Spectrum GmbH introduces the M2i.46xx card series with 16 bit resolution, 8 synchronous channels and up to 3 MS/s sampling rate. The M2i.46xx is a series with high precision input amplifiers, single-ended or differential inputs, 8 input ranges and on-board calibration. Besides individual and combinable trigger engines the cards have large on-board memory and fast interfaces.

The M2i.46xx cards are available with 2, 4 and 8 channels with sampling rates of 200 kS/s, 500 kS/s, 1 MS/s or 3 MS/s. The card has been designed fully synchronous, each channel has its own amplifier as well as its own A/D converter. All channels are sampled on this card types with the full sampling rate simultaneous. The M2i.4652 will so sample 8 channels with 3 MS/s simultaneously.

Data is stored in the 64 MByte on-board memory (upgradable up to 4 GBytes) and can be read out either continuously using FIFO mode or after end of the acquisition. Besides this the M2i card series offers a variety of application focused features like individual trigger engines for every channel with level, edge, re-arm, window, pulse width or spike trigger and the possibility to combine these events with AND and/or OR masks. Using the Star-Hub option which allows the synchronization of up to 16 cards in one system with no phase delay, it is possible to set up synchronous systems with up to 128 channels.

The cards are compatible to PCI and PCI-X slots with 3.3 V as well as 5 V I/O voltage. The input amplifier allows the individual selection of 8 input ranges between ±50 mV and ±10 V as well as the programming of an input offset of ±5 V when running in single-ended mode (related to a common ground). Besides this each channel can be individually changed to a true differential mode. The true differential inputs allow a complete signal swing with individual grounds to be fed into each phase of the input. Even with differential mode the complete number of equipped input channels is available for use (up to 8 differential channels).

The cards of the M2i series are delivered with drivers for Windows and Linux. All standard windows versions starting with Windows 2000 and including 32 bit and 64 bit versions are supported. For Linux pre-compiled kernel modules for about 10 standard distributions like Suse, Redhat, Fedora or Debian are delivered with the card. Against a signed NDA the Linux driver sources are available for compilation with any further distribution. For direct use with different programming languages, examples and project files for Visual C++, Borland C++ Builder, Visual Basic, Borland Delphi and Gnu C++ are delivered with the drivers. As an option a variety of third-party products like LabVIEW, LabWindows, MATLAB, VEE, DASYLab or MS Excel is supported.