low: 64 mA high: -32 mA
Output Levels at Max Load
low: < 0.5 V high: > 2.0 V
Output Impedance (Typical)
ca. 7 Ohms
Clock
External Clock Impedance
Clock Modes
Internal Clock Range (PLL Mode)
Internal Clock Granularity
Reference Clock Input Range
External Clock Delay to Internal Clock
Clock Output
110 Ohm / 5 kOhm
Int. PLL / Quartz, Ext. Direct / Divided,
Ref. Clock, PXI Ref Clock (3U)
1 kS/s to max sampling clock
< 1% of range
(100 M, 10 M, 1 M, 100 k, ...)
≥ 1.0 MHz and ≤ 125.0 MHz
42 ns ± 2 ns
TTL levels, capable of driving 110 Ohm
and 50 Ohm load
Trigger
Trigger Sources
Internal Trigger Accuracy
Max Number of Segments
Max Pretrigger at Multi, Gate, FIFO
External Trigger Type
External Trigger Impedance
Trigger Output
Pattern, External, PXI Line (3U),
PXI Startrigger (3U)
1 sample (16, 32, 64 bit), 2 sample (8 bit),
4 sample (4 bit), 8 sample (2 bit),
16 sample (1 bit)
unlimited
no pretrigger
5V TTL
110 Ohm / 50 kOhm programmable
TTL levels, capable of driving 110 and
50 Ohm load
Environmental and Physical Details
Connector Types (Digital Inputs) 40 pole half pitch (Hirose FX2 series)
Dimension (MC.70xx)
160 mm x 233 mm (6U standard)
Dimension (MX.70xx)
160 mm x 100 mm (3U standard)
Width (Standard)
1 slot
Width (with Star-Hub)
2 slots
Operating Temperature 0°C - 50°C
Max Power Consumption (6U)
14.1 Watt
Max Power Consumption (3U)
9.7 Watt
Order Information
Card Versions
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U 1-4 bit 8 bit 16 bit 32 bit 64 bit
MC.7005 MX.7005 125 MS/s 125 MS/s 125 MS/s
MC.7010 MX.7010 125 MS/s 125 MS/s
MC.7011 MX.7011 125 MS/s 125 MS/s 60 MS/s
MC.7020 – 125 MS/s 125 MS/s 125 MS/s
MC.7021 – 125 MS/s 125 MS/s 125 MS/s 60 MS/s
3rd Party Drivers
MATLAB MATLAB MATLAB driver for all MC/MX cards
MC.70xx-lv MX.70xx-lv LabVIEW driver for all MC/MX.70xx cards
MC.70xx-hp MX.70xx-hp Agilent VEE driver for all MC/MX.70xx cards
Memory
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U
MC.7xxx-32M MX.7xxx-32M Memory upgrade to 32 MB of total memory
MC.7xxx-64M MX.7xxx-64M Memory upgrade to 64 MB of total memory
MC.7xxx-128M MX.7xxx-128M Memory upgrade to 128 MB of total memory
MC.7xxx-256M – Memory upgrade to 256 MB of total memory
MC.7xxx-512M – Memory upgrade to 512 MB of total memory
MC.7xxx-up MX.7xxx-up Additional fee for later memory upgrade
All details are to be found in
the data sheet under
www.spec.de/mc70xx.html or
www.spec.de/mx70xx.html
Lifetime driver and firmware
updates free of charge
2 years warranty
85
Options
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U
MC.7xxx-mr MX.7xxx-mr Option Multiple Recording / Replay
MC.7xxx-gs MX.7xxx-gs Option Gated Sampling / Replay
MC.7xxx-cs (2) – Option Cascading: Synchronization of up to 4 cards
MC.7xxx-smod (1)(2) –
Option Star-Hub: Synchronization of up to 16 cards
– MX.9010 (2) Special Spectrum PXI Star Trigger synchronization card
MC.7xxx-time (1) – Option Timestamp: Recording of trigger timestamps in an extra
memory
MC.xxxx-xmf (1) – Option Extra I/O with external connector, 24 digital I/O +
4 analog outputs. Including one cable Cab-d40-idc-100
(1)
Just one of the options can be installed on a card at a time
(2)
One option needed per system

MC.72xx | MX.72xx series
Pattern Generator with Programmable Levels
CompactPCI
6 different versions with 16 to 32 bits and up to 40 MS/s
PXI
CompactPCI 6U and PXI / CompactPCI 3U format
16 and 32 bit up to 40 MS/s (MC.72xx)
16 bit up to 40 MS/s (MX.72xx)
Programmable output levels from -2.0 V up to 10.0 V
Levels individually programmable per 4 bit
All outputs can be separately disabled (Tristate)
Hardware controlled differential output possible
Sustained streaming mode
16 MByte on-board memory (up to 512 MByte)
Trigger Clock Output
General
Software
Trig
Trig
D A
D A
FIFO
Tr
32 Bit
64 Bit
External Trigger
PXI Trigger (3U only)
External Clock
Programmable Output Levels
FIFO Mode
Singleshot Output
Linux
PLL
32 Bit
Option Gated Replay
Reference Clock
Star-Hub (6U only)
Option Cascading (6U only)
Windows
D A
Tr
LabVIEW MATLAB
Agilent VEE
LabWindows / CVI
Option Multiple Replay
PXI Reference Clock (3U only)
Option Extra I/O (6U only)
Repeated Output
Option 3rd Party Drivers
board options are explained in detail on page 60 - 63 and 82 - 83
2
PXI Star Trigger (3U only)
C/C++ Visual Basic
Gnu C++ Delphi
Borland C++ Builder
Programming Examples
86
General Information
The MC/MX.72xx pattern generator series gives the user the possibility to generate digital data with a wide range of output levels. For every 4 bit the
LOW and HIGH levels can be programmed from -2.0 V up to +10.0 V. Even at high speeds you are not limited concerning the maximum output swing.
This enables the user to drive devices of nearly any logic family, like ECL, PECL, TTL, LVDS, LVTTL, CMOS or LVCMOS. The potentially necessary differential
signals are generated in hardware, so that only one data bit is used for each pair of differential signals.
Application Examples
Chip test
Pattern stimulation

Technical Details
Outputs
Output Impedance
Data Signal Level
Programmable Level Accuracy
Max Output Current per Pin
Max Output Current per Nibble (4 bit)
Max Output Current per Card
Rise / Fall Time 10 % to 90 %, 110 Ohm
Trigger
Trigger Sources
Internal Trigger Accuracy
Max Number of Segments
External Trigger Type
External Trigger Impedance
Trigger Output
approximately 80 Ohm
programmable from -2.0 V up to +10.0 V
±10 mV
100 mA
200 mA
500 mA (MC.721x cards,
otherwise no limit)
2.0 ns (1 MS/s) up to 2.25 ns (40 MS/s)
External, PXI Line (3U), PXI Startrigger (3U)
1 sample (16, 32 bit), 2 sample (8 bit)
unlimited
5V TTL
110 Ohm / 50 kOhm programmable
TTL levels, capable of driving 110 and
50 ohm load
Clock
External Clock Impedance
110 Ohm / 5 kOhm
Clock Modes
Int. PLL / Quartz, Ext. Direct / Divided,
Ref. Clock, PXI Ref Clock (3U)
Internal Clock Range (PLL Mode) 1 kS/s to max sampling clock
Internal Clock Granularity < 1% of range (10 M, 1 M, 100 k, ...)
Reference Clock Input Range ≥ 1.0 MHz and ≤ 125.0 MHz
External Clock Delay to Internal Clock 42 ns ± 2 ns
Clock Output
TTL levels, capable of driving 110 Ohm
and 50 Ohm load
Environmental and Physical Details
Connector Types (Outputs)
40 pole half pitch (Hirose FX2 series)
Dimension (MC.72xx)
160 mm x 233 mm (6U standard)
Dimension (MX.72xx)
160 mm x 100 mm (3U standard)
Width (MC.721x, MX.7210)
1 slot
Width (Star-Hub or MC/MX.722x) 2 slots
Operating Temperature 0°C - 50°C
Max Power Consumption (6U) 10 Watt (MC.7211), 51.8 Watt (MC.7221)
Max Power Consumption (3U) 9.2 Watt (MX.7210), 27.6 Watt (MX.7220)
Order Information
Card Versions
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U 8 bit 16 bit 32 bit
MC.7210 MX.7210 10 MS/s 10 MS/s
MC.7211 – 10 MS/s 10 MS/s 5 MS/s
MC.7220 MX.7220 40 MS/s 40 MS/s
MC.7221 – 40 MS/s 40 MS/s 40 MS/s
3rd Party Drivers
MATLAB MATLAB MATLAB driver for all MC/MX cards
MC.72xx-lv MX.72xx-lv LabVIEW driver for all MC/MX.72xx cards
MC.72xx-hp MX.72xx-hp Agilent VEE driver for all MC/MX.72xx cards
Memory
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U
MC.7xxx-32M MX.7xxx-32M Memory upgrade to 32 MB of total memory
MC.7xxx-64M MX.7xxx-64M Memory upgrade to 64 MB of total memory
MC.7xxx-128M MX.7xxx-128M Memory upgrade to 128 MB of total memory
MC.7xxx-256M – Memory upgrade to 256 MB of total memory
MC.7xxx-512M – Memory upgrade to 512 MB of total memory
MC.7xxx-up MX.7xxx-up Additional fee for later memory upgrade
Options
cPCI 6U PXI / cPCI 3U
MC.7xxx-mr MX.7xxx-mr Option Multiple Replay
MC.7xxx-gs MX.7xxx-gs Option Gated Replay
MC.7xxx-cs (2) – Option Cascading: Synchronization of up to 4 cards
MC.7xxx-smod (1)(2) –
Option Star-Hub: Synchronization of up to 16 cards
– MX.9010 (2) Special Spectrum PXI Star Trigger synchronization card
MC.xxxx-xmf (1) – Option Extra I/O with external connector, 24 digital I/O +
4 analog outputs. Including one cable Cab-d40-idc-100
(1)
Just one of the options can be installed on a card at a time
(2)
One option needed per system
All details are to be found in
the data sheet under
www.spec.de/mc72xx.html or
www.spec.de/mx72xx.html
Lifetime driver and firmware
updates free of charge
2 years warranty
87

Systems
Individually configured PC systems with additional cooling
19” industrial systems with up to 20 free slots
Portable systems for mobile use
CompactPCI 6U systems, also with extremely low profile
PXI systems
Special RAID systems for fast disk streaming
Spectrum is also able to offer you a completely configured and tested system with optimised hardware and software. As a result incompatibility between
single components is impossible, sufficient cooling power for the boards is guaranteed, software is installed and the system ready to start.
We do not sell standard systems, rather with you, we generate a system for your special needs. Therefore we can offer you a wide variety of different
platforms. The internal synchronisation of the boards allows the building of systems with up to 256 analog channels. It’s also possible to set up synchronous
mixed-mode systems with analog and digital inputs as well as with analog and digital outputs.
88
19” Industrial PC Systems
Due to the internal sync bus of the Spectrum boards the construction of synchronous multi
channel systems with free definable trigger channels is no problem. However: often a standard
system with normally three to five PCI or PCI Express slots has not enough space. For
this Spectrum offers a series of individual complete systems based on 19" components.
Extension is possible, our 19" systems being based on the newest backplanes with PCI Express
technology and fastest throughput. We can offer 19" systems with up to 20 free PCI
Express or PCI-X slots. Besides our measurement products this offers enough space for further
functionality like Ethernet, DSP, GPIB interface and much more.
Using boards in this high-end area will produce a lot of heat. A system with 128 channels
running at 1 MS/s sampling rate (16 pieces of M2i.4642-Exp) will produce power dissipation
of more than 300 watts. To manage these values, robust industrial systems are equipped
with suitable power supplies and powerful cooling fans.
High-Speed Streaming Systems
Years of knowledge in setting up high-speed streaming systems make Spectrum to the
preferred partner to get complete streaming solutions. We know which motherboard,
memory, CPU, RAID controller and hard disk technology to select to reach your required
performance. Don’t waste days by trying to get an unfeasible PC to perform as you
need. Ordering a full streaming system from Spectrum will give a defined streaming
performance through carefully selected hardware together with an optimised software.
A continuous hard disk streaming rate of 200 MByte/s from one card or several hundred
MByte/s from multiple cards is at your hands.

Portable Systems
Mobile compact measurement system
Space for 2 or 3 Spectrum cards
Integrated 15“ TFT display
Integrated keyboard with touchpad
Windows 7 installed
Completely installed hardware and software with sufficient cooling
In-system calibration for best measurement results
English and German version available
General Information
The portable systems SPPortA2 and SPPortA3 from Spectrum are a symbiosis of a standard PC and a Laptop allowing to integrate one to three of the
fast Spectrum PC instruments. Such a system is an easy to handle alternative to a Laptop/Docking Station solution without the need to carry and connect
several components (Laptop, Docking Station, Power Supplies) at the place of action.
As a base the system is equipped with a state-of-the-art CPU and sufficient memory to fulfil all demands of today’s mobile applications.
The portable system is also equipped with a huge variety of interfaces. All hardware and software is completely installed - the system can be immediately
used directly after starting. All PC instruments have been calibrated inside the system resulting in an even higher accuracy compared to single cards that
are installed in an user PC. All systems are run through a burn-in test before delivery.
Order Information
Order No
SPPortA2-P1E1
SPPortA2-Batt
SPPortA3-E3
SPSyst-eng
Description
Ultra Portable PC with 1xPCI and 1xPCI Express slot
Battery Pack for SPPortA2: 2x95W
Ultra Portable PC with 3xPCI Express slot
English language package: all software and hardware in English
89

Docking Stations
Mobile instrumentation for notebooks
Available for up to 4 PCI cards or up to 7 PCI Express cards
PCCard, ExpressCard, PCI or PCI Express host connector
Capable of hot-plugging
Runs with Windows XP/Vista and Windows 7
PCI Express Docking Stations run with Linux 32 bit and 64 bit
Totally software transparent
The series of PCI docking stations enhance the application possibilities for the Spectrum boards. The system provides high performance for both static
and mobile testing situations. The PCI hardware plugs into the external docking station, which in turn is connected via a PC-Card/PCMCIA or ExpressCard
interface to the notebook. Alternatively the Docking Stations can also be used with host cards for PCI or PCI Express slots, extending standard PCs by
more slots or to have space saving solutions with a small industrial PC.
The cooling of the measurement card is already included in the docking station. It is possible to use all Spectrum PCI cards with this solution, with
Windows platforms XP/Vista and Windows 7 being supported. All Spectrum PCI Express cards can be used in one of the Express Docking Stations under
Windows XP/Vista, Windows 7 or Linux 32 bit and 64 bit. Using one of the Express Docking Stations gives you full transfer performance as if the card
is directly plugged into a PC. The PCI Express Docking Stations are ready for high-speed but low-space streaming applications.
The docking station can obtain power from an external power supply, or using a special car adapter for an automotive cigarette lighter and has the option
to work independently with an internal rechargeable battery. The Spectrum driver supports hot-plugging for all operating systems. This allows the easy
connection of the measurement system to a running system as required.
Order Information
PCCard ExpressCard 54 ExpressCard 34 PCI Host Card PCI Express Card
90
1 Slot PCI Version DOCK1PCI-Card DOCK1PCI-E54 DOCK1PCI-E34 DOCK1PCI-PCI32 DOCK1PCI-PCIEx
2 Slot PCI Version DOCK2PCI-Card DOCK2PCI-E54 DOCK2PCI-E34 DOCK2PCI-PCI32 DOCK2PCI-PCIEx
4 Slot PCI Version DOCK4PCI-Card DOCK4PCI-E54 DOCK4PCI-E34 DOCK4PCI-PCI32 DOCK4PCI-PCIEx
1 Slot PCI Express n.a. n.a. DOCK1Exp-E34 n.a. DOCK1Exp-PCIEx1
4 Slot PCI Express n.a. n.a. DOCK4Exp-E34 n.a. DOCK4Exp-PCIEx8
7 Slot PCI Express n.a. n.a. DOCK7Exp-E34 n.a. DOCK7Exp-PCIEx8
The Docking Stations can be ordered together with different host card options. All host cards are also available separately to share an
equipped Docking Station with different systems and Laptops.
Order No
DOCKxPCI-PCI32
DOCKxPCI-PCIEx
DOCKxPCI-E34
DOCKxPCI-E54
DOCKxPCI-Card
DOCKxExp-PCIEx1
DOCKxExp-PCIEx8
DOCKxExp-E34
Description
Additional 32 bit/33 MHz PCI host card for all PCI Docking Stations
Additional x1 PCI-Express host card for all PCI Docking Stations
Additional ExpressCard 34mm host card for all PCI Docking Stations
Additional ExpressCard 54mm host card for all PCI Docking Stations
Additional PCCard host card for all PCI Docking Stations
Additional x1 PCI-Express host card for 1 slot PCI Express Docking Stations
Additional x8 PCI-Express host card for 4 and 7 slot PCI Express Docking Stations
Additional ExpressCard 34mm host card for all PCI Express Docking Stations

Cables
Analog / Clock / Trigger / BaseXIO / Multi-Purpose IO
These standard shielded cables are used to connect the Spectrum cards to various instruments and sensors. All cables are offered with different length
and different connectors on the second side. Please refer to the technical data section of the card of interest to see which connector type is used on your
card. If you need individually configured cables, please just ask Spectrum.
Adapter Cable MMCX male to BNC male
Adapter Cable MMCX male to BNC female
Adapter Cable MMCX male to SMA male
Adapter Cable MMCX male to SMA female
Cab-1m-9m-xx
Cab-1m-9f-xx
Cab-1m-3mA-xx
Cab-1m-3fA-xx
Adapter Cable SMB female to BNC male
Adapter Cable SMB female to BNC female
Adapter Cable SMB female to SMA male
Adapter Cable SMB female to SMA female
Cab-3f-9m-xx
Cab-3f-9f-xx
Cab-3f-3mA-xx
Cab-3f-3fA-xx
Order Information
Adapter Cable SMB female to SMB female
Length
Cable Connectors
200 cm length 80 cm length 5 cm length Spectrum Card Instrument/Sensor
Cab-1m-9m-200 Cab-1m-9m-80 – MMCX male BNC male
Cab-1m-9f-200 Cab-1m-9f-80 Cab-1m-9f-5 MMCX male BNC female
Cab-1m-3mA-200 Cab-1m-3mA-80 – MMCX male SMA male
Cab-1m-3fA-200 Cab-1m-3fA-80 – MMCX male SMA female
Cab-3f-9m-200 Cab-3f-9m-80 – SMB female BNC male
Cab-3f-9f-200 Cab-3f-9f-80 Cab-3f-9f-5 SMB female BNC female
Cab-3f-3mA-200 Cab-3f-3mA-80 – SMB female SMA male
Cab-3f-3fA-200 Cab-3f-3fA-80 – SMB female SMA female
Cab-3f-3f-200 Cab-3f-3f-80 – SMB female SMB female
Cab-3mA-9m-200 Cab-3mA-9m-80 – SMA male BNC male
Cab-3mA-9f-200 Cab-3mA-9f-80 – SMA male BNC female
Cab-3f-3f-xx
Adapter Cable SMA male to BNC male
Cab-3mA-9m-xx
Adapter Cable SMA male to BNC female
91
Digital Data
5 cm cables are best suited to connect oscilloscope probes directly to
the fast digitisers without impedance mismatch due to long cables.
Cab-3mA-9f-xx
All digital data on the Spectrum cards be it digital I/O cards, pattern generators or digital input/output options for analog cards are connected using one
or more fine pitch flat ribbon connector with 40 poles each. The connector is series FX2 from Hirose Electric Co. Ltd (HRS) and is available through normal
distribution channels also.
Order Information
Length
Cable Connectors
100 cm Spectrum Card Instrument, DUT
Cab-d40-idc-100 FX2 40 pole 2 x 20 pole IDC
Cab-d40-d40-100 FX2 40 pole FX2 40 pole
Cable Cross Reference
Adapter Cable FX2 to 2 x IDC
Cab-d40-idc-xx
Cab-d40-d40-xx
Adapter Cable FX2 to FX2
Connector type on card (needs complementary connector on cable)
Card Series Channels Trigger Clock BaseXIO Multi Purpose I/O Option Digital In/Out
M2i.20xx MC.20xx MX.20xx SMB male SMB male SMB male SMB male – –
M3i.21xx SMB male MMCX female MMCX female SMB male MMCX female –
M2i.30xx MC.30xx MX.30xx SMB male SMB male SMB male SMB male – 40 pole FX2
M2i.31xx MC.31xx MX.31xx SMB male SMB male SMB male SMB male – 40 pole FX2
M3i.32xx SMB male MMCX female MMCX female SMB male MMCX female –
M2i.40xx MC.40xx MX.40xx SMB male SMB male SMB male SMB male – 40 pole FX2
M3i.41xx SMB male MMCX female MMCX female SMB male MMCX female –
M2i.46xx MC.46xx MX.46xx MMCX female SMB male SMB male SMB male – –
M2i.47xx MC.47xx MX.47xx MMCX female SMB male SMB male SMB male – –
M3i.48xx SMB male MMCX female MMCX female SMB male MMCX female –
M2i.60xx MC.60xx MX.60xx SMB male SMB male SMB male SMB male – 40 pole FX2
M2i.61xx MC.61xx MX.61xx SMB male SMB male SMB male SMB male – –
M2i.70xx MC.70xx MX.70xx 40 pole FX2 40 pole FX2 40 pole FX2 SMB male – –
M2i.72xx MC.72xx MX.72xx 40 pole FX2 40 pole FX2 40 pole FX2 SMB male – –

Spectrum’s Customers
Max-Planck-Institut für marine Mikrobiologie
92

Index
Keywords Page Keywords
Page Keywords Page
3U 58
6U 58
8 Bit A/D Cards 28, 30, 66
8 Bit D/A Cards 50, 80
12 Bit A/D Cards 32, 34, 36, 68, 70
14 Bit A/D Cards 38, 40, 72
14 Bit D/A Cards 50, 80
16 Bit A/D Cards 42, 44, 46, 74, 76
19” Industrial PC Systems 88
32 Bit OS 6
64 Bit OS 6
A
ABA 22
Agilent VEE 13
Amplifier Card 49, 79
Application Areas 5
AWG; Arbitrary Waveform Generators 48, 78
B
Bandwidth 26, 28
BaseXIO 20
BNC 91
Borland C++ Builder 6
Bus Interface 16
Busmaster 18
C
C/C++ 6
C# 6
Cables 91
Calculation (SBench) 9, 11
Calibration 7, 27, 65
Cascading 62
Channel Trigger 25, 64
Clock 21, 60, 61
CompactPCI 58
Compatibility, Hardware- 14
Continuous Memory 7, 19
Control Center 7
CygWin 6
D
D/A Cards 48, 78
Data Transfer Speed 19
Debian 6, 7
Debug Logging 7
Delphi 6
Demo Card Installation 7
Differential Inputs 27, 65
Digital Inputs (Option) 27, 65
Digital I/O Cards 52, 58
Digital Outputs (Option) 49, 79
Digital Output Cards 56, 86
Digitizers 24, 64
DMA Transfer 18
Docking Station 90
Driver 6
DUT (Device Under Test) 48
E
Enhanced Trigger Modes 25
Export (SBench 6) 8, 11
ExpressCard 90
External Clock 21, 60
External Trigger 20, 60
Extra I/O 62
F
Feature 10
Features and Software License 7, 9
Fedora 6, 7
FFT (SBench 6) 9
FIFO Mode 18, 60
FIFO Replay 48, 78
Firmware Upgrade 7
Frequency Domain (SBench 6) 9
G
Gated Replay 49, 53, 79, 83
Gated Sampling 22, 61
GNOME 8
Gnu C++ 6
H
Hardware 16
History 4
Homepage 2, 3
Host Card 90
I
Import (SBench 6) 8, 11
Input Amplifier 26, 64
Input Impedance 26
Input Offset 26, 65
Input Path 26
Input; Input Range 26
J
J# 6
K
KDE 8
Kernel Driver 7
L
LabVIEW 12
LabWindows / CVI 13
Laptop 90
License (SBench 6) 10
Lifetime Updates 4
Linux 7
Logging Debug 7
Low Pass Filter 26
M
M2i Series 16
M2i.20xx 30
M2i.30xx 34
M2i.31xx 36
M2i.40xx 40
M2i.46xx 44
M2i.47xx 46
M2i.60xx 50
M2i.61xx 50
M2i.70xx 54
M2i.72xx 56
M3i Series 16
M3i.21xx 28
M3i.32xx 32
M3i.41xx 38
M3i.48xx 42
Made in Germany 4
MATLAB 9, 13
MC Series 58
MC.20xx 66
MC.30xx 68
MC.31xx 70
MC.40xx 72
MC.46xx 74
MC.47xx 76
MC.60xx 80
MC.61xx 80
MC.70xx 84
MC.72xx 86
Memory 17
Memory Test 7
MI Series 8
Microsoft 6
Microsoft Visual Basic 6
MMCX 91
Mobile Instrumentation 90
Multiple Recording 21, 61
Multiple Replay 49, 53, 79, 82
Multi-Purpose I/O 20
MX Series 58
MX.20xx 66
MX.30xx 68
MX.31xx 70
MX.40xx 72
MX.46xx 74
MX.47xx 76
MX.60xx 80
MX.61xx 80
MX.70xx 84
MX.72xx 86
N
Notebook 90
O
On-Board Memory 17
On-Board Calibration 7, 27
OpenSUSE 6, 7
Operating System 6
Options 20, 21, 22, 61, 62
P
Pattern Generators 52, 82
Pattern Trigger 53, 83
PC-Card 90
PCI 14, 16
PCI Express; PCIe 14, 16
PCI Sig 17
PCI-X 14, 16
PLL 21
Portable System 89
Pre-Amplifier 27, 65
Product Availability 4
Product Warranty 4
Programmable Offset + Amplitude 49, 79
Programmable Output Levels 53, 83
Programming Examples 6
Pseudo Differential 34
Pulsewidth Trigger 20, 60
PXI 3U Cards 58
PXI Clock 63
PXI Trigger 63
Python 6
R
RADAR 42
RAID 8, 19
Redhat 6, 7
Reference Clock 21, 61
Repeated Output 48, 52, 78, 82
Repetition Rate 21, 61
Ring Buffer 18
S
SBench 8
Scatter-Gather Busmaster DMA 7, 18
Segment 21, 61
Single Restart 48
Singleshot Output 48, 52, 78, 82
SMA 91
SMB 91
Software 6-13
Spike Trigger 25
Star-Hub 22, 62
Streaming 18
SUSE 6, 7
Synchronization 22, 23, 62, 63
Synchronous Sampling 24, 64
System Star-Hub 23
Systems 88
T
Timestamp 22, 61
Transfer Speed 19
Trigger 20, 25, 53, 60, 64, 83
True Differential 27, 44, 65
V
VB.Net 6
VEE 13
Visual Basic 6
Visual C++ 6
W
Windows 2000 6
Windows 7 6
Windows Vista 6
Windows XP 6
93

Spectrum world-wide
All products of Spectrum are available world-wide through local distributors. Actual links
can be found on our homepage under www.spectrum-instrumentation.com/contact.html
A/D Converter Boards
Transient Recorders
High-Speed Data Acquisition
D/A Converter Boards
Arbitrary Waveform Generators
Digital I/O Boards
Pattern Generators
SBench 6
Contact
Our design engineers can be reached by telephone or by email: support@spec.de
Would you like to get a detailed quotation, application notes, data sheets or a
catalog? Please contact us by telephone or by email: request@spec.de
Please contact us!
Spectrum Systementwicklung Microelectronic GmbH
Ahrensfelder Weg 13-17 | 22927 Grosshansdorf / Germany | Phone +49 (0)4102-69 56-0 | Fax +49 (0)4102-69 56-66
info@spec.de | www.spectrum-instrumentation.com