2008 - Year and Review

Everyone else is doing it so why shouldn't we. There is a reason everyone takes this time to review the events, accomplishments and failures of the previous year. It is therapeutic, motivational and healthy to start anew by looking at where you've been. So without further ado, here is C&H's year in review:

• M215 Signal Conditioning M-Module- In January, we introduced the M215 which provides special purpose signal conditioning for low speed signals. It has two debounce channels designed to cleanup noisy switch contact closure signals and a very versatile quad window comparator function for monitoring voltage, current, or resistance.

• EM405-8x106/107 Event Detector - In February, we introduced the LXI 64-channel and 128-channel Event Detectors. These products are based off of our EM405-8 LXI M-Module Bridge and our MA203 Event Detector M-Module. The product family received LXI Conformance approval in March following the the February LXI plugfest and general meeting.
  

• VX402C-64 High Power Option - In May, we released two new versions of the VX402C-64 VME64 carrier that provide increased +5V and +3.3V power to the VME card. These new versions provide up to 34W of +5V power and up to 21W of +3.3V power. Previous versions (which are still available under an ordering option) provided 34W total for the combined +5V and +3.3V power supplies.
  

• MA209 ( reference disciplining improvements) - In June, we introduced an upgrade to the MA209 100MHz Pulse Generator M-Module providing enhanced reference disciplining functionality. This logic allows the MA209 to discipline its internal clock to a highly stable external clock source such as a M213 GPS Timing Receiver. This functionality greatly improve the frequency stability of the MA209 pule output. See the related blog for more details.

• VXI Linux Development Kit - In July, we completed and introduced a Linux Development Kit for our VXI Intelligent Carriers. This kit includes hardware, software and documentation that allows the customer to easily develop embedded applications running on our VX406C, VX407C and VX411C VXI intelligent carriers using the Linux operating system.
  

• M227 Programmable Clock/Counter/Timer M-Module - In August, we introduced the M227. This M-Module is a highly flexible timer, counter and clock source module. It's flexibility allows for it to perform standard counter/timer tasks as well as unique time based functions. See the related blog for more details.
  

• EM405-8 Mass Storage Option - In October, we announced a new Mass Storage Option for the EM405-8 LXI M-Module Bridge. This options provides 16 Gigabytes of non-volatile storage internal to the unit allowing a large amount of collected data to be captured and stored without overloading the Ethernet network.
  

• M228 1MSPS Aperture A/D - In December, we introduced the M228 M-Module. The M228 is a 1MSPS A/D M-module capable of selectively storing A/D values based off a set of programmable aperture values. It contains 32 Megasamples of onboard memory and includes highly programmable front-end analog logic. Stay tuned for a future blog post discussing this module in detail.
  

• EM405-8 Scripting Utilities - Also in late December, we introduced the addition of scripting utilities to the EM405-8 LXI M-Module Bridge. Scripting allows the user to develop on-board embedded software to control the EM405-8 and associated M-Modules. This provides vast performance improvements and allows the user to further customize his/her application. Like the M228, this upgrade will be the topic of an upcoming blog post.
  

A couple other notable events:

• C&H staff contributed to the August Evaluation Engineering Instrumentation Test Report with an article about M-Modules. Evaluation Engineering's Instrumentation Test Report is a feature of their electronic media. The article can be read online here.

• The EM405-8 was one of the featured products and C&H's Vice President and CTO, Gary Guilbeaux provided comments in the January 2009 Evaluation Engineering magazine. The article can be read online here.