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National Instruments Corporation
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Getting Started with Your PCI/PXI-6810 SDA
Chapter
1
Introduction
This chapter describes the 6810 device; lists what you need to get
started; describes software programming choices, optional equipment,
and custom cables; and explains how to unpack and set up your
6810 device.
About the PCI/PXI-6810
Hardware Description
The 6810 device is a general-purpose serial data analyzer (SDA)
product for generating and acquiring serial data streams up to 10 Mb/s.
It has two configurable channels to receive or transmit serial data, and
you can combine the channels to provide a single transceiver channel.
The 6810 device addresses the requirements of device functional
testing in a laboratory, manufacturing, or repair center environment.
Common applications include subsystem testing in cellular phones,
wireless base stations, and CD-ROM drives, and essentially any
application that involves arbitrary serial patterns.
Each serial channel incorporates sophisticated logic that generates a
trigger in response to events. These triggers can direct the channel to
transfer data to or from the host computer’s memory, route to the
Real-Time System Integration (RTSI) bus, or generate an external
signal to trigger standalone instruments such as oscilloscopes or
spectrum analyzers. Channels can trigger on such events as arbitrary
pattern matches up to 64 bits long, rising and falling data edges, trigger
stimulus from a RTSI bus, software triggers, or an external source.
The 6810 clock circuitry provides any bit frequency between 10 Hz
and 10 MHz. The clock circuitry uses a numerically controlled
oscillator with integral phase control to ensure stability and accuracy.
The programmable clock produces a baud rate clock for serial
transmission. The 6810 also accepts an external clock source up
to 10 MHz for synchronous serial communication. To support
asynchronous serial bit streams, the 6810 includes digital phase-lock
