PXI gains momentum in mil/aero industry
By Mark Morris, ADLINK Technology America -- Test & Measurement World, 9/1/2008 2:00:00 AM
 MARK MORRIS VP, ADLINK Technology America |
When sitting down to write this column, I thought back to 1997 when I worked for National Instruments and sold my first PXI system to a group of early adopters at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Although these guys were truly “rocket scientists,” I doubt even they could have foreseen the success that PXI would have. According to the PXI Systems Alliance, there are now more than 1150 PXI products on the market from upwards of 50 manufacturers. This success has accelerated the use of PXI in many areas, including both the commercial and military segments of the aerospace industry.
Because of PXI's flexibility, compact footprint, and high performance—as well as its commercial-off-the-shelf pricing—it is no surprise that the technology has become a viable choice for many mil/aero test programs. The synchronization features of PXI, such as triggering and clock sharing, are ideal for high-channel-count aerospace applications. Also, the star trigger line allows for less than 2 ns of propagation delay, and the dedicated 10-MHz system reference clock ensures device synchronization.
Existing mil/aero test platforms for USAF and NAVAIR avionics are transitioning to PXI, and many portable field and flight-line testers are now available in PXI as well. In the commercial segment, suppliers such as Teledyne Controls and Korry Electronics are using PXI systems to test products such as 787 flight-deck systems and Airbus advanced flight data-acquisition management systems.
The list of available PXI products continues to grow. Products include avionics bus interface cards, programmable power supplies, analog and digital I/O cards, arbitrary waveform generators, signal conditioners, switching cards, and chassis. Also popular are cards that link to other buses. In fact, many find it surprising that GPIB interface cards for PXI continue to be some of the most popular products sold by ADLINK.
Looking forward, PXI Express will provide the performance needed to meet the test requirements for software-defined radio, high-speed image acquisition, and high-channel-count data acquisition. In addition to significantly increased bandwidth, PXI Express provides users with software and hardware compatibility with the PXI modules deployed today, preserving the user's current investment.
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