Re-configurable I/O interfaces for modern Data Acquisition Systems G. Antchev1,M.A. Bellato2,L. Berti3,M. Gulmini3,G. Maron3,L. Pollet1,R. Ponchia3,A.

A modern approach to high speed I/O interfacing is proposed through the use of a flexible architecture based upon Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) and the PCI bus. Three distinct solutions are reviewed, all manufactured according to PMC (PCI Mezzanine Card) standard: one solution is CPU-based and the other two are CPU-less. The reconfigurability of the architectures is emphasized, showing that, by means of modern design techniques, one can easily partition between hardware and software some CPU-demanding or high latency tasks that are typical of modern Data Acquisition Systems