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Abstract

A data acquisition (DAQ) system and method which includes an improved event architecture. The DAQ device includes event logic coupled to receive one or more external or internal events from event sources. The event logic comprises one or more event selectors and one or more event mappers. The event selectors and event mappers receive event signals from event sources and selectively route the event signals to one or more destinations, also referred to as destination hardware elements. The destinations are operable to perform an action in response to receipt of the selected event signal. The event architecture of the present invention is designed to take advantage of both the flexibility of the traditional computer interrupt architecture and the speed of direct hardware mapping. At its essence, the hardware architecture comprises a mini, hardware, interrupt service routine. Hardware events or triggers are mapped to a set of board-level Events which are similar to the traditional idea of an interrupt. These hardware Events can then be mapped to cause a wide variety of direct hardware or software actions, similar to the traditional interrupt service routine, with the exception that the hardware events can be made to cause a wide variety of real-time or deterministic responses because no host processing is required.

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First Claim