Holt Integrated Circuits introduced a new Application Programming Interface (API) for its MIL-STD-1553 integrated terminal devices, HI-6130 and HI-2130. The API applies a standardized set of functions for configuration, control, status, and interrupt processing, isolating the programmer from low-level register, RAM and discrete I/O transactions operating in the background.

The API currently supports two platforms, namely IAR Systems Embedded Workbench for ARM® for embedded MCU control and Windows 7, Microsoft Visual Studio® 2012 for PCI Express PC add-in card. Application development kits (ADKs) are provided as a development tool to support each platform:

The ADK-6130-2 uses an ARM Cortex M3 MCU which connects to Holt’s HI-6130 MIL-STD-1553 terminal via a 16-bit parallel bus. The board includes 128Kx16 static RAM and 128Mx16 NAND Flash to support a file management system administered by the ARM MCU, enabling development of fully-capable MIL-STD-1553 terminal products. A compiled API library file is provided, containing the board support interface and drivers. The API software provides tools for buffer management, for loading and offloading RAM buffers in the HI-6130 protocol device.
The ADK-6130PCIe board directly plugs into any Personal Computer PCI Express expansion slot, even “x1 single-lane”. A PCIe bridge IC supports communications between the PC local bus and board-mounted HI-6130 device. The API library supports C/C++ applications running on the Windows 7 operating system and example C programs developed using Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 are also included.

Future releases will include support for Linux and VxWorks® along with expansion to include support for Holt’s serial host interface terminal products (HI-6131, HI-6121).

“Holt continues to release additional development tools in support of its highly integrated MIL-STD-1553 ICs,” said Anthony Murray, Director of Business Development at Holt. “Our Applications Programming Interface for MIL-STD-1553 terminal devices enables customers to write application specific code using an industry familiar function set, without the need for familiarization with low-level register and RAM operations specific to our devices.”

Both application development kits, ADK-6130-2 and ADK-6130PCIe, along with the API software library are available directly from Holt on request.