TIPS Real Time Acquisition, Processing and Display Subsystem

Abstract

The requirement to acquire, process, and display telemetry data from increasingly sophisticated test vehicles in real time is one of the, principal parameters that shaped the SAMTEC Telemetry Integrated Processing System (TIPS) design. An integrated subsystem incorporating advances in hardware design, linked by a multi-processor software element implementing three distinct processing functions to fill this requirement, is described in this paper. Most of the hardware elements, except the processor, were designed to meet the specific requirements of this system. This includes telemetry front-end acquisition equipment, electrostatic high speed printer plotters, plasma keyboard displays, and wide band links to transfer data from element to element. The processors are 32-bit word third generation midi-computers. Each element was selected or specified primarily for its ability to perform at the expected incoming data rates. The Real Time Acquisition (RTA) Software is partitioned into an executive function, an acquisition and event processing function, and a display processing function. Each function resides in its own specific computer configuration. The acquisition configuration (TPP) and display configuration (QLDA) are each replicated to provide multi-input stream and multiple independent display capabilities. Real time requirements, similar to those at SAMTEC, are evolving elsewhere. The hardware and software components described herein are easily adaptable to satisfy these requirements at a variety of other advanced telemetry data processing facilities.