Modular and box instruments find synergy

Richard A. Quinnell, Contributing Technical Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 3/1/2011 12:00:00 AM

VON CAMPBELL Planning Manager Modular Product Operaton Agilent Technologies

Read more articles from the March 2011 Modular Instrumentation Test Report

Agilent Technologies made a major push into modular instrumentation with its September 2010 introduction of nearly 50 PXI and AXIe products. I met with Von Campbell, Agilent's planning manager, Modular Product Operation, to learn more about the company's modular initiative.

Q: What is driving Agilent's thrust into modular instrumentation?
A: Agilent is answering developers' demands for the size, speed, flexibility, and scalability that modular instruments offer. Customers are asking for instruments that can do what they want without being limited by what an instrument designer decided the customer wanted. For instance, communications test needs instrumentation that provides from 1 to N channels for testing such things as MIMO radio communications. Modular instruments are the most cost-effective way of providing exactly what such applications need. So, Agilent is now giving its customers a choice across all formats and sizes of instrumentation.

Q: What kinds of modular instruments will Agilent be offering?
A: The initial mass introduction concentrated on PXI and AXIe instruments, system hardware, and software, but Agilent will be supporting all the instrument connectivity options. This includes LXI with GPIB as a legacy port on box instruments, USB for low-end and portable instruments, and VXI legacy instruments, along with PXI, PXIe, and AXIe, of course.

Q: Does this modular drive imply a change in the box-instrument market?
A: Not at all. Box instruments will always provide more optimized measurements because instrument makers control the design's environment. The modular environment cannot guarantee the instrument designer tight control of factors such as cooling and electronic noise, so the modular instrument must typically sacrifice some precision to achieve the needed tolerance.

Also, box instruments have a built-in user interface with fixed-function knobs and buttons. For well-established measurements, this fixed interface makes the box instrument easier and quicker to set up and use. Each approach-modular and box-has its niche, and the synergy between them is something Agilent can leverage.

Q: What sort of synergy do you mean?
A: Modular instruments provide an avenue for breakthrough technologies to become available in the market more quickly than with box instruments. In return, engineers using box instruments gain the benefit of the modular field experience with the new technologies to help ensure more robust and optimized designs for key measurement applications. Meanwhile, the measurement science developed while optimizing the box instrument becomes available to the modular instrument users. This synergy benefits test engineers throughout the entire technology-adoption curve.

Q: How do you see test instrumentation evolving in the future?
A: Test engineers will have a full choice of platforms to address a variety of needs—LAN-based testing, low-cost and portable instruments, modular instruments in a range of capacities, and optimized stand-alone instruments. And we are working on making test-system software agnostic. Regardless of form factor and operating system, the same software intellectual property will be available on any type of instrument capable of performing a task. This software will be fairly fine grained, with individual measurement functions and device drivers available to mix and match to the instrument and application.