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Software Description (hardware sister page) Software for digital imaging or WDS or EDS x-ray spectrum and mapping acquisition with the 4pi Spectral Engine Card consists of several pieces, each of which is shown schematically in the figure below, along with their "locations" within the overall system:
The Application Software return to top The application is the program that you launch on your desktop computer. Revolution is 4pi's cross-platform standalone application for digital image and x-ray spectrum acquisition, x-ray and WDS map collection, and qualitative and quantitative EDX analysis. Adobe Photoshop, NIH Image, and IPLab Spectrum are 3rd party applications that require 4pi plug-ins to perform imaging and mapping acquisition tasks. DTSA is a 3rd party application that requires a 4pi plug-in to perform EDS acquisition tasks. Optional Plug-in Software return to top Adobe Photoshop, NIH Image, IPLab Spectrum, and DTSA have no built-in means of acquiring data from a scientific instrument. They are primarily image or spectrum display and analysis programs. In order to use these applications to actually acquire the digital information, a plug-in is required. The plug-in is a "middle-man" responsible for mediating the acquisition of digital information. Three 4pi plug-ins allow the application and the driver to share information and communicate with the driver directly:
The plug-ins listed above are legacy software for the Macintosh platform only; Revolution communicates directly with the 4pi driver and obsoletes their use. 4pi Analysis no longer develops these plug-ins, although they maintain backward compatibility with the latest driver. The Driver Code return to top The driver is proprietary embedded code. For the Macintosh, it is in the form of an Extension which loads during the boot sequence of the computer. For Windows, the driver functionality is broken up into a DLL and a true Windows driver. The driver has three functions: 1) communicate and share information with a plug-in or application, 2) communicate and share information with the machine code running on the hardware, and 3) perform intermediate processing. The user cannot access the internal components of the driver except as allowed by the plug-in or application. The Machine Code return to top The machine code is proprietary assembly code which is executed by the on-board digital signal processors. It is completely contained within the driver, which downloads it to the hardware when the driver is initially opened during the computer boot sequence. The machine code functions only to acquire and process data from the external instrument, and then make it available to the driver. The user cannot access the machine code in any way. 4pi Software Capsule Comparison return to top The following table concisely summarizes the primary differences between the 4.4.1 plug-in architecture and the standalone Revolution application, either of which can be used with the Spectral Engine II (SEII). The links carry you to relevant sections of the on-line manuals for more information. In most cases, if a feature is supported in both the plug-ins and Revolution, the Revolution support is more sophisticated. For more detail, refer to the Revolution feature set or send e-mail to 4pi support. A comparison to the 3.0 plug-ins, used with the Spectral Engine I only and incompatible with the SEII, is included for those considering upgrades to the current system.
Notes: [0] The plug-ins depend on the operation of a 3rd party program and are limited by that program's features. Revolution is completely self-contained and can be expanded to incorporate features you request. [1] Limited multitasking does take place. For example, internet clients can continue to function in the background. [2] The DTSA plug-in can be run in the background. The imaging and x-ray plug-ins cannot. [3] New dialog box must be opened. Only one channel can be displayed at a time. No color options. [4] Line profiles are superimposed on any or all images and can be hidden. Color selectable. [5] Unimplemented in Revolution 1.4. [6] File format limited to Xraytor (ImagNSpect). [7] Selectable file format: ASCII, EMSA, Xraytor (ImagNSpect). Unimplemented in Revolution 1.4. [8] Functionality provided by and limited by DTSA. [9] Initial functionality in Revolution 1.2 is single horizontal linescan at vertical midpoint of image. Timing parameters for the linescan can be adjusted independently of the image channels. Linescans can be performed with any analog, WDS, or X-ray input. Future functionality will include arbitrarily-defined linescans and lithographic functionality. [10] Plug-in capability is limited (digital images and WDS maps can be acquired together, but WDS maps and x-ray maps cannot; in addition, only one digital image can be acquired with x-ray maps). Revolution has the capability to mix digital images, WDS maps, and X-ray maps in any combination, constrained only by the limits of computer memory and the Spectral Engine card itself. [11] The SEI has limited averaging capabilities. It pretty much always runs as fast as it can with a slow (8 µs) ADC and has only two averaging modes: 1) Read a pixel value once and move on, and 2) a pseudo-frame-average in which the pixel is read a specified number of times and averaged. The SEI does not acquire on a dwell basis. [12] v3.0 plug-ins and the SEI have no WDS capability. [13] v3.0 plug-ins allow only a restricted 1-channel or 3-channel (RGB) acquisition. v4.4.1 plug-ins and Revolution allow a fully user-configurable 1-, 2-, 3-, or 4-channel acquisition. Only Revolution provides complete configurabilty and control over multichannel digital imaging and x-ray mapping. [14] Imaging and any EDX modules must be purchased together for this capability |
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site maintainer: JH Cholera |
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last updated: July 16, 2011 |
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