Speedy Programmable Controller Delivers High-Performance I/O

July 28, 2010
The PDQ Board™ is a fast I/O-rich single board computer that dramatically cuts the cost of data acquisition and control. It packs 1 megabyte of memory, communications, dozens of analog and digital I/O lines, and dual expansion I/O buses onto a compact 2.5" x 4" low-cost board.The PDQ Board is ideal for instrumentation, industrial control, automation, and data acquisition.The PDQ Board sports a Motorola 68HCS12 processor, dozens of analog and digital I/O lines plus versatile serial communications links. It delivers 8 digital I/O lines with counter/timer capabilities, 8 pulse-width modulated (PWM) digital output signals, and 8 general purpose digital I/O lines. Additional I/O includes sixteen analog inputs with 10-bit resolution, dual RS232/485 ports with speeds to 256 KBaud, and synchronous SPI and IIC serial interfaces. Any of the digital I/O ports can be configured for general purpose I/O, and the analog input lines can be configured as digital inputs. An optional battery-backed real-time clock reports the time and date.The PDQ Board can directly host up to 8 I/O mezzanine modules called Wildcards that can be mixed-and-matched depending on the application. The easy-to-use Wildcards stack onto the dual 24 pin Wildcard connectors on the PDQ Board.Wildcards implement a wide variety of user interface, communications, data acquisition and control capabilities. Available Wildcards include Ethernet, GPS, octal 12-bit D/A and 16-bit A/D converters, a 24-bit resolution analog data acquisition subsystem, Compact Flash card mass memory interface, USB, fast buffered RS232/485 dual UART, high voltage/high current isolated I/O, and AC or DC solid state relays. OEM can select the Wildcards that meet their needs to configure a cost-effective customized controller for numerous applications.