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A modular plug-in instrumentation system for enabling a personal computer to perform instrumentation functions, including receiving analog and digital signals from an external device and transmitting analog and digital signals to an external device, includes a carrier module pluggable into a bus of

A modular plug-in instrumentation system for enabling a personal computer to perform instrumentation functions, including receiving analog and digital signals from an external device and transmitting analog and digital signals to an external device, includes a carrier module pluggable into a bus of the personal computer, and also includes an internal instrumentation bus into which a plurality of different interchangeable instrument modules can be plugged. The instrumentation bus includes a digital portion, and also includes a segmented analog portion that is extendable merely by plugging instrumentation modules into bus connectors which span gaps between the analog bus segments. Analog and/or digital signals are communicated between various instrument modules and external devices by means of cables connected to the instrument modules. The carrier module includes interface circuitry that buffers, reconfigures, and synchronizes digital data from the personal computer bus to be compatible with the digital portion of the instrumentation bus. One embodiment of the carrier module includes a microprocessor system and a dual port memory which allows simultaneous execution of different programs by the carrier module and the personal computer.

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An instrumentation system, for connection to a connector of a digital bus of a host computer, comprising in combination: (a) a carrier module having a host computer digital bus connector for mating with said digital bus connector; (b) an instrumentation bus disposed on said carrier module, said inst

An instrumentation system, for connection to a connector of a digital bus of a host computer, comprising in combination: (a) a carrier module having a host computer digital bus connector for mating with said digital bus connector; (b) an instrumentation bus disposed on said carrier module, said instrumentation bus including a digital portion and a segmented analog portion; (c) a plurality of instrument module connectors electrically connected to said instrumentation bus, said digital portion of said instrumentation bus including a plurality of conductors each coupled to a corresponding terminal conductor of a respective one of said instrument module connectors, each segment of said segmented analog portion of said instrumentation bus including an analog bus segment connector connected to a respective input terminal conductor of one of said instrument module connectors and a respective output terminal conductor of another one of said instrument module connectors; (d) interface circuit means coupled to said host computer digital bus connector and to said digital portion of said instrumentation bus for reconfiguring and/or reformatting digital data received from one of said digital bus of said host computer on said digital portion of said instrumentation bus and outputting the reconfigured and/or reformatted digital data to the other of said digital bus of said host computer and said digital portion of said instrumentation bus; and (e) a plurality of instrument module means, each plugged into a respective one of said instrument module connectors, for receiving an analog signal from a conductor of one segment of said segmented analog bus portion, and transmitting a modified version of that analog signal to another conductor of another segment of said segmented analog portion, each instrument means including means for operating on its received analog signal to produce the modified version.