Module features 96 programmable digital I/O lines

The FP-GPIO96 is said to integrate 96 buffered, programmable digital I/O lines with byte-wide and bit-wide port direction control, eight 32bit counter/timers, four 24-bit pulse-width modulation circuits with 0-100% duty cycle, and a watchdog timer with system reset capability. It interfaces to host systems via the FeaturePak host interface's high-speed PCI Express bus interface. The device is shipped in a standard configuration, based on the 'personality' pre-programmed into its on-board fpga. Alternate personalities can be downloaded from Diamond's website and programmed into the board using a Diamond-supplied software utility. The FP-GPIO96 supports -40 to 85^oC extended temperature operation. Diamond supplies a free Universal Driver software toolkit with the FP-GPIO96 digital I/O FeaturePak module, to assist in the task of supporting its data acquisition functions in applications under Linux, Windows XP, Windows Embedded Standard, and Windows Embedded CE. The toolkit also includes demo programs and example code for each supported OS. The FeaturePak specification defines tiny, application-oriented personality modules – three-fifths the size of a credit card – that snap into low cost, low profile, highly reliable sockets on single board computers (SBCs), computer-on-module (COM) baseboards, and full-custom electronic circuit boards. FeaturePak modules interface to the host system via a single low cost, high density, 230-pin connector, which carries PCI Express, USB, I2C, and several other host-interface signals, plus up to 100 points of application I/O per module. The FeaturePak host interface is CPU agnostic and is compatible with both Intel- and RISC-architecture systems. Additionally, the modules can easily be integrated into embedded designs along with Qseven, COM Express, Mobile-ITX, SUMIT, PCI/104-Express, EBX, and EPIC. For more information, visit www.featurepak.org.