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From £655, Integrated PXI Chassis and Controller Lowers Entry Cost for High-Performance PXI Systems

19th August 2006

NI (National Instruments)

ES Admin

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Engineers can now create a new PXI system at a significant cost savings compared to previous systems using the National Instruments PXI-1033 chassis with an integrated MXI-Express remote controller. As part of the company’s recognised aim of reducing the cost of test systems, the NI PXI-1033 chassis takes advantage of commercial off-the-shelf technology to reduce the cost required to start a PXI system. The chassis integrates PCI Express technology to offer high value and reduces costs by incorporating the MXI-Express controller in the chassis.

The new chassis offers five peripheral slots and includes a host card to control the system from either a desktop or laptop and a cable. With the integrated MXI-Express controller, engineers can achieve up to 110 MB/s sustained throughput to the host PC. The chassis’ high value and performance will bring the benefits of the fast growing, industry-standard PXI platform to an even larger group of potential applications.

“NI is committed to reducing the cost of test systems,” said Tim Dehne, NI Senior Vice President of R&D. “The new PXI-1033 integrated controller and chassis reduces our entry price for PXI by 50 percent. The PXI-1033 chassis is one of many PXI products we recently released that both lower the cost and increase the performance of PXI systems.”

With the broad adoption of PXI and more than 1,200 PXI products available today, engineers can use the new chassis to design a PXI system customised for their specific application. The PXI-1033 chassis features compact, rugged packaging as well as quiet acoustic operation, which makes it ideal for both portable and desktop ATE systems.

The PXI-1033 chassis works with all existing PXI modules including PXI data acquisition devices and modular instruments from NI. It also integrates with a variety of software including the National Instruments LabVIEW graphical development environment, LabWindows/CVI software for ANSI C development, SignalExpress interactive measurement software and NI TestStand test management software.

PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation (PXI) is an open specification governed by the PXI Systems Alliance (www.pxisa.org) that defines a rugged, CompactPCI-based platform optimised for test, measurement and control. It is supported by more than 70 member companies and more than 1,200 products are available. PXI products are compatible with the CompactPCI and CompactPCI Express industrial computer standards and offer additional features such as environmental specifications, standardised software and built-in timing and synchronisation.