How PXI fuels test's recovery

An exclusive interview with a technical leader.

By Larry Maloney, Contributing Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 7/1/2010 12:00:00 AM

LOOFIE GUTTERMAN President Geotest—Marvin Test Systems Irvine, CA Co-founder of Geotest—Marvin Test Systems, Loofie Gutterman has more than 25 years of experience in the test and measurement industry. During his tenure with the company, he has served as VP of systems engineering, COO, and now president. His experience in the development of commercial and military test instruments, as well as turnkey solutions, paved the way for Geotest's growth in the PC- and PXI-based product markets. Prior to joining Geotest, Gutterman held several positions with RSi, including program manager, COO, and technical director. Gutterman also serves as the president of the PXI Systems Alliance. Contributing editor Larry Maloney recently interviewed Loofie Gutterman by phone about developments in PXI and other test industry trends. Read the continuation of this interview, where Gutterman discusses other PXI technologies, including boundary-scan capabilities. Read past Viewpoint columns at www.tmworld.com/viewpoint.

Q: What advantages do PXI test systems give cost-conscious companies as they recover from the recession?
A: PXI has always been a cost-effective solution for functional test. There are two reasons for this. First, PXI leverages the production volumes of both PCI and PCI Express. That allows us to offer products with excellent performance at very competitive prices versus other standards. Second, PXI is a modular standard, and the infrastructure—such as the controller and power supplies—is distributed among system resources.

Q: Are you suggesting that PXI has become the de facto standard for automated test systems?
A: We believe so. In almost any market that requires a new tester, PXI usually turns out to be the solution, or at least part of the solution. For example, Geotest has developed a line of products called GBATS (Geotest Basic Automated Test System), which are preconfigured testers. We took that step after finding that many customers were taking our chassis and PXI modules, as well other vendors' PXI modules, and creating complete test systems based only on the PXI standard. In other cases, you see companies using hybrid systems that combine PXI with LXI, VXI, GPIB, or USB. Even military testers, once based only on the VXI platform, now include a mix of VXI and PXI technology. The same is true in the area of proprietary ATE (automated test equipment) for the semiconductor industry, where testers are beginning to incorporate PXI architecture.

Q: How would you assess the growth of PXI Express?
A: PXI Express was developed to address applications requiring a wide bandwidth, with massive data transfer between the controller and the instrument, and PXI Express has become quite successful in those instances. If you are building a simpler tester, say one with a chassis and a few switching cards and analog instruments, you probably don't need PXI Express. However, we're noticing a trend in which some customers are buying a PXI Express chassis not for current testing applications but for applications that may surface down the road.

Q: Are there any new features in your ATEasy test development software?
A: The new release, ATEasy 8.0, offers much greater ease in testing multiple UUTs (units under test) simultaneously. You can take one test program and run it multiple times, either concurrently or sequentially. This saves substantially on the amount of code you would otherwise have to develop to test multiple units. The second major feature in the new release is expanded capability in ATML (Automatic Test Markup Language), the emerging standard for interfacing test system components.

Q: What other significant new products have been introduced in recent months?
A: An important one is the new GX5295, a 3U, high-performance digital test card that has a per-pin PMU (parametric measurement unit). It's not just a digital card with 32 channels, allowing you to run test vectors to the UUT. You can also conduct analog measurements using each of the channels. This card is targeted mainly for semiconductor test, and beta sites have been using it in applications like analog characterization of digital chips. Essentially, this card allows you to test your devices for both AC and DC parameters.