PXI-Based Hybrid Test Systems Nick Hickford UK Sales Manager, Pickering Interfaces

Background PXI is an extremely versatile and scalable platform, but there are some things that other T&M standards can do “better”. How can you extend the flexibility & performance of your PXI test system by combining multiple standards to get the best of all worlds ?

Agenda Complementary T&M Standards PXI LXI USB Refresher on each standard PXIe Chassis Hybrid Slots PXI Pros & Cons Hybrid Systems Example of PXI/USB Hybrid Implementation

Complementary Industry Standards GPIB LXI USB Mechanical/Electrical/Software PXI Electrical/Software

PXI Combines Standard Technologies CompactPCICompactPCI PCIPCI Mechanical Software Electrical

CompactPCI puts PC technology in a small, rugged package by combining three industry standards: PCI bus (PC industry) Eurocard packaging (VME, VXI) IEC Connectors (Telecoms) PXI Mechanical 3U 6U

PC Motherboard => Controller + Backplane PC Motherboard with 4 PCI slots PXI/CompactPCI Embedded Controller Or Remote Controller Interface PXI/CompactPCI 8-slot or Larger Backplane

Trigger Bus (8 TTL Triggers) System Controller Peripheral 10 MHz CLK 132 Mb/s, 33 MHz, 32-bit Computer Bus Star Trigger Controller Star Trigger Local Bus Electrical Extensions PXI timing, triggering & local bus added to chassis backplane

PXI Express PCI shared bus replaced by shared switch, providing each PXIe module with dedicated data pipeline Data sent serially through pairs of Tx & Rx “lanes” with 250MB/s bandwidth per direction per lane Multiple lanes can be grouped together to increase bandwidth, eg x16 = 4GB/s Gen2 doubles this data transfer rate Additional Timing & Syncronization facilities Same S/W driver and OS model as PXI

PXI / PXIe Module Connectors 64-bit PCI and ½ Local Bus 3U PXI J1 J2 32-bit PCI 3U PXIe XP3 – x8 PCIe & Sync XP4 PXI Timing/Sync & ½ Local Bus

PXI Express chassis with PXI compatibility PXI Express Hybrid Slot Slots

PXI Express Hybrid slot compatibility 64-bit PCI and ½ Local Bus

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PXI – Pros Supporting wide variety of functions / applications Just look at the Exhibition ! High Performance In many cases rivalling Bench-top instruments Scalability Compact footprint Portability with embedded controller Real time applications Very tight integration with the system controller Lower Cost System Compared to Bench-top Instruments

PXI - Cons Ultimate parametric performance PXI is limited by module size and lack of control of module interaction Supporting large components / solutions PXI implementations can be cumbersome and not very cost effective Module front panel area limited for I/O Supporting High I/V/W PXI chassis thermal limitations and module size Control at a distance Instrumentation separated from chassis Lowest Cost PXI module infrastructure carries a cost penalty

LXI Combines Standard Technologies Electrical Ethernet/LAN Trigger Bus IEEE1588 Time Sync Software Discovery Tools Web Browser LAN eXtensions for Instrumentation - LXI is only T&M standard requiring Conformance Testing

But No Standard Form Factor

Standardisation bodies comparison Top Level Members Pickering Interfaces Aeroflex Geotest National Instruments Gigatronics Adlink Agilent Teradyne +46 other companies Top Level Members Pickering Interfaces Agilent Rohde and Schwarz +49 other companies Systems Alliance

Supporting Large Components 4x4 Microwave Matrix PXI 10 PXI slots for one matrix 4/5U High 4x4 Microwave Matrix LXI 2U for single or dual 4x4 matrices In this case driven by the large physical size of microwave switches

Supporting Large Solutions RF Matrix built up in PXI Multiple 12x8 matrix modules Single entity Matrix in LXI Integrated 48x8 matrix Issue in PXI is number of external interconnections and S/W management

Supporting High I/V/W applications PXI 1000V 10A 60W LXI

Control at a Distance LXI is distributed Intelligent boxes with built in processing capability Exchange message based instructions Capability for multiple controllers and peer to peer operation as well as master slave

USB Pros Low-cost, portable, scalable Powered via USB connection Universally available interface Plug & Play device recognition If VISA driver & instrument support USBTMC protocol, programming is same as GPIB (SCPI) Useful with USB to GPIB converter High data rate – USB 2.0 is 480Mbit/s

USB Cons Not designed to work in noisy environments No automatic restoration of a disconnected device USB cables have no locking mechanism Max cable length of 5m without amplification For large instrument count, physically distributed and/or high reliability test system applications, LXI is a better choice than USB.

USB Instrumentation Allows low-cost, small, portable USB test equipment to supplement the PXI test system Agilent, R&S, Boonton power meters Pico, Agilent USB scopes USB Data Acquisition

Hybrid Systems Aggregate systems having a mixture of different I/Fs RS232, GPIB, USB, PXI, LAN.... Hybrid systems Adaptors provide a gateway from a host platform to alternative interfaces PXI adaptors available for Serial GPIB Ethernet USB

PXI USB Hub Allows USB test devices & instrumentation to be be connected to the PXI chassis Leaves controller USB ports free for other use Protects controllers from defective USB devices Allows USB devices to be disconnected under program control Stream data directly from PXI controller (remote or embedded) to a USB device using the vendor driver

Control USB Devices & Instrumentation

PXI USB Hub USB to GPIB Adapter USB to LAN Adapter

PXI, LXI & USB comparison The standards are quite different PXI focus is a central processing model based on the PC using mechanically defined instruments on a very high speed bus Just like any other card you might insert in a PC LXI & USB focus is on a distributed system using intelligent boxes of any size communicating by a message based interface over a fast bus Some similarity to GPIB but with more options Their individual strengths can be utilised to very good effect in a Hybrid Test System

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