Personal computer based digital waveform generator

Includes bibliographical references (page 26)This paper presents a complete description of a digital waveform\ud generator (DWG) board to be used in conjunction with an IBM PC/XT\ud compatible personal computer. The personal computer is used as a\ud host to provide vector generation and initial set-up of the generator\ud board. The digital waveform generator board itself contains the\ud circuitry capable of generating eight independent waveforms simultaneously\ud (eight output channels). Up to a maximum of six DWG\ud boards can be installed in each PC providing 48 independent output\ud channels. The output rate is programmable and has a range from\ud 0.01 Hz to 20 MHz. Although the channels are all independent of \ud each other, they are synchronized by the same system clock. Each\ud channel has a storage capability of 16K bits of timing data increments which can be scanned out repeatedly without any\ud disruption. Timing data increments (bits) are scanned out at the\ud rate of the run time clock. The run time clock can be obtained\ud either from an external source or from the on-board oscillator.\ud The user can select the source and change the rate of the run time\ud clock.\ud Application software on the user side, i.e., on the PC, will\ud allow creation, display, editing, storage and retrieval of vector\ud data on floppy disks, selection of run time clock source and data\ud output rate, down-loading vectors to DWG board, and starting and\ud interrupting the DWG board. After the DWG board has been set up to\ud run, it will disconnect itself from the host (PC) and run independently\ud until it is interrupted by the host