3U PXI Controllers Serve as Hybrid Testing System

The era of multifunction boards is upon us, and it’s moved into the military test realm too. PXI, LXI, GPIB, USB and Serial instruments can now be controlled with the same controller hardware. With exactly that in mind, ADLINK Technology offers two 3U PXI controllers: the PXI-3920 (Pentium M 760) and PXI-3910 (Celeron M 760). Both the PXI-3920/3910 are designed to be the core of a hybrid testing system: able to control bench-top instruments through different interfaces–including LXI, GPIB, USB and serial–by integrating multiple I/O interfaces.

The PXI-3920/3910 is the first 3U PXI controller to incorporate dual Gbit Ethernet ports. This feature allows the use of one port for LAN connectivity while the other port provides determinative bandwidth and latency for the connection with LXI instruments. The PXI-3920/3910 also provides a GPIB port, four USB 2.0 ports, and two serial ports for controlling instruments using these interfaces. The PXI-3920/3910 is designed to maximize stability and durability. The cable-free mechanical construction and onboard soldered CPU and memory chips, in conjunction with a solid-state disk drive, both enable the PXI-3920/3910 cards to withstand vibrations up to 6 Grms during operation and allow it to be used in harsh environments such as in vehicle and avionic applications.

ADLINK
Irvine, CA.
(949) 727-2077.
[www.adlinktech.com].

1U Power Meter is LXI-Compliant

LXI fits snuggly with the military’s leaning toward networking and Ethernet connectivity. Agilent Technologies provides the first LXI-compliant power meter. This slim, compact power meter is just 1U high and supports LAN-based automated measurements of peak, peak-to-average ratio and average power. Its small size and ability to operate without shared power supplies, cardcages or system controllers enables a lower startup cost for an automated test system.

The Agilent N8262A P-Series is designed for seamless operation with widely used standards like Ethernet, Web browsers and IVI drivers, and integrates easily to work with existing test assets. With the convenience of LAN, users can perform remote access and control via a Web browser and bundled soft front panel GUI–virtually anytime, anywhere. The Agilent N8262A P-Series modular power meter is LXI Class C-compliant. It has a high sampling rate of 100 Msamples/s for fast, accurate and repeatable power measurements. Besides power measurements, the N8262A also performs time and CCDF statistical measurements. The Agilent N8262A is code-compatible with the Agilent P-Series power meters, and backward compatible with the P-Series, E-Series (except E9320) and 8480 Series power sensors. The Agilent N8262A is priced at $11,474.

Agilent Technologies
Palo Alto, CA.
(650) 752-5000.
[www.agilent.com].

PXI Storage Unit Supports JBOD, RAID and SATA

Many aerospace and defense system developers need to capture and store vast amounts of data for high-speed data acquisition, digital signal processing, radar and sonar, telemetry and high-resolution video recording. Conduant offers the Big River DM-425-3U Storage Unit–a compact subsystem that plugs directly into a PXI or CompactPCI chassis and provides up to one terabyte of disk storage capacity, in a very small enclosure. Configurations are available for both legacy PXI and CompactPCI as well as the new PCI Express-based versions. With the DM-425-3U, a broad range of high-speed storage applications may be designed around a standard PXI/CPCI chassis.

When ordered with the onboard PCI Express SATA controller, the DM-425-3U integrates with major operating systems to provide additional storage capacity in JBOD or software RAID configurations. When ordered with the external multilane SATA connector, the DM-425-3U can be used with the Conduant StreamStor PXI-808 Disk Controller Card for high-speed recording without requiring an external chassis to hold the disk drives. The DM-425-3U is designed for use in a PXI / CPCI 3U chassis with variations available for both PCI Express and legacy PCI-based architectures. The storage unit is also available with solid-state disk drives in capacities up to 512 Gbytes. Base pricing for the Big River DM-425-3U starts at $1,380.

Conduant
Longmont, CO.
(303) 485-2721.
[www.conduant.com].

3U and 6U PXI Chassis Feature Easy Interface Scheme

Complex military test systems are often plagued by an unwieldy nest of wiring and cables. Helping ease that burden, Geotest, a Marvin Group Company, added the GX7002A-MP and GX7302-MP products to its family of 3U and 6U chassis. The two chassis incorporate the MAC Panel SCOUT receivers, which offer a reliable and high-performance method to connect test system resources to a mass interconnect receiver, minimizing the need for cable assemblies. Because the MAC Panel is a PCB assembly it is more cost-effective, easier to maintain, and above all, more reliable.

The GX73x2-MP incorporates a 20-slot 3U PXI chassis that can accommodate up to 19 instruments as well as an embedded PXI controller or a PXI bus expander interface such as the GX7990 or MXI-4. The GX70x2A-MP incorporates a 20-slot 6U PXI chassis that can accommodate up to 19 instruments as well as a PXI controller or a PXI bus expander interface such as the GX7990 or MXI-4. Like all of Geotest’s chassis, the GX7302-MP and GX7002A-MP provide Smart features, which support the monitoring of slot temperatures and system power supply voltages as well provide the ability to program or map each PXI trigger line from one PCI segment to another.

Geotest-Marvin Test Systems
Irvine, CA.
(949) 263-2222.
[www.geotestinc.com].

PXI Boards Marry Analog I/O, Waveform Generation

What used to require a large rack-sized test instrumentation system is now possible on a single board. Exemplifying that trend, KineticSystems’ P216/210/206/205 cards are simultaneous sampling multi-function PXI modules that provide four differential analog input channels, 14/16-bit A/D resolution, and up to 2 MS/s simultaneous sampling. They also provide two analog output channels with waveform generation capabilities to meet a wide range of application requirements.

By taking advantage of other KineticSystems innovations such as its recently announced SoftView Soft Front Panel Application, users have a simple yet powerful tool that integrates KineticSystems’ entire line of PXI/CompactPCI instruments into a single software package. Customers can quickly and easily construct fully integrated multi-instrument systems without any programming. KineticSystems PXI/CompactPCI product line consists of simultaneous data acquisition boards, multifunction analog I/O boards, digital I/O modules, PXI/cPCI chassis, counters and pulse output modules, multiplexers and high-speed digitizers. The P216/210/206/205 cards are available to order immediately and pricing starts at $1,495 or less than $375 per channel.

KineticSystems
Lockport, IL
(815) 838-0005.
[www.kscorp.com].

Synchro/Resolver VXI Card Provides up to 0.005° Accuracy

VXI remains the proven choice for VME-compatible instrumentation work. Supporting that area, North Atlantic Industries (NAI) offers a high-density, DSP-based, single-slot VXI card whose modular design provides up to four synchro/resolver instrument-grade measurement channels and up to four synchro/resolver instrument-grade stimulus channels; or up to eight synchro/resolver embedded-grade stimulus channels; and up to six programmable reference supplies. The 65CS4 C-size VXI card performs most synchro/resolver evaluation, calibration and test functions. All functions are independent and user-programmable for either synchro or resolver format and can be formatted for single- or multi-speed applications. Synchro/resolver measurement and instrument stimulus accuracy is to within 0.005°. Converter-grade stimulus accuracy is 0.015° loaded and 0.008° without load. Instrument stimulus and reference outputs provide 2.2 VA of drive and are programmable from 47 Hz to 4,000 Hz.

The 65CS4’s stimulus channels can be programmed for continuous rotation up to 13.6 RPS or for specific start and stop angles. Measurement channels can track signals up to 4.68 RPS and provide both digital and DC angle-rate output signals. Operating temperature range is 0° to +50°C. The card provides a VXI data rate of 2 Mbytes/s, dynamic address configuration and 100 microsecond data processing. Power supply requirement is +5 VDC at 8A (no load). Pricing for 100 starts at $10,000.

North Atlantic Industries
Bohemia, NY.
(631) 567-1100.
[www.naii.com].

Scope Family Available in PXI and VXI Form Factors

Gone are the days when a slot card oscilloscope was a mere convenient but watered down version of a traditional bench top oscilloscope. ZTEC Instruments has closed that gap with its ZT4210 series of 300 MHz oscilloscopes in PXI, PCI and VXI form factors. These oscilloscopes provide the same powerful triggering, acquisition, math and analysis functions that are commonly found in today’s bench top instruments and in ZTEC’s other M-Class oscilloscopes. In fact, the ZT4210 series is designed to replace bench top oscilloscopes in many ATE, aerospace, defense and portable test applications.

These powerful modular oscilloscopes are available with two channels (ZT4211 PXI, PCI and VXI) and with four channels (ZT4212 VXI only). Key specifications include 300 MHz analog bandwidth, up to 1 Gsample/s real-time sampling, and up to 256 Msamples record length. With its onboard processing, the ZT4210 series calculates over 40 waveform parameters related to a waveform’s voltage, time and frequency characteristics. The ZT4210 accepts a wide range of voltage levels, handling up to +/- 300 V CAT II direct inputs. With input ranges from 1.25 mV/div to 40 V/div (10 vertical divisions), the ZT4210 covers an extremely wide range of voltage levels without the need for external signal conditioning. This is important in automated and remote test applications where it is difficult or impossible to quickly add/remove external conditioning. Prices for the ZT4210 series start at $4,450.

ZTEC Instruments
Albuquerque, NM.
(505) 342-0132.
[www.ztec-inc.com].