Bangalore , May  252022:  The world's first digitizers to use the full 16 lane PCIe interface (Gen 3) for massive data streaming generated huge interest in the technical media this March. The cards can stream acquired data over the bus at a staggering 12.8 GB/s, which is a transfer rate nearly twice as fast as any other PCIe digitizer currently on the market.
Now Spectrum Instrumentation has released a cost-effective variant, specifically designed for dual-channel applications. The new model boasts the same blistering streaming speed and matches it perfectly with synchronous 3.2 GS/s, 12-bit sampling on each channel. This means no data needs to be lost, even when the card is acquiring data with both channels running at their maximum sampling rate. The ultrafast bus allows all the data to be transferred directly to PC memory for storage, or even to CUDA based GPUs for processing and analysis.
The new model M5i.3321-x16 is designed to handle a wide variety of signals. The unit's fast sampling rate and high resolution are supported by fully functional front-end electronics with 1 GHz bandwidth, programmable full-scale ranges from ±200 mV to ±2.5 V and variable offset. To allow the capture of long and complex waveforms, there is a generous 4 GB (2 GSamples) of on-board memory. This can be optioned up to an industry-leading 16 GB (8 GSamples) if necessary. The on-board memory can operate as a ring buffer, like a transient recorder, or as a FIFO buffer, for streaming the acquired data directly over the bus. It can also be partitioned into segments for recording multiple events, even when they happen with very fast trigger rates. Trigger events are time stamped and a host of sophisticated triggering modes (such as software, window, re-arm, logic and delay) are available to help ensure important events are never missed.
Oliver Rovini, Chief Technical Officer, said: "With the model M5i.3321-x16, we've created a package that optimizes the cost/performance ratio for users of our M5i family that need dual-channel signal acquisition. This new card delivers exceptional performance for anyone needing to capture and analyse signals in the MHz to GHz range. Its ability to stream data, as fast as it is acquired, directly to the PC environment opens the door for anyone wishing to use the latest CPU and GPU hardware for signal processing and analysis. For example, we've tested the card running at full speed and making direct RDMA data transfers to an Nvidia model RTX A4000 GPU. Once there, the GPU with its 6144 cores can perform complex functions like continuous averaging, for noise reduction, and MPoint-FFTs, for spectral analysis. That's gapless processing of all the streamed data, even when the digitizer is sampling the incoming signals at 3.2 GS/s on both channels!"
Spectrum Instrumentation, is headquartered near Hamburg, Germany.