Feasibility study: A DM3730-based data acquisition and processing solution

DM3730 (and OMAP3530) high-performance, multicore processor based development boards (such as the Beagleboard-xm) with according software solutions and development tools is an efficient platform for various computing, signal and image processing applications, with various connectivity options. For the high performance impedance (and complex network) spectrum analyzer solutions, a critical role play realization of the data converters (ADC and DAC) and their interfacing to the processor. Analog-to digital conversion can be performed by external 16-18 bit ADCs, with serial interfaces working in the under-sampled mode. For the DAC part the main challenge is the generation of the accurate multi-frequency (better, if arbitrary) excitation waveforms. Using of the processors internal 10-bit video DACs (having many benefits, compared with using of the similar external DACs) for this purpose have been investigated, for the possibly high accuracy (14-18 bit effective overall accuracy) and wideband (up to 5 to 10 MHz, analogue signals) arbitrary waveform generations. First experiments show good hope to develop an efficient and cost- and form- effective OMAP (open multimedia application platform) based impedance (or complex network analyzer) solution with very competitive metrological characteristics. Investigation results so far are described.