Press Release May 2024

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High-level object-oriented Python packagefor Digitizers and Generators
Spectrum Instrumentation presents versatile Python programming for all its 200+ products
Grosshansdorf, Germany – 15. May 2024. Spectrum Instrumentation presents a new open-source Python package (“spcm”)
that is now available for the current line of all Spectrum Instrumentation test and measurement products. The new package
makes the programming of all 200+ instruments, offering sampling rates from 5 MS/s to 10 GS/s, faster and easier. Python,
popular for its simplicity, versatility and flexibility, boasts an extensive collection of libraries and frameworks (such as
NumPy) that significantly accelerates programming development cycles. The new spcm package allows users to take fulladvantage of the Python language by providing a high-level Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) interface that is
specifically designed for the Spectrum Instrumentation Digitizer, AWG and Digital I/O products. It includes the full sourcecode as well as a number of detailed examples. Available on GitHub, spcm is free of charge under the MIT license.
Spectrum’s Python package safely handles the automatic opening and closing of cards, groups of cards and Ethernet
instruments, as well as the allocation of memory fortransferring data to and from these devices. All the device
specific functionality is capsulated in easy-to-use classes.
This includes clock and trigger settings, hardware channel
settings, card synchronization, direct memory access(DMA) and product features such as Block Averaging, DDS
and Pulse Generator.
The package supports the use of real-world physicalquantities and units (e.g. “10 MHz”) enabling the user todirectly program driver settings in their preferred unitsystem. This removes the need for tedious manual
conversions to cryptic API settings. Moreover, thispackage also includes support for calculations withStraightforward programming for 200+ Digitizer, AWG andNumPy and Matplotlib, allowing the user to handle data
Digital I/O products thanks to the new Python package
coming from, or going to, the products with the vast
toolbox provided by those packages. Detailed examples can be found in the GitHub repository.
Installing the package is easy, thanks to its availability in the pip repository. Simply install Python and then the package witha single command: $ pip install spcm
Users can include the Spectrum Instrumentation Python package in their own programs, or fork to the repository to add morefunctionality. The package is directly maintained by Spectrum engineers and updates are released regularly offering bug-fixes
and new features.
The example in the photo shows the opening of the first analog-output card (AWG) and programming of a simple 10 MHz
sine-wave output using the DDS option.
The Spectrum Python repository is found under: https://github.com/SpectrumInstrumentation/spcm
About Spectrum Instrumentation
Spectrum Instrumentation, founded in 1989, uses a unique modular concept to design and produce a wide range of morethan 200 digitizers and generator products as PC-cards (PCIe and PXIe) and stand-alone Ethernet units (LXI). In over 30 years,
Spectrum has gained customers all around the world, including many A-brand industry-leaders and practically all prestigious
universities. The company is headquartered near Hamburg, Germany, known for its 5-year warranty and outstanding support
that comes directly from the design engineers. More information about Spectrum can be found at www.spectruminstrumentation.com

Headquarters

US OfficeSpectrum Instrumentation GmbH, Germany
Phone: +49 4102-6956-0
Email: Info@spec.de

Spectrum Instrumentation Corp., USA
Phone: (201) 562-1999
Email: Sales@spectrum-instrumentation.com

https://www.spectrum-instrumentation.com