New Products are Hot in Austin This Week

August 17th, 2005

This is NI Week, which means it’s a (literally) hot time in Austin for all of you rabid National Instruments fans. As always, they introduce a number of new products. Here are a couple that have application in automotive testing.

MXI-Express Delivers PCI Express Control of PXI
Engineers now can use MXI-Express kits for PCI Express control of PXI and CompactPCI systems. PCI Express, an evolution of the PCI bus, is the next-generation PC I/O bus offered as a standard option on most new PCs. With 250 MB/s of dedicated bandwidth available in each direction per lane, PCI Express delivers throughput for both high-speed and high-channel-count applications. Based on PCI Express, MXI-Express delivers real-world sustained bandwidth of up to 110 MB/s to PXI systems, a more than 40 percent increase compared to PCI remote control of PXI with MXI-4. The increased throughput of MXI-Express makes it ideal for applications such as signal intelligence and mixed-signal test in industries including communications, consumer electronics and military/aerospace.

MXI-Express is available in two configurations designed to reduce cost between 33 percent and 40 percent compared to prior-generation solutions. The NI PXI-PCIe8361 kit, starting at $995 USD, includes a PCI Express board with one x1 (“by one”) cabled PCI Express link. This kit, which includes the PCI Express host board, PXI system controller module and cable, represents a 33 percent reduction in the price of PXI remote control compared to prior generation MXI-3 and MXI-4 solutions. The NI PXI-PCIe8362 kit provides two x1 PCI Express links from the host PC, each of which can cable to individual PXI chassis. This gives engineers control of two PXI systems from a single PCI Express slot in the PC, saving both a slot and reducing cost by 40 percent for a two-chassis system.

The MXI-Express link is transparent to software applications and drivers, so industry-standard desktop computers, servers and workstations can control PXI systems with no additional programming. MXI-Express works seamlessly with a variety of NI software including the LabVIEW graphical development environment, NI TestStand test management software, LabWindows/CVI ANSI C development environment and SignalExpress interactive measurement environment. It also works with all PXI modular instruments and data acquisition modules.

The price for the NI PXI-PCIe8361 and NI PXI-PCIe8362 MXI-Express systems starts at $995. For more information, visit the MXI Express Web Page, e-mail info@ni.com, or phone Ernest Martinez, 800-258-7022.

Two New Devices Offer M Series DAQ Technology on PCIExpress Bus
The new NI PCIe-6251 and NI PCIe-6259 DAQ devices combine the high-performance of the PCI Express bus M Series DAQ technology yielding fast analog and digital I/O with the dedicated per-slot bandwidth of PCI Express. The new devices feature up to 32 analog channels with 16 bit, 1.25 MS/s sampling speed and 10 MHz digital I/O on up to 32 lines.

PCI Express is a high-performance, point-to-point serial interconnect with a scalable architecture that provides bandwidth from two to 30 times that of traditional PCI. The NI PCIe-6251 and NI PCIe-6259 devices use a x1(“by one”) PCI Express connector that provides 250 MB/s bandwidth per device. In addition, these and other PCI Express devices from NI are completely software-compatible with traditional PCI, helping both vendors and users preserve their investments in existing driver and application software.

As with other NI M Series DAQ devices, the new NI PCIe-6251 and NI PCIe-6259 DAQ devices feature the NI-STC 2 system controller, the NI-PGIA 2 amplifier and NI-MCal calibration technology for increased performance, accuracy and I/O. The two new devices are part of the high-speed M Series family, offering up to 32 analog input channels with 16-bit, 1.25 MS/s sampling speed; up to four analog output channels with 16-bit, 2.8 MS/s sampling speed and 32 high-speed digital I/O (DIO) channels with 10 MHz sampling speed. The devices also include additional static DIO lines and two 32-bit counter/timers.

The new PCI Express M Series multifunction data acquisition devices include time-saving NI measurement services software, including NI-DAQmx driver software and VI Logger Lite data-logging software. In addition, all examples and applications originally written for PCI-based M Series devices are fully compatible with their new PCI Express counterparts.

Prices start at $845. For more information, visit the MXI Express Web Page, e-mail info@ni.com, or phone Ernest Martinez, 800-258-7022.

Entry Filed under: Data Acquisition