A virtual instrumentation lab based on a reconfigurable coprocessor

Nowadays, measurement instrument design requires more flexible hardware platforms. This paper describes a new platform, based on a reconfigurable coprocessor, for the design of virtual instruments. This coprocessor uses an FPGA (field programmable gate array) as the processing unit and a USB serial bus as the interface with a personal computer. The main characteristics of this system are the low complexity and cost of the hardware components and the versatility of the coprocessor, due to the dynamic reconfiguration capacity of the FPGA. Moreover, this platform is complete with one or more expansions cards, including adequate peripherals for the signal adaptation and conversion. As an example, this paper shows the methodology for developing a basic instrumentation laboratory.