An Easy Move to Vista from XP

By DE Editors

After engineers at Microstar Laboratories, Inc. (Bellevue, WA) worked with successive beta versions of Windows Vista software, the company has announced that its data acquisition processor (DAP) boards or systems can now be installed on Windows XP, and that the user can later move an application to Vista without any changes to the parts of the application that interface with the data acquisition hardware and related software.

Every DAP board includes onboard intelligence — a processor running a real-time operating system. DAP boards can communicate and work as a synchronized data acquisition system not only within a single PC but also across a network. Windows applications control the real-time operating system on each DAP board.

The updated products let your Windows applications interface with DAP boards in exactly the same way, whether your applications are running under Windows XP or under Windows Vista.

Microstar Laboratories offers a Windows application, DAPstudio, that lets you configure and run any number of DAP boards in a system from any PC on a network. DAPstudio uses Accel32 software, which is included with every DAP board, or DAPcell client/server network software, which is a separate product. Accel32 and DAPcell have been updated to run under Windows Vista. DAPstudio, like any other Windows application that uses Accel32 or DAPcell, requires no further changes to run under Windows Vista.

The updated products described in this news release work with the 32-bit edition of Windows Vista and are available for immediate delivery. Later updates will allow all products to work with the 64-bit edition as well.

For more information, visit mstarlabs.com.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.