Operating instructions
M300USERSGUIDE SEA
WELCOME
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WELCOMETOTHEM300
The M300 is a Data Acquisition System based on the QNX 4 OS (real-time, UNIX like, POSIX
certified) from QSSL using Photon 1.14 as the GUI. It runs on Pentium based systems with a
minimum of 128 MB RAM, a mouse, and an accelerated video card.
It is fast, versatile and has the potential to expand and take on new challenges. Most of the interfaces
from the M200 system can be used with the M300. This allows the user to upgrade the chassis, CPU,
OS software and M300 software while using all the existing M200 hardware. The M300 uses the
same basic data format as the M200. It also has the same design philosophy as the M200, one version
of the software is customizable in order to fit multiple users.
PRODUCTOVERVIEW
The Model 300 Data Acquisition System (M300) is a real-time, table driven, high-speed software
package designed to provide a true multitasking environment that has the ability to integrate
emerging hardware technologies.
The M300 is based on the ISA/PCI BUS computer architecture which provides a standardized low
cost platform for development. With this form factor SEA engineers have developed the M300
software with an emphasis on scalability, versatility, and a wide range of configuration options. This
combination enables one version of the software to work with various hardware configurations and
meet multiple client research requirements.
The wide range of configuration options extends from the variety of system hardware available, the
data acquisition source possibilities, data storage options, real-time computation advantages, and the
real-time display of data. Users specify what data they wish to acquire, the frequency they need, the
types of calculations to be performed on the data as well as how to display the results of those
calculations. All of these options combine to allow the end-user to create a seamless data acquisition
system designed to meet their specific requirements.
M300 systems can range from entry-level systems with a few analog and digital channels mounted
in the back plane, through systems equipped with multiple CAMAC crates and direct memory access
(DMA) imaging interfaces. All hardware configurations can be run from the same software version
which provides the ability to add additional hardware without incurring the inconvenience or cost of
obtaining upgrades to the software.
After a long research process Science Engineering Associates decided to develop the M300 based on
the Canadian born Operating System QNX (Kyoo-nix). QNX is not a direct decedent of UNIX, but
an evolved commercially developed Operating System similar to UNIX. QNX was chosen because it
is a real-time POSIX certified system distributed with a full array of networking tools including
TCP/IP and UDP. The Graphical User Interface (GUI) selected for the M300 was the proprietary
Photon Micro GUI. This GUI is well supported, user friendly, efficient, and works well with the