Option Star-Hub
Star-Hub introduction
(c) Spectrum GmbH
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Option Star-Hub
Star-Hub introduction
The purpose of the Star-Hub is to extend the number of channels available for acquisition or generation by interconnecting multiple cards and
running them simultaneously. It is even possible to interconnect multiple systems using the system star-hubs described further below.
The Star-Hub option allows to synchronize
several cards of the M2i series that are
mounted within one host system (PC). Two
different versions are available: a small ver-
sion with 5 connectors (option SH5) for syn-
chronizing up to five cards and a big
version with 16 connectors (option SH16)
for synchronizing up to 16 cards.
Both versions are implemented as a piggy -
back module that is mounted to one of the
cards. For details on how to install several
cards including the one carrying the Star-
Hub module, please refer to the section on
hardware installation.
Either which of the two available Star-Hub
options is used, there will be no phase delay
between the sampling clocks of the synchro-
nized cards and either no delay between
the trigger events, if all synchronized cards run with the same sampling rate. Any one of the synchronized cards can be used as a clock
master and besides any card can be part of the trigger generation.
When accesinng a digitizerNETBOX multiple digitizer modules are internally synchronized using a star-hub also. Synchronization of the cards
and accessing the star-hub is done in the very exact way like a star-hub that is installed on a plug-in card.
Star-Hub trigger engine
The trigger bus between an M2i
card and the Star-Hub option con-
sists of three lines. Two of them
send the trigger information from
the card’s trigger engine to the
Star-Hub and one line receives the
resulting trigger from the Star-
Hub.
While the returned trigger is iden-
tical for all synchronized cards,
the sent out trigger of every single
card depends on their trigger set-
tings.
Two lines are used to send the trig-
ger from the card to the Star-Hub
to provide the possibility to use
the same OR/AND conjunctions
for the resulting synchronization
trigger like on a card that runs on it’s own.
By this separation all OR masks of all synchronized cards are therefore extended to one big OR mask, while all AND masks of the synchro-
nized cards are extended to one overall AND mask. This allows to combine the various trigger sources of all synchronized cards with AND
and OR conditions and so to create highly complex trigger conditions that will certainly suit your application’s needs.
For details on the card’s trigger engine and the usage of the OR/AND trigger masks please refer to the relating section of this manual.
As an option it is also possible to synchronize multiple host systems each containing one Star-Hub module. These system slaves then will simply
listen on the trigger line from the system master and distribute it to the connected cards. As this multi-system synchronization comes with some
limits on certain settings and also needs some special attention on synchronizing the application software as well, it is therefore described in
a separate section later in this manual.
