Elan Digital Systems of Fareham, England, was in the market for field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA) in small form factors as it designed its latest products, including the USBscope50.
Elan Digital selected single-chip, Flash-based ProASIC3 FPGAs from Actel Corp. in Mountain View, Calif., for use within current and future portable test and measurement products.
The USBscope50 is a professional-grade digital storage oscilloscope (DSO) using Microsoft Windows-based software and having a USB interface connector, through which it is powered and data is transferred. The miniature USB-based test and measurement device plugs into desktop and laptop workstations to provide users with a portable test and measurement system.
For use within its USBscope50, Elan Digital chose Actel’s low-power A3P250 to perform signal processing functions.
The nonvolatile FPGA sports memory blocks and timing-critical constructs to deliver secure data storage. It links the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with the USB device to provide ADC interface timing, control, and data transfer. Also aiding data transfer is the unit’s UART interface. For more information, visit www.actel.com.
