A Multiple Format Stored Program Data Acquisition System

Abstract

A multiple format telemetry system is described which is flexible enough to be adaptable to many applications. The system incorporates a flexible programmer that utilizes a non-destructive readout memory which operates in conjunction with an external index counter. Subcommutator addresses stored in memory are addressed partially by the index counter and partially by the format instruction. Multiple formats can be generated, limited only by the requirement that the sampling rates in a given format be binary multiples of the slowest sampling rate in that format. The advantage of this programmer lies in the flexibility accommodated, typically, with one or two read-only memory cycles. The remote acquisition units used in the system are flexible in that they can be configured to provide various combinations of low-level, high-level, and bi-level inputs. These units are designed primarily from two large scale integrated (LSI) metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) building blocks. One LSI circuit is a sequential multiplexer, which also functions as an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter; the other circuit is a 16- channel random access multiplexer.