I/O Controller; Watchdog Circuitry - Matrox Morphis QxT Installation And Hardware Reference

Hide thumbs Also See for Morphis QxT:

Table of Contents

38 Chapter 4: Hardware reference

I/O controller

The I/O controller is responsible for routing user-defined signals.

Using the I/O controller, Matrox Morphis QxT supports 16 TTL-compatible

(5 V) user-defined input signals and 16 TTL-compatible (5 V) user-defined

output signals. These signals can be used to synchronize with or control other

devices, such as a strobe light. All user-defined input signals can also generate an

interrupt.

The user-defined signals can be accessed inside the chassis from the I/O connector

of the base board, or accessed externally from the bracket of the Matrox Morphis

QxT Digital I/O module.

These user-defined signals are programmed using the MIL-Lite MsysControl()

function with

M_USER_BIT_...

For information on the electrical specification of user-defined signals, see the

section Electrical specifications in Appendix B: Technical information.

Matrox Morphis QxT integrates Watchdog circuitry to automatically recover from

application or system failure. The Watchdog circuitry automatically reboots your

computer when, for some reason, your computer hangs for longer than a pre-set

amount of time.

The Watchdog circuitry works based on several integrated timers. When the

Watchdog circuitry is enabled, it must receive a reset signal from the user

application within the time specified by a timer. Every time the signal is received,

the Watchdog circuitry resets this timer. If, however, the Watchdog circuitry does

not receive a reset signal for a period longer than the time allotted by this timer,

it will either send a warning interrupt signal or a hardware signal to reboot the

computer, depending on the timer.

Table of Contents