Spectrum PCI cards have SMA connections for OEMs

Fast signal sources are preferably connected by shielded co-axial cables and connectors with matching impedance to digitisers to obtain best signal quality.

Only with this type of connection can one avoid crosstalk and signal reflections with signals that have frequencies in the upper several hundred MHz area.

When using PC-based digitisers with their limited free space on the front plate and when also taking the standard demand for additional digital signals such as clock, trigger or digital inputs into account, there are only a few connector solutions on the market that are suitable.

SMB and MMCX connections are an easy-to-use and space-saving solution used by many manufacturers, including Spectrum.

All M3i series cards of Spectrum are equipped with these connectors offering one or two analogue channels and sampling rates between 1 GS/s at 8-bit resolution up 400MS/s at 14-bit resolution.

In addition, there are five connectors for supporting digital signals.

Spectrum now offers a new option for the complete M3i range of PCI/PCI-X and PCI Express cards with professional screwed SMA connections.

This option is primarily intended for OEM and industrial users but can be helpful also in the area of research and development, the company said.

This international standard connection with a stable screw-type coupling and good shielding allows a reliable connection of high-frequency signals even in rough industry environments or vibrating installations.

Customers that order the SMA option decide with their order which of the digital connections have to be soldered to the two available SMA connectors.

The standard signals clock in, clock out, trigger in, trigger out and multi-purpose I/O are available for these connections.

This choice can be made to match the requested application setup exactly.

The fast digitisers are available in different versions with one or two channels, sampling rates from 100MS/s up to 1GS/s and resolutions between 8-bit and 14-bit.

The standard version is already equipped with 256Mbyte of on-board memory, which can be extended up to 4Gbyte.

Each installed analogue channel has its own pre-amplifier offering a variety of input ranges between 50mV and 10V and several software-switchable settings such as 50ohm/1 mohm or AC/DC coupling.

The cards are delivered with drivers for Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7 as well as several Linux installations such as Opensuse, Fedora or Debian.

Thirty-two-bit and 64-bit versions of all operating systems are natively supported by the Spectrum drivers.