Create, Edit, and Play Digital Waveforms with Real-Time Bit Comparison
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The latest edition of the National Instruments Digital Waveform Editor makes it easier than ever to manipulate digital signals from your benchtop or workstation. From design to test, the new NI Digital Waveform Editor Version 3.0 includes many features for quickly interfacing to digital devices.
The Digital Waveform Editor is a graphical software tool you can use to visualize digital signals and easily create, edit, and modify digital waveforms for customized interfacing and test applications. You can design digital waveforms from scratch or import existing waveforms from design tools using Value Change Dump (.VCD) or ASCII file formats. The waveform editor offers six different digital states for generation (0, 1, or Z) and acquisition (L, H, or X) on a per-channel, per-cycle basis for unidirectional and bidirectional parallel data lines or buses.
Digital Waveform Editor Functionality
Inside the waveform editor, you can insert bit values, drag digital edges, or copy and paste sections of waveform data across signals, as well as measure timing between digital edges with cursors. The editor contains many built-in fill patterns including pseudo-random bit sequences, marching values, and count-up or count-down patterns commonly used to characterize or test digital devices.
In Version 3.0, you now have the option to play waveforms on a hardware device directly from the editor by clicking a run button, which launches and configures a National Instruments LabVIEW SignalExpress program. You can combine these software tools with NI 654x, NI 655x, or NI 656x high-speed digital instruments to generate or acquire waveforms quickly without programming for common logic levels including 1.8, 2.5, 3.3, and 5 V, as well as LVDS.
Highlight bit errors in real time with the new Digital Waveform Editor using LabVIEW SignalExpress and hardware comparison on NI 655x digital instruments.
With NI LabVIEW SignalExpress and the advanced functionality of NI 655x devices, you can do more than simply play waveforms. Using programmable voltage levels on NI 655x devices, you can sweep voltage high and low levels in LabVIEW SignalExpress for VIH, VIL, VOH, and VOL from -2.0 to 5.5 V in 10 mV increments to characterize voltage thresholds of a digital device.
NI 655x devices also feature real-time hardware comparison of acquired data with expected response data to isolate bit errors in real time. As LabVIEW SignalExpress acquires data, it immediately highlights bit errors in the data view. The waveform editor also displays the feedback errors by highlighting the corresponding bits, making it easy to visualize inconsistencies and measure timing requirements or update waveforms to eliminate design flaws. The tight integration between the Digital Waveform Editor and LabVIEW SignalExpress makes interacting with a digital device easier than ever before.
Download an evaluation version of the Digital Waveform Editor.
This article first appeared in the Q2 2007 issue of Instrumentation Newsletter.
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