Low-cost VXI-based front-end for industrial measurement applications

In this paper a low-cost measurement and control instrument for industrial applications is presented. It is based on the H8/3048F Hitachi microcomputer and linked to the VXIbus by means of a register-based interface. This system can be used in stand-alone application, such as industrial I/O and process automation thanks to its features concerning the acquisition and generation of both analog and digital signals. It can also be linked to a VXIbus backplane by means of a suitable interface circuit. Two serial ports allow an industrial network to be implemented expanding its application field to distributed measurement and supervisory applications. Experimental results showing the system performance are also included in the paper.