What's the status of PXI?
C.G. Masi, Contributing Technical Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 9/1/2004
Q: Please talk about what PXI does, not from a technology standpoint but from a user's standpoint. What is its job?
Alex: PXI is used in a broad range of applications to optimize the
Alex McCarthy, outgoing marketing chair for the PXI Systems Alliance
measurement and automation of test systems. Engineers also use it in control and design applications. I believe it will be the next platform for measurement automation and will replace a combination of PCI, VXI, and what we call "big-footprint" ATE.
The main features and benefits of PXI arise from its ability to leverage the WinTel architecture in the common PC. That gives you broad acceptance, it gives you very high speed, it gives you low cost, and it gives you constant innovation.
Greg: You end up with a high-performance modular architecture where more and more powerful instrumentation can be developed continuously. It also integrates very well with existing systems.
Q: What is the state of development for PXI technology?
Greg: We've been very impressed with the growth of functionality in PXI. For example, just looking at National Instruments, we have recently released a 100-Msamples/s mixed-signal suite of instruments with 16-bit resolution as well as an RF generator.
Alex: If you look in the wider community, LeCroy has a gigasample-per-second digitizer, Ascor offers some high-bandwidth switching solutions. Pickering Interfaces has RF and optical switches, ZTec and Acqiris offer high-speed signal generators as well as digitizers, and Geotest has a line of high-speed visual digital I/O modules.
Because PXI is CompactPCI optimized for test and control, we can leverage a lot of the CompactPCI modules that are out there, which broadens the functionality of PXI even further.
The other key thing about PXI is it has a standard software model, which allows it to leverage a lot of the plug-and-play capability you get with the WinTel architecture. Finally, the burden is put on the product suppliers to provide the drivers to make integration very simple and easy for the user.
Q: What about market acceptance?
Greg: We've reached 68 PXI System Alliance members now, and there's a tremendous amount of new instrumentation being released every month, increasing the large breadth of functionality available in PXI.
Greg Caesar, incoming marketing chair for the PXI Systems Alliance
Alex: I think the biggest roadblock to PXI adoption is just awareness. People may have heard of PXI as three letters, but I don't think they really understand what it is and what it can do for them. When people see what it can do, they'll want to adopt it and put it to use.
The second big roadblock is a concern about the platform itself. Users want to see multiple vendors being successful.
What we're seeing, however, is a lot of adoption of PXI. There are good choices of vendors and the modules they can provide. We see PXI going mainstream in many application areas.
Greg: It's a very exciting time for the PXI Systems Alliance and PXI in general. It's exciting to check the Web and your e-mail every day to see what new alliance members have come in, and to see all the new product announcements.
You can learn more about the PXI Systems Alliance at its Web site: www.pxisa.org.
