Readme.txt ---------- ATS9870 Install Disk for Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows XP x64, Vista 32 bit and Vista 64 bit Version 5.7.20 Release date: September 23, 2010 1. What is ATS9870 Install Disk ? ATS9870 Install Disk provides device drivers and DLLs required to operate the ATS9870 1 GS/s 2-channel, 8-bit PCI Express Digitizer under Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows XP x64, Vista 32 bit and Vista 64 bit operating systems. ATS9870 Install Disk also includes a free license of AlazarDSO application program that allows you to setup one or more ATS9870 cards, acquire and view analog signals and save the data to disk. Note that AlazarDSO is available as a 32 bit application as well as a true 64 bit application. If you run the 32 bit AlazarDSO on a PC running 64-bit Windows, it will use the WOW DLL and 64 bit driver. If you run the 64 bit AlazarDSO on a PC running 64-bit Windows, it will use the 64 bit DLL and 64 bit driver. Windows does not allow 64 bit AlazarDSO to run on a 32 bit operating system. ******************************************************************** ******************************************************************** 2. Requirements One of the following operating systems: Windows 2000 Windows XP Windows XP x64 Windows Vista 32 bit Windows Vista 64 bit Also note that ATS9870 does not work under Windows 98/SE, as this operating system does not support overlapped IO. 3. How to install ATS9870 drivers Run Setup.exe program before installing the hardware. Insert the card in a vacant PCI Express slot. Follow the instructions listed in the ATS9870 User Guide. 4. How to install AlazarDSO Navigate to the appropriate AlazarDSO folder (32 bit or 64 bit) on the ATS9870 Install Disk. Run Setup.exe. Follow instructions on the screen. 5. Please send your questions, suggestions and bug reports to support@alazartech.com 6. The latest version of ATS9870 Install Disk can always be found at http://www.alazartech.com/support/downloads.htm 7. What is new in this version? Version 5.7.1 ------------- This is the first officially released version of software drivers for ATS9870. Version 5.7.2 ------------- Version 5.7.2 is highly recommended to be used with firmware version 31 or higher. Older firmware versions do not include an error correction circuit (ECC) that is required by the ADC chip. Without this ECC, signal integrity can be compromised. Version 5.7.2 driver disables Gray code data output from the ADC chip. This is done because the ADC manufacturer plans to remove this option from future versions of silicon. Version 5.7.2 adds ADMA_GET_PROCESSED_DATA flag to AdmaFlags in AlazarBeforeAsyncRead. Setting this flag allows AlazarGetNextAsyncBuffer (used by LabVIEW vi's) to copy data into the user buffer in a consistent format. Note, however, that this involves data manipulation by the CPU, so data intensive applications may prefer to use raw data buffers and interpret them accordingly. Version 5.7.3 ------------- Version 5.7.3 adds AlazarReadEx to allow 64-bit "trigger offset" values for the ATS9870 boards with more than 2G samples per channel of on-board memory. Version 5.7.3 fixes a bug in which a value written to the analog CPLD may result in AlazarStartCapture returning ApiPllNotLocked error. Version 5.7.4 ------------- Version 5.7.4 modifies AlazarWaitAsyncBufferComplete() to return ApiBufferOverflow rather than ApiFailed when it detects a buffer overflow error. This is particularly important improvement for LabVIEW vi's. Version 5.7.5 ------------- Version 5.7.5 adds disk streaming API, whereby all streaming operations are handled by the AlazarTech DLL. Version 5.7.5 changes AlazarWaitNextAsyncBufferComplete() to not copy data back to user buffer, if buffer length is zero. Previous versions required that both the buffer be zero and NULL. This was problematic in environments such as LabVIEW. Version 5.7.5 changes AlazarSetExternalTrigger() to disable support for AC-coupled external trigger. The value it now returns is ApiNotSupportedThisChannel. Version 5.7.5 properly supports "10 MHz PLL" external clock mode. Previous versions did not setup the "10 MHz PLL" properly. Version 5.7.6 ------------- Version 5.7.6 adds AlazarConfigureAuxIo function to allow applications to setup the AUX I/O. Version 5.7.6 fixes a bug in continuous streaming where AlazarWaitAsyncBufferComplete would fail with ApiWaitTimeout unless AlazarSetRecordSize was called before calling AlazarStartCapture. Version 5.7.8 ------------- Version 5.7.8 driver supports the version C silicon of the ADC chip used on ATS9870. In this version, driver automatically detects the silicon version and sets timing parameters so data can be acquired correctly irrespective of the silicon version. Previous driver versions would have set timing parameters for version B silicon, which has now been discontinued by the manufacturer. If an older driver were used with version C silicon, user may have seen glitches on one or both channels. Version 5.7.10 - 2010-03-31 --------------------------- Version 5.7.10 adds AlazarErrorToText to convert return code to strings. Version 5.7.10 adds AlazarHyperDispEx to work with 64-bit transfer offsets. Version 5.7.10 modifies AlazarHyperDispEx to check FPGA version of PCIe devices for HyperDisp support and retun ApiUnsupportedCommand if it is not available with the FPGA version. The ATS9870 requires FPGA version 34.13 Version 5.7.10 fixes a bug where AlazarStartCapture may return ApiNotSupportedInDualChannelMode with continuous AutoDMA transfers. Version 5.7.10 adds AlazarSetExternalClockLevel function to allow setting the external clock comparator level. This function replaces using AlazarSetParameterUL with the SEND_DAC parameter. Version 5.7.11 - 2010-04-21 --------------------------- Version 5.7.11 adds support to AlazarGetNextAsyncBuffer with the ADMA_GET_PROCESSED flag to return an array 32-bit signed data from ATS9870 boards with autocorrelation firmware. Version 5.7.12 - 2010-05-20 --------------------------- Version 5.7.12 fixes a bug that caused AlazarHyperDisp to return ApiUnsupportedFunction even if supported by the firmware. Version 5.7.20 - 2010-09-23 --------------------------- Version 5.7.20 hardware version 1.3 supports 50 or 300 ohm external trigger impedance. Version 5.7.20 adds SET_EXT_TRIG_IMPEDANCE to AlazarSetParameter to control external trigger impedance. Version 5.7.20 fixes a bug introduced in version 5.7.18 of the DLL (ATSApi.dll) that might generate an ApiDmaInProgress error from AlazarReadEx if it was called after calling AlazarAbortAsyncRead. Version 5.7.20 fixes a bug in the DLL (ATSApi.dll) that would cause AlazarBeforeAsyncRead to return ApiLockAndProbePagesFailed if the ADMA_ALLOC_BUFFERS flag was set and the number of buffers was increased since the last call to AlazarBeforeAsyncRead.