Simple PCIe FMC carrier SPEC News
Simple PCIe FMC carrier SPEC
SPEC Fan design files released
We have released the official documentation for the mezzanine cooling fan designed to fit the SPEC board. The fan design is described on this page.
Simple PCIe FMC carrier SPEC
18-12-13: Labview drivers for SPEXI and SPEC
The company INCAA has written Labview drivers for the FMC
DEL 1ns 4cha and
FMC TDC 1ns 5cha mezzanine
cards. These drivers work both for the PCIe-based SPEC
carrier and PXIe-based SPEXI
carrier board.
The source code of the drivers is
available under the GPL license.
Simple PCIe FMC carrier SPEC
16-01-2013: Production test improved
Open Hardware doesn’t stop at just having a good hardware design. We at CERN believe it is also important to provide a good production test system with the hardware to ease the manufacturing process. For this we have set up a testing environment, called PTS.
Simple PCIe FMC carrier SPEC
03-07-2012: Delivery of 52 SPEC boards
It’s getting serious now as we received at CERN four boxes with in total
52 SPEC boards from the company Seven
Solutions. All boards
are individually packed and have an LHC barcode on it that will ease us
entering the cards in our equipment database.
These boards will be used together with
ADC, Fine
Delay and
digital I/O
mezzanines, often in combination with firmware supporting White
Rabbit and therefore giving
precise time stamping of data.
Simple PCIe FMC carrier SPEC
12-06-2012: SPEC passes EMC tests
The SPEC board together with a 5 channel Digital I/O card have passed the most restrictive EMC tests of each class (domestic and industrial) successfully:
- EM Radiated Emission: Class B (Domestic) EN 55022 (2006) / A1 (2007)
- EM Immunity (Industrial): EN 61000-4-3 (2006) / A1 (2008) / A2
(2010), EN 61000-4-4 (2004) / A1 (2010) / Corr (2010), EN 61000-4-6
(2009), EN
61000-4-2 (2009), EN 61000-4-8 (2010).
The test report is publicly available.
Simple PCIe FMC carrier SPEC
25-04-2012: SPEC boards running in Siberia!
First field tests of two SPEC boards running a White Rabbit timing link between them have been made in Siberia. These tests are made by DESY to verify the usability of the board at the Gamma-Ray and Cosmic-Ray experiment HiSCORE-EA at the Tunka site. Full results of the tests will be made available soon. Two kilometres of fibre where outside, while the SPEC boards were nicely warm inside the counting room.
Simple PCIe FMC carrier SPEC
05-01-2012: 70 SPEC cards produced in 2011
In the year 2011 the company Creotech has produced and sold fifty SPEC boards. With the twenty cards from the pre-production of the seventy that CERN has ordered from the company Seven Solutions, in total seventy SPEC boards have been produced in 2011.
Simple PCIe FMC carrier SPEC
11-11-2011: 20 cards commercially produced
The pre-series of the first commercial series production of SPEC cards has succeeded. After repairing some assembly problem with the FMC connector, all twenty cards passed the test on the test bench that was prepared by CERN. The cards will be sent to CERN for a final inspection before giving the OK to produce another fifty.
Simple PCIe FMC carrier SPEC
13-10-2011: CE EMC tests will be made
CERN has placed an order for EMC testing according to EN 55022(2006) /A1(2007) + EN 55024(1998)/A1 (2001)/A2(2003). Once these tests are done, it will allow the board to carry the CE approval.