1. A method, comprising: receiving a signal from a cantilever part of an atomic force microscope into a digital circuit and carrying out at least one digital operation in said digital circuit, where said digital circuit includes both a digital signal processor, and a field programmable gate array, each of said digital signal processor and said field programmable gate array carrying out digital operations on the signal from the cantilever part, at a first time, carrying out a first digital operation on the signal from the cantilever part in the digital signal processor, and carrying out at least a second digital operation on the signal from the cantilever part in the field programmable gate array; at a second time, reprogramming operations carried out by the digital signal processor, so that at said second time, carrying out said second digital operation on the signal from the cantilever part in the digital signal processor, and carrying out at least said first digital operation on the signal from the cantilever part in the field programmable gate array; and based on said digital operations, sending at least a position correcting signal out from the digital circuit to the cantilever part.