What is an A/D Board?

First, A/D is an abbreviation for analog to digital. Therefore, an A/D board is a basic analog-to-digital converter coupled with an interface that allows a personal computer to control the actions of the board, as well as to capture the digital output information from the converter. These boards are designed to plug directly into a personal computer's bus. All the power required for the A/D converter and associated interface components is obtained directly from the PC bus.

Today an A/D board is more than a simple A/D function on a board. A data acquisition board can offer measurements of up to 64 channels at a resolution of 16 bits, (one part in 65,536) with data throughput rates up to 20 million samples per second. A/D boards often include discrete digital bi-directional I/O lines, counter timers, and D/A converters for outputting analog signals for control applications.

A/D boards designed for high-performance will work in a very wide range of test and measurement, and control applications. Combined with powerful software, an A/D board will turn a personal computer into a powerful measurement system that may be used to automate experiments, construct product test stands, monitor and control production equipment, or be embedded in products ranging from medical monitoring systems to automobile test simulators.

A/D boards convert analog signals into a digital output form, which can be manipulated with software. Using software in conjunction with a personal computer, analog data can be displayed, logged, charted, graphed, or stored in memory as needed.

Stored data can later be used and compared with a set of established limits. Control decisions are made if the stored data is at the limit, above or below the limit. With repetitive measurements made by an A/D board, continuous monitoring and control can be performed.

Measurement Computing Corporation offers the largest selection of PC-based data acquisition and measurement products. Shop our online catalog by selecting a category above. From PCI, USB, PC/104, ISA, and PCMCIA bus to RS-232, RS-422, RS-485, and GPIB interfaces; Measurement Computing has everything you need for your PC-based data acquisition and control applications.