Digital TestScale I/O module capabilities are determined by the type of digital signals that the module is capable of measuring or generating.

  • Serial digital TestScale I/O modules are designed for signals that change slowly and are accessed by software-timed reads and writes.
  • Parallel digital TestScale I/O modules are for signals that change rapidly and are updated by either software-timed or hardware-timed reads and writes.

Serial digital modules have more than eight lines of digital input/output. They can be used in any backplane I/O module slot and can perform the following tasks:

  • Software-timed and hardware-timed digital input/output tasks

Parallel digital modules can be used in any backplane I/O module slot and can perform the following tasks:

  • Software-timed and hardware-timed digital input/output tasks
  • Counter/timer tasks (can be used in up to two slots)
  • Accessing PFI signal tasks (can be used in up to two slots)
  • Filter digital input signals

Software-timed and hardware-timed digital input/output tasks have the following restrictions:

  • You cannot use parallel and serial modules together on the same hardware-timed task.
  • You cannot use serial modules for triggering.
  • You cannot do both static and timed tasks at the same time on a single serial module.
  • You can only do hardware timing in one direction at a time on a serial bidirectional module.