A VMEbus single-board computer system with I/O interfaces provided through M-Modules™ is the base for these 3D measuring instruments used in the automotive industry, in mechanical engineering, in fine mechanics and optics as well as in development and research.

They measure smallest deviations in length, shape or surface of work pieces like gears or moulds. In the measuring process which is applied during the production of the work piece the computer is able to automatically compensate for geometric errors, vibration, temperature and pressure. By supervising and documenting the single production steps, the complete production process becomes more stable.

The axis control of the 3D devices is done with a VMEbus system based on a PowerPC® single-board computer with a 603e core running at 300MHz clock speed and offering up to 512MB working memory. The application code is stored in the on-board CompactFlash®. Besides the selection of communication channels on the CPU card, one of the M-Module™ slots is used to add another 8 UARTs to the 4 UARTs already on the CPU card. A second slot houses an M-Module™ which delivers the 32 binary inputs and outputs required for the application.