Competing bus technologies continue to coexist
Vijay Mathew, Senior Measurement & Instrumentation Research Analyst www.frost.com -- Test & Measurement World, 12/1/2008 2:00:00 AM
Since the introduction of PXI in 1997 by National Instruments, several concerns have been raised by end users and suppliers about the future of VXI. Having been around for over two decades, and with more than 80 vendors offering over 1200 commercial VXI products, the VXI platform has successfully endured the test of time and continues to retain a share of the modular test market (see figure).
 Projected world market revenues by product type for the VXI/PXI test equipment market from 2008 to 2013. |
Aerospace, military, and defense continue to be the largest user segment for VXI. VXI’s large installed base in this segment is attributed to the fact that it was the first industry standard for modular instruments. As a result, it saw widespread adoption during the early 1990s. Aerospace, military, and defense industries require test equipment that can be supported over the long term, typically 15 to 20 years, to match the long life spans of military and aerospace equipment. VXI systems developed during the 1990s remain in use, and new test systems are still built around VXI, especially for high-density, high-performance, high-channel count applications in the military and aerospace market, which expects to sustain demand for VXI test equipment in the future.
In spite of VXI’s resilience, PXI is now penetrating low-end applications in the ATE (automated test equipment) and functional test and measurement areas in the aerospace, military, and defense markets. Customers are beyond the early adoption stage and are looking forward to improved functionality to address increasingly sophisticated applications. The revenues for PXI equipment are expected to more than double over the next five years.
One of the most dynamic applications for PXI is its use in the testing of complex, high-bandwidth RF applications. PXI is increasingly becoming mainstream in RF applications and has made rapid strides to penetrate the telecommunications, military, aerospace, and avionics markets. The rapid explosion of cellphones and the evolution of technologies such as WiMAX, UMTS, CDMA, TD-SCDMA, GSM, GPRS, EDGE, and LTE have offered tremendous opportunities for the PXI market, as these applications require a form factor that provides flexibility and a high price-performance ratio. In addition, the PXI Express specification provides high bandwidth to target high-speed digital applications such as video-streaming, machine-vision, and semiconductor ATE applications.
When LXI was introduced in 2005, there were concerns once again across the industry. This time around, VXI and PXI vendors are not worried about being phased out. They look to adapt and provide solutions on how to integrate these instruments into their systems. The proliferation of modular instrumentation offers an opportunity as well as a challenge to system developers. Besides, history has taught us that they will likely continue to coexist, as each technology has its own merits and is suited to different applications.
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