Field-programmable instrument highlights application potential of RISC embedded controllers

By taking advantage of a RISC chip's power-efficient processing and adding modular software tools, one can make a standard application platform more versatile through readily achievable, selective customization. The challenge for developing the handheld field-programmable instrument (FPI), the design that won the 1996 EDN/Hitachi SH-1 Design Contest, was twofold: 1. to create a universal, personal-digital-assistant-like signal-processing-instrument platform that covers a range of measurements in many fields, and 2. to implement a mechanism that makes it easy to program the exact performance characteristics for specific applications.