Modular Instrumentation

Data Design has a rich heritage in modular instrumentation design. Early in the company’s history, instrument products built on the computer aided measurement and control standard (CAMAC 1977) offered simple and flexible data acquisition and signal source modules, primarily for high energy physics laboratories. A popular desktop CAMAC instrument chassis (crate) was a well known product in its day, which gave Data Design significant recognition in the industry. Some of the more popular modular instrument functions are still available from Data Design today with more modern Compact PCI (CPCI) or PXI interfaces. The company designs these instruments to be flexible, with reusable hardware and software components which find their way into an array of custom designs. Open source software and solid documentation allow system integrators to seamlessly adapt these instruments to very unique requirements.

Data Design has developed custom instruments with most of the common host computer interfaces such as PCI, ISA, USB, GPIB, SCSI, serial, ethernet, and many others. A modular approach to hardware and software design makes the designs portable and somewhat agnostic to the chosen interface. Moreover, modular hardware design has allowed many custom development projects to be completed with fewer custom board designs and with shorter lead time. Some off the shelf instrument products of Data Design are intended specifically for this purpose. This assembled library of products, designs, and know-how make the decision to move to a tailored instrument design practical and cost effective.