Design and implementation of a client-server remote windows-based signal generator

This paper proposes the design and implementation of a client-server remote Windows-based signal generator. By using the friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI) from our implementation, users can adjust the period and amplitude of analog voltage waveforms with mouse clicks and drags. The data of the adjusted waveforms at the client computer can then be sent out to the server computer through the Internet. After this digital data is delivered to a server computer, the data is fed sequentially first into the ISA bus interface, then to the address decoder and finally to the D/A hardware, converting digital data into analog voltage waveforms, used as test signals. In this paper, we design this system by using the client-server model with the advantage of reliability, efficiency and adaptability and implement it with visual programming and very low cost interface circuits. The experimental results show that the bandwidth of the remote signal generator can reach 50KHz, which is the speed limitation of the programmable peripheral interface chip 8255.