Learn to apply LXI instrumentation
Rick Nelson, Chief Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 12/1/2005 2:00:00 AM
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Figure 1. Instruments with multiple types of interfaces can help smooth the transition to hybrid systems employing LXI. Courtesy of Agilent Technologies. |
The LXI (LAN eXtensions for Instrumentation) Consortium—founded by Agilent Technologies and VXI Technology in September 2004 and joined by Keithley Instruments a month later—is entering its second year with more than three dozen members, who are beginning to introduce LXI-compatible instruments that you can integrate into existing test systems. In an October 19 Webcast (Ref. 1), representatives of the consortium's founding members explained why you might want to use LXI and how you can start to do so. (You can view the archived Webcast at www.tmworld.com/webcasts.)
Scott Sampl, VP and GM of the Electronic Products and Solutions Group's System Products Division at Agilent Technologies, described LXI as a high-performance, compact, modular architecture that would ease the transition from R&D to manufacturing test by providing hardware and software compatibility. He described triggering and synchronization capabilities that would enable distributed test, with message-based triggering providing millisecond triggering accuracy and time-based triggering providing 10- to 100-ns triggering accuracy among globally distributed instruments. The standard also supports event-based triggering among instruments located close to each other.
Sampl noted that during the transition to LXI, it's wise to choose instrumentation with various interfaces (Figure 1) to help ensure compatibility with legacy equipment.
Jon N. Semancik, corporate marketing and business development manager for VXI Technology, described LXI as a natural fit for distributed data acquisition, with LXI supporting device connections over 100 m point-to-point, over 200 m with a router/switch, and over several kilometers using fiber.
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| Figure 2. A data-acquisition system employing LXI technology provided 6000 channels of strain-gage measurements for a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. A single Ethernet control device enables acquisition. |
Semancik described an application in which LXI equipment monitored strain gages located throughout a Boeing 787 Dreamliner (Figure 2). The application employed LXI trigger hubs and strain-gage conditioning and measurement instruments to monitor 6000 channels using hardware triggering.
Paul Franklin, a manager at Keithley Labs, provided a long-term look at LXI. He noted that in conjunction with the IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol standard, LXI will provide for precise synchronization and uniform time stamps.
Franklin cited several reasons why he believes LXI will avoid obsolescence, which he said occurs when something faster, better, and cheaper comes along or when the market served is too small to sustain the technology. LXI, he said, embodies the open, widely accepted Ethernet LAN standard; it serves a large market that is attractive to suppliers; new implementations will be backward compatible or support a simple and low-cost migration path; it avoids a rigid physical format that will allow packaging to evolve without devaluing the standard; and it focuses on interfaces, not implementations.
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