If you install a data acquisition system on Windows XP, you later can move to Windows Vista without any changes to the parts that interface with your data acquisition hardware and related software
Microstar Laboratories, maker of data acquisition processor (DAP) boards and systems, has updated, tested, and prepared for immediate shipment - as new versions - all the products you need to let you do this.
To make this happen, engineers at the company have worked with successive beta versions of software provided to them by Microsoft over the last several months, and they now have completed testing for all products with the final beta release of Windows Vista.
Onboard intelligence.
Every DAP board includes onboard intelligence: a processor running a real-time operating system.
DAP boards can communicate among themselves independently of Windows to synchronise their clocks with one another.
They then all work together as a synchronized data acquisition system not only within a single PC but also across a network.
Windows applications control the real-time operating system on each DAP board.
The updated products let your Windows applications interface with DAP boards to control the real-time operating system in exactly the same way, whether your applications are running under Windows XP or under Windows Vista.
Windows applications.
All Windows applications have to be changed to take advantage of some of the improved and new features of Windows Vista.
Microstar Laboratories offers a Windows application, Dapstudio, that lets you configure and run any number of DAP boards in a system from any PC on a network.
In practice, a wide range of applications can run under Dapstudio and need no software other than that provided by Microstar Laboratories.
Even those that do end up using other software can benefit from the use of Dapstudio in the development phase - for proof of concept.
Dapstudio uses Accel32 software (included with every DAP board) or Dapcell client/server network software (a separate product, like Dapstudio).
Accel32 and Dapcell already have been updated to run under Windows Vista.
Dapstudio - like any other Windows application that uses Accel32 or Dapcell - requires no further changes to run under Windows Vista option.
When you install Windows Vista on a PC with a 64-bit processor, you can choose to install either the 32-bit or the 64-bit edition.
The 64-bit edition may not run faster, but it does allow a large address space - and this can matter in some special applications.
The updated products described in this news release work with the 32-bit edition of Windows Vista and are available for immediate delivery.
Later updates will allow all products to work with the 64-bit edition as well.
Again, you will be able to make the change without any changes to the parts of your application that interface with your data acquisition hardware and related software, other than recompiling them (for 64-bit pointers).
