The PCI-8253 and PCI-8256 provide fully closed-loop control with high accuracy and fast response time for AOI, gantry, and contouring applications

October 27, 2009, San Jose, Calif – ADLINK Technology Inc., a leading global provider of measurement and automation products, announced the release of their most advanced DSP-based servo motion controllers, the PCI-8253 (three axes) and PCI-8256 (six axes). Based on over ten years of experience in developing PC-based motion controllers, ADLINK designed the PCI-8253/8256 to take full advantage of the latest digital signal processing technologies to provide a ±10 V analog motion controller with full closed-loop control, a PID plus feed-forward algorithm, and 20 MHz encoder input frequency. The PCI-8253/8256 not only provide general motion control functions, but also support comprehensive and application-specific functions ideal for automated optical inspection (AOI), gantry, and manufacturing machine applications, as well as complete compatibility with all the top third-party servo drivers in the market.

By incorporating a digital signal processor (DSP), the PCI-8253/8256 are able to provide advanced, flexible, and comprehensive motion functions that cannot be achieved through ASIC-based solutions. Such functions include multiple dimension interpolation and high-speed position comparison. All motion profile algorithms are developed by ADLINK and implemented on the DSP. Therefore, application-specific functions can be custom develop for customers.

By incorporating FPGA technology, the PCI-8253 and PCI-8256 provide higher motion control performance by a fast encoder input frequency up to 20 MHz. In addition, the hardware-based high-speed position comparison and trigger output speed of up to 1 MHz further make the PCI-8253/8256 ideal for AOI applications. The PCI-8253 and PCI-8256 also offer a point table that supports over 5,000 points for each axis, ideal for contouring applications.

“Customers will greatly benefit from gantry control with dynamic error compensation, as the real-time feature of the DSP and the control loop provides superior control of large stage movement in TFT/LCD, PCB, and machine tool industries,” stated Ethan Huang, Senior Product Director at ADLINK. “The PCI-8253 and PCI-8256 also offer basic G-code support which make these controllers ideal for machine tool and manufacturing machine applications.”

Setup and deployment of the PCI- 8253/8256 are greatly simplified through ADLINK’s MotionCreatorPro 2, a user-friendly Windows-based application development software package. Axis servo gains (PID plus feed-forward gain) and be easily tuned through this tool, which greatly reduces the amount of effort spent on gain tuning. A sampling window also provides a real-time display of the motion data enabling simpler integration of axis parameters, PID gain, and other on-the-fly changes. For more information, please visit http://www.adlinktech.com.

Pricing and Availability

The PCI-8253 and PCI-8256 are currently available for a list price of $1,329 and $2,129, respectively.

About ADLINK

ADLINK Technology (www.adlinktech.com) provides a wide range of embedded computing products and services to the test & measurement, automation & process control, gaming, communications, medical, network security, and transportation industries. ADLINK products include PCI Express®-based data acquisition and I/O; vision and motion control; and AdvancedTCA, CompactPCI, and Computer-on-Modules (COMs) for industrial computing. With the acquisition of Ampro Computers, Inc., ADLINK also provides a wide range of Extreme Rugged and Rugged Single Board Computers, Computer-on-Modules and Systems under the brand name Ampro by ADLINK. ADLINK strives to minimize the total cost of ownership (TCO) of its customers by providing customization and system integration services, maintaining low manufacturing costs, and extending the lifecycle of its products. ADLINK is a global company with headquarters and manufacturing in Taiwan; R&D and integration in Taiwan, China, and the US; and an extensive network of worldwide sales and support offices.

-40 to 85 degrees C Temperature Range Meets Demands of Military and Industrial OEM Applications

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 27, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — National Instruments (NASDAQ:NATI) today announced four new extended operating temperature versions of the NI Single-Board RIO devices, featuring a -40 to 85 degrees C operating temperature range. These boards provide engineers and developers low-cost embedded system development options by combining an onboard reconfigurable field-programmable gate array (FPGA), real-time processor and analog and digital I/O – all on a single-board computer (SBC). The four new NI sbRIO-9602XT, sbRIO-9612XT, sbRIO-9632XT and sbRIO-9642XT devices are designed for board-level OEM applications requiring extended temperature operation, including industrial, robotics, transportation, aerospace and military embedded systems.

“The addition of the extended temperature range boards to the NI Single-Board RIO product line demonstrates the commitment NI has to OEMs seeking to deploy their applications into harsher environments,” said John Hanks, vice president of industrial and embedded product lines at National Instruments. “With these new devices and LabVIEW graphical development tools, our OEM customers are able to solve a new set of embedded control and acquisition applications faster than using traditional SBCs and software tools.”

The new boards include up to 32 single-ended/16 differential channels of analog input and up to four channels of analog output at 16-bit resolution, 110 lines of 3.3V/TTL digital I/O and up to 32 lines of 24 V digital input/output. Additionally, all NI Single-Board RIO devices feature a 19 to 30 VDC power supply input, an Ethernet and RS232 serial port for communication, three expansion connectors for integrating additional NI C Series I/O and communication modules and nonvolatile storage for data logging.

These new extended temperature range devices, along with all NI RIO hardware products can be programmed using the NI LabVIEW graphical system design platform. LabVIEW tools ease the burden of board-level programming by including all of the middleware and drivers needed to easily interface with analog, digital and communication I/O; integrate Web publishing and data-logging capabilities; and much more. Engineers and embedded developers can rapidly design, prototype and deploy the real-time and FPGA-based NI Single-Board RIO devices using thousands of built-in control and processing functions within LabVIEW FPGA and LabVIEW Real-Time modules for increased productivity and faster time to market.

Readers can visit www.ni.com/singleboard to read white papers and order an evaluation kit for the new NI Single-Board RIO devices. For OEM pricing information, readers can call (800) 531-5066 to speak to a customer service representative or visit www.ni.com/visit to request a free on-site consultation from an NI engineer.

About National Instruments
National Instruments (www.ni.com) is transforming the way engineers and scientists design, prototype and deploy systems for measurement, automation and embedded applications. NI empowers customers with off-the-shelf software such as NI LabVIEW and modular cost-effective hardware, and sells to a broad base of more than 30,000 different companies worldwide, with no one customer representing more than 3 percent of revenue and no one industry representing more than 15 percent of revenue. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 5,000 employees and direct operations in more than 40 countries. For the past 10 years, FORTUNE magazine has named NI one of the 100 best companies to work for in America. Readers can obtain investment information from the company’s investor relations department by calling (512) 683-5090, e-mailing nati@ni.com or visiting www.ni.com/nati.

LabVIEW, National Instruments, NI and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments. Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.