A Data Acquisition Reconfigurable Coprocessor for Virtual Instrumentation Applications

Virtual instruments intended for electronic circuits verification arose from the combination of computers supporting advanced graphical interfaces with data acquisition systems providing input/output capabilities. In order to increase the versatility and the operation rate of virtual instruments, we have designed several data acquisition/generation modules based on reconfigurable hardware. By this way, not only the software modules but also the hardware functions are dynamically changed according to the requirements of each specific instrument. The main basis of the software and hardware levels of reconfigurable virtual instruments are described in this paper. This methodology summarize our experience in the design of virtual instrumentation platforms oriented to different measurement applications. Finally, a new data acquisition/generation coprocessor based on FPGAs and optimized for the implementation of portable instruments is described.